Belly Bruises and The Baseline

We (my sister and I) are two weeks in on the Lupron injections. My sister's stomach is covered in faded bruises from the injections because she's so skinny and has hardly any fat on her stomach to shield herself from the needle prick. She calls them "battle wounds." It's a fitting name I think, because she's fighting this battle of recurrent miscarriage and stillbirth with us by giving us her eggs that should be free of chromosome abnormalities, until my eggs which have been the main cause of our recurrent heartbreak with pregnancy loss. I feel bad, because I have plenty of belly fat and the Lupron doesn't give me any problems other than it's sometimes hard to get the needle to poke through the skin because the needle is so dull. However, I'm on day three of Lovenox and this medication is by far the worst medication to inject. I was on it with my two pregnancies in 2013 just for a few weeks before I miscarried and had the same reaction then too. I hate Lovenox. It immediately bruises my skin as soon as I place the needle to my belly. And these are deep bruises...black and blue and are so hard for me to poke through the skin, worst than the Lupron. I've started taking them before becoming pregnant this time because it should help with implantation and making sure there are no blood clots forming in my uterus before our embryo transfer according to Dr. Braverman, our reproductive immunologist specialist. I know the shots are for my own protection and my babies protection so I will deal with the bruising as long as I have to, but I still hate it!

Besides our belly's looking like a battle ground, my sister had her baseline ultrasound today! That means we are only 12 days away from our egg retrieval!! WHOOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOO!!! The nurse said my sister's ovaries were nice and quiet and they are guesstimating she has about 7-9 follicles in each ovary right now. So I guess we are looking at a possible 14-18 follicles at this point in the game. I say "at this point in the game" because I know very well we will not get 14-18 eggs at the egg retrieval because not all 14-18 follicles will respond to the medication she will be starting on Sunday. It does make me nervous just from past experience of having 30 follicles at my baseline ultrasound and only being able to retrieve 12 eggs because I only had 12 out of 30 follicles that stimulated to maturity. It makes me even more nervous to know that even when follicles are fully mature, the eggs inside the follicles may not be or may be poor quality and they cannot be fertilized...so I know, realistically, we may be working with a smaller number than what we had to work with during our first IVF when we used my own eggs....but I am REALLY trying to stay focused on the fact that my sister does not have the chromosome issue that I have so even if we have a smaller number of eggs....they could absolutely be better quality than my own. Think positive, right?

So now that the baseline ultrasound is out of the way, the true test begins. My sister starts the medication to stimulate her ovaries on Sunday. And let me tell you, I know she is not thrilled about this part. She will be on Follistem and Menopur and has to mix the two together which does seems kinda difficult even for me. I've already warned her about the emotional rollercoaster she is about to jump on to, and if you are her friend, family member, coworker, child's father, or ex-boyfriend...this is your warning too! The 10 days between the start of the medication to the egg retrieval will be NOT the time to bring up something you know dang well will upset her. If you do, enter the conversation at your own risk! I am hoping that I can keep her spirits up and keep her motivated by the gifts I've gotten her. She gets to open one gift every night after taking her Lupron in the morning and Follistem/Menopur combination in the evening. And tomorrow kicks off the 11 days of gift giving with a special girls day that I've had planned for a week and a half now:) She is definitely deserving of what I have planned for tomorrow!

Other than these updates, I started Estrace on Wednesday to start plumping up my uterine lining. I will increase my dose every 4-5 days and won't actually know if my lining looks good until the day of my sister's egg retrieval. After the retrieval I will have an ultrasound to check things out on my end and make sure my uterus is ready to grow a baby in there. I also started Prednisone to start suppressing my immune system. I'm taking 10mg twice a day and I really haven't noticed any side effects like I thought I would...no excessive hunger, no excessive moodiness-that I didn't already have;) We'll see how it goes the longer I'm on it. Today is also my 5th day without having any caffeine! Last week Dr. Pepper started tasting "off" to me so it was really an extra motivation to just cut out the caffeine now and not wait until we transfer our little embie or wait until I find out if I'm pregnant or not. The first three days were rough....I thought I was going to kill someone-everything was annoying me. But day 4 was much better and the withdrawal headaches are gone now:) #doinitforbabymonnier!

Over the next week I am sure I will update much more as we learn how my sister's ovaries are responding to the medication. We are now at 12 days and counting...and I can't believe it! Hoping these next 12 days go my smoothly and as fast as possible....we are so ready to see what the next journey is going to be!