Four Days To Go

I feel like I need to update more often, but last week was a really rough week. I felt like crap the whole week.

I mentioned in the last post that one of the medicines I was on, Lupron, which suppresses the ovaries from ovulating, gave me horrible headaches. Basically it was probably from being so smug about it giving me NO side effects except some mild hot flashes. Because when those headaches came on, it was like a ton of bricks.

On top of that, I also started a medicine called Metformin, because my A1C is a little high and my doctor wants to limit gestational diabetes as much as possible. This medicine is the actual worst. The first week I was only taking it once a day and it was fine. I took it after lunch and I had no side effects. But after a week on the medicine, I was supposed to increase it to twice a day. So I started taking it after lunch and after dinner. And this was apparently too much because the nausea was out of control. I had no appetite, but needed to take this medicine with food to limit the symptoms. So on top of horrible headaches, I had nausea and was just generally feeling really gross all week.

I finally figured out that eating small meals or snacks seemed to help the nausea a bit. But I’ve been doing intermittent fasting for like 8 months, so eating in the morning is a completely foreign concept to me. It is so ingrained in my brain to not eat at all until 1 PM. On top of that, I don’t really have much in the house for breakfast besides eggs, and eggs were the least appetizing to me when I was nauseous with a migraine. I bought some saltines and I ate a lot of saltines and bananas last week.

Thankfully by last weekend,  I was feeling so much better and my body was used to the medicine. And this week is even better and I’m back to being able to do intermittent fasting in the morning. But I’m also being way better about listening to my body and if I’m hungry in the morning, I eat something. Because it helps stave off the nausea.

I told myself this is all just preparing me for pregnancy and morning sickness.

Also since my last post, I’ve had a few more ultrasounds. I went back last Friday to see how the estrogen was doing and to see how my lining was growing. Last Friday it was measuring about 9.3 mm which is AMAZING. They want it to be over 8 mm. So I was responding really well to the estrogen.

The other key thing for the lining is it to be trilaminar, which means it is triple-layered in appearance. Like a cake. Mmmmm, cake.

As of last Friday, it wasn’t looking layered at all, so the doctor decided to increase my estrogen to three pills a day. Of course it was the vaginal suppositories that I had to increase. It couldn’t have been the easy-to-apply, mess-free patches.

So I did that and went back to the doctor for another ultrasound on Monday morning. I have thankfully not had the awful ultrasound technician again. I hope she was reprimanded for what she did to me. I had a very nice woman who let me know that my lining was up to 10.9 mm and was looking really good and layered. I have learned to not really pay attention to the techs, but I felt hopeful. The doctor confirmed it was measuring great and nice and layered so we were all set for the transfer next Monday!

In the meantime,  I was able to stop the Lupron. My last shot was Tuesday night and I couldn’t have been happier.

Now that the Lupron is done, I have to start taking progesterone. This is to simulate post-ovulation in my body. This is the medication I was least looking forward to in all this. The progesterone is an intramuscular shot in the butt. The needle is intense and I’ve heard horror stories in all my fertility groups about this. Because the shot is mixed with oil, you have to really massage it so you don’t get knots. Because this medication continues even after you get pregnant, that’s a lot of injections on pretty small real estate on your backside. (It’s not really your butt. If it was, I’d be fine because I have A LOT of real estate there. It’s like your upper butt/hip. Like above the pockets on your jeans. Not as big of an area.) On top of that, I have to give it to myself which is a tad bit awkward.

I had my first progesterone in oil (PIO) shot on Wednesday morning. I looked up all the tips I could: warm the oil before injecting, ice the injection site before, use a heating pad after to disperse the oil, massage, massage, massage. I had so much anxiety about this shot that I was convinced I wasn’t going to be able to do it.

Spoiler alert, it was fine. And painless. Icing the area, you can’t even feel the needle go in. It’s still a bit awkward to inject yourself in any area on your backside, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought. I did my second one this morning and it went fine. I need to get out my foam roller, though, because yesterday’s spot is sore and since I have to use that side again tomorrow, I want to make sure I’m not injecting in a knot.

I keep on this, and the estrogen, until after the embryo transfer. And after the embryo transfer, I’ll add in even more progesterone, to keep that lining nice and cushy for the embryo. Of course that’s more suppositories, but hey! That’s old hat by now.

But we’re all set and I’ll be transferring my little embryo that could on Monday. I don’t have a time yet, but I’ll keep you posted. I’m not nervous about the procedure. It’s similar to the IUIs I’ve had so I know kind of what to expect. And it’s just putting the embryo in a catheter and placing it into my uterus. There is no surgery or anesthesia or anything. This is the easier part.

But I will be nervous after, praying for the little guy to stick. And hoping for a healthy pregnancy. I’m really excited about that!