Showing posts with label Injectables. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Injectables. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Not Hopeful

Dog is super cute though...
Last two cycles I've been able to feel my ovaries, at least my right one that had follicles on it.  Even the tiny 10mm follicle.  This cycle, nothing.  My U/S is Thursday morning and something tells me this is not going to go good.  I'm trying to make a plan in advance if there are no follicles.  Ether I can go in for ovarian drilling surgery or do Femara plus injectables next cycle.  The surgery is good because I can get it done and still have the wait period before TTC again.  This will be the rest of the deployment.  Other than IUI with frozen sperm I'm not going to get much TTC in anyways.  Plus it could "cure" me or temporarily make my ovaries work better, or at least with low level drugs like dinky Clomid.  Only thing is my husband is not home so I'll have to find someone to drive and pick me up from the surgery.  

I'm not too hopeful for this U/S or even making it to IUI this cycle.
-Selbe

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Plan for the Future

The Plan

There are some thing in life that I'm adamant about having a plan for.  Like the time in Greece where Bean and I took a bus three hours to a tourist spot only to find they were closed for the day.  I ended up crying on the side of the road because we didn't have a hotel room and I didn't want to take the bus back.  That trip should of had a plan.  And there are some things in my life that I'm "whatever" about.  Like my college degrees, none which I use and I still have no idea what I'm doing with my life.  

So what's the plan if Femara doesn't work?  Femara is shown to have better success in PCOS, especially after Clomid has failed.  But it is not 100%.  I have a little knowledge about my insurance, cost of meds, IUI and pills vs. injectables.

In NH:
  • I was seen by an outside provider (base didn't have someone to deal with infertility)
  • Since I did so horrible on Clomid I was getting switched to injectables - Gonal-f, which would cost me about $500 since I would be on a low dose at first
  • Trigger shot - $50
  • IUI, with all the blood work and ultrasounds - $2-2.5k
  • Total Out-of-Pocket - $3,000
In WA:
  • I was sent out to a local Army Hospital, where they do have fertility doctors
  • I can do Clomid+injectables, or Femara+injectable (but not straight injectables) - The meds for this piggy back cycle would be free
  • Trigger - free
  • IUI - $200
  • Total Out-of-Pocket - $200
My insurance will not cover straight injectables.  But they will cover a cycle mixed with pill form fertility drugs.  This is stupid and I don't really get it.  Something about funding.  So even it I do get injectables I'll still be taking Clomid or Femara, even if it does nothing for me.  This is just to make them happy.  Or I could pay the full price of the injectable.  This is at least until I make it to my IVF date, then it will be all injectables.  

They also talked about possible doing ovary drilling.  

Met

My Patriot Nails
I haven't had any bad side effects from Metformin 1000mg ether.  The worst of it is during the morning when I first wake up I am nauseous.  Usually if I eat like half a granola bar and fall back asleep I am fine.

Fourth of July

Happy 4th of July America!  Bean and I are going to eat some unhealthy non-organic, non-glute free fast food, drink Mike's Hard Lemonade and be one of those crazies that sets fireworks off.  Hopefully we will not hurt ourselves or set anything on fire in the process.  It will be some stupid fun, which I think we all need right now.

-Selbe

Friday, May 11, 2012

Behind the Glass

I think I'm going to have to be induced with Provera again.  It's a little upsetting.  The side effects are not the bad for me.  It's frustrating that I have to keep coming back to it.  I took it last April, then July, August and March.  I have extra here that I could take right now, but I'm saving it and holding off.  With my next RE appointment two weeks away they'll probably want to run more tests on me.  If I take the Provera now and it works quickly (probably not) then I could miss the specific testing days and have to wait another cycle for testing.  I'll just tough it out.  I'm about CD41 today and my cervix goes hard to soft over and over again.  My menstrual cramps are gone.  It seems so odd to have them so strong, then nothing.

I've been looking online for information about this doctor's office.  They seem to like to start women on Clomid before going to injectables, even if she has had no success on it before.  I did five rounds of Clomid last year, however I was never monitored via ultrasound.  Because there was no monitoring there was also no trigger shot.  With my past of not ovulated on Clomid 150mg, Dr. H wanted to get rid of Clomid all together and move me to Gonal-f (injectable) and Ovidrel (trigger).  I'm not sure that the new doctor will have the same opinion.  Clomid is not the worst thing in the world.  The side effects are not ideal, and it's not a needle.  It's just kind of territory that was already covered.  

I had a dream the other night about not being able to get the needles into my skin.  Ether my skin was leather or the needle was dull.  I just kept stabling myself over and over again in the stomach.

Attempt at Running

I went running today for the first time even pretty much.  I had a gym membership back in NH.  It's a chain gym so they are all over the US, except here.  I tried looking into a different gym here but so far the only one I like is double the price I was paying before.  This gym does have classes and other benefits that my old one didn't so I'm sure it's worth the extra money.  I just haven't come to terms with spending it yet.  I'm told I can get a free membership to the YMCA but it's a few towns over.  And an extra 10 minutes of driving time is probably going to used as an excuse for not going at all.  

I decided since I am new here and haven't seen much of the town that I'd just walk around and see it all by foot.  Which lead to running.  I'm not much of a runner.  I refer to myself as the fat kid.  I'm slow and have no coordination.  I'll see where it takes me.  My back and legs already hurt so that's good.

Still Standing

A couple people in the last few days have directed me over to Still Standing Magazine.  It's a new website launched this month about infertility and loss (pregnancy or infant).  I added myself to their monthly blog list.  They don't have too much on there yet but it does have promise. 

Behind the Glass

I did see this article, No Mother’s Day For Me, on Still Standing that mentioned Mother's Day is like sitting outside a candy store and watching everyone inside have fun.

This is interesting because I always describe it as similar.  I feel like I'm in grade school and everyone is allowed to go out for recess, but not me.  I got in trouble or didn't do my homework or something.  I have to stay inside.  Sitting next to the window I look out all my friends running around and having fun.  I wish I could be out there with them except I did something wrong and have to complete my punishment.
  
Only thing now I'm all grown up.  I'm infertile and still standing behind the window watching everyone have fun, smiling.  They are all so happy.  I can't figure out what I must have done wrong this time, what the cause of my punishment is.  How I can make it up?

I'm stuck behind the glass.  I can't find a way to the other side.  I sometimes pound on it, very few people hear me.  I am alone with tears running down my face.  Every once and awhile there is some hope, but it doesn't stay for long.

I feel like everyone I know is given something I want so much so easily.  It's just handed to them with little or no effort, sometimes they didn't even want it to begin with.  They go along with their pregnancies with little or no complications.  Their baby is perfectly healthy.   It's not like the car we want with all the features.  Or the new TV.  The want is something different.  We try and try and try, over and over again with so much hope.  Month after month, year after year.  Just hoping if this herbal tea, different drug or break from it all together works.  Then a miracle happens.  Only to find out the heart stopped, we go into labour early or the our baby is born stillborn.  We are left with nothing again.

This Mother's Day I will be behind the glass just like many other women struggling with infertility and the loss the their baby.  I will be alone and probably will not talk to anyone that day.  I will not be getting a handmade card, flower or chocolates.  Or even be getting a "Happy Mother's Day-to Be".  My child is no longer alive.  I would have been 25 weeks, 1 day on Sunday.  Any effort I have ever made at being a mother means nothing.  I will be forgotten, my baby will be forgotten.

“Happy Mother's Day”
It comes around every year;
but when you have empty arms,
it's very hard to hear.
It's a day to celebrate a mother,
for all the trials she overcame;
and a reminder to an infertile
of her loneliness and shame.
But what really makes a mother,
Is it just conception and birth?
Or is there something more,
that shows a mother's worth?
It's putting your child first,
in everything you do;
it's sacrifice and determination,
and love and patience too.
An infertile woman makes all her plans,
around a child not yet conceived;
she loves them even though they aren't here,
more than she ever could have believed.
She appreciates and understands,
what a blessing that children are;
she works hard for just a chance,
that motherhood is not that far.
All odds are stacked against her,
and yet she still has hope;
everyday is another struggle,
finding ways to help her cope.
So even though her arms are empty,
she can still be a mother too;
So say a special “Happy Mother's Day”
for those waiting for their dreams to come true!
- Saw this on a forum yesterday
-Selbe

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Way More Cramping

I might get my period soon.  There is a lot of cramping down there, all yesterday and now today too.  No spotting though.  

Someday my nausea is better, others days it is worse.  I threw up yesterday.  I took a HPT this morning thinking *maybe* it was morning sickness.  Nope!  I have to avoid certain foods, they make me sick just looking at them.  That or I can only have a few bites.  Salad is one of the few things I can tolerate.

I don't really care anymore about AF coming or not.  I've given up and am now just waiting for my next RE appointment.  I can't continue being unmonitored, I need the ultrasounds done to see if/when I'm ovulating.  I can't take anymore OPKs, or BBT, saliva ferning, Ovacue, checking my cervix or whatever other type of ovulating prediction I have used.  I've learned none are 100% and I'm just fed up with the wasted time (and money) on them.

Whoever said someone is more fertile after a miscarriage or that they'll get pregnant again within three months of it is full of BS.  There are no "super fertile" powers here.  I haven't even ovulated since my D&C three months ago.  I've only gotten my period once and only because of Provera.  All this uterus does it cramp.  I'm very happy to start the big boys (AKA injectables) and move on to better things. 



My puppy isn't allowed upstairs, which is where the bedrooms are.  He has pee issues with carpet.  Loki is six month old now.  He was good in NH the last couple months, and at all the hotels on the way to WA.  However, our first night in WA is peed on the carpet so Bean no longer lets him upstairs.  We don't have a baby gate up to prevent him from going up the stairs, we just tell him "no" each time he tried to climb them and he turns around and goes back down.  The other morning I got out of bed to use the bathroom and I quickly looked out the crack in the bedroom door to see Loki sleeping right outside in the hallway.  He must of climbed the stairs and fell asleep there sometime in the night.  However, he didn't pee on the carpet so I was OK with it.

Bean is gone for the next couple weeks for schooling in VA.  I brought him to the airport on Friday morning.

Last night was my first night sleeping alone since we've been in the new house.  I left Loki sleeping downstairs like I do every night and went to bed.  I woke up this morning and opened my eyes to see THERE IS A DOG IN MY BED!  I tried to move away from him but he kept scooting closer to me.  Cute but it kind of freaked me out at first seeing him there.  I'm a light sleeper and thought I'd hear or fell him get into bed with me.  I have no idea how long he was snuggling with me.



I look a lot of photos during my trip.  I thought maybe I'd share them attraction-by-attraction.

Gettysburg National Military Park - Straban Township, PA

Flowers in Bloom


Loki in the Car




Bean & Loki



Down the Tower
-Selbe

Thursday, November 17, 2011

The Good & What's Next

The Good Stuff:
  • It's CD2, my body for the second cycle in a row has managed to get AF without Provera.
  • A CD30 cycle.  Last cycle it was CD31.  (Normal is CD21-35, average is CD28.  Too short then LP problem, too long then no O.)  Two cycles only a day apart in length is good, and amazing for me.  It almost seems too good to be true.  (Clomid I was CD29 & CD31.)
  • Ovulation was CD15.  (Normal is CD11-17, average is CD14.  Too short or too long then lower quality eggs.)  Good enough for me!  (Clomid I was CD 16 & CD18.)
  • Luteal Phase (LP) was 15dpo.  (Normal is 12-16dpo, average is 14dpo.)  The longer the better since there is more time for the lining to develop & egg implant.  (Clomid I was 13dpo.)
  • Post O side effects = high hormones = good.
  • Progesterone 10.6.
Next:
  • We have decided against injectables for this cycle.  I'm not 100% sure what my insurance will cover, even though $500 is pretty cheap if we had to pay it out of pocket.  I'm really not looking forward to sticking needles in my body.  And the side effects will most likely suck.
  • I'm going to stick with the Vitex.  I'm not sure if that is what is fixing me, if something else is, or if my body is getting its act together.  But whatever it is I'm not going to change it.  
  • As long as I stick in the "normal" range then I'll stay away from injectables and the RE.  
  • Psychic Cheri22 told me August for a birth date.  Meaning O November 9th to December 9th.

-Selbe

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