Cycle Day Thirteen: Distractors

One of the biggest things that has gotten me through the mess and the drama is to have some good distractors. If I did not have these things to keep my mind in a good place, I would not be in a good place emotionally and infertility stuff is all I would think about. Trust me. I've been there.
1. Education
Today I submitted my culminating Master's paper to my academic advisor. It felt great to summarize my experience at my university in a paper. I am attending my last class for my program right now. I have been attending school for almost the entirety of the mess. I love learning. Putting 6-12 hours of studying and attending class a week has been wonderfully distracting.
2. Education II
Having a job that you can immerse yourself into is also very distracting. As an elementary school teacher, I cannot focus on anything other than school when I am at work. Every time I have had a miscarriage or a setback on the route to having a child, going to work has been what has pulled me out of the slump the most. After miscarriage number 1, husband and I both dreaded the weekend because I had too much time on my hands.
3. Awesome family
I have had some great family members that have been extremely supportive of me. One of my sisters-in-law did some research once I announced our problems to the family so that she could start to understand what we were going through. One of my sisters is touring Europe with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir right now and sends me daily texts for support.
4. Hobbies
I love to create. (Ironic, right?) My favorite medium is paper. Making cards, classroom decorations, and crepe paper flowers have been an awesome way to fill my time. Tonight I grabbed some canvases to paint. I have also been dabbling back in the world of the piano. Cooking always increases in the summertime and we have been experimenting with new recipes. I also love reading fiction, biographies, and books that are in my classroom library. (Yeah, and I guess I garden, but the seeds are taking forever to sprout this year. It is much more exciting to garden when plants you want are growing.)

Looking Back: IUI Number 1

I have never excitedly called someone to announce that I was on cycle day 1 (my period started) before going through this process. As it was my first intrauterine insemination (IUI), the clinic wanted to do some tests to make sure everything looked great. The first thing I went in for was a blood test so that the doctors could check all the fun hormones that females have such as FSH, LH, prolactin, and estradiol. 

Then I got to have a hysterosalpingogram. That's a fancy way of saying a dye test for the fallopian tubes. We went in near the beginning of my cycle and they took me into a special radiology room in the clinic. Via a catheter, hey inserted radiographic dye into my uterine cavity. It was cool to watch everything happening on the monitor. Once the cavity was filled, the dye spilled into the fallopian tubes. There was not any blockage. I was cleared to do an IUI.

A few days later, I went in for a baseline ultrasound. That is when they check the ovaries and see how big my follicle (where the egg resides) is. They check the right side and left side to see which side I will ovulate on and they measure my uterine lining and my biggest follicle (the one that is destined to drop that month).

One thing I heard on that day and a few other occasions when receiving ultrasounds is that I have lots of follicles. (The reason why I may have false ovulation tests.)

I went in for an ultrasound around day 10 so that they could look and see if they could figure out how close I was to ovulating. It was a fun day to go in. It was an ice cream party for my class and the kids were hyper as kids can be on ice cream. I was not too devastated to hand them over to a sub for the afternoon. For that ultrasound, they said I was getting close. My follicle was measuring in the low teens and they want the follicle to get to around an 18. (Measured in millimeters.)

Starting at day 10, they had me do home ovulation predictor kits, like the kind you can buy in the grocery store. Of course day 10 fell over a weekend so I did a test Saturday and Sunday and came up with a positive on Sunday. The positive made me nervous that we would miss the window with which to do the IUI.

Monday morning (Leap Day), we went in for another ultrasound appointment and mentioned that we had a positive ovulation test. They checked the follicle with an ultrasound (still a little small-around a 16) and sent me in for blood work.

I fretted the entire day at school. I did not want to miss out on an entire month because I ovulated when it was least suspected. I got a call around lunch to say they were going to do the IUI at 2:30 and that they were starting to unfreeze one of our sperm samples. Time seemed to fly after that. I worked with my amazing team to get them to cover my class for the last fifteen minutes of school and rushed to the clinic at the appointed time with a, "Go get yourself knocked up!" from one of my coworkers.

The IUI was different than I was expecting. First, the amount of sperm we had after it was washed was extremely small. 2.5 million. The clinic likes to see it higher than 5 million. I was slightly devastated on the inside when I heard that. Then, they could not get the catheter inside me. She moved it around for a good ten minutes before she decided I might be one of "those" patients that need a full bladder before doing a procedure like that. So, they removed everything ("I have to go through this a second time?!") and had me drink quite a bit of water before trying once more.

"Pull out the torture devices again. This time she has a full bladder so it will be even worse." (Yeah, my technician was much nicer than that, but that is what it felt like.)

In just a couple more minutes it was over. What should have taken five minutes ended up taking half an hour. I promptly went home and laid down for a couple hours.

Cycle Day Eleven: A Look at IVF Meds

The medications for IVF are intense and expensive. They are around a fifth the cost of IVF. First there are the ones that can be purchased at your local pharmacy. (How many people buy pregnancy tests and birth control pill on the same day?)

This morning, an impressive box showed up on our front door.

Inside was a styrofoam cooler, filled to the brim with meds and needles.

Unpacking the box almost felt like Christmas. I felt that way because the cost of the medications greatly exceeds the cost of Christmas. As I start taking each one, I will detail what it is used for.

I also received a home sharps container! How legit am I now?

One more day of birth control, two more days of the Z pack, and then I get a two day break until we deal with the nasty stuff. During that time, I only have to take the eight pills that I have been taking for a couple months.

Cycle Day Ten: Water Ultrasound

This morning I volunteered for a reading program for young elementary-aged children which ended up being a good thing. This meant that I was distracted from thinking about what was to come.
I was not nervous for my water ultrasound. I have had dye tests to make sure my tubes are open and I have had three IUIs not to mention a countless number of transvaginal ultrasounds. How much worse could a water ultrasound be?
Much worse, according to my informal research on the subject.

When I was pulled back into the exam room, I was slightly surprised that it was one of the regular exam rooms I had been in before. For some reason, I thought I would be lead to a special room, equip to deal with water leakages.
Our technician entered and I was stoked to see it is my favorite technician. I had not seen her since the IUI days. She sat down and explained what would happen. They would insert a catheter into my uterus, stick in the ultrasound stick, and pump saline water in via the catheter to fill the uterine cavity. By doing this, it helps see things that you cannot normally see with a regular ultrasound such as polyps. We asked our technician to see how common it is to see a problem and she gave us a 15-20% chance of seeing something that would postpone an IVF session. That is a low percentage, but hey, there is also a super low percentage that a couple would have to deal with male infertility, and we got stuck with that.
It took a while to get the catheter in. Our technician remembered doing our first IUI (which took forever and the process was halted for 20 minutes so I could drink water to help insert the catheter) and asked how much water I had this morning. Even though I visited the bathroom on my way to the exam room, I drank quite a bit of water this morning to prepare for this. We tried catheter number 2 and it went in easier. For some reason (hunger, maybe) my legs were shaking like mad. The technician was worried I was in a terrific amount of pain.
When they started inserting the water, it was a strange feeling, but not because of the slight cramping. The water almost immediately started coming right back out. A trickle of water pooled onto the table. We checked the uterus and the ovaries. I received a (figurative) gold star and was sent on my way.

I receive the rest of my meds tomorrow. Yesterday I started taking a Z Pack to help me stay healthy on the journey. I only have three days of birth control left. My next appointment is on Friday for a baseline ultrasound and blood work. This thing is really going to get going soon.

Cycle Day Six: Shot Class

I went back and forth, trying to decide if I wanted and needed to go to the shot class. Husband had to work last minute, so I would be going solo. I wanted one more day of laziness (healing) before getting back to my regularly scheduled plans.
I ended up at my clinic just before 3:00. I thought they would be quite a few people waiting to attend. Shockingly, there was only one couple that joined me for the event.
I was curious as the doors were opened and both our names were read. The other girl looked slightly familiar. Whether I knew her or I've just seen her in passing at the clinic I will probably never know.
I was curious. What was her story? Why was she here? I could tell that she had not done any IUI cycles. Has she been pregnant before like me? How many years has she tried?
I was not terribly chatty during the brief demonstration. Partly because I've done a shot before and partly because I did not want to start coughing. The other couple asked good questions that I had prior to the first injection.
The coordinator showed how to mix and inject the different medications I would be taking. No big unknowns came up for me except that sometimes the needles can bend on one of the meds. Yikes.
She also suggested pinching my stomach hard when I do the injections to take my mind off the stinging of the meds. The one shot I am not excited for (okay, I am not excited for any of these injections) comes after the IVF procedure. I get to inject an oil dose of progesterone in my rear for the first six weeks of pregnancy. It makes sense. My body will not be aware that it created a baby (because my body will not be creating a baby) so it will not know to produce progesterone. I have to do the shots until the placenta can take over.

I don't start injections for another week and a half. Between now and then, I have blood work, a baseline ultrasound, and (not excited for this) a water ultrasound.