Stims Day 3

Today is my third day of stims and so far....not as easy as I thought. I had my baseline last Thursday and my anterior follicle count was I think around 12 and my E2 level came back at 5. Nurse said they want the number below 80, but man that is really below 80 and of course Dr. Google can't give me any explanation or examples of this being good or bad. I did find that above 80 means that there would be some concern with diminished ovarian reserve, so does that mean my reserve is really good? Feels like it just means I have a longer way to go to get to an acceptable number with stims, but I have no control over this, my body either will or will not respond to the medicine and since this is our first time through it there is no way to tell until there is more blood work and ultrasounds. Patience.

At the baseline appointment Dr. Williams decided to up my dose to 3 vials (225 IU) daily of Bravelle starting Saturday instead of doing the first 3 days with only 2 vials (150 IU). So I've been doing 1 vial in the morning and 2 and in the evening. Stims are definitely a little harder than the Lupron. I starting doing the Lupron in my legs just to give my belly a bit of a break and so far that has been going pretty good, all though this morning I did get a bleeder, but the 5 units is super easy, it's such a small amount of medicine. It is much harder to do the Bravelle with an actual syringe instead of the insulin syringes. It's hard to manage the needle, switch hands and stuff and then it's harder to push it in because it's an actual syringe and there is a lot more medicine then with the Lupron. Plus, the medicine stings going in, so the needle won't hurt going in, but as soon as I start injecting the medicine it starts stinging so that's not a lot of fun. And the areas where it goes are a lot more sore, I'm guessing because the needle is in there for a longer period of time because it takes longer to get the medicine in. Overall, it's a little harder than I thought it would be. I tried to do the stims like the Lupron at first and that was a mistake, definitely can't do it one handed and I had to learn that lesson with a very sore spot on my belly. Which in turn limits my places even more.

Next appointment is Wednesday morning and I'm anxiously awaiting it, can't wait to see how I am responding to the medicine. I've already starting getting head aches and hot flashes, but haven't felt too bloated yet (my pants still fit comfortably, but my belly does look a little bigger). I don't feel anything happening in there so that makes me anxious about nothing happening.

If everything is moving along like it should then ER should be next week. Here's hoping that Wednesday gets here fast and that things are going in the right direction.