Day 6

I am currently on Day 6 of my stimming. I was warned that the follicles wouldn't be very big in this ultrasound, so I wasn't expecting too much this morning. It seems that currently I have 8 follicles on my right ovary measuring 8, 7, 6 and 5 (I think two of each but Lois was talking too fast for me to be sure) and 4 follicles on the left ovary measuring 9, 6, and either she said a 2 and a 5 or that there are two 5's. Not sure.

Their goal is for me to create between 10 and 15 eggs (currently housed in the follicles), so it looks like I'm doing perfectly. When Lois called me back this afternoon she said all of my hormone levels are good, and I'm supposed to keep doing what I'm doing.

Lupron shot in the morning, 10mg.
Follistim shot in the evening, 300mg.
Luveris shot in the evening, 75mg.

I thought Luveris was a one-time deal, but apparently it's a once a day for an entire week kind of a deal.

The bummer was that last night my Follistim vial ran out and I had to switch to a new vial. Based on the way the pen works, that meant I had to get two shots rather than one, bringing my grand total to 3 shots last night. But to be honest, I am totally fine with the shots. They don't bother me, and even doing 3 was no big deal. I thought the shots and stimming would be nightmarish, but so far it has been really, really easy. Maybe the bad part is when I get to the 1 1/2 inch needle in the butt...probably sometime next week.

Vein Update: Bee apparently could not be located this morning, so Jackie got Helen, my favorite nurse prior to meeting Lois. Helen looked at my right arm and said, "You have great veins! What are they all talking about" and proceeded to stick the needle in the smaller vein. And she missed! As she dug around, I told her to please just stop and take it from the big vein. She seemed really embarrassed about it, and told me that I should tell everyone from now on to not try that vein. She said it looks really good, but it's a roller and impossible to get to.

Once again, let me point out, that the phlebotomists on the 8th floor (I thought it was 9th and stand corrected) as well as the New Hope nurses could all get my rolling veins. I don't think it's that my veins are so bad, I think it's that the Emory nurses are not good at getting difficult veins.

Anyway, Helen was able to get the big vein but the blood just barely trickled out. She said, "This vein is tired. I don't know what we're going to do with you this week," because I will be coming in daily for lab work. She told me I needed to drink more water. I told her I just drank a bottle of water this morning and that's not the problem. So I guess I have tired veins. What does that mean????!!!!

In the meantime, I will hope the big vein on my right arm gets some rest and relaxation. I go in again on Friday for ultrasound and bloodwork, and they said my follicles should grow significantly from today to Friday. At that point I will probably need to come in daily until the retrieval which will be sometime next week.

As a side note, I am discovering what it feels like to be a Domestic Goddess. Today I cooked 4 loaves of zucchini bread -- because apparently the ward garden gave our veggies some Super Man fertilizer and they grew 5 times the size of a normal zucchini. They looked like a giant eggplants! I also made brownies and jumbalaya for the four missionaries who are coming over to dinner in an hour. All made. An hour early.

Maybe the drugs are affecting me emotionally afterall? Oh my gosh, they're domesticating me!!!!