Pin Cushion

I am starting to feel like a pin cushion. Things are going well so far. At this point I am giving myself three different shots a day...two in the morning and one at night. The shots go into my stomach and are just into the skin so they are not too bad.....one however, does feel like a bee sting. I have had two ultrasounds so far. Apparently when you do IVF they follow your progress REALLY close. The nurse says progress looks good so, so so far so good. I have several follicles on each ovary  and they are waiting for them to mature. They are able to tell if your body is ready by looking a your estrogen level (yes, with the ultrasounds come blood work, but that is a breeze) and the size of your follicles. Based on the ultrasounds and your progress, they will give you several days of medication doses to help you continue to grow the follicles. If all goes well, they should retrieve the follicles sometime next week.

  The nurse asked me if I felt bloated yet with all the follicles. Your ovary is only supposed to make one, so when you put 4-6 or so of them on each side, they start running out of room. I do not feel bloated, but I can definitely feel where my ovaries are!

  The one big downfall of all these medications has been the weight gain. Over the last 8-9 months I have been on birth control, off birth control, taking oral hormones and now injectable ones. I know the weight gain is related to the hormones, but it is really hard to take when your pants are starting to be tight, especially when you have been wearing the same pair for years and years. The hard part is, because of the risk of losing the follicles, there is no exercise you can do.....not even sex!  :) You can walk however, and I have spent a lot of time walking the dog over the past week.

With all the stuff I have been doing, it has been going really fast. And although a lot of people make fun of me, with all the Twilight promo for the new movie and stuff, my mind has really been kept off of all this and I think that is a really good thing. I don't sit here and wonder if progress is being made, what if it doesn't, etc. I just do what I have to do each day and enjoy watching all the promo stuff. I work this weekend so that will help also. Anyways, I found a cute picture to add to this post. I think this is what it would have been like if Brian had to give me the shots......good thing I can do them myself!!! :)