Let it snow.

I posted some photos below for your perusal as my dear wife is sleeping peacefully right now, less than eight hours to go. :)

V.

PIO

Today V. gave me the PIO shot. As I said yesterday I want him to do them so he's more involved but also because it's just plain damn awkward to twist around to give myself the shot. It's do-able but with the thicker castor oil, it's much harder to push down the plunger.

Anyway, I went and prepped the syringe this morning after looking at the clock and thought "holy shit, gotta do this before it gets too late". This time I warmed the vial a bit in the hopes of making it a bit easier. Not sure if it made a difference. Even filling the syringe took longer than last cycle. So I brought it, showed V. where it was to go, swabbed the area and was answering a question when he just did it. I really didn't feel it which was great. So if the next 12 weeks go exactly like today I'll be very happy.

Lucky 13

We are getting dumped with snow this weekend and of course I am to go into the clinic for a lining check. Because I was given the choice of Saturday or Sunday, and the bulk of the snow was to fall Saturday afternoon, I thought it made most sense to head down to the clinic Saturday morning, especially if we were going to be able to transfer on Sunday.

So, we make our way downtown. We got about 10cm of snow overnight so it was nothing too terrible, except that the snow had started up again shortly after 8:45 when we left the house. We made it downtown by 10am which was pretty good considering we had to stop for gas and the bank. Plus the clinic's monitoring hours are 8-10 on the weekend. The clinic was pretty busy but I think people wanted to come today instead of tomorrow with the expected 20-25cm on the ground, plus they were later getting down today due to road conditions. (I'll post some pictures tomorrow after the snow ends.)

Anyway, while I was getting poked and prodded V. went and sat down at one of the computers to wait. The person doing blood was a guy today and was very quick but for some reason it hurt. Oh well. I have no issues with needles or getting blood taken, I just don't watch when the put it in. Anyway, I then had to wait about 10 minutes for the ultrasound. I was talking with the tech and she said that my lining was excellent - it was measuring at 13 and was already transforming from the triple stripe stage to the next stage. After that I went out to V. to tie up my shoes because I thought we were going to have a long wait. I think it was 5 minutes when we were called in. We ended up waiting for our doctor at that point for about 10 minutes. He came in all jovial and joking. Looked at the ultrasound results and said "let's get you pregnant". He gave us a choice of Tuesday through Friday. We opted for Tuesday, March 11th. Afterwards I thought about changing it to Thursday as 13 has always been our lucky number (see lining measurement) but decided to go with our first gut choice. The doctor commented on maybe twins (we have two embryos) and V. just got on the bandwagon talking triplets and quads. Needless to say I told him to bite his tongue as two would be just fine, as would one. (For those wondering, they don't do transfers on the weekend.)

We met next with the nurse to get the meds I'd need for the next stage.
My daily regimen is now:

1 doxycyclene twice a day, with food, for 3 days (started today.) This is an antibiotic used to decrease the chance of infection from the IVF process. It is not in the penicillin family. It may also treat any infection that one may already have but are not showing symptoms of. Therefore it may increase your chance of becoming pregnant.

2x2mg Estrace, three times a day

1x5mg Prednisone, once a day, with food

1x 81mg low dose baby aspirin, once a day

Folic acid

2ml of Progesterone in castor oil injected each morning (I had a reaction to the sesame oil last time). I gave myself the first shot before we left the clinic. This is much more dense than the sesame oil and is harder to inject. I'll be getting V. to do it for me this cycle as it's an intramuscular injection into my butt. I did it myself the last cycle, but it's awkward as I found out with the first shot, plus it makes him feel more involved.

0.2mL of Fragmin which will start the day of the transfer following transfer. The fragmin is an anticoagulant like Heparin. This one is a subcutaneous injection so it can be either into my stomach or into my thigh.

So, when we're successful I will continue with the Estrace and Prednisone until the 12th week, as well as the Progesterone and the Fragmin. The baby aspirin will continue until the 20th week unless advised otherwise.

So that's where we are. We should be getting a call from the clinic to advise what time on Tuesday for transfer. Then it's the two week wait. I plan on taking Tuesday and Wednesday off - every little bit helps.

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Tagged

I've been tagged by Thrice. Here are the rules:

1) Link to the person who tagged you.
2) Post the rules.
3) Share six non-important things / habits / quirks about yourself.
4) Tag at least three people.
5) Be sure the people you tagged KNOW you tagged them by commenting what you did.

1. I was always been the shortest person in my class at school and always had to stand at the front of the line when we were told to line up.

2. My favourite toy as a child was my Easy Bake Oven, the kind with the light bulb.

3. I hate most shades of green, and even though my car and our sofa is green, it's not a colour I will usually choose when given a choice.

4. I am an IT junkie and am always "connected" some how either by MSN, Facebook or my blackberry. You can almost always get an immediate response from me.

5. Until I met V. I was an introverted, shy person. I had difficulty making friends in school, and hate going to places/parties where I knew no one. However, being part of his family has definitely changed that and most people would probably be surprised by this statement.

6. I LOVE reality tv (V. too) and watch everything like Survivor, Big Brother, American Idol, Apprentice, Amazing Race (best show), Project Runway and several others I've missed. However, I will not watch Canadian Idol, The Bachelor or Rock of Love with Bret Michaels, the lead singer from Poison.



This meme has been going around for a little while, so if you're reading consider yourself tagged.