Day 2 of IVF/ICSI Cycle

My date with my RE started Monday nite. Remember with the office being 100 mi. away, I was going to have to make an early start the next day (5:00 a.m. wakeup call). So I took my shower Monday nite instead of in the a.m. like I prefer. I was hoping to do some personal ladscaping, if you know what I mean, as I had let it lapse in the last couple of months. Unfortunately, the only "pretty-fying" I got around to was shaving the hair off my toes. What? You don't have hair on YOUR toes? What kind of freak are you?! I also selected what I would wear the next day, which consisted of items that would be easy to remove and put on (jeans and birki socks/shoes, and my fave pair of Vicki's Secret underwear). In most ways it was like preparing for a date.

I was in bed by 9:15, but tossed and turned until almost 10:00 with last minute worries: what if the roads are really crappy? (it's been snowing off and on for almost a week); what if they find more cycsts? what if the blood work comes back poor because my cycles have been so screwed up lately?

When I crashed, I crashed hard because at 5:15 a.m., which is the alarm buzzer went off, I almost fell out of bed. By the time I got myself all gussied up, including a spritz of rarely worn perfume, I was on the road by 6:00 after a quiet kiss to a still very sleepy Jerry.

Luckily the highway was fairly clear of snow and ice and the trip was as boring as ever, except for the dead elk I think I saw on the shoulder; and the moment my soccermom SUV started to slide when I accelerated on a icy, curved section of the road.

My appt was for 9:30. That in itself was odd because for all my other ultrasound and lab work, I've only had to make sure I was there between 6-9:30 in the morning as that is the only time the clinic is open for those services. The docs then have to make their rounds at the hospital, so that's why the hours are limited. Anyway, I've only had to have appts for seeing Dr. M., not for dates with the cooter camera, so I was a little confused thinking maybe their policies had changed since our last failed IUI. I ended up getting there considerably early (8:30 since the roads had been so good), but they took my money and ushered me into one of their cooter closets without delay.

After empyting my bladder and covering up the provided drape, I made myself comfy on the horizontal saddle and waited for the wand monkey. Instead, Dr. M. came in and announced they were going to do the sounding first. The huh-what? Sounding. It's where they run a catheter through the cervix up into the uterus to make sure that it can be done so there won't be any surprises when they go for the retrieval and transfer. Or as Jerry so eloquently put it: a dry run.

It had the same comfort level as an IUI: cold speculum cranked to full-bore and repeated instructions to breathe. As she snaked the catheter up, I responded with "Ooouuch!", which only elicited more "breathe" coaching, and assurance that when we do the actually procedure I will get a valium first. Yummy.

Dr. M. announced that everything was good there and started gooing up the cooter camera (I always am surprised that when the damn thing is introduced, it's not ice cold as they kindly heat their gel). She approved of my lining, and announced that the ovaries appear to be clear. If the lab work came back good, I could start my repronex inj. I dressed and headed down the hall for the blood letting, and I was rewarded by my sensible, yet fashionable shoe selection when Dr. M. complimented them.

Before leaving, I was given a little brown bag with several syringes/needles inside and confirmation as to what # they should call with the lab results. It was only 9:10. Guess what time the malls open around here? 10:00 a.m. Can you frickin' believe that? I drove around for a while wondering how I could pass the time as I had forgotten my recently started novel, Memoirs of a Geisha, at home.

Guess what humongous retail chain, geared towards kids and toys opens early during the holiday season? Yep. They were open AND surprisingly, NOT busy! I found a few things and headed for check-out. I have an amazing ability for selecting not only the line with the most harried and underpaid clerk, but the one with the customers with the least amount of common sense (mmmm, maybe that says something about me as well). Example: the woman 2 carts ahead of me wanted to return something. Then she wanted to exchange something. THEN she wanted to purchase something. It was at that point, the clerk pointed out, "gee, we could've done this all in one transaction..." I got out of there at 10:45.

I drove to one of the Metro malls and I realized how annoying those kiosks' workers were and barely gave them a civil "talk to the hand" when they attempted to block my way with hand lotions, neck warmers, and phone covers. And, am I the ONLY person in the country NOT to own a pair of high-heeled, pointy toed boots? It appears that these are standard issue for shopping, which makes no sense at all to me. I'm shopping, which means walking. A Lot. On hard surfaces. In the Winter. On Ice. On Snow. Because they look stupid in the Summer, they can't be worn when it's nice. Someone explain this to me...please!

Back to shopping: while I was in A.T. Loft, I got the call from the RE's clinic. Lab was good. All clear to start the inj...tonight, starting with a 1:6 ratio of H2O to water.

Did you get that? I didn't. I went to the counter and asked for a pen and started asking all sorts of questions and repeating info so that to the casual conversation-hitchhiker, I probably sounded like a doctor. "Yes, I have ordered the repronex/LMG. It arrived from London a couple weeks ago. How many cc's? Which syringes? What time each day? How much variance in time is allowed? (no more than a 1/2 hour)" The clinician also explained the ratio mixing we would need to use. You see, the repronex came in boxes of 10 glass vials of powder along with 10 glass vials of sterile water. We need to break open 1 tube of water. Pull out 1cc of water. Inject that into one vial of powder. Mix. Pull out the mixture and inject into powder vial #2. Mix. Repeat this until we have mixed 1cc of water with 6 vials of powder. Each vial of powder is equal to 75 UI. For the next three days, Jerry will be injecting 450UI into my butt, at which point I will have to go back to the Metro for a Day 5 US and lab. That's all I'm supposed to do for now.

Sounds simple, huh?

Well it's 9:30. Jerry and I have agreed that is the schedule we will try to work with....and I've just realized with a start that I am out of alcohol swabs! Shit! Looks like a w.al.green run!

It wouldn't hurt for you lurkers to get your typing skills up to par. I'm going to need a lot of hand-holding over the next few weeks.