Follicle Fest

So i've been having the Gonal-F injections now for a week. Thankfully Kylie has been getting better at giving them so i bearly feel them at all now! I have started to feel different physically over the past week which has been interesting. At least my psychological symptoms appear to be subsiding - i'd much prefer the physical than the emotional!

I have been having headaches alot and have been feeling really bloated. I believe the headaches are linked to the Synarel that i have to snort twice a day. I was whinging to Kylie (as i usually do) about how fat i have been getting and how i just feel bloated all the time now and it's because i am turning into a 'porker' - but it clicked the other day, that the fullness and bloatedness is kind of in my ovary region! My little follicles have been multiplying like rabbits!

Sure enough, i had my Stimulation Scan this morning and there they were - he counted between 20 and 23 follicles!! A follicular fest indeed! No wonder i was feeling bloated. Apparently the risk of Ovarian Hyperstimulate Syndrome is increased where there are greater than 20 follicales and where there are mild symptoms already present prior to the Ovum Pickup - so that means i must be in the 'at risk' category. I hope it doesn't develop into anything more serious as it will interrupt the whole treatment schedule (not to mention it can also be dangerous for my health!).

I suppose at least there's lots of egg to choose from!

So, the next step in the process is for me to have a slightly reduced dose of Gonal-F for four more days and then the trigger injection either Sunday or Monday and then the Ovum Pickup (known in the biz as the 'OPU') on either Tuesday or Wednesday.

I picked up all the drugs i require from the pharmacy - which included three more boxes of Gonal-F and a massive box of progesterone cream that i am supposed to use after the embryo transfer and the trigger injection. The trigger injection is called Pregnyl and has to be refrigerated. I told the pharmacist that i wouldn't be able to put it in a fridge until the afternoon as i was driving to Gisborne for a meeting straight after my appointment, so they sent me off with a little esky with my injection inside! Man, there's just so much stuff!

I called Tappster - who is a friend who is going to come to the OPU with me so that she can drive me home. She's tee-ed up to have a day off whichever day i need, which is a real relief as i didn't quite know what to do with Kylie not being able to come. Obviously i wish she could....but i know it would be hard for her to ask for the time off from the MFB recruit course. I am sure there'll be plenty of opportunities for her to come to scans and appointments and things once we're actually pregnant.

Gosh, it is potentially not that far away now that we could be pregnant! I can see why people get so dissappointed when this doesn't work, it's such a process with so many steps and so many drugs and so many appointments....i am trying to not think too much that it's all going to work first time (though of course i want it too) - but i guess i don't want to be too disappointed so am in two minds - either i stay grounded and remember it may not occur first time - but then i don't want that to be a self fulfilling prophecy and so perhaps i should be thinking with all positivity that i can muster......ah, i don't know, would be nice to be more like Kylie sometimes and just not worry about anything, just take it as it comes.....life is hard as a stresshead!