August 7th continued: I received all of these instructions about 4 hours after my Friday morning appointment. I had back-to-back appointments in Tulsa coming up on Monday and Tuesday, so I was upping my meds in order to see what my progress would be since we were getting close to egg retrieval – eek!
I was SO bloated on Friday. So. Dang. Bloated. My only major side effects have been cramping, bloating (A LOT), headaches, and nauseous/no appetite. Other than that, I have been pretty okay, thank goodness! I made the mistake of squeezing myself into jeans on Friday for dinner and it was a mistake.
August 10th: I had my back-to-back appointments Monday and Tuesday of this week. My meds increased throughout the weekend, so I was SUPER bloated and feeling kind of sick at this point. Two of my meds, the ones that keep me from ovulating, contain a lot of liquid and they STING. I have to practice a lot of deep breathing when I inject them. Monday morning my Mom and I headed to Tulsa for my first appointment. My follicles keep growing like they’re supposed to! On Friday, I had 9 follicles that were bigger than 8mm and on Monday, I had 14! Scroll further to see the actual measurements of each follicle – which is SO cool to watch, by the way. I told Jake that every follicle is so cute…and then I started crying. My hormones are everywhere right now. I already love all of my little growing eggs. <3
Just me, my mask, and infertility appointments.
Since I had two appointments in Tulsa, my Mom and I made a girls’ trip out of it! I hauled all of my meds with me and got everything set-up in our hotel room.
Monday was my worst day thus far in this journey. I was so sick to my stomach and SO dang bloated. It was uncomfortable. I kept trying to eat different things to see if keeping food on my stomach would help. It didn’t.
These numbers make me happy. The LF at the top stands for Left Follicles and the RF stands for Right Follicles. They are tracking any that are bigger than 8mm. The top row numbers are my follicles bigger than 8mm on Friday (8/7) – I had two on the left side and seven on the right – a total of 9 follicles. The numbers on the bottom are from Monday (8/10). Check out that growth! I had 5 that were bigger than 8mm on the left and 9 that were bigger than 8mm on the right for a total of 14!
After my appointment, we did a little shopping, grabbed lunch, and then hit up the pool for a little bit. It felt so good to be in the sunshine.
I was feeling very bloated.
After our pool time, we relaxed for a little bit and then got ready to grab dinner.
Before dinner, I administered all of my shots. My Mom asked if I had been taking pictures of me taking shots and I told her I hadn’t. She jumped into full-on photographer mode. Here I was measuring out my Cetrotide shot after mixing it.
I pinch some belly fat to insert the needle, then release the skin before I inject the medicine. I honestly haven’t had many needles that hurt too bad, which I am SO thankful for. These shots were a million times easier to administer than I thought they would be.
This shot is called Gonal-F and it’s an injectable pen. You just dial the pen to the amount you need and inject. This one hurts the least of all of them. Other girls in my IVF groups have said the same thing about Gonal-F!
