Our cycle began on September 28th with my first birth control pill. I started my fifth and final week of birth control yesterday. Because me and my sister's periods were a little over 2 weeks apart, her part of the cycle started on October 16th when she re-started her birth control. So we are now getting synchronized and in order to full sync our cycle, we both needed to be on Lupron injections to get our ovaries nice and quiet in there. I had my first injection on Saturday. It's not my first rodeo so these injections are nothing to me now. But my sister, she started her injections on Sunday. Because she has NEVER had to inject herself before, I thought for sure I would be going over to her house Sunday morning to give her a pep talk and give her enough courage to go through with the injection. Instead, I woke up to a text message saying "I already shot up. It wasn't that bad." Shocked the hell out of me! And it also made me incredibly proud of my sister to have had the courage to give herself an injection for the first time ever when it's not even for her own benefit. She truly is amazing, at only 23 years old!
When we first started our egg donor journey, a fellow Baby Quest grant recipient who lives in California had already been through the process and told me she had purchased a gift for her sister to give to her on every day that she had to do the stimulation meds. I thought it was a great idea-a way to show our appreciation to my sister. I started collecting gifts for her before I even knew if she was going to get approved or was going to follow through on her offer. One of the first gifts I purchased was this, and I gave it to her yesterday on her first injection day because every last word of it is so true and she proved that when she took her first injection with no help or complaints:
Along this egg donor journey to what we hope will be our Rainbow Baby, we all three have our jobs, and we all three have to do uncomfortable things or take medication with terrible side effects. And we are all #doinitforbabymonnier. That is amazing to me. If one of us did not do our part-this definitely would not work. With all of us doing our parts-this could definitely work! My sister obviously has to take injections and pump her body full or hormones which will eventually make her an emotional wreck and bloated beyond belief. She is doing that to help us bring home Baby Monnier. My husband has to drink packets of ProXeed daily which he states are disgusting but are to help his swimmers multiple and become better developed. He has to take an antibiotic for 14 days starting next week and he gets sick (like throwing up sick) when he takes antibiotics. He has to go inside a small room with a cup and come out with the cup full of sperm in a few weeks, with someone likely waiting on the other side to go in for their turn. He is doing this to help us bring home Baby Monnier.
And me....I probably have the toughest job of all. I have so much medication that I have to take between oral, injections, and infusions, but it is all to be able to bring home Baby Monnier! To prepare my body for the embryo transfer, I have to take the normal stuff-the antibiotic, the Lupron, the Estrace. But because of my history of pregnancy loss and some things we've discovered on blood work, I also started Intralipid Infusions today and will get the infusions every 2 weeks until we confirm if I am pregnant or not at the beginning of December. I get the infusions in my home from a home health nurse which is nice because I got to stay in my pajamas the whole time. The medication though was FrEeZiNg going in my hand and with 30 minutes left of the infusion my vein blow and blood and medication from the IV spewed all over my hand, the couch, and the carpet. All was good though....the nurse rushed to me and started cleaning me up with her bare hands and alcohol wipes (I ensured her I do not have HIV or Hepatitis...that's the good thing about going through fertility treatments-you get tested for all that). We repositioned the IV into my elbow and finished out the infusion just fine. My hand is still sore....but as long as I am #doinitforbabymonnier I don't even care! Next week I get to start Prednisone, which I've heard is a real treat, and Lovenox injections, which burn like hell and bruise the f*** out of my stomach....but I'm #doinitforbabymonnier! Let's see what else-I've been on Metformin for about 5 weeks and it has torn my insides apart, or atleast it felt that way...I think I'm finally getting use to it. And I get needles poked in my forehead, wrists, 5 different spots on my abdomen, knees, ankle, and feet about every 2 weeks for acupuncture, which will be increasing to weekly for the next three weeks and then twice a week for two weeks. My chiropractor is not a trained Chinese woman who is a professional acupuncturist so it really is not as relaxing as it was supposed to be. And then finally, I get to wake up every morning starting the day after my sister's retrieval and let my husband jab me in the ass with a long needle to pump my body full of progesterone:) Doesn't this all sound like so much fun?!?! I just keep telling myself we are #doinitforbabymonnier and all of the uncomfortableness, pain and bruises...that all doesn't seem to matter. If this is what it takes to bring home Baby Monnier, I would do it 10 times more! Ok...maybe not 10....but maybe once or twice more:)
For all the woman who are out there who feel like a pin cushion and pull junkie...just remember, you are #doinitforbaby------(fill in the blank:)) Best of luck to everyone on a November cycle with us!! Baby Dust to all
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