so how are you my follicles?

Again the room was packed when we reached KKH for our 9am appointment. I got my scan done an hour later, and consulted the dr after waiting another 30mins.

I have a total of 15 follicles today, of various sizes, ranging from mostly 6-9mm.  A couple of them are between 10.x - 11.3mm.  Dr said once a few reaches 17-18mm, they will be extracted. I was hoping I could retrieve like 25 eggs ~ so i got abit upset. 

I took a gonal jab at the dr's office and with one last dosage for tomorrow night. Another appointment has been set for coming Sat 9am to see how my follicles are growing & hopefully more will emerge!!

And as Irene suggested, I'm going home to indulge in protein.

time for stimulation ~

And so its been 17 days since I first started on lucrin. I am pretty sure I am not suffering ill effects from lucrin, except perhaps a little soreness at my legs .. and maybe some mood-swing .. I could be perfectly happy one moment and nasty the next.  Then again, Vince said I have always been like that .. zzz ... I contribute that to my PCO.  Haha ..

I started on gonal last evening. The pre-filled pen with screw in needles is fat but easier to manage than Lurin.

150 units ~ a minimum dosage to begin with .. especially with PCO patients like me

1. Sterilize the table top with alcohol wipe

2. Remove pen from pack, clean head with alcohol wipe

3. Screw in needle, remove outer cap

4. Pinch a fat middle, 2 fingers away from belly button, clean with alcohol wipe

5. Remove inner cap from pen & punge in needle

Holding the pen securely against belly & pushing the drug using my thumb

Count to 5 and pull needle out

and i'm a syringe collector!!

Ju and her dy dy

Julia is touring Taiwan before she begins work at a new company but her poor puppy is at home missing her.. I have a slight aversion to animals .. mainly because i do not fancy having some fluffy thingy running his/her tongue along my limbs .. I tried visiting my parents in long pants but i still cannot bring myself to play with dy dy ..

this is a super duper 笨狗！ the moment he heard us, he scrambled to the farthest end in the kitchen and stayed there for the longest time..

We were all laughing at him .. i believe he will be fuming if he could understand human languages ~ 

We finally managed to lure him out of his hideout but all he does was hide under the table.. very often, he would be either at the door watching out for don’t know who (maybe its julia?) likely to be julia, the one person who loves him most, who hugs him to sleep every night .. wooo I have to say something about this dy dy cuz he is really such a sweet thing ..  Apparently, he is very attached to my mom.  He reacts to her call for “paw” and “stand up” etc, those small little commands which I suppose ju taught him .. and he allows mom to carry and hug him .. allows mom to tickle him, and he snuggles up to mom and seems happy enough lying his head on her arm ..

We were sitting around watching TV and I saw dy dy going to/fro the gate, seemingly waiting for his owner to return .. poor dy dy .. i wish you understood when i said Ju won be home till another 2 weeks ~ 

When we were having dinner, I was kind of scared that dy dy will hang around me .. kyros chased him around the house and finally cornered him back to the farthest end of the kitchen ~!! mom then caged him .. and before going home, I decided to try a hand at him .. i said "paw, dy dy" and amazingly he gives his paw to me! he was skeptical about me i guess .. and was going to and fro, giving me his paw and retreating, giving again, and retreating .. but i was happy when he stood on his hind when i said "up dy dy". haha .. He allows me to pet him.. Ju said dy dy was brutally bashed by his previous owner, and thus he is now extremely timid. From the day Ju brought him home, he steers clear of dad, regardless that dad was the one who fed him, who tried to play with him .. haha .. he simply runs away when dad goes near, and he runs when dad wanted to carry him .. it was so funny seeing an old man and a 笨狗 playing hide-and-seek

photo taking

vince is home! finally someone to take pictures of how i administer daily jabs .. heheh .. here i am drawing lucrin into the syringe

after cleaning the area where I'm going to jab with alcohol swap .. the needle goes in ~ 

Its in~!! 

my collection of syringes .. i was told to bring them back to the hospital for disposal ~

2nd Jab all alone at home ~

It wasn't so bad preparing to self administer my 2nd jab at home, all alone. I went to youtube and watched how others carried out the jabs and was appalled at the carelessness they were administered. I decided KKH is more kiasu. I've got more swaps than I need so i used it to clean the table top as part of my preparation for the jab. I had initially thought to just lay a few pieces of kitchen towel on the table instead of cleaning it with swaps and spirits. I was still hesitating before plunging the needle in but i held my breathe and did it anyway. I forgot to count to 5 before pulling the syringe out though .. shouldn't matter i guess? Ok I believe I am going to get better with time ~ God Bless Me ~ and yes i slept with my toilet lights on .. something I never fail to do everytime Vince is away :(

and the good news for vince is, dr loh confirmed we can now resume sex & i can stop taking metfomin ..!!

Day 1 Lucrin ~

I finally made my way down to KKHIVF centre yesterday to collect the first drug to begin my IVF cycle & to of course learn how to self administer the jabs .. After dropping my appointment card & blood test slip(HIV test for vince), we waited for our turn. I signed documents for medisave withdrawal & was given a prescription for lucrin to collect at the pharmacy. Though the room was relatively empty, I waited 30mins for my drugs .. i was pissed! I cannot understand how I had to wait for 30mins when there were so few patients waiting to collect medicine? and everyone else seems to get theirs before me..?? soon, most of the seats were occupied, and my number was finally called. I gave a bored & uninterested look to the staff dispensing drugs .. afterall, the IVF nurse is going to explain how to administer the drugs to me so I didnt think she should waste time by explaining more. The staff was nice (i think my raging hormones made me unfriendly), she asked if i'm ok because i looked tired. I said I am pissed at the long wait. Haha .. what a bitch!

So finally, I made payment of about $105 & head back to the IVF clinic laden with a whole box of Lucrin syringes, extra syringes, alcohol swaps, and of cos Lucrin. The IVF nurses were really nice. The lady attending to me is in her 50s(my guess) .. and she's so patient. I cannot imagine myself repeating the same procedure everyday and have her kind of patience and kindness.

Vince was keen to learn but I could see that he is at the edge of fainting .. I am not afraid of jabs or having my blood taken but to self jab is something new. I was quite embarrassed because when i rolled up my blouse, my tummy was protruding out .. yeh I'm fat around my middle. I was assured, fat is good for such injections. Haha. Nonetheless, I know I have to get through this all by myself. After my "training" session, I was to do my first jab infront of the nurse. I hesitated for a split second before pushing the needle in .. man! it was painless! but scary the same. I am a brave girl. I believe I can get through the next few weeks.

Lucrin is the 1st step and though the bottle is tiny & less than half filled, I was assured it will last 28 days! I had to give myself 10units daily. This is a hormone suppressant and is supposed to delay the onset of ovulation. Meanwhile, I am to continue micrygynon30. I have to return on 19 Sep 8:00am for scans, blood test to monitor how my body is reacting to the drugs and I suppose to collect the drugs for 2nd stage .. this is supposed to encourage my ovaries to produce more follicles & for them to grow at the same speed for retrieval. With the inclusion of 2nd hormonal drugs, it means I will have to self-administer 2 jabs daily .. while I hope for good results from this IVF, I also hope I can avoid OHSS .. because I am PCO, risk of OHSS is higher .. Must pray~!!

I will be having my 2nd jab tonight and vince is away at BKK till Friday .. even thought we had a small disagreement last night, and we did not talk at all today, I still miss him. Hey hubby, you ought to be more considerate towards me! enduring my temper should be the lest you can do. in fact, all you have to do is contribute your sperm while i go through the jabs, scans, blood tests and delivery, confinement, etc etc etc ..

I had a slight headache after the jab yesterday. I intended to keep to before-bedtime jabs and hope i can avoid the headaches that is expected ..

and irene said i have to start taking this for protein ~ errr . I never like taking milk powder and the like but Irene assured me this is literally tasteless and takes on the taste of whatever i choose to dissolve this in, ie Orange Juice, yakult, etc .. This seems to promise heaps of benefits and costs $100/box of 30 pkts .. it had better be good .. hmmpf!