Stims Begin

Thursday night I went out for a final adult beverage with my mom before starting the shots. The weather had been crazy hot for a few days - it was in the 90s in Ventura, which meant it was in the 100s everywhere we were trimming. PHEW! Alot of sweatin' was going on at work. We went downtown to Bernie's and sat outside on the patio, which was perfect for the unusually warm evening. We enjoyed their delicious sangria, soup and a yummy sandwich.

The shots are going well, Mario is doing a good job doing them twice a day! The nurse reminded me to make sure the alcohol from the swab was dry before injection - if you push the wet alcohol in with the needle it can burn. The shots burn a little anyway so you don't need to add to it. Mario accidentally pulled one of the needles out a little sideways, that hurt ...the next time he did it so well that I barely felt anything. So we've found little tips and tricks as we go to keep the process as comfortable as possible. Unfortunately this morning he had to leave at 5:30am to go to L.A., so he literally woke me up with a loaded needle at o'dark thirty! Good morning... :-P

This morning was my first monitoring appt, and unfortunately it didn't go that great. Dr. Sunshine wasn't in so I saw a new doctor, which was fine. When he first came in the room he assured me that even if I was 21 years old, at this early stage of the shots they don't expect to really see much going on. He said the important part was my estrogen level in the blood work they had just taken. As he predicted, there was nothing going on with the ole ovaries. They were both 'resting'. I tried not to be bummed out since he had said it was to be expected, although of course in the back of my mind I was hoping I was going to be a super responder right out of the gates. While I was there I picked up the $750 worth of drugs that I had to buy, that had not been able to be donated. I was given another vial of really expensive meds for free, and once again was reminded how many thousands I had been spared by the awesome nurses in the office!

Mario and I went off to trim some horses, and when we were done I got the call from my nurse that the estrogen level had come back. Instead of the roughly 100 that they were hoping for, it was only 51. Damn... :( She said that they were not going to increase my shot dosage yet and see me again on Tuesday and see how things are looking then - another blood test and u/s. I have an acupuncture appt that morning also, so hopefully we can get things kicked into gear!