Third Shot's A Charm

And so begins the documentation of All Things IVF, Part 3; where I'll share my experiences of our third attempt at starting our family using the most evasive medical procedure possible.

We're praying that the third shot is our charm.

Wednesday, 12-30-09 (Day 1)

Dexamethasone (.75mg, oral pill): Let's try to avoid ravenous hunger and excessive weight gain this time around, shall we?

Lupron (10units, subQ injection): My first injection of this cycle was not lacking drama, that's for sure.

I've been extremely blessed in the past to have received most my meds for free through a donation program that's saved me thousands of dollars. I had my best turn out by far with this third cycle, having every last one of my expensive indictable drugs donated and leaving me a mere $50 worth of antibiotics and suppositories to purchase.

Amazing.

Among those drugs was a last minute Lupron donation, just in time for my cycle to begin. My sweet donator took the medication to the post office and set the delivery date for Tuesday, exactly one day before my cycle began, and paid extra shipping to guarantee it's arrival. However, on Monday I checked the tracking information to make sure the delivery was on schedule, and found that that the package was in fact on it's way back to Pennsylvania where it started.

So after a very large frappachino, an e-mail and a few phone calls, we had verified that the shipping address was indeed correct, everything was on track, and the package would be delivered as promised on Tuesday afternoon. I breathed a sigh of relief and then scolded myself for drinking caffeine this close to the start of my cycle.

Then Tuesday arrived, and instead of my Lupron package I received an email from my donator letting me know that the package was instead back in her hands in Pennsylvania, less than twenty-four hours away from my first scheduled injection here in California.

So I had myself a panic attack, followed by an even bigger frappachino.

My donator was stuck, completely unable to go to the UPS store to sort things out because she was an hour away from one without a car, and couldn't leave work. She called them several times, explaining our unique situation and asking them to send out a truck to come pick it up from her and get it to California, but the best they could do was have her bring it to them by 6:30pm so they could send it out and guarantee delivery by today at 10:30am.

It wasn't ideal, but it was the best we could do; in fact at that point it was all we could do, because even if I ordered it from my pharmacy and paid for it myself, it still wouldn't have arrived any earlier.

Luckily the Lupron arrived around 9:45am this morning, and I was still able to give myself the injection on the appropriate start date, although it arrived in the middle of a meeting I was having with some clients. I had to ask them as politely as possible to look around the showroom while I excused myself to the restroom, mutilated the package while trying to open it, and stuck myself with a little 1/2" needle that burned and itched like crazy. Then I had to try to hide the evidence since this is our first secret cycle, shoving it under the bathroom cabinet and hoping no one would find it before I could retrieve it again and hide it in my trunk.

It's a good thing I'm a pro at these awkward, untimely injections.

I succeeded, and as far as I know my customers had no idea I was shooting up in the bathroom. And even though I polluted my otherwise organic well being with frappachinos and stress, the bottom line is that the medication arrived just in time and my injection was given only a few hours later than it should have been. God provided and everything worked out wonderfully in the end.

And if today was any indication of how the rest of the cycle is going to be, The Documentation of All Things IVF Part 3 is going to be full of twists and turns around every corner, never a dull moment.

But perfect in the end.

Thursday, 12-31-09 (Day 2)

Dexamethasone (.75mg, oral pill): Being the very last day of 2009, I'm resorting to a medical resolution. I will not beat myself up over the type and amount of foods that I disperse into my body, but instead I will remain gracious and continue to be thankful for this amazing opportunity, trying my best to take care of myself but also enjoy every moment of this blessing to the fullest.

Oh, and absolutely no frappachinos.

Lupron (10units, subQ injection): Today's injection was much less dramatic. I simply woke up, loaded the syringe, and gave myself the tiny injection.

I shouldn't be surprised, even after all of yesterdays craziness. After all, this is my third cycle of injections, and the odds are that this will be the smoothest set of shots yet. I don't even have to look at a calendar any more in fear of messing up a dose or giving the wrong injection on the wrong date. I can mix vials with ease, I've finally mastered the sharps container (I swear that first one was defective) and I can pretty much convert a mL into form of measurement possible.

I can even give myself an injection just about anywhere, anytime.

For this cycle Im trying my best to have no fear of mistakes. I know the possibilities, I know that stats, I know the process; and all of this just leads me to spend more time praying for God's will, and less time trying to design a path to reach my own. God holds the future in His hands and He is completely in control of the situation, leaving me with the one task of letting go of my need to be in control at all times and give it all over to Him for this next cycle.

One day at a time.

"The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one."

-Elbert Hubbard