October 1, 2018
IVF Eve:
Well, our second round of IVF officially started on Wednesday, September 18 when my period started. That was the day that I called my clinic, and scheduled my meeting. Once there, I was given birth control to start that evening (September 19), as well as a bottle of Lupron and my shot schedule.
Because our second round of IVF is part of a clinical trial, we won’t be given all of the meds at once. They are being given to me as needed – this is why I didn’t have any birth control in my possession until my period started. With our first IVF, I also took the pill for over a month. In that instance, I was told to skip the placebo and just keep going with a new pack for a certain amount of days – I think it was for about another week and a half or so. This time, I am only able to take one cycles worth. I think the clinical trial rules only allow me to take the pills for 21 days.
Because of this shortened timeline, I start down regulation tomorrow. Of everything that goes into IVF, down regulation might be the part that I look forward to the least, as it signals the return of Lupron.
Lupron – you painful but necessary injection. As I discovered the last time, having all the hormones and estrogen sucked out of me gives me terrible headaches. But, since the alternative is possible hyper stimulation, I guess I am good with Lupron.
Because of the trial, I do not know how my ovarian reserve is – or any other test results for that matter – But I didn’t get kicked out of the trial, so hopefully all is well.
Today, I had diced chicken sausage with red bell peppers, onion, zucchini, and mixed greens for breakfast (all the veggies were organic).
All of our refrigeration was down at the store I work at, so I couldn’t buy salad stuff for lunch (as I had planned). I did my best to find non-gluten and non-dairy frozen options. I went with the vegetarian panang curry. The only item in it that I should be avoiding was soy from the soybean oil (and there is not much of it).
I sipped homemade chicken bone broth while I made dinner. It was almost straight gelatin before I warmed it up. It is the best batch I have made so far.
I made it last week, but I didn’t puncture the fat layer until today. I was afraid that it might have gone bad, since it’s been a full week, but it was amazing. I guess it is true that the fat seals it.
Dinner was sun dried tomato sausage with zuchini, peppers, onion, asparagus and potatoes on a bed of mixed greens. I topped it with just a touch of “Yum Yum Sauce.”
I drank about a liter of water – which is not enough. I’ll do better tomorrow. I also did have some sparkling coconut water with yuzu.
The nursery is clean and set up. This is where I will do my injections. I have my bowl of rocks and the picture of our round one embryos after our first transfer, sitting on a shelf with my needles and my sharps container for needle disposal. I’m hoping that this small reminder of our first (though brief) pregnancy will help me surrender to this process. And of course, I am keeping a journal this time around. Hopefully, this outlet will be therapeutic.
Tomorrow the injections begin.
Infertility and Adventures 