Ouch!!

CD3

This morning I had my first monitoring appointment with my new clinic.  After telling the receptionist know I was there I went and sat in the little waiting room.  The blood nurse called my name and I had one vial of blood taken.  I miss the blood nurse from my old clinic... she never hurt or bruised me.  Not that this one particularly hurt, and my bruise is not very big, but it's tender.

After that I went back to the little waiting room until it was my turn for an ultrasound.  First they did the regular abdominal ultrasound and then they did the trans-vaginal aka cooter cam.  This was the first time it was almost painful.  I'm not sure why that was, but I hope it was a 1 time thing.

Today they were looking for what's called Antral Follicle Count (AFC).  This is the number of follicles present at the beginning of a cycle.  These follicles are all very small and in a normal cycle, only one will grow to maturity and the others will disappear. 

In an IVF cycle they try to get as many of those Antral Follicle to grow as possible aiming for between 10-15.  Too many can lead to complications too.  In an IUI cycle, like we are doing now, they want less than that but still more than one.  In my case, they want to make sure that at least 1 or 2 of those are on the L because my R tube is gone.

I had 11 on my L and 15 on my R.  Those are good numbers.  Like I said, only a few of those will mature.

After my ultrasound, I met with a nurse and one of the other RE's at my clinic.  He was super nice and funny.  Dr.F had left instructions on my file regarding the dose of Puregon I should be on (66 mg)  but he didn't agree with her at first.  He said that I have a high AFC and that using that dose may result in too many mature follicles and I should only take 50 mg.  Then he read my chart further and discovered that I only have one tube and decided on 58 mg.

The nurse then showed me how to work the puregon pen.  Partway through the instruction, the RE popped his head in the room again and changed my dose to 66.  He said he didn't want risk not developing any of the follicles on my L side and have to cancel the cycle as a result.

I then went to the in-clinic pharmacy and picked up my puregon.  It comes with a little pouch to carry all the supplies in and another pouch to keep the used sharps.

I have to take the shot at the same time every day.  I chose 9:00pm just in case we go out for dinner or something one night, that way I don't have to worry about bringing it with me and injecting myself in a public washroom...  I was so apprehensive about sticking my self tonight that I ended up pricking my self twice because I chickened out a little too late once before finally going through with it. 

No side effects so far, fingers crossed it stays that way.