It is the strangest feeling. We've been conditioned all of our lives to avoid inflicting pain on our-self and now I have to (twice a day) give myself shots in my stomach. Two shots in the morning and two shots in the evening, that's a lot of shots over the course of 11 days. AND they even added in a third shot for four days. I have given myself a total of 25 shots and I'm pretty sure I'm over my fear of needles.
This cycle was an emotional roller coaster. They were trying to get as many eggs as possible to develop to give me the best chance for having kids later on. And let me tell you, they cranked my estrogen levels through the freaking roof! One minute I was happy making dinner and cleaning the kitchen, the next a puddle of tears (for no apparent reason, well other than my husband talking to me loudly). Yea, sorry babe for that :-). Thankfully though, that meant the shots were doing what they were supposed to and that's all I really wanted. This was an odd thing to have to go through and I can sympathize for all who had or will have to do this, it's not easy.
The night of my first shot was actually kind of funny. I'm so glad that I have some great nursing friends and Alli just happened to still be in Columbus for Thanksgiving to help! She came over and we watched the video on how to mix the medication (yea, not only did I have to give myself the shots I had to mix them as well!) then we gathered all the needles and medicine and all that goes with those two. Alli mixed the first medication and gave me the shot, it wasn't bad at all. Then came the fun part (and by fun I mean terrifying). I mixed the next medication and gave myself the shot. It was such a strange feeling and Alli's advice was to "do it like you're throwing a dart". Thankfully that advice worked and I survived the first round, but there were quite a few more to go.
All went well with the shots after that first night, except for one... When I finally had to add a third shot in the evening, it was easy (a pre-filled needle), except that I had freaked myself out a bit. When I went to do the third shot (my husband, who was my "fat" holder on my stomach, started laughing at me). Apparently I was too nervous and didn't do it quick or hard enough to break skin, and it bounced right off! That was an interesting feeling as well. But alas, I made it through.
During this process I have had more ultrasounds and bloodwork done that I believe anyone needs to have done in a lifetime. Every other day I was at the doctors office at 7:30 AM to have blood drawn and then an ultrasound. It was exhausting! But FINALLY the day arrived that I would have my retrieval (originally the day I would start chemo, but that's another post). We had to be at the office bright at early (well really dark and early) at 7AM to begin. It was uncomfortable and we talked about things I never in my life would have dreamed my husband and I would talk with strangers about. They hopped me up on a narcotic so I wouldn't really feel anything and the procedure went well. 12 eggs. Yes I said TWELVE EGGS were taken out of my body in a very short amount of time. Wham, bam and we were done. I think the longest part of the entire procedure was recovering from the narcotic, which my body doesn't always have the best response to. Dizzy, light headed, nauseousness were all side effects that are possible. I had all of them. The nurse sat me up slowly, extremely slowly. Finally she decided I wasn't able to walk to the car on my own two legs and got a wheel chair. Laying down I was fine, but as soon as I stood up, I felt sick. I dry heaved the entire walk from our driveway into our living room and finally just face planted on my couch because I was so sick! Lots of napping was in my immediate future!
After a few hours I woke up, ate some lunch and felt a little better. It was an interesting morning and I ended up being very happy that I did not have my treatment that afternoon, I couldn't even imagine what I would have felt like then!
Thank you for taking this journey with me. Until next time.
AD
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