1/1/11 Am I Dreaming??

This morning I woke up, not happy at all about the new year.  Hubs and I got into a silly fight last night, and rang in the new year on less than ideal terms.  Not to mention, I have been having horrendous cold/allergy symptoms for the past week, and now my abdomen is actually sore from coughing so much.

I was due for my HCG test this morning, and could not decide whether I should go to a different lab than normal (as it's a holiday, and mine's closed), or just wait until Monday and go to mine.  I was pretty certain that the test would be negative, and I thought that it would just be an unbelievably bad way to start the new year.  I got dressed around 8, then sat on the couch until about 11 when I finally figured I should just get it over with.

With Kaiser you can check your test results on line, so after the blood test I went back home, lay on the couch, and every half an hour or so, checked my email.  Eventually, about two hours later, I got the email "You have new test results".  I logged into my account, tentatively found the test, clicked on it for the results, and quickly closed my eyes.  PLEEASE, I thought, just let it be over 25.  I slowly opened my eyes, and what did I see?  257!!!!!!  Holy crap!! I'm.............. pregnant!!! I immediately freaked out, then started to panic that the number was too high, and that it could be ectopic or something, but after scouring the internet, found many other women who had really high HCG levels early on and it was fine.

Of course I ran out and bought a pregnancy test, just so that I could see it with my own eyes.  Got home, POAS, and lo and behold, a second line!!!!! Silly as it may sound, that was actually more realistic to me than the blood test. To be honest, it really hasn't sunk in yet.  It will be Monday before I hear from my doctor, and I am very cautiously optimistic.  The number being so high does concern me a tiny bit, but it's just hard to accept that it is real. Hubs is out golfing, so I'm holding off telling him until he gets home.

For now at least..... I"M PREGNANT!!!!

All I Want For Christmas

All I want for Christmas is to be able to hang one of these on my tree.... This is the third Christmas that I have said this... I'm starting to feel like a broken record.

Well, 5 doctor appointments, 3 blood tests, 9 shots to the belly (and one to the thigh) later, I have officially survived my first round of injectables! We did the IUI on Saturday, and could you guess?  My blood pregnancy test is scheduled for January 1st. So either we ring in the new year with the best news possible or the worst.

We did Christmas a bit early this year because my MIL and SIL were here visiting for a week. This coincided precisely with when I had to begin the injectables. The first night was a disaster, I didn't screw the needle on properly, and as I injected the solution ended up all over the floor, and I had no idea how much I got in.  I called the nurse panicked the next morning, and she had me do a half a dose right then, and then back to normal that evening.  I must say that it never really got any easier to inject myself, I would prepare everything and then just stand there for an eternity with the needle an inch from my abdomen telling myself "Just do it already, it's not that bad, just get it over with" while my hand refused to budge.  

It simply seems that Christmas this year has been totally consumed with infertility treatments and reminders.  While opening Christmas presents, we got a call reminding me of an upcoming doctors appointment.  On the way to see a Christmas production of "The Grinch" I got another phone call to remind me of an appointment.  Before we went out at night I had to take my shot, and if we were already out for the day, we had to be home in time for me to do my shot.  Not to mention having to leave the family for doctors appointments every couple of days, or the fact that my arm looked like I could have been a heroin addict from the bruises as a result of the constant blood tests.

Now the family is gone, and it's the first Christmas in 8 years that my husband and I will be spending on our own, dreaming of the day when we can hang that long awaited ornament on the tree, or hang that third stocking.

Tomorrow I go for a progesterone test, and  I also start progesterone suppositories, which is a first for me.  From what I hear, they are pretty awful (although I can't quite imagine anything being as awful as the shots, so I'm not too worried!). After that, just the preg. test on the 1st.

All we can do is  hope for a Christmas miracle!!

Suspicious Activity

So, something happened today that would have been pretty funny had it not been so embarrassing..... My credit card was declined.  Why? because apparently spending $800 dollars in a matter of hours on a doctors appointment and fertility meds is not normal, so they red flagged my account for suspicious transactions!!

There I am at the pharmacy, boxes of Menopur, syringes, and other such goodies stacked on the counter in front of me, and my card is being declined! So, they have me stand there and call the bank to figure out the problem. Ten minutes later, I'm talking to the lady at the bank verifying each every transaction that has taken place over the past week, while the line of impatient people behind me gets longer and longer!  Anyway, eventually it was all figured out, and I took my extremely large bag of drugs and headed out of there as quickly as possible!

So... as I'm sure you've guessed, it's finally time for the injectables.  I start them next Wednesday, and if all goes well, the IUI will be scheduled for a couple days before Christmas.  I mean, how else could I possibly want to spend the holidays?  I did the practice shot at the doctor's office, and I must say, that compared to the HCG shot, it was a piece of cake! I can't even describe how happy I am that the needle is so tiny, I mean, I seriously doubt that I could make myself jab that HCG needle into my body every day!

So.... here goes nothing!

Downregulation

Birth Control Pills????? Wait a minute, doesn't that PREVENT you from getting pregnant? Of all the things I was expecting to hear, the fact that I need to take birth control pills for a month was certainly not on the list!

Well, yesterday DH and I attended the infamous "Injectables Class" that we had to attend before starting Menopur.  Four infertile couples, sitting in a room, learning all about the risks and benefits of Menopur, playing with syringes (although luckily no practice shots were done... yet). Then the nurse dropped the bomb. We are the only couple who needed to do "downregulation", meaning that next month, I'll need to go on the pill to get my ovaries to "settle down" as the nurse put it. I guess this is a good thing, because when I start doing the shots, the follicles will all grow at the same rate instead of there already being a lead follicle.  

A good thing, yes, but also frustrating, because it means another month of doing nothing. This will make three months of doing nothing- first because I was "accidentally" told to take clomid, then because I wasn't scheduled for the class on time, and now because I need to be on the pill for a month.  Now seriously, surely I could have taken the pill this month without going to the class first! 

I guess this means that the Menopur cycle will take place in December- What a way to spend Christmas! It will also be exactly one year since we started treatment, and almost 3 years since we started TTC!