Busy Day Plus Appointment With Mr Dildocam again..

I haven't told all of you what my new office assigned me to do and it's a shocker for me. I have to be in charge of events. What?? I am so not an event in charge person and the most not outspoken person on the planet. I was supposed to be involved with human resource but somehow the person that was supposed to be saddled with the events thingie talked to management and managed to wiggle out of that predicament. Everybody know that being in charge of events for an organization is super duper busy. I was hoping to be placed at a more relaxed place but I guess that didn't happen. I am hoping I would get my due promotion this year and can move on to other division and get my butt out of the event mess.

Well, even though I am a newbie in this event handling unit, there's an event scheduled on the 6th, which happened to be the day that I have my second appointment with Mr. Dildocam at 3.00 pm. I was supposed to be at the hotel where they are holding the event at 3.00 pm to oversee the preparation. I told my supervisor about my appointment and she was fine with me being a little late since I had no clue on what to do anyway at the hotel.

So, at 3.00 pm I was already at LPPKN getting my eggs scanned. My doctor was quite happy with the progress and the two big eggs had grown from 18mm to 20mm and the other small sized eggs were also growing 1mm to 2mm bigger. My doctor told that the sizes are very ideal and we need to carry out the IUI on Friday. So on that night, I had to inject myself with Pregnyl at 8.00 pm. I was thinking to myself, 'Oh no! The event starts at 8.00 pm!'.

My hubby then drove me to the hotel and left me there to finish my job for the day. I went and tried my best to observe and oversee what I could with the help of some subordinates, my supervisor and also some colleagues with the table tagging, guest list and arrangement. When all that was done, I went up to a shared hotel room and got ready. After my evening prayers, I injected myself with Pregnyl at 7.55 pm (in front of the girls who barely knew me and much to their horror) and then rushed downstairs for the event. Really not relaxing at all. Huhu.. It was quite stressful because I usually lie down and relaxed every time after an injection so the feeling was not the same.

The event lasted until 11.00 pm and by the time I hit the bed I was already zonked out from tiredness. I hope the upcoming business does not affect my treatment. I just wish that maybe a miracle would happen and money fall from the sky enabling me to quit my job and stay at home. I kind of feel not alltogether there yet with this new task at hand.

Anyway, I will have to go back to LPPKN on the 8th for my 2nd attempt at IUI and hopefully this time is the ONE. Pray for me ya.. ( ^_^ )

Appointment With Mr. Dildocam..

I went to my appointment with Mr. Dildocam today. Okay, actually it's just an ultrasound appointment. After the 3 injections of Gonal-F, my doctor needed to see how much and how big the eggs had grown with the help of the hormonal medicine. This time around my dear husband wasn't able to accompany me like he always does because there's a Telekom guy coming to set up the new UNIFI at our home. So, he sent me to a train station and I went to the clinic by LRT.

My appointment was scheduled at 9.00 am and I arrived at 9.00 am on the dot. Of course the waiting area was already packed with couples and I had to wait for some time until my name was called out. Prior to ultrasound, patients are told to go to the loo and pee first and the same goes for me. 

An ultrasound routine basically is just the doctor inserting a camera through the patient's vijayjay down there and scan the uterus and ovary to look at the condition inside and also take note of the egg's sizes and amount. I guess Gonal-F agrees with me because my doctor showed me that there was only one small one on the left. There were 6 eggs on my right ovary growing healthily and with acceptable sizes. There was two that exceeds my doctors expectation which grew to 18mm.

After the ultrasound cam had been removed and it was consultation time, my doctor advised me to take another shot that night and come back the next day for another ultrasound. It was a tight schedule because the IUI procedure had to be done on Friday since the clinic is closed on Saturdays. So I was prescribed two boxes of 75IU Gonal-F to be injected at that night. Well, let's see what happens on the next ultrasound. Lots of prayers! 

Gonal-F Self Injection. Oh! What A Joy!!

Everybody knows I am a big wimp when it comes to pain. Everybody also knows that I am a bigger wimp when it comes to needles! So getting those hormonal jabs each cycle are always painful and dreadful to me. When my doctor changed my medicine for this treatment cycle to Gonal-F I thought nothing of it and presumed that the procedure of self-injection would be the same.

Gonal-F is actually a synthetic hormonal injection whereas the ones I was prescribed before this (Menonys and Menopur) were natural based hormonal injections. Upon receiving the boxes of Gonal-F, I was already psyching myself up to endure another round of painful jabs on the tummy. When the nurse showed me a sample of an opened box I saw that the big box contained a pen much alike those injection pens diabetic patients uses for their insulin injections. Then she showed me the sample of the smaller box which contained a syringe, a bottle of powdered medicine and two needles (one is VERY big and the other one small). She then showed me how to administer the injection, and I couldn't help but smile from ear to ear. The needles were very fine and short! Hurrah!! In my head I was already jumping up and down brimming with happinnes and high hopes that the short and fine needle would not hurt as much as the old conventional syringes I've encountered.

Using the pen is so simple. Since the pen is already preloaded with the medicine, all I had to do was attach the needle, twist the dosage indicator to the right amount of dosage needed, pull the end tab of the pen until there's a click sound and then I'm good to go. Here's how the box of Gonal-F injection pen looks like and how I prepared the set for my injecton:

My set of injectables - the preloaded pen and needle sets.

The pen uncapped.

Screwing on the needle set. Need two hands for this actually.

 

Twisting the twister mechanism at the back of the pen to the exact amount of dosage I need.

Pulling the tab to lock the dosage chosen. A click sound is heard indicating that the pen is locked and loaded.

 

Pulling off the needle set cap.

 Pulling off the needle cap.

The preloaded pen with very fine needle ready to be injected into my tummy.

Seeing that the needle was quite short and fine, I mustered up the courage to do the injection myself! All my injections were administered by my dear hubby before this. The Gonal-F pen surprisingly didn't hurt as much as the conventional syringes that I have encountered before. I was quite worried about the pain at first but just winged it and was pleasantly surprised that it didn't burn as much. The first time I used the pen, I fumbled a bit and was worried that I didn't push the end tab of the pen to the right amount. My worries were relieved when I did my second injection and found that the end of the pen stops at the same place when I first did the injection.

The dosage I needed was 150IU for each injection and the pen was preloaded with 375IU. So, for the third day, I had to do two injections - first with the pen with the remaining 75IU and the second injection with another set of Gonal-F with 75IU. The second set from the smaller box needed to be mixed first because this set was not a preloaded type of injection.

My set of extra 75IU Gonal F injection.

The syringe was already preloaded with solution. The nurse advised me to just use half of the solution because too much will probably make the injection a bit painful. The security cap had to be broken off so that the needle can be attached.

Preloaded solution inside the syringe.

The cap of the syringe broken off and ready for the needle to be attached.

The first needle needed was the long and thick needle. Thankfully this BIG needle is not for injection purposes! When the nurse showed me that needle I was already sweating buckets! Hehe.. The needle has to be inserted into the powdered medicine vial. After about half of the solution is injected into the vial, the rest of the solution on the syringe needs to be disposed and the empty syringe put aside capped, and the mixed medicine needs to be gently rolled in between my palm to mix them properly. The vial cannot be roughly handled because we do not want bubbles forming in the solution. The mixed medicine is now ready to be sucked back into the empty syringe gently (also to avoid bubbles).

Big needle. Yikes!

Breaking off the safety cap of the first needle.

Attaching the needle to the syringe.

Inserting the needle into the medicine vial.

Gently rolling the mixture.

Re-sucking the medicine into the syringe.

Attaching the injecting needle.

The needle uncapped.

The loaded syringe ready to be used.

Close up on the fine needle.

The injection with the separate set was also bearable and not as painful as I'd thought it would be. Since both types of Gonal-F agrees with me, I do hope the medicine injected helps make the eggs grow big and healthy. I am scheduled for an ultrasound on the 5th of April. If everything goes well, I will be scheduled for IUI on Thursday. Pray for me ya!
( ^_^ )

Too busy!! And 2nd attempt @ LPPKN

Hi dear readers. Remember my last post about my moving to a new office? Well, I went on the 22nd to report duty bearing a letter from my old office to postpone my working there for two weeks to settle my handover note and any pending tasks I have at the old office. Actually there's a big board meeting scheduled on the 30th so I was hoping to escape that. But not so lucky for me, the new office approved and so I had to trot back to my old office to settle the big impending meeting. Huhu.. had to prepare 15 papers including their supporting documents, plus 4 copies each of them too! Madness!!

Anyway, amongst the hectic mayhem I was in during my last hours at my comfortable office room, I sneaked a call to LPPKN to set an appointment to see my ol' doctor and the nurse slotted me in for the next morning.  My husband and I talked it out and we decided to give LPPKN another go with high hopes that things would be better for us this time around. So, when my hubby and I went to the appointment, the doctor re-reviewed my condition and past history of iui failure attempts. In the end, he advised us to try another round of IUI before moving up to IVF. I was put on clomid for a week and a change of hormonal medicine to Gonal-F. Folic acid is a must everyday.

Now Gonal-F is a follitropin alfa injection that provides the hormone (FSH) that helps the to produce eggs large healthy eggs. Uuu.. I feel like a chicken!  Unlike Menonys and Menopur which had to be mixed manually, Gonal-F comes in a preloaded and ready to use injection pen. My dosage per injection should be 150 IU that has to be administered in 3 days but the pen has 375 IU, so on the last day I have to do two injections which is one with the preloaded pen and another one via conventional method which is the mixing and injecting method. Quite dreading the 2 injection day.. huhu.. Well guys, wish me luck for this cycle ya. Till the next post! ( ^_^ )