Part 4- Blood, Needles, and Ultrasounds

  Back to Maryland, back to reality.  It didn't take long to get back into the swing of things.  We were getting into the busy season at work, so I knew taking off days for doctors appointments was going to get harder.  Sure enough, my boss wasn't happy when I came to him after my vacation with more leave requests for doctors appointments.  It's really difficult to explain to your boss how important this is, when you can't actually tell him what you're doing.  But I brushed off his annoyances and reminded him that it was my sick leave, and I'll use it however I need to.  It's almost laughable now, looking back on how much I ended up using.
   The morning of my physical and blood tests started like most days.  I woke up, fed the dog, started showering.... but there was this nagging feeling like I was forgetting something.  Half way through my shower I remembered. My appointment.  And it was at 8:00, which happened to be in 5 minutes.
   Sh*t Sh*t Sh*t Sh*t. How could I have messed this up? It would take weeks to get another appointment. I jumped out of the shower and threw on clothes.  I ran out the door and headed to my jeep.  And my keys?  Oh, they were back inside the house.  Sh*t Sh*t Sh*t Sh*t.  Where the hell was that spare key I hid just for these stupid occasions? Hidden. 
   Please forgive me, I've lost my mind by this point.  I'm soo tired and exhausted from the constant stressing and panicking of the last 6 months, I can barely remember to eat.  Or I can blame the birth control the hospital made me take... either way. Every aspect of my life was suffering.  But I'll save all of that loveliness for another post.
   I'm convinced my jeep has warp speed, and that I'll be receiving a few speeding tickets in the mail soon.  At 8:10 I ran into the doctors office.  No makeup, hair dripping wet (probably still with shampoo...), and whatever sweat pants were on the bathroom floor.  I also may have been crying.  I'm very grateful for all these receptionists who have pitied me the last few months. But I must have looked pathetic enough for her to agreed to let me see the doctor.
   The appointment was routine.  The only strange thing she noted was an unusually fast heart-rate. Weird.... Then I was informed that she would send the results to the Hospital in a week.  A week? How about... I don't know... now?  Of course not.
   I left feeling defeated.  Again.  I didn't bother going straight to work, no one needed to see me like that.  I went home to clean up and gather my thoughts.  At this point there was no way I could start the IVF in June like we had planned.  The cycle had already started.  But all the tests were done (unless they had something else in mind they hadn't told me about...), so maybe I could do the September cycle?  Sure, we'll shoot for that.
   The Lord sure does work in mysterious ways, because two days later I got a phone call from Walter Reed.  "We received all your tests results, can you come in on June 9th for your Baseline ultrasound and Blood work?"
   I'm sorry, I think you have the wrong number.  There's no possible way you have all my results. In fact, you should be telling me something else that has gone wrong.  Have a good day.
   But to my complete surprise they actually wanted to talk to ME!  It was happening.  I emailed Dale the schedule so he could inform the Marine Corps what was happening, and printed off a schedule to take to work.  I was kinda worried about telling my boss about how much time I was going to need off.  He definitely did nothing to make me feel better about it.  Thankfully, I had already taken a week off in June for Girls Camp, and it just so happened to be the same week that I was scheduled to have my Egg Retrieval Surgery.  I thought they would be happy that I actually wouldn't need to take off the entire week, just a few days for recovery.  Nope. Still mad. Oh, and I couldn't lift of pull anything over 10 pounds for a while... which is pretty much my job. Oops. 
   I'm pretty sure the next few weeks were the craziest of our marriage.  Walter Reed National Military Medical Center is about 45 minutes away from our house (without traffic), and just happens to be situated right off of the DC beltway.  If you hit traffic, the commute time will at least double.  I think we drove there at least 7 times for just blood tests and ultrasounds.  Thankfully, the tests are done between 6 and 6:45am.  If we left the house before 5:15, we missed all the traffic.  And depending on how long we were at the hospital (it could range between 15 and 60 minutes), we missed traffic going back the other way to Fort Meade for work! All those days I told my boss I would be late... I never was. You're welcome.
   Then there was the medication.  The birth control I was on previously was just to control the start date of my cycle.  I had gone off of that a few weeks prior.  I was now starting Menupur, a follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), and Gonal-f, a menopausal gonadotropin (HMG).  And a prenatal vitamin, of course.
   One Vial of HMG, and 150 Units of FSH every day.  Needles. Super cool.
   Here is a picture of my original calendar.... Fun, right? Green is appointments, red is medicine.

 

Here are all my meds. I tried to be a little organized. I used Star Wars band-aids to feel better about myself.

    And off we went. I didn't take pictures every day. Aint nobody got time for that. Most days were pretty much the same.

This was when the doctors finally noticed that my follicles weren't growing very quickly.  So they up'd the dosage of the meds.  Now there were shots in the morning and evening. 

 And the follicles still weren't growing quickly enough, so we up'd the meds again.  Shots in the morning, afternoon, and evening.  This resulted in a migraine soo terrible that I puked. Lots. 

So. Much. Tylenol.

New Medicine to Start! The Ganirelix Acetate is supposed to stop the follicles (eggs) from being released too early.  We didn't want them to detach before the surgery.






























So that pretty much summed up my life for a few weeks.   I also....
Got in a car accident (she hit me...)
and
Drank LOTS of pomegranate juice to help thicken the lining of my uterus,
and
Went to acupuncture 1-2 times a week,
and
Worked full time (except when I needed to leave early so I wouldn't puke at my desk),
and
Continued to fulfill my calling as the Young Women's President in my Ward.
Oh, and I think I gained 5 pounds... but who's counting.