IVF tips:
- Write things down during stim stage/monitoring: dosage, time, where injected, bloodwork results if available. This will come in handy in keeping track of injections and appointments. It was also helpful for comparison in future cycles.
- Stim shots aren't so bad. Stay calm, find a routine, keep track of your meds to reorder as necessary.
- Have the nurse draw circles on your upper-butt for the trigger. Take a mental (or real, if you're into that) picture so that you can refer back to it for PIO shots later on. After a while the person injecting knows the area, but for the first few times when you're nervous and hyper-focused on everything, it helps to have a visual aid.
- Under normal circumstances, bloating after egg retrieval starts to feel better after about 2 - 5 days. Take the day off for egg retrieval and the day after. It's worth the rest.
- Invest in a heating pad for after the egg retrieval. Heat helps relieve some of the discomfort.
- Don't be a hero: take the pain meds if you're uncomfortable after the egg retrieval.
- Don't lie on your right side after egg retrieval for first 36 hrs. After lying on my right side in an earlier cycle, my shoulder hurt for a week. I don't quite get it, I just know it happened and the doc said it's normal. The next time I avoided lying on my right side and it didn't happen.
- Gatorade helps with getting electrolytes and sodium, but some people get stomach issues from it. Once I figured out this was what was giving me issues, I limited Gatorade to less than one 20 oz bottle per day. Instead I substituted lots of homemade chicken soup which was prepped and frozen in advance.
- Drink lots and lots of water, especially the first two days after egg retrieval. It will make you have to pee a lot, and peeing is so uncomfortable after the retrieval, but do it anyway. It will flush out whatever crap you have in your system and help you feel better sooner. Drink! I aimed for 70 oz the days following retrieval, beside for the Gatorade/soup. It really helps.
- Message boards online can be really helpful, but don't get sucked in.
- Waiting is hard; prepare for it
- Have a strong support system - find a friend or family member for the tough days you need a shoulder.
- PIO shots are uncomfortable, but a lot more efficient than the inserts. I've never used the inserts but general consensus says they're messy and icky, so I've opted for the shots both times.
- Warm up the PIO in your hands or bra for a min or two before injecting. This helps make it more viscous and easier to inject.
- Have someone else do your shots if possible. My husband is the most squeamish person when it comes to blood, but he sucked it up and did his part. Since IVF is mainly all about her, this was a good way for him to be involved in a helpful way.
- Rotate the injection spot! My husband gave me the injections and we found a comfortable rhythm in injecting the right side with me lying on my stomach on the couch and taking all the weigh off the side being injected. We would do 3 rights to every 1 left. Pretty soon, the right side started feeling weird and numb - I didn't like it at all! It took 8 weeks after the negative beta to get back to almost full feeling. So, make sure to rotate.
- Once you inject, massage. Really deep tissue circles. It was uncomfortable for a minute but it prevented those lumps everyone talks about. I noticed the difference on days we got lazy and skipped the massage.
- I didn't ice or heat the spot and injections were fine. In my mind, icing the area defeated the purpose of warming up the oil. Going in to a cold muscle might make it congeal and leave a bump. I don't know the science behind it, but that was my thought process.
- Technically, you can inject yourself, but they say if you're doing it on your own to do it on your thigh (specifically in your quads). Getting the right angle in your own upper-butt is hard enough, but once you inject you also have to draw out slightly to check for blood and make sure you didn't hit a vein (if there's blood, you have to pull out entirely, change needles, and try again). Unless you're super flexible, that's pretty hard to do, and if you get the angle wrong it hurts more the next day.
- In addition to the awkward angle, injecting yourself with a big-ass needle is hard! My husband was out of town one night during our 2ww and I needed to take my shot. I did it in my thigh and not only did it take FOREVER for me to work up my nerves to stick myself with that enormous needle, but it huuuuuuurt so much. I felt it go in the muscle and nearly gagged. It was a numbing/pain that became soreness in the next hour and settled in for a two days.
- Del Estrogen shots weren't so bad - I did those myself in the thigh. Luckily it was only every third day so I'd throw a tiny dance party right after, knowing it's the longest possible time until I needed to do that again.
- It's so hard to wait. Be prepared for it: fill up your queue with good TV, set up outings with friends, find an engrossing hobby, do your best to keep your mind off of it.
- For the times that distraction doesn't work, try to manage your expectations. I was never good at this.
- As hard as it is to wait, it's even harder to avoid taking home pregnancy tests. I've never been able to avoid it, but I want to say that next time I won't test (yeah, right). It was so hard to keep doing the shots when I didn't see any results in the pregnancy tests. I had a meltdown after FET #2, sobbing that it didn't work because there was nothing on the pregnancy tests. It was still a week before the beta and there was no guarantee that it did or didn't work, but I worked myself up and I'm sure the stress didn't help anything.
- Stay positive and be nice to yourself!
What a helpful list for those pursuing these options!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I'd love to also hear what worked for others.
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