"I'm sorry you're not feeling icky"

Two shots down and two to go my friends! I've officially reached the half-way point of this regimen. (Only, really I'm kinda like more than half-way because I get my third shot today.) I've learned a couple things in the past few days:

• Needle size: smaller is better. My delightful pharmacy messed up (now, is that really a surprise to anyone?) and gave me five 22 1/2 gage (BIG) and two 30 1/2 gage (small) needles. It's somewhat difficult and, perhaps, unsanitary to use the small needles for all four shots. So, we used one small needle for the first shot and the big needles for the second and third shot. And the last shot? Oh, well I plan on using the small needle for that. You know, so I have something to look forward to.

• I don't seem to have much body fat on the top of my thigh. That came as a true surprise to me...when I went to pinch the area I didn't have much to pinch. Upon further study I realized that my fat on my thigh resides on the inner most portion. Good to know.

• It's important to STAY AWAY from the phlebotomy student when getting bloodwork done. (oh, did you know Dr. Delightful wants to monitor my hormone levels? This constitutes more bloodwork.) You know, I had my doubts about the resident phlebotomy student when she didn't know how to work the copier. But I gave her the benefit of the doubt because she didn't go to school to learn how to use a copier. Oh, bad mistake my friend, bad mistake. We'll just say that after a lot of rooting around in my vein...the syringe was pulled out and put back in by a more experienced person. Phlebotomy students words to me: "I'm just really glad I found the vein!" (Ummm, yeah...but your job is to get blood OUT of said vein...)

• HCG, so far, hasn't given me any side effects. The literature I got about the drug said possible side effects were nausea and tender breasts. I've got nothing, nada. I told K I was kinda sad I didn't have any effects because I didn't know if the absence of said effects meant the drug wasn't working. His response? "I'm sorry you're not feeling icky." LOL, after he said that I realized just how silly I sounded!

One shot down...

Tonight was the night of my first HCG shot. Thought I ovulated on Friday and that would put today as the first shot day. However, there are two reason why I fear that I made a mistake....1st my temp went down just a touch this morning. It wasn't enought to really make me concerned because it was literally two tenths of a degree. Plus I was up in the night and took the temp later than normal. All reasons for it to be a bit skewed. 2nd: after we did the shot I had a small amount of eggwhite cervial fluid. That's after two totally dry days. Way to go body, way to go. I really, really hope things aren't all messed up...

The plus side of this whole experience is that administering the shot wasn't all that bad. I prepared everything and K was the one who stuck me. I was anticipating much, much worse.

Thoroughly Confused

You know what? I'm stumped. I'm confused. I'm perplexed. I'm baffled. I did get my meds today (thankfully); HOWEVER, they are the meds my insurance liaison told me would be covered by my insurance. But the pharmacy told me they won't be covered. Does this make sense to anyone else?
I should be happy, right? I mean I have the drugs. Hopefully they won't make any more potential babies get flushed with my next period. But you know what? I'm a bit angry. First of all...according to Dr. Delightful I pretty much need these meds in order to even carry a baby. Right? Otherwise (like last cycle) aren't I just having a really, really early miscarriage? When you look at it this way (and obviously I do) then isn't this just the first of many things I may need when I'm pregnant?
Second of all, the many, many hoops I jumped though since last Wednesday to get these drugs would be enough to keep Shamu happy for the rest of his life. I really thought that I must be going crazy when the pharm called me on Sat and told me they weren't covered. (Literally, I almost lost it at Menards. Poor K...he was going to buy a new blade for his saw when we got the call. He just bought the $500 worth of lumber instead. Nope not bitter ;) )
Here's what I thought had happened. When I first started this escapade Walmart told me I needed Novarel. So, logically, that's what I told the insurance liaison I needed. And that's what she told me was covered by insurance. Now, this was a bit confusing to me because my script read: HCG. So, when the pharmacy called Sat and told me that HCG was not covered under my insurance I thought Walmart must have got it all wrong. I even asked said pharmacy, "What I'm getting is HCG, right?" To which they replied "Yep."
Except............................I'm holding a box that reads NOVAREL in really big letters. Do you understand my confusion? So, off I went to make a call to my trusted insurance liaison. By the way, I think it's time I gave you her name: Lois. I really didn't think I would have to take the time to type it out here, but honestly? I think I've talked with her more in the past week than I have some of my friends. As I type, she's making some calls because guess what? She's confused too.

ETA: I got a call back from Lois and she informed me that the insurance thinks I'm getting the Novarel for infertility. Well, um...hum. You know what this made me aware of? That I don't think of myself as 'infertile' anymore. Just someone who needs a bit of help maintaining a pregnancy. I explained this to her and she recommended that I have Dr. Delightful call the insurance on my behalf. Quite frankly, I'm done with this drama for this cycle. We'll cross that bridge if it comes.

False Alarm

Remember how, in my last post, I said insurance would cover meds? Whoops, my bad. They won't.

You know, I had a feeling in the beginning that they wouldn't cover them. It makes sense; they won't cover infertility treatments...why on earth would they cover meds? I'm not happy about it by any means, but I might not be quite as livid if I hadn't gone through all the hoops to try to get it covered. Hopefully they will be delivered to me tomorrow and we can be finished with all this drama.

A girl can hope, right??

Jumping Through Hoops

Interesting developments on my attempts to enact our plan...wanna hear? Here it goes:

Alright, so Dr. Delightful kindly forgot to tell me just how frickin difficult it would be to get my Rx filled. I received the Rx script in the mail on Monday and took it to Walmart to get filled on Wednesday. Walmart told me they would have to send away for it but that I could pick it up after 4:00 on Thursday. So, I leave Walmart and go about my merry way.

30 mins later my phone rings. It's Walmart. They have to use a 'special pharmacy' and called my insurance to make sure it was approved. Insurance said, well does she have her shiny new purple card? To that I replied WTF? Ummm....I didn't change insurances? Why do I need a new card? At this point I get thoroughly confused (and still am for that matter), but Walmart tells me they'll call other pharms to see if they carry the medicine.

In the meantime, I call my director and ask if insurance has changed...to which she replied 'no.' She called our insurance liaison and inquired further. After getting off the phone with her, Walmart calls back and tells me that Kroger carries the magic drug.

Can you tell how convoluted this is becoming? Yeah...if it's complicated reading it imagine how crazy it was living it! Anyway, I'm going to make a long story short....after doing some calling around, I discover that my insurance will cover the drug if I go through the 'special pharmacy.' So, I call the special pharm, only to be informed that although they contract through my insurance, they contract through another company for fertility meds. Seriously?

All in all, I had to get Dr. (Not So)Delightful to fax a new script to the fertility meds place and then call the fertility place myself to get everything confirmed. I should be expecting my meds to be delivered to me on Monday between 8am and 3 pm. You can rest assured that I WILL NOT leave the house between these hours so that I can sign for these magical drugs.

The moral of this (very confusing) post? I'm truly thankful that I have the worlds longest pre- ovulatory phase and that I don't need the meds today!

Mystery Mail

A few months ago K receives this bright pink envelope in the mail. Upon opening we discover that two people will be getting married on August 28th. Now, this is a rather common event, no? I would agree; however! It took him literally a half hour and a call to his brother to figure out just who these two people were. There was no name, heck, it even took us a while to figure out where this delightfully mysterious 'save the date' magnet came from.
My thoughts about this? Well, first I was a bit taken aback that my husband is receiving a pink envelope in the mail. Because, mind you, my name was not on said envelope. And then? I was a bit curious why, oh why, a girl he has not seen FOR 8 YEARS is inviting him to her wedding. Slightly strange.
Fast forward to the present. K receives yet another questionable envelope in the mail today. This one has perky pink and black dots all over it. Again, with no name of the return address. However! This time I am on top of things. I just knew that it was from the mystery couple. Yet again my name was not on said envelope. I surely thought this was an oversight on the bride's part. I mean really? K and I have been married for TWO years. Surely my will be on the fancy inside envelope.....right?





NOPE. It was addressed to K and Guest. Seriously? Seriously. I mean COME ON. If you don't know someone well enough to know they have been married for TWO YEARS, why on earth are you inviting them to your wedding? I just do not get it. (Can you tell I am highly offended?) This just screams that either
A.) you are starving for attention
B.) you want to show off how far you have come since high school
c.) you want gifts

The best part will come when I get to send the RSVP back. I am going to make it very clear to write Mr. and MRS. K and then put my address label in the return spot. Perhaps it will make this chick stop and think for a minute!

We have a plan!

As you may remember, Dr. Delightful wanted me to get hormone testing done on various days after I ovulated in order to show what my hormone levels are during my lutal phase. I finished up with that last week and had a phone consult with him today to go over my test results.
Here they are:
Ovulation + 3 days: Progesterone - 6.7 Estrogen - 6.9
Ovulation + 5 days: Progesterone - 12.0 Estrogen - 5.3
Ovulation + 7 days: Progesterone - 14.7 Estrogen - 3
Ovulation + 9 days: Progesterone - 20.9 Estrogen - 3
Ovulation + 11 days: Progesterone - 11.5 Estrogen - 7.8

Dr. Delightful explained that my levels are lower than normal; but, that being said it looked like I had a viable conception. However, due to that lower than normal levels I wasn't able to sustain it. Can you believe that folks?
So, as a way to manage this, Dr. Delightful has created a plan for us. A plan! Yippie! And the thought that part of this plan means shooting myself a couple times for a week doesn't phase me in the least. Okay, well maybe it does a little bit. But hey, bring it on folks!
The plan will be to take HCG shots on days 3, 5, 7, 9 after ovulation. This will help boost my progesterone and estrogen and get rid of abnormal bleeding at the tail end of my period. It will also make my ovulation earlier in the cycle (whoot!!!) but probably will make my cycle longer. Dr. Delightful has warned not to take a pregnancy test until at least 7 days after the last shot, as the shot can make the test read positive. I will also be getting blood work done on days 5, 7, and 9 after ovulation to see how this is working.
We'll give this treatment plan 3 cycles to work and then move on to Clomid or Femera if needed. However, Dr Delightful said it looked like I was ovulating normally according to my chart. Remember how I said he didn't like how my laparoscopy was done? Well, that's not a worry at the moment and he said we'll give it a year and if I haven't conceived by then we might consider another lap. Thank goodness!
All in all, I feel really good about this plan. Well, quite frankly, I feel good to have any plan at all! But really, I'm going to be praying really hard that this is the answer K and I have been waiting for.
So....who knows how to give shots? Anyone??????

Falling apart piece by piece...

No, I'm not speaking about the emotional trials and tribulations of infertility....we'll talk about that at a later date, maybe. Nope, I'm talking about falling apart physically. LOL, so one could say that it all started with my toe. But, I'm not going to because I'm in denial that I actually need to get it looked at by someone other than my Foot Lady. She swears that a beautiful new nail will start to grow in soon. (I'm choosing to believe her because that's a lot more fun than going to a Dr. who would want to take it off...ewww)
So it all started last week with my blood draws. (Oh, and BTW I finally ovulated last Sunday, whoot!) My inner elbows look like a scene from a horror movie, but are slowly getting better. It didn't help that the veins in my left arm cowered in fear from the needles and that most of the blood had to come from my right arm. Ouch! The positive side? I'm done with all that (for now).
Last week I went to school to clean and was stepping up on a child-sized chair to reach a high shelf. Apparently my inner klutz has began to make an appearance, because guess what happened? I fell off the chair. And landed with my leg jamming down on the back of the chair. Ouch! I was left with a red mark about 3 inches in diameter that later turned into a lovely looking purple/blue bruise.
And then? This week I was walking up on our deck and tripped over a step. I went to catch myself with my hand and my engagement ring was turned to the side and dug into my baby finger. Ouch! My baby finger immediately started to swell, bleed, and bruise. It still looks awful and this happened two days ago.
Oh, and my back hurts. And has for three days. Garumph.
So, the moral of this blog? To let you all know that if you see my walking slow, holding on to thing for support, or generally looking stupid, it's so that I can avoid further bodily injury to myself!