Well, here we go folks. It's that time again....harvest time. I start my stim shots on Tuesday. Twice a day as usual. Also start the dexamethasone as well that day. My first US and baseline blood work will be Sat the 20th at 0800.
I'm excited but I am also nervous. My OAR score this time was the best it's ever been since we started this whole process when I was 35. Just for reference, I will be 43 in Oct. However, I have been thrown a curve ball this time.
May 19th, the day of the final episode of Game of Thrones (the first episode I would have watched and yes, it was the series finally), I decided I needed to have a seizure. Yep. Full on tonic clonic seizure. Convulsions, frothing at the mouth, classic seizure. Turns out (after MRI and EEG), it was a perfect storm of things that caused it. Migraine for 4 days, little to no sleep for 3 days (we had just bought a Dive Shop and well, stress), and Tramadol. Tramadol has a history of lowering a person's seizure threshold, but I had been on it for over 10 years and had no issues. So the only culprit is the Tramadol. IT lasted about 45 seconds or so. I was standing at the cat tree and the next thing I remember is them asking me what year it was (I couldn't come up with it) and then asking if I knew where I was (in the ambulance - I go that one right). It took about an hour for me to get all my faculties back and know what was exactly going on. I am fine, except I can't scuba dive for 6 months now. UGH. That sucks, especially during the busy summer season.
Anyway, how this affects my IVF. I was 132 pounds before the seizure. When I went to my first appointment to get my H&H blood draw and and US to check for any cysts on my ovaries, I was 150 pounds. Nothing has changed in my eating habits. Nothing. The only change is the seizure and the dive shop. I am getting at least 20,000 steps a day and constantly lifting and loving heavy objects. Is it the exercise packing on muscle, or is it something else? I feel I am eating less, but drinking more. I realize alcohol can pack on weight, but that much in such a short time?? I wasn't drinking THAT much. The other thing that has changed (IMO) is my personality. I am quick to anger, I feel I have zero emotions, and I feel my Sir Chance wants nothing to do with me.....an I am indifferent about it. Yes, I have gone to the doctor about all of this and she is stumped as well since all the tests are normal; but who says I am ever normal??!! HA!
No way to lose those extra pounds in 2 weeks, so hopefully I can get the pounds off before we transfer (God willing we get embryos of course).
Another thing that has happened, is I had surgery April 3. I had abdominal liposuction and breast/nipple reconstruction. They used the fat from my abdomen and transferred it to the left breast to fill in some flat spaces. We did this to keep from having to remove the implant and doing capsule work. The capsule is the pocket the implant sits in. Think of it as the water balloon is the capsule and the implant is the water. We moved my right nipple, via flap, almost 2 cm to the lateral side (towards my arm pit), because it was showing in any bra or swim suit top I wore (except bandeau style; but with a swimming toddler you can't wear those....he just pulls them down).
Now here is where things get tricky. DH is only off 4 days the entire 2 weeks of the harvest schedule. He is on call two days (so he goes in at 7P) and off the day after his call shift. Yes, he is off the weekends, but I have historically never harvested on the weekend. Since he is only off those 4 days, and the chances of me being ready on one of those 4 days is slim, he will have to go into the clinic and leave a sperm sample to be frozen, as back up just in case. Obviously fresh sperm is best, but if he isn't avail, it's either frozen sperm or frozen eggs.
Back to my OAR score. It is the best it has ever been, so the RE ordered less medicine than she has in the past. This gives me more hope things will go smoothly and amazingly. As you may or may not remember, our last cycle we had the most follicles we have ever had at 25, but only got a few eggs, only one of which was mature. Due to human error, our egg was accidentally injected with 2 sperm and we ended up with a ruined egg. It happens. We don't blame anyone, and no action was taken. We just wanted to make sure steps were put in place so that hopefully this doesn't happen again, or to anyone else. When you have 10 harvests in a day, it makes people rush around and sometimes errors happen. So we had little signs made to remind people to slow down and take extra precautions.
So shots start in 2 days. Not looking forward to the shots since I have no fat in my tummy anymore, but it'll be great. I am still trying to figure out where all the weight went, because I may be swollen a little bit (takes about 6 months for all the swelling to go away), so my waist is still around 2 inches larger than pre-surgery, but it was closer to 6 inches for weeks post surgery. I still wear my abdominal binder and waist trainers. Spanx don't make a small enough product to get the compression I need. I probably should be wearing a corset honestly, but that requires 2 people to get into and my 85 year old MIL can't help and DH isn't around when it's time to get dressed. So I do what I can.
Hopefully by Sat we have a few good growing follicles and we are off to a good start for this third and final harvest. We said we would do 3 after Sir Chance was born, so this is the final one.
Updates to come. I appreciate any and all good wishes and prayers. I also hope anyone reading this who is going through this journey, has faith it can work. Stay positive and allow it all to happen in God's time.
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