Unbelievably, my days are now counted by evening injections. I have now given myself four. The first one had a tiny prick, the next two went in without me feeling much at all. The fourth one I put in down a little further to avoid the bruise that was forming. It hurt a lot more. I got a little giddy. I think all future injections I will aim for the fattest part of my tummy, bruise or no bruise!
I am feeling really good. Well, really good all things considered. Remembering of course that I have been in daily pain for over a year. I actually think that, after 4 Gonal F injections, my pain levels may have decreased. I am getting infrequent, what I assume is, ovarian pain but it isn't at all bad. Having been on medication to shut down my ovaries and oestrogen levels for 10 months I expect the stimulating they are now undergoing has sent them into a frenzy. Hopefully only a frenzy enough to produce the perfect number of eggs in as short amount of time as possible. Not because of the injections but rather the sheer cost of them. At $800 a pen and each pen only containing 3 injections at my current dose, our bank manager won't talk nicely to us for long if my ovaries don't cooperate. And Mr G will stop talking to me and I shall stop talking full stop. Although that would be a challenge.
What I am suffering from is excessive night time thirst and hot flushes. I'm no stranger to the flushes as I've been in a state of medically induced menopause since I started on Zolodex. I've found that while the first week or so and the last week or so of the injections (given either monthly or three monthly) are flushing horrible, the rest of the time is fine. I have more energy and less pain...it seems I function better without oestrogen. The Gonal F flushes are different. Rather than being overwhelmed with a full body flush they seem to start with my face turning bright, bright red and the flush starts from the top and goes down. My blankets each night don't know if they're coming or going. When my mother hit menopause she used to be terribly noisy about flushing. She'd grunt and moan, grab anything she could to start flapping it about as a fan to cool herself down. I have witnessed many of my friend's mothers do the same thing. I find it much better to stay as still as possible (subject to removing blankets or items of clothing) and wait, silently, for the flush to pass. I'm certain energetic flapping must make it last longer. And the grunty groan thing is disturbing.
One thing which has come to my attention, through the kind advice of others who have been through or who are going through IVF is the need to drink copious amounts of water a day. As I have mentioned previously, IVF wasn't a long thought out process for us, we haven't been on a waiting list or trying previously for a baby, it was suggested as an alternative to a vasectomy reversal because it enabled me to stay on Zolodex for pain relief. The kind of pain relief that allows me to function, without it I can barely do so. What it means, however, is that I haven't researched the best way to go about things and I haven't put in months of bodily preparation. When you want a baby desperately and can't have one naturally (or in my case without extreme pain) then you don't overly listen to the medical risks, you just think baby. I made assumptions that the biggest risk, ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, was something that would mean my ovaries may need removing. I was thinking this isn't such a risk for me as I'm in need of a hysterectomy anyway, and due to my endometriosis extremes there's a good chance my ovaries will have to come out anyway. But apparently I assumed wrong. OHS is something quite different and can result in fluid retention, despite gross dehydration, and can , from what I can figure out result in kidney and liver damage and make you seriously ill. It can kill you. Whoops. I've been told drinking 2 - 3 litres of water a day and drinking gatorade can help prevent this.
I'm not quite sure why this isn't drummed into you by the Clinic if this is so important but googling has reinforced the importance of this one. In all the information I have found from my clinic, there is one sentence buried in a large booklet of information. Certainly no one has mentioned it. I do think there is a far greater need for a "How to make this less risky and more happy" booklet. So maybe, if I successfully go through IVF I might write one. I'm trying not to dwell on what happens if I am not successful on getting a baby this way. I am now drinking 2 - 3 litres of water and one bottle of electrolyte filled drink a day. Which means when I am not sleeping, I can be found on the toilet, peeing. Which does seem like preparation for pregnancy in itself. I'm looking forward to my scan and blood test on Wednesday morning (two more days) and am trying for the most part of my day not to think about babies and hysterectomies at all. And for the most part, I'm doing quite nicely!!!!!
From memory the OHS only occurs after the trigger shot, though they delay the trigger if you look like you're a candidate. You then watch out for rapid weight gain over the next little while (duration forgotten). Since I put on a kilogram a week from the time baby was implanted it is just as well I had already forgotten about this as a possible cause!
ReplyDeleteAnd stick to the fatty bit under the tummy button as much as possible. The further out, the more it hurt, and wasd more likely to bleed/mark. I took a photo pf all the bruises but it didn't come out very well in the photo, I was a bit disappointed not to be able to reserve it as a method to induce guilt later on (lol).