IVF 7: Day 14

There's a lot to keep track of in terms of what day it is and I'm struggling to remember it all. I know it's Day 14 of the cycle; Day 1 of Chanukah; and Day 5 of my cold. Other than that...??? Monday? Tuesday? Where are we in December??

According to my doctor I'm a Super-Responder. There are plenty of follicles and they're expecting a similar number of eggs as in past cycles. That doesn't mean anything really; not until we know how many embryos survive to blast and through PGS testing. I do know this translates to a difficult road ahead regarding recovery after retrieval. At yesterday's monitoring appointment the largest follicle was at 24.9 but they decided to keep stimming another day because there were several at 16-17 that they wanted to give a chance to catch up, which they do if the lead follicle is under 26. I had to reorder meds and had drama with Freedom again. I'm really starting to hate them. More on that in a minute.

I went in for monitoring this morning, day 14. My regular blooddraw person wasn't there but I gave a new girl a chance (as if I had a choice). She said she hasn't missed in 10 years and I told her I hope I don't break your streak and really meant it. She was good. Didn't hurt and only one stick. She admitted my veins are tricky. I'm just glad it worked.

I'm feeling my ovaries very much. It feels like they're bouncing in molasses, which is the only way I can think of describing it. Other than pressure around the ovaries I'm not feeling bloated. I think it's in part because I've been so nauseous that I'm not really eating. Yesterday at about 1 pm I was feeling so incredibly nauseous and weak... I realized I hadn't eaten since 6:00 pm the previous night and even then it was just a bowl of cereal. I had lunch and felt a little better. Mornings have been difficult this week: force myself to wake up early after not sleeping well, shower, dress, choke down two bottles of water, take the morning shot, and rush out the door to make it to monitoring. Every day this week. The cold water sits like cement in my stomach. It's a catch 22 with the water: I need to drink so they can get blood; but if I drink then the US hurts because it's so crowded down there there isn't room for a full bladder, which is guaranteed to fill up only when I'm already on the table waiting in the small room for the doc and not a minute sooner.

Since I'm running out the door it's usually without breakfast or lunch. I end up drinking tea at work for breakfast and then getting soup or a sandwich for lunch at the caff. But it's not just not having food already prepared - my cold also hasn't helped my appetite and I'm just not interested. Since I'm so congested I can't taste or smell anything so food just isn't appealing this week. I even opted not to have doughnuts at a Chanukah celebration last night. It just isn't worth the calories if I can't taste anything but it's very unusual for me to turn down delicious homemade doughnuts. This morning monitoring went so quickly that I was done with a few minutes to spare. I used the time to pick up an egg+cheese bagel on the way to work which I hope will hold me for the duration of the day.

My Freedom Pharmacy story, if anyone is interested in feeling frustrated vicariously, is that I called in my order for menopur and they forgot to apply the 20% discount one gets when initially ordering over 40 vials. I get an alert when a big purchase goes through on my card so when I saw the charge on my card 20 min later I called again to remind them about the discount. They told me they couldn't apply it because I'm no longer eligible. So I asked to just cancel the order. If I'm not getting a discount I'd rather purchase the medication locally at the same price where I have the option to return it if I don't end up using it. They said they can't do that either since the order already shipped. I got so upset and of course felt angry tears starting to sting my eyes. After talking to a manager she said that actually I am still eligible for the discount, they are super sorry they missed it, there were lots of orders on my account that the tech looking it up didn't see it, that I was given wrong information, and that they'll get the concierge dept to contact me the next day to figure out the refund.

Of course no one called the next day and I called back already upset. This new person also apologized profusely, saying that they're sorry I was given wrong info, that I should remind the next person of the discount if I order again -- to which I responded that I don't know I'll be ordering again because it's such a nightmare ordering from Freedom!!! The person also apologized for the original people telling me that I'll get a call the next day because it takes a lot longer than that to pull all the calls, coach the people who made mistakes, and then process the refund. She explained that they're in one department called Patient Care Coordinators and she's in a different dept--- I DON'T CARE! I don't care what department or whose fault or what your protocols are!!! When I call the number you're ALL Freedom and you're all responsible! Isn't that Customer Service 101?

While they're off teaching newbie employees how things work by reviewing all my calls (most of which I'm probably yelling at someone), I'm out several hundreds of dollars because I'm paying for everything out of pocket. She promised that someone will call and I basically said that at this point I don't even know who to believe any more because every time I call I get the line that they're "not sure why I was given wrong info but this is what's really going on, I'll take care of it." How do I know this isn't wrong info too? I've completely lost confidence in them. At the end of the call I was no closer to getting my refund but there was nothing I could do. I was tired and it was a long day and I didn't have the energy to fight anymore. They said they'll start the investigation first thing this morning (yeah right) and get back to me... eventually. I now hate the phrase, "I do apologize" which sounds sterile and insincere.

Trigger is very likely tonight. I saw my own doctor at monitoring and he confirmed. He also said he prefers to trigger with HCG since I'm not doing a transfer, even though the risk of ohss is higher than with lupron considering my numbers. He said he's open to changing it if I feel particular one way or the other. I understand the ohss risk but I agree with him about using HCG. Lupron isn't guaranteed to trigger and I don't want to risk a failure. I know they need you to come in the day after lupron trig to make sure it absorbed. I don't know what happens if it doesn't absorb but I don't want to find out. I'd rather do my best for the success of the cycle and take care of myself after to try to prevent ohss. I'll find out after 4pm today what time the procedure will be.

I was advised to start drinking electrolyte water now to try to have the electrolytes in my system before the procedure, in addition to drinking it after. I also stocked up on chips and gatorade and will plan to start daily colace starting tomorrow to try and avoid some of those symptoms too. I hope we have good results and an easy recovery.