#menopur

Round number 2 of menopur has gone ok. I had to increase my dose because my follicles weren’t responding . Not surprised with my body. Well we did and I only have one leading follicle. ONE! Like ugh. I hope that’s good enough. With our son I had three. With our miscarriage I had two. Last cycle two and now 1! I really hope the odds aren’t against us. Having our IUI tomorrow. Crossing my fingers this is it for us. Gosh please!

Recently made a post and tumblr ate it. Don’t feel like writing it all out again. But this cycle on menopur has been good. Shots suck but follicles responded amazing. Just woke up at 2am to do a trigger shot and doing our iui Friday oct 13th.

Had an ultrasound yesterday morning that confirmed I was ready to stop the estrogen and we were given the green light to start injections. Jordan gave me my first two needles last night and was an absolute sweetheart of a nurse. A few hiccups along the way — but we will do much better tomorrow now that we’ve done it once. We will continue the shots until instructed otherwise and we have our next ultrasound appointment to check on follicle/egg growth on Monday!

I had to take two Menopur 75 unit vials on Saturday. The medication REALLY stung. I felt nauseous for about two days. I had a lingering headache. The hot flashes were the worse part. Also pretty sure I gained like 4 lbs of water weight. This medication made me blow up!

Also found out that Menopur is made by extracting hormones from menopausal women’s urine and purifying it... good thing we don’t have to take it orally 😝

First stims scan this morning and 8 follicles were seen.  Four in each ovary, a couple in each were measuring about 18mm - they like them about 20mm for collection.  Had the message this afternoon and we are due back at 7:45am on Monday morning for a repeat scan and bloods.  The nurse does all this then sends it up to Nottingham where they have a meeting then report back what they want to do.  We have enough Menopur for 3 more doses so that's the last one on Sunday.  The nurse doesn't think we'll need any more.  I hope not as my ovaries ache already.  I am bloated and it aches when I walk.  Didn't sleep well last night due to nerves and being uncomfortable and bathroom sinks kept going through my mind!

I do feel a bit excited.  10 follicles would have been nice but given my AMH I think 8 is good.  Just so relieved that I responded and it's not been cancelled and that there are more than 3 or 4 follicles found.  Think I'm a bit excited due to relief.  I am going to keep doing what I have been doing for the weekend and see how Monday pans out.  Will keep eating protein, drinking lots of water and having a daily walk over the common for half an hour.

I got super brave yesterday and told my boss.  Well I kind of just shot out 'we're doing a cycle of ivf' when trying to explain my holiday days might move.  He seemed ok and said he'd tell others it was for medical reasons which I appreciate.  I did reiterate I didn't want anyone to know.  It's hard as it's not just admitting you need time off but if we are successful I could be leaving work, it's so much harder for a woman.  Ultimately I do feel better having told him as I think it should help with time off and other people etc, it felt wrong to be trying to rearrange days without management knowing and understanding so it is a weight off.

Day 7 of stims today.  The scan went well on the 11th July and we were able to start Menopur that evening.  It is a lot of it though, 450 every time, that's 6 vials of powder mixed with 1.5 vials of water in one injection and then the Buserelin as well.  The menopur hurts when it goes in and the needle is a little bigger than the buserelin one.  A couple of nights ago I went to do the buserelin but it hurt so much as I tried to put it in I had to take it out and Rob had to do it.  Last night I worked through the pain and did it but every day it is getting more painful.  Not sure how much longer I can work up the courage to do them.  Think over the last three days my ovaries have started to ache as well, it's like a dull ache in my lower abdomen that's constantly there.  I am drinking lots of water, eating lots of protein and trying to take walks every day.  Also using my hot water bottle after injections even though it's so hot.  Everyone tends to say the heat is good for growing follicles so it's worth a try.  We went out for dinner on Saturday and I sat in the car with the hot water bottle on the way there, that was a hot journey!

Our next scan is Friday 20th so we'll have been stimming for 1.5 weeks there about, I'm hoping it'll look like we're doing well.

It's my birthday tomorrow.  Not got anything to celebrate really but as Rob pointed out it's got to be better than last year.  My friends baby was born on my birthday last year and I was ok to begin with, just super pleased for her, but went downhill all day until I went to bed early sobbing as it felt like my heart had been ripped out.  It was the hardest most horrible birthday I've ever had.  Baring in mind we'd only just found out.  Looking back it's easy to see where I started going downhill towards my little breakdown in October.  Last summer was the worst.