Tag: dodgeball

IVF Diary Vol II: 19-20 Jan 16

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Medication(s) administered and dosage(s). Stimming phase: days 5 & 6. Gonal-F 300 iu & Menopur 150 iu.  I started cetrotide this morning, day 6 (20 Jan) – this is the drug that stops me from ovulating prematurely and losing all those eggs!

Medical procedures undertaken. Monitoring appointment – ultrasound and blood test. So for my last appointment there were loads of people in the waiting room – it was like chaos.  This morning, there was no one except little old me.  It made me nervous!  I don’t know why, but it just did – I wondered if I was an odd ball with my cycle.

What are my symptoms? Tiredness – I am struggling to keep my eyes open today.  I went into work after my appointment and this afternoon I taught a 2 hour lesson as part of our staff development training.  I give a highly interactive class with practical tasks, so it is incredibly draining on the brain as the ‘students’ always have lots of challenging questions for me!!!  I am amazed I survived.  At the end, one of the organisers asked me if I was OK, was I tired?  Clearly I looked pretty rough!

I also have a headache.  It is not dehydration because I have hydrated constantly all day, carrying around my water bottle with me.

The bloat…the bloat….the bloat is on fire!  Aghhh!  How many days do I still have left? I’m just over halfway hopefully!  I am currently sat in my fluffy fleecy pyjama bottoms. They feel sooooooo good!

How do I feel today?  Apart from the tiredness thing, I’m feeling not too bad.  I am excited to be on this IVF journey still and haven’t given up hope just yet 🙂

Any results?  I have 6 follicles in the right ovary and 7 in the left, with a few smaller ones hoping to catch up!!! Last time around my right ovary was the dominant one, this time it is the left.  It looks like I am responding well in terms of follicle numbers similar to last time.  Which is good because they collected 9 last time (6 were mature, 4 fertilised) so I am hoping for some more mature eggies this time around!

What’s next? The same injections then monitoring appt on Friday morning.  The Doctor says I am currently looking good for an Egg Retrieval on Monday!

Weight. NSTR

Waist.  slowly growing 😦

Boobs. Slightly bigger.

Hours of Sunshine 🙂 None.  Snow expected soon!

Fun Activity to keep Dani from going insane. Dodgeball season starts tomorrow evening, I am not sure if I will play yet!  I am doubtful.  But I will go along anyway to support the team even if I don’t play.

dodgeball

Rahhhhh – Dodgeball is a great place to let off some steam – But not when you are in the middle of an IVF cycle!!!! :_-(

160120_IVF2_Follie

13 follicles – with a few at 3-4mm left to catch up

*Notes.  I take First Response Reproductive Health multi vitamin gummies (pre-natal) and CoQ10 200mg gummies daily.  NSTR = Nothing Significant To Report.

So Letrozzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzole sleepy…

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Wow, these drugs make me sleepy!  Letrozole (AKA Femara) comes with a warning on the bottle ‘Do not drive or operate machinery until you know how these drugs affect you’. Well I never saw that on the bottle first time around!

Pharmacy Fun Time
Yesterday, I got my ‘refill’ of 10 tablets of Letrozole (2.5mg) from my local pharmacy just in the nick of time.  I am supposed to take x2 Letrozole tablets for five days, starting from CD3.  Yesterday was CD3, so I when I received an email from my local pharmacy saying I could pick them after 5pm I was relieved.  However, there was a note in the email saying that I would have to pay full price because it was so close from ordering to pick up, the insurance had not been calculated yet.  That would be $103 full price v $0.26 copay due.  Fortunately, when I got to the pharmacy, the insurance had done its thing and I only owed $0.30.  An increase from last cycle of $0.04 – weird  (My progesterone has gone up by $2.00 as well – has there been a nationwide increase in drug prices? Do drugs fluctuate like oil prices??)

Rahhhhh - Dodgeball is a great place to let off some steam

Rahhhhh – Dodgeball is a great place to let off some steam

What time of day do you take your Letrozole?
I have decided to take the Letrozole in the early evening because last time when I took them in the morning, the drugs were affecting me on my drive home from work, dangerously so.  They do make me extra sleepy – I guess from using all that energy up to grow those extra follicles.  Let’s see how this works out.  Last night I slept pretty well for the first time in a while, maybe it was the drugs or maybe its about time I had a good nights sleep after two weeks on the progesterone.

Dodge, Duck, Dip, Dive and Dodge
Right – off to dodge some balls at our social club and let of some steam!! More on dodgeball next week when I will be facing the dilemma of whether to play in the play offs or sit on the side lines…. :-S

Soooo sleepy but still managed to dodge a few balls

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Today I started the letrozole. 2 teeny 2.5mg tablets a day for five days. This small prescription should result in ‘super ovulation’; hopefully this should stimulate development of multiple follicles and eggs being released, therefore increasing the chances of pregnancy. The nurse provided me with an info sheet and described some of the side effects. The only strange feeling I had today was sudden extreme tiredness, when I was driving!! That was very bizarre, so much so I almost skipped dodgeball this evening. I checked the pharmacists long list of side effects, tiredness was on there. But so was almost every other side effect known to man! Has anyone had this with letrozole too?

Although I was glad I got out the house, I wish I had skipped dodgeball. whilst playing I pulled a tendon in my thigh. It kills! Being on letrozole means that I can only really take Tylenol as a pain killer (which I have none of in the house! Doh!). So it’s going to be an uncomfortable nights sleep. Why can’t I be sleepy now???!!!

I wasn’t sure how much my prescription was going to cost, but the nurse showed me a good website www.goodrx.com that gives you coupons for prescriptions. She told me I should pay no more than $10 for the letrozole. So I printed the coupon and discovered my insurance covers it, and I payed just 0.26c for it. I’m so happy!!!

These ten pills can cost over $150 :-s but if you find a coupon they can be about $15

These ten pills can cost over $150 :-s but if you find a coupon they can be about $15

Sporting activities during the two week wait – stupid to do it or stupid to not do it?

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Day 12 of the two week wait – and on day 11 I did something which might be stupid.

Chris and I are both keep active and we like to try new sports.  Here is a list of sports we have done over the last few years or so…

  • Rock climbing
  • Hiking
  • Skiing & Snowboarding
  • Yoga
  • Insanity exercise programme
  • P90X3 exercise programme
  • Dodgeball
  • Volleyball
  • Softball

SAM_0997Our favourite sport is anything which involves being outdoors – particularly if it is quiet and remote (much to my mother’s horror!).  We have had discussions about whether or not putting myself at risk from a big fall on a climb was worth it, and we decided to give climbing a break and spend more of our free time travelling to cities and taking the opportunity to do some siteseeing around Virginia.

We have missed climbing a lot over the last year.  We also skipped a couple of ski trips last year too, similarly, not wanting to put myself into a risky situation with a big fall.  But after the last year we looked back and realised that you can’t put your life on hold just because you are trying to conceive.  Although I didn’t wrap myself in cotton wool during the two week wait, I was very conscious about doing something silly in case I was pregnant.

So this weekend we headed west on a ski trip with a few friends.  I decided to ski the easier runs and not put myself in potential danger on the black runs this time round.  This was so much fun, I was in my element, enjoying being outside on the mountain.  The second day, Chris and I decided we would keep going with our lessons to learn each other’s sport.  I took a snow board lesson (my third one) and Chris took a ski lesson.

As I am a beginner on a board I knew I would be sticking to the bunny slopes – little chance of big falls here!  Perhaps a few bruises and bit of hurt pride, but other than that – safe as houses.  This was all until the very last run of the day.  I had two lessons that day, and suddenly snow boarding began to click (hooray! at last!!!!).  Well…..so I thought!  I felt comfortable picking up some speed (but not quite as fast as I ski, so I know what stupidly fast is), and as I came into the flat, I caught an edge and landed heavily on my backside – I was winded.  When Chris hurried over to me, I could barely breathe.  I cried.  I cried because it was such a stupid thing for me to do.  Also, my stomach and back was writhing with pain.  I can deal with bruises – but my abdomen just throbbed like hell, as if I had been punched in the stomach.

I know it is highly unlikely that this fall could cause a failed pregnancy this time – but why would I risk it for my selfish desire to do these dangerous sports??!!  When you try to look at other people’s experiences with these sports, I have not found consistent guidance on whether they should be avoided completely.  The only common guidance I found was to seek advice from your doctor, I suppose because each individual is different.  And this is exactly what I shall do next time I see her.  But I have read that after IUI, strenuous exercise should be avoided, so this could be a mute point if this month is a failure and we proceed with IUI next month.

When I am pregnant then I want to keep doing as much as is thought to be reasonable.  But what is reasonable?  I like this lady’s story about rock climbing when she was pregnant: Anonymous mom – I was a pregnant rock climber (www.mommyish.com) She talks about how she felt during her pregnancy and how people made hurtful comments (unintentionally sometimes).  You have to be a strong person to do this.  I’m not sure I can.

I found two books which I have seen a good few reviews about, these are going on my to read list:

Exercising Through Pregnancy by Dr James Clapp

Fit & Healthy Pregnancy: How to stay strong and in shape for you and your baby by Kristina Pinto