1 - Birth control pills. Two weeks of them to set my cycle.
2 - Prenatal vitamins. Duh.
3 - Baby aspirin. Voodoo. Daily voodoo.
4 - Lupron. Prevents ovulation. Started injecting it a couple of weeks ago.
5 - Follistim. Drives the follicle growth. Comes with a nifty pen-like injection device.
6 - Menopur. Ditto, but no pen-like device. More on it below.
7 - Novarel. One blast to ripen the follicles, right before egg retrieval.
8 - Vivelle. Estrogen. Fantastically, comes as a patch, like Nicoderm.
9 - Medrol. Somehow this helps.
10 - Progesterone. The dreaded intramuscular injection, for two weeks after embryo transfer.
Background - Sharps container and assorted syringes and needles, and alcohol swabs and gauze pads. More needles are hidden in various containers in this figure, too.
It's way more fun than any amount of sex.
Sunday was the first day of Menopur and Follistim injections (plus Lupron continues: three needle pricks, every day. But who's counting?) I had to laugh when I read the Menopur information. It turns out it's made from the urine of menopausal women.
I told Advisor this (as he has been both supportive and interested in the whole process of IVF), and he laughed out loud. "You mean, like witchcraft?" he said.
Anyhow, I had an awful reaction to the first Menopur injection. The subcutaneous injection itself stung a bit, as the Menopur is resuspended in 0.9% NaCl, and I have to inject 1 mL. The bad part, though, came immediately afterwards. I started feeling faint, and then nauseous. My skin was prickling and I broke out into a sweat. Sounds seemed to be coming from far away, as though I were underwater and Dr Hyde was trying to call to me from shore. In short, it was exactly the same reaction I once had to a shot of epinephrine (in an unrelated doctor's office procedure, to minimize some bleeding.) It didn't last long, but every minute felt prolonged, even dreamily timeless.
I can think of three primary possibilities:
1) Panic attack. This is the superficially most plausible explanation. However, I've never had a panic attack before, and I wasn't even feeling particularly apprehensive about the Menopur. As I say, the only other time I've felt this way is after an actual epinephrine shot. Of course, this whole procedure entails some stress.
2) Actual traces of epinephrine in the meds? Seems unlikely, but then again this is an extract, not a synthesized enzyme. Anything is possible, I suppose.
3) The follicle stimulating hormone and/or luteinizing hormone in the Menopur triggered a reaction. Again, doesn't seem likely but I just don't want to believe that this was panic. Given that I'm injecting in the abdomen, could a small amount have been taken up quickly and triggered a hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal response? Dr Hyde, this time remembering his rightful job as my husband, said afterwards, "You know, you really don't have a lot of fat in the abdomen, so maybe it was taken up too quickly."
I don't think we'll ever find out, because I haven't had that response again. On the one hand, am obvs. happy about that; but the scientist in me sort of wants to see it occur again. N=1 is fun but not informative.
Today I also began the first of about ten days of daily blood draws at the doctor's office. (I am so, so grateful that the dr's office is within biking distance of my lab.) These are to monitor blood estrogen levels, and adjust medication dosage accordingly. While I was there, I ran into Dr Earnest Resident. "Good morning!" she said, and started laughing.
At least I am memorable, even if they do have "TROUBLE" written in all my charts now.
14 comments:
OMG. like OMG!! I had no idea. none. wow. You are a very brave woman - I'm getting queezy just thinking about that stuff. I will pray for you. Praying right now, in fact. you can use all the voodoo you can get.
Sounds like a "vasovagal reaction"? I don't know much about it but many people have this reaction to injections but not all the time...from what I understand, it's a part of that nebulous process of "going into shock"...affects some people more than others, some have a specific trigger (sight of blood), others don't react every time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasovagal_syncope
Abel Pharmboy also has a nice description of this on his blog describing his vasectomy. :)
Go Ovaries! You can do it!
Wow. That picture would make even Barry Bonds envious!
Seriously though, for what it is worth, wish you all the best.
I didn't check out AA's link, but your response sounds exactly like the panic attacks I sometimes get... deep slow breathing from the diaphragm really helps me when those symptoms start.
The vasovagal reaction link was interesting, AmbiAcad, but it did imply that most people who get it get it regularly. You're right about Abel though, so maybe it could have been triggered somehow? And yeah, I think that panic attacks are exactly this--overwhelming adrenalin levels. It was just weird because I didn't feel, you know, panicked. Guess I'll just be glad it didn't recur.
Thanks for the good wishes everyone! It's really nice to know that people are rooting for me (aside from, duh, my family).
Oh, and Anonymoustache, I had Dr Hyde look up the best way to give the progesterone injections that start next week, and he roamed the internet to report that the best tips came from the steroid users. Ha ha! We all benefit, from the internet.
O. My.
As A.Pharmboy is fond of saying, we are not man enough to be women.
Best of luck and keep up that sense of humor with the process DJMH!!
That's a whole lot of stuff to inject. Your reaction sounds a lot like a fainting/something spell I had a few months back. Trippy.
Here's hoping it's all worth it in the end!
Ugh, hang in there, especially with the IM progesterone injections. I learned to do them for my wife, and it's not fun. But it's doable, and my wife actually preferred it to the alternative delivery methods.
Hmm...maybe this is a possible new endorsement for Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens!
Oh, I've had a bunch of panic attacks without feeling actually panicked, in the sense of freaking the hell out... just the physical symptoms of dizziness, nausea, altered sound perception, tingling fingers/toes, heart palpitations. It took me forever to figure it all out, precisely because I refused to believe it was a panic attack because I didn't feel like I was panicking!
Cath, that's really interesting. How did you eventually diagnose it as a panic attack, then? Because there was no other explanation? Or were you able to find some thread tying the incidents together?
Sending you happy egg thoughts!
I had that kind of reaction to just getting a hep-lock put in for an MRI contrast agent that was formulated in saline solution (also about 1 ml or more). I didn't get it the next time I had an MRI, either... so who knows! I hadn't eaten anything the first time, and I made sure I did the 2nd...
Best wishes for all the drugz--I really feel for you, I can't even handle taking birth control because of how screwed up it makes me feel, so here's to a sturdy, stable feeling for you!!
Arlenna--that's an interesting point. This injection has to happen between 7 and 9 am, and the first time I did it, I hadn't eaten any breakfast yet. You can imagine that I have eaten breakfast FIRST each time since! I'm sort of tempted to test the Breakfast Hypothesis by skipping it one day, but....not that tempted.
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