Tolerance test...

Definitely feeling the effects of my med's today...more fatigued & for the first time during my IVF cycle feeling very irritable this morning. What was that lesson we all learned when we were little, if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all? I felt the strongest urge to harshly inform people of how annoyed I was feeling with them & possibly also scream at them, but with my amazing willpower, some breathing exercises, & prayer I somehow resisted, I believe this is a small miracle given how I was feeling earlier today. I've found it can be extremely difficult to maintain my saintly social worker tolerance with patients who are horribly irresponsible causing harm to themselves and their children during this time. Again back to the people that should never be able to have children, I now have the pleasure of running into them or seeing the results of their actions in the hospital on an almost daily basis...definitely testing my level of patience! I've continued to experience difficulty sleeping off & on, thus contributing to the fatigue. I wanted coffee so badly this morning, but again my remarkable self control kept me in check!!! So I suppose that's enough bitching for today.
On to where we're at in this whole IVF process. Today was the last day for my BCP's, unless I go through another round of IVF in the future probably also the last time I will ever need them! Everything else stays the same, Lupron injections at 10 units daily, until Monday which is the next big step in this process. On Monday I'll be decreasing the Lupron injections to 5 units daily, beginning my first Gonal-F injection & I have to go into the RE's office for my first sonogram & estrogen level check.
The Gonal-F is an injection that is given three days in a row to stimulate egg production. It is by far the most expensive of the medications I'm on during this cycle at $700 each!!! Along with this injection next week they will begin monitoring me at least three days (M,W,F) with a sonogram & estrogen level check in the morning. One of the reasons they watch us so closely during this time is to ensure things are progressing appropriately & to avoid problematic side effects. A risk involved when triggering the final maturation of the eggs is ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS). While this will usually resolve itself serious problems can occur, some of which require cancellation of the IVF cycle! In addition timing is imperative in the IVF retrieval process. If the follicles develop too much, then my eggs would become too mature for efficient fertilization, which is another reason they have to monitor development closely. Once it has been determined my follicles have reached the right level of maturity it will be time for egg retrieval!!! I'll explain more about this process later. Shout out to one of my good friends on babycenter.com Mimi who will be having her egg retrieval tomorrow, hope everything goes smoothly for you:)