Update day 24

I thought I had posted since my lucky 13 post but I guess not.  Sorry to keep you all hanging without any updates.  Today is day 24 and so far so good but not without one huge obstacle getting in our way!

My drugs were delivered to my house on December 21st so I had a quick look through to see what was in the box.  Lots of needles! 8 days worth of me.nopur, saline, norethi.sterone and cyc.logest.  I boxed it all back up and as I was now off work for two weeks for Christmas I decided to relax and enjoy the next few days before starting on the meds.

We had family come to us for Christmas dinner which was lovely.  There were five of us, which was a nice easy number to cook for.  Chaos descended once the rest of the family arrived later in the afternoon.  It was, however, great fun to have everyone here enjoying each others company and playing board games.  From Boxing day onwards we hardly did a thing I spent a lot of time in my pyjamas and caught up on sleep which was extremely lazy but worth it.

On the 27th I started on 5mg of Noreth.isterone twice daily.  I have used this medication once before (for about 3 weeks) and it turned me into a hormonal lunatic.  Luckily this time I was taking less and only for seven days and as far as I am aware I did not have the same side effects.  At least my dh hasn't said anything.  On the 29th I added in a nasal spray Sup,refact one spray at 8am, 12noon, 4pm, 8pm then two sprays before bed.  This has been fine through the week when I would be up and in work by 8am but at the weekend when I tend to sleep in later it has been tiring.  I have been having naps most Saturday and Sundays since starting the spray.

Before we could move on to the next stage I had to have started my period before day 16.  Thank goodness  that all was going to plan and on day 11 AF arrived which was another tick on the list. Day 16 on January 11th I had to have a blood test to decide if the drugs were working correctly.  It was a nice quick visit to the clinic to have blood taken.  I was told to carry on as per my schedule and that I would only receive a call if there were any issues with the blood test.  If I didn't hear anything by 5pm then I could go ahead with injecting the meno.pur that evening.

I had already watched the instructional dvd on how to administer the injections once.  So I thought it would be quick and easy to watch it again and get the first injection over and done with.  Things didn't go quite so easily though.  J was with me with the dvd remote hitting pause every few seconds so I could do what was needed.  I was so unorganised and it was definitely a learning curve that first night.  Even though I had set out everything I needed I hadn't opened things up and needed an extra pair of hands to get things done so it was a good job J was with me.

Just getting to the point of injecting myself was the hardest.  I had worked myself right up and was shaking like a leaf.  Actually sticking the needle in was easy!  I hardly felt a thing.  The following evening I had all the bits laid out and opened up so going through each of the steps was a lot easier.  This time I was on my own and stayed completely calm.  For anyone else doing this watch the dvd straight through right before starting.  It isn't very long but well worth doing to get all the bits and pieces set up and ready to go.  I had two needles to use on one syringe.  The larger needle for drawing up the saline to put in to the men.opur then switching to the smaller needle to inject.  The first night I had left the smaller needle in the packaging, big mistake, as the saline was in the syringe I couldn't put it down to open the small needle.  The 3 small vials of men.opur also had lids on which I hadn't removed.  Injection 2 - 9 have all been a lot better.

Day 23 was scan day to find out how I was responding.  The only problem was they had forecast snow, with a red warning!  In other words they were saying only travel if you have to as red warning means risk to life.  It was awful out.  We are just not cut out for snow.  I phoned the clinic first thing to make sure they were open which they were and I told them we hoped to get there but would call with an update if we had any problems.  My dad was on standby to take us as he has a 4x4 but even he said we wouldn't make it.  Then they shut the bridge so there was no way we could get there and back safely.  It really wasn't worth the risk.

I was lucky as I had enough drugs to carry on for Friday night but if we couldn't get there to be scanned on Saturday (today) the whole cycle would have to be cancelled.  We knew the ploughs and gritters would be out through the night and most of the journey was on motorways.  We had to be there between 9am and 12noon.  We got up early to make sure we made it.  Or street was the worst part we had to dig the car out and the road was a sheet of ice.  Once we made it to the main road though it had been cleared.  As it was early and quiet we made it in 40 minutes.  I was very relieved to have made it and not have to cancel.

I had 6 or 7 follies in my good left ovary measuring from 8.5mm up to 19.4mm and 4 or 5 in my right bad ovary measuring 12mm up to 14.9mm and my lining was 9.5mm.  The nurse said I was progressing well and gave me more meno.pur to carry on with over the next 3 days.  I am booked in to be rescanned on Monday and she said it would likely be Thursday or Friday for EC.

Sorry for the overload.  I know when I have searched to find out step by step what happens I have failed to find good information.  Hopefully this will help someone else as long as I haven't rambled and gone on too much!  I will do a quick update Monday evening after the next scan until then have a great weekend.