Meds Arrive!

My meds arrived!!  In a large Styrofoam ice chest, packed down with ice packs.   

There’s.  So.  Much.  

 It’s so exciting, but so overwhelming.  And for the next few nights, I dreamed about needles.  Just a few more days, then we’re on our way!!!  Our medicine start date is Thursday, June 19^th.  I’ve already been on birth control and prenatal vitamins for a little over a month now.  I was extremely nauseated and felt horrible the first week.  I changed my time to take them from mornings to nights, hoping to sleep through some of this nausea.  It seems to help.  I still have a small wave of nausea come over me periodically, but it doesn’t seem to last very long.  But my hormones… oh my.  I feel like a teenager all over again.  Every feeling and emotion is so ridiculously amplified.  Too many wires and cords at the computer- “Just get rid of the stupid computer!!!”  A lady pulling out in front of us, (while throwing my hands up in the air) “What are you thinking?!”  Poor Justin.  I normally have such a calm, laid back, care-free personality, but right now I feel like such a teenage drama queen.  It’s ridiculous.

 (my meds & my nurse- please excuse her hippie hair-do!)

June 10, 2014

A few days after surgery, I felt almost as good as new.  We went back to Medical City for our medicine consultation with Heather, our sweet, personal nurse.  We went over what seemed to be about a million different medications and the instructions for each.  Thank God Justin was there to help me remember all of it!  She explained that we only order meds once, and so we would get every medicine and every pill and every needle needed throughout this whole process, all at one time.  She gave us our meds schedule, and placed the order with the pharmacy.

Pink- Prenatal vitamins- taken through everything

Gray- Birth control pills- taken for a little over a month, to allow time for the doctors to manipulate my system and hormones.

Yellow- Lupron- a shot I have to give myself in the stomach each morning in order to shut down all of my hormones.  Could possibly give me headaches and menopausal symptoms.

Green- Dexamethasone- a small steroid pill taken every morning in hopes of building superhuman eggs and embryo environment.  Could possibly cause insomnia, hot flashes, and constant hunger.

Blue- Follistim- a shot I have to give myself in the stomach each day for about a week to stimulate ovaries right before retrieval.  Could cause pain and abdominal swelling and weight gain from over stimulation.  Most expensive medicine I’ve ever purchased!

Red- Intra Lipids- For first infusion on July 3^rd.

 

Surgery Day

June 06, 2014

We woke up refreshed that morning, and Justin went downstairs and had what he described as an “amazing” breakfast while I was upstairs in our room getting ready.

We swooped by the pharmacy at 9:55, picked up the antibiotic which was packed in very well with ice, then we eared-back on the toll road to Medical City.  I have no idea how we did it, but we were 20 minutes early!  We got up to the doctor’s office, and they took us back and gave me a “cute” hospital gown to change in to. 

The anesthesiologist came in and started searching for a vein for my IV.  Bless his heart.  I have the smallest and fewest veins on the planet.  But he was determined.  And he dug and dug and dug, until neither of us could take it any longer.  Finally, he ended up inserting it into my left hand.

I went back to the ice cold operating room, I climbed up on the little table, and he started the medicine through my IV.  I remember him telling me that he didn’t want to put it into my hand because the medicine “aches” when going through the tiny hand veins.  And it did.  We were talking about traffic and construction and then, in less than a minute, I was out.

I woke up about 30 minutes later with some mild cramping, but for the most part, feeling good- especially compared to my horrible, extensive surgery two years prior.  They gave me a little medicine through my IV for pain, and a grape Capri Sun since I was incredibly thirsty.  I later found out that this was the same anesthesia medicine that Michael Jackson overdosed on, which freaked me out just a little. 

And… Great News!!  The endometriosis had not returned, only the cyst.  Dr. Saleh was able to aspirate it with the super long needle, and then he injected the antibiotic to keep cysts and endometriosis away while we go through IVF.  But, the best news- we are free to continue on to the next step, and we do not have to wait 6-8 weeks!!!

 
On the way home, we stopped quickly to pick up movies and Chinese food, and made it to the house in time for me to eat about 5 bites, see about 3 minutes of American Hustle, and then fall sound asleep.

The Day Before Surgery

Dr. Saleh had prescribed a medicine needed to be injected in order to keep away the endometriosis and cysts.  This medicine comes in the form of a liquid antibiotic and is only available at very few pharmaceutical companies.  Because once it’s made, it has to be kept cool and only has a lifespan of about 12 hours, so we had to pick it up the morning of the surgery from a pharmaceutical company near Dallas Love Field Airport.  Which was completely beyond and out of the way of our doctor’s office at Medical City.  Our instructions were to pick this medicine up at 10:00am and be at our doctor’s office at 10:30am, and my surgery was scheduled for 11:00am.  I was so worried that we would get stuck in rush hour traffic or wrecks or construction along I-30 and wouldn’t make it anywhere on time, so we decided we would just get a hotel room next to the pharmacy and make a day of it.

We stayed at a nice hotel (5 minutes from the pharmacy) with a nice pool, which we swam in for hours that afternoon!  Then we went for dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack for my last meal, since I wasn’t able to eat or drink after midnight and didn’t know when I would be able to the next day.  We ended up having such a fun, relaxing time, that for a brief second, I almost forgot why we were really there.