Today’s clinic visit for my ultrasound was overseen by the main doctor. Usually a nurse does them, but with the retrieval date so close at hand, he is becoming more involved. I learned roughly half of all donors are put on Repronex, which is reassuring, since I felt like I was somehow failing my duties if they needed to prescribe me more drugs to get satisfactory results. I watched as he noted on my chart that my count has increased from 8 to 15. He commented, “at least they are getting bigger.” They were closer to the 9mm and 10mm size. My Repronex dosage has increased again as well. Instead of reconstituting one one tablet of Repronex, it will be two. I continue with the prescribed 300 units of Gonal-F and 10 units of Lupron.
A nurse came in afterwards to give me my Repronex+Gonal-F intramuscular shot near the outer hip on my backside. While I was there, the doctor wanted to know if I had started feeling any pressure around my my ovaries. I honestly haven’t noticed anything until now. It hasn’t even been 3 hours since the nurse gave me my shot, and now I am starting to feel the pressure. It isn’t uncomfortable as much as it just feels weird. I could easily mistake it for the feeling you get after having a heavy lunch.
I asked the nurse whether she could tell based on the information on hand so far, what day my retrieval would be. She ventured a guess for this Friday or Saturday which would be perfect for me. The person I rely on the most for emotional support doesn’t work Fridays and would only be available for those two days to be with me.
I return to the clinic on Wednesday for another checkup. I am eager for this to be over and done. Although, I haven’t really needed to make any drastic sacrifices in my life to accommodate this process (I rarely drink, I’ve never smoked, I don’t do drugs, and the only caffeine I get is from tea or Coke), I just want to return to my normal life. No more needles, early morning appointments, long periods sitting in the waiting room in a flimsy hospital gown, moodiness, having to keep track of what medications to take and when to take them, increased sensitivity with my lady parts, abstaining from sex, extreme fatigue after my injections. and feeling bloated. That last one is something I’ve noticed only recently. I’ve gained considerable weight since I have been eating a lot of food lately. I don’t know how much of this can be blamed on the donation, and how much of it is just the fact that I like food. :X
