Life as LawWife

Just over 24 hours left until I finally get my hot little hands on a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I've had my copy reserved for several months at a local bookstore. I'm heading to the store in the early afternoon to get my wristband (or whatever contraption they've got set up), and then D & I will go back at night, probably around 11:00, to wait for my number to be called. I've never been to a Harry Potter release party, and this is my last chance. I can't really dress up, but I plan to wear red and to wear my glasses. Maybe I'll think of something else, but I doubt it. That's all I've come up with in a week! Pathetic.

Sometimes I'm really bad about skipping to the end to see how a book turns out, but I hope I can be more disciplined with this one. I'll never get another chance to read and savor a new HP installment, so I hope I can enjoy this one to the fullest.

Starting sometime tomorrow, I'll stop going online (or at least stay away from news sites and message boards...sticking to online games & such) until I've finished reading the book. I don't want anyone else spoiling this experience for me! 

Tuesday July 10 I got a sore throat. By that night, I also had a fever and sore skin. Over the next week, I went through just about every symptom (non-digestive-related) of any illness you can think of: flu, laryngitis, head cold, allergies. I'm not one who generally rushes to the doctor (odd, isn't it, considering my fertility status), but I finally went on July 17. The ever-so-attentive doc's conclusion? Must be an infection. Gee, thanks. So I've been taking an antibiotic for the past couple of days. We'll see if it helps. I'm really tired of coughing, mostly. And I'm tired of being sick. One day, I'm hopeful, I'll be well again.

So we're taking one. We couldn't really afford another injectables cycle anytime soon anyway. We'll just enjoy being married for awhile. Maybe when we're able to get back on the bandwagon, we can try IUI, too. Doesn't THAT sound like fun?!

I'm going to continue taking Metformin. Can't hurt, and it does seem to help. I'm not charting at all, which will be fun. I can't remember the last time I wasn't charting at all. I usually end up charting something (temps, CF, something). But not now. I need a breather, desperately.

D was all for it. He thinks it's a great idea. Hooray for us! 

Well, the $2,500+ isn't exactly down the drain. It's actually on a credit card, charging us interest. Isn't that a lovely thought?

I took an HPT yesterday. Negative. And I've come down with some sort of illness (fever + sore throat + sensitive skin), so my temps are through the roof for all the wrong reasons. Yesterday, I hit 99.5 and today is 100.8. I'm not taking any more Prometrium, since it helps keep my temps up, and I didn't take a test today (like the nurse said to) since yesterday's was so lily white.

It was a little annoying yesterday to get a message from a (well-meaning, of course) friend asking about my temp and whether it was a fever or something exciting. I got to tell her that yes, indeed, it's a fever and that I had a negative test. Good times all around.

This is one of the worst things about discussing treatment with other people. They know what's going on and are so frickin' hopeful for you. You feel like you're disappointing them somehow when your body continues working (or not working, as the case may be) as it always has.

At any rate, we're not going to be able to do any more injectables cycles, at the very least with Dr. Turd, this year. Between D's lack of a decent raise and our credit card situation, I suppose we're just going to have to sit back and "relax" for awhile. I think I may be ready for a break. I'm so, so, so tired of this crap. Really, I am. 

I got EOBs today from the insurance company for my two episodes of monitoring for my injectables cycle (two u/s and two blood draws). Suffice it to say that I'm getting pretty danged close to my personal deductible ($2,200) for the year already. Gah!!! I'm pretty sure that if I'd had the u/s at the doc's office, it would have been about $300 a pop. But at the hospital, it's closer to $800 a pop. Oh my goodness. Guess that means we won't be doing any more injectable cycles this year! That brings the total cost of this one cycle to *drumroll please* $2,578.60. Yeah, we can't afford this kind of help.

Remind me never to have an injectables cycle with the doc in another state.

Not from far-past memories but from the injectables cycle that I'm currently in the 2ww (two-week wait) for. We took a few photos of the process, so I'm posting them here for posterity. WARNING: There are photos of an actual injection!

This is what came in my box o' supplies. There were 20 syringes and 20 needles for the Menopur injections, two needles for mixing andinjecting the Novarel, alcohol pads for sterilizing the tops of the meds and my skin prior to injection, the Novarel, four boxes of Menopur(five ampules per box + Q-caps for mixing the meds), one biohazard disposal container, and one bottle of Prometrium (progesterone).

This is all the stuff laid out for the first injection. D would hold the ice on my belly near the injection site while I got everything ready. My typical routine was to use the restroom, wash my hands, get a paper towel (not the first time but every time after that), let D put the ice on me, then start setting up. I would pull out everything I needed (Menopur, syringe, needle, biohazard container, and alcohol pads) and set it on the paper towel. I would then open the syringe, needle, and Q-cap packages. After that, I would pop open the biohazard container, pop the tops off the sodium chloride and Menopur powder, and then sanitize the tops of the ampules with the alcohol pad. Then I would screw the Q-cap on the syringe, get the requisite amount of air, inject that into the sodium chloride, pull the SC back into the syringe, and inject that into the Menopur powder. Once the powder was dissolved, I'd pull it back into the syringe, change the Q-cap for the needle, tap out the air bubbles (I didn't get that perfected until near the end of the 12 days, unfortunately), wipe the injection site o' the day, and then inject.

This is the syringe with the Q-cap instead of the needle. I really liked this for reconstituting the medicine.

The injection photos are next!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I ended up depressing the plunger with my index finger after this first shot. I just couldn't comfortably twist my hand around to use my thumb and still have control over the speed of the injection.

 

After my first u/s, I had to double my dose to 150IU of Menopur and 1cc of SC. This is the setup for the double dose.

 

 

 

 

 

This is a photo of the lovely bruise I sustained at my first blood draw. It even extends, quite sexily IMO, above the elbow. Niiiiice. As of today, nearly two weeks after the blood draw, the bruise is still visible. On the other hand, the site of my second blood draw never got a bruise.

 

 

 

 

The band-aid marks the location of my hCG injection. I mixed up the medicine (no Q-cap! Waaaah!), which was 3cc of sterile water into the Novarel powder and got stuff ready while D held ice back there for me. After I got the med reconstituted, I switched the needles on the two syringes and gave D the empty syringe with the now slightly dull needle. He used that to practice on a gigantic orange I picked up at the market for him. And then we put Rambaldi in his crate so he wouldn't bark like a mad dog (during my Menopur injections, D held him to keep him from barking) and startle D and wiped the site with an alcohol pad. Then I turned away from D, put all my weight on my left leg, turned my right foot inward, and let D inject me near my right hip. It did bleed a little, but what else can you expect from a 1.5" needle?!

 

 

And now we wait for a couple of weeks. For your continued entertainment, here are two photos of me. The first is from the day the meds arrived.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second is from the last day of my Menopur injections.