First of all, I have to figure out what day AF truly begins. With my jacked-up body of late, I'll sometimes spot/lightly bleed at least a few days before she truly arrives. What if I pick the wrong day? What if I miscount? I can count to 5, but when I'm on summer break, it gets a bit shaky after that. My timing better be right, so I know when to go in for my follie check. What if I screw up the days, and screw up the damn whole thing? That would be my luck ya know.
Secondly, I have to take meds on specific days. You've seen my drug lab before, so I'm hoping that I can simply add the meds to my established routine. If I have to take a specific medication at a specific time, I'm screwed. I'm notorious for forgetting to take my meds. Hopefully I'll have more of a reason to remember now.
Believe it or not, I have no idea how to use OPKs. Not a clue! I'm sure it's not rocket science - and I LOVE to pee on sticks - so it shouldn't be a problem. I hate reading directions though. Hopefully it's just pee, look for smiley, try not to pretend that I'm using an hpt every day, repeat. Right? Honestly, I had to email my friend, Sarah, to see what I needed to do. What a relief for Sarah that she & her DH are waiting for their Precious Payton, so no sticks for her anymore! I'm sure that poasing is a hard habit to shake. ;)
Then again, will I freak out when I get the smiley? I'll have to call in to work that day - luckily it should be the week before the students start school. Help DH with his part of the deal, send him off to work, race to the lab while remembering to keep the goods warm, wait wait wait, go to IUI, elevate, elevate, elevate, and then wait wait wait some more.
Then there's the P4. If it's low from my CD21 test, I'll have to be on progesterone. Please Lord, just give me a patch instead of another pill. Did you know that I couldn't swallow pills until I was a teenager. I know both of my sisters are reading this and laughing. It's true though. Amazing how I can take a dozen a day without issue. See what age can do for you?
I have other worries in addition to these, but I'll start here first. At least I have a little less than couple of weeks to freak out about this stuff. Then I can start on the others. Enough rambling for today. Much more to come - believe me, there's more.
7 comments:
Let's start at the very beginning. That's a very good place to start. (Hopefully you've seen The Sound of Music and know those lines from the song). Anyway...
As for CD 1, it is when you begin to have heavy flow. No spotting or light flow. If you have any concerns, please ask the nurse at your dr's office. They may even do a base u/s and b/w to be certain it's CD 1.
You don't have to take the meds at EXACTLY the same time, but I think my RE said within an hour should be fine. You may need to set the alarm on your cell phone if you tend to forget.
OPK's can be very tricky if you buy the kind with a line that darkens. However you mentioned the digital smiley face ones and they are MUCH MUCH MUCH easier to deal with. I'd highly recommend them. Just be prepared that you may pee on those sticks for a few days until you get a smiley face.
Yes, you probably will freak out a bit when you get your + OPK. It's "go time", well, the beginning of the IUI process anyway. If you get it in the evening, you'll do the IUI the next morning. But if you get it in the morning, call your dr and you may be asked to go in that morning.
Lucky for you it's warm this time of year in Texas (Patty and Katie have both called it an "oven" over the past two days) so that will help keep Todd's swimmers warm in their pool. Just don't crank the A/C up too high in the car :)
As for the P4, you will be lucky if you get it in pill form. The P4 supps are pretty icky so the pills are a neater way to go. I can't imagine you'd do PIO with an IUI so I won't even discuss how much better pills are than that.
Well, I think that's all I have for now. Are you still with me? LOL.
You know I am here to cheer you on and call to remind you to take your meds if necessary!
Haha -- I've shaken my pee habit! ;)
You know I'm happy to help ANY time.
Peeing on sticks actually IS a hard habit to break! I've got a stash still under my sink, and have peed on them at the slightest excuse.
And I never know when cycle day 1 is either. I guess some people have obvious start days, but my AF tends to sneak up on me, too. That was an indication of progesterone wonkiness for me, so you might want to skip right to the p4 supplementation if your RE is on board.
GL!
I asked my doc what day to consider CD 1, and she said the first day I saw blood at all (spotting or otherwise). You may want to double check with your doc.
The progesterone I've been on is a gel that comes in a tampon-like applicator. You can imagine the rest! If you end up on the gel, do it in the morning. Your movement during the day keeps it from being as yucky as it could be...
Thinking of you and praying for wonderful news!
My only tip for OPKs is to do them at 2pm. My RE yelled at me for doing them in the morning, telling me I will never get a true result.
Also, I had 12 IUIs, I feel your pain. All the stress, hoping that my husband had provided enough good swimmers to do something, ANYTHING and then hoping that things would work. Too much stress.
Oh yeah, and the progesterone I have always been on have been suppositories. Lovely, but much better than pills or shots! I also detest taking pills and still have problems taking birth control (I laugh at that whole oxy moron: birth control. I mean really!)
Good luck, as always and I hope you get a smiley--that was one of my issues, I rarely got smileys! But my acupuncturist fixed that. :)
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