IVF and PGD Part 2 – Injections Day 8

Today is definitely the worst day in the entire process so far. For one, I’m really not feeling great. I still have the weird throbbing headache, and now I also feel foggy and tired and my stomach has been queasy for the past 2 days. I think it’s the HGH causing these newest symptoms because I didn’t feel this awful last time.

If that wasn’t bad enough, my husband had to stay late at work tonight. He thought he’d be home in time to do the meds, but when 7:00 pm came along and he wasn’t home yet, I realized I would have to give myself my injections. After panicking for a few minutes, I slowly started getting the meds together, all the while mentally preparing myself for the task at hand. Once I had all the meds laid out on a tray, I sat there for a good 10 minutes psyching myself up and praying that my husband would walk through the door and save me. But he still wasn’t home by 7:30 pm, and I’m supposed to take them at 7:00 pm every day, give or take an hour. He did eventually get home to help me, but only because the entire process took me a lot longer on my own. I had mustered enough nerve to give myself 2 of the shots by the time he walked through the door. Thankfully he came home as I was prepping the Menopur. I absolutely hate the Menopur. It really burns when the medicine goes in so I usually sit there with my eyes squeezed shut and cringe until it’s done, and on top of that, it’s also the most tricky med to administer. I’m up to 2 vials per day right now, so you have to draw 1 CC of sodium chloride into a syringe, then mix it with one vial of Menopur powder until all the powder is dissolved, then draw all the medicine back into the syringe and reconstitute it into the second vial of Menopur powder. Once all the powder from the second vial is dissolved, you then have to draw all of it back into the syringe again and attach a needle for injection. We are using Q-Caps which are supposed to make it easier for drawing and reconstituting the medicine, but I was still struggling with drawing the 1 CC of sodium chloride into the syringe while holding the plunger in place and trying to remove the Q-Cap, when my hubby came home. My anger at him for not getting home on time was overshadowed by my immediate relief that I wouldn’t have to administer the Menopur myself. I hadn’t even been able to draw the sodium chloride without spraying myself! I realized in that moment what a star my hubby is because he always makes this step look so easy, but it’s not! Thankfully, my husband was able to finish for me and the crisis was averted. By the time everything was done, it was only 8:15 so not too late all things considered.

I have another monitoring appointment tomorrow to see how my follicles are coming along. Yesterday, we saw 8 growing follicles all measuring between 9 and 10 millimeters. So far not too bad. We only got 6 eggs last time and of those, 5 fertilized. So 8 is definitely better, though still not really a great number, but as long as we fertilize about the same amount as last time, we’ll be good to start growing the embryos and proceed with PGD. So fingers crossed these 8 keep growing! We should see some more growth tomorrow, and then because of the Thanksgiving, I won’t be going back to the clinic until Saturday. Hopefully by  Saturday, we’ll be measuring around 20 millimeters and be ready to do the trigger shot so we can do the retrieval on Monday as planned. I’m off to bed now. This foggy, groggy feeling is getting worse, I think I need to sleep it off and let my body rest and do what it needs to do.

4 thoughts on “IVF and PGD Part 2 – Injections Day 8

  1. I’m so sorry you had to give yourself your own shots.. 🙁 But I’m so glad that he got home in time to help you! I would have been fuming, but like you I’d be happy he was home. Good luck with your monitoring appointment. Grow follicles! Grow!

Comments are closed.