The playlist & some shots

Hi friends & fam - Quick update on where we're at: I'm on day 4 of my initial round of hormone injections and I'm feeling fine - besides some bruising. Hoping that keeps up as I've got at least another 6 days of these buggers (all depends on how my body responds.) Evan has been the best partner over the last few days. He stands next to me and tells me all the things I'm doing wrong which I really, truly appreciate. Without him I'd probably be drinking the stuff instead of injecting it. But really - he has been extra nice and is letting Frank sleep in the bed which is all I really need before we leave for Denver this week. I don't know what I'm going to do without that furball, he's such a stress release for me.

Right now I'm taking 2 vials of Menopur in the AM and 150iu's of Gonal-F at night (+ a steroid in pill form, dexamethasone.) I'll switch treatments in the next couple of days to add in Cetrotide. Basically the objective of all these injections is to pump myself full of hormones that tell my ovaries to overproduce eggs for this month. Did you know every month a typical 32 year old woman has 15-25 eggs sitting in her ovaries (in cushy little beds called follicles)? In a normal ovulatory cycle a woman will release 1 egg - and that's ovulation. The sperm meets the egg and voila - baby. But the other 14-24 eggs that month just go POOF. Vanishing without a trace. What a waste, yea? So with IVF, my doctor is using these meds to save them all. Save all the eggies!!! So that she can go in during my egg retrieval and take them out (at least the ones that respond to the medications) to fertilize in a petri dish. So really these meds are meant to get all of my naturally occurring eggs (who live in follicles so you usually just call them follicles) to mature at the same time and live long and prosper until the surgery. At my ultrasound last week before I started injections I had 20 follicles (11 on my right, and 9 on my left - I'm a righty). So that's pretty on par with what we saw out in Denver last month. It's a good number, sure. But it doesn't mean much until we can see how they are responding to the meds. I'll have daily ultrasounds and lab work starting this Thursday when we're out in Denver so we should have a better idea later this week how many we actually think we'll be able to retrieve. The more you get the better your chances, but as we keep saying - it only takes 1.

And now for the playlist. Guys - you are a bunch of ratchet weirdos and I love it. Thank you so much for sending your pump up songs - I listen to several every day as I get ready for my shots. It really gets me in the mood to stab myself. If one of your songs didn't make it on there just know I really appreciated the request, but this DJ curates a playlist for the vibe she needs, not the one the crowd wants.

And also wanted to give a shout out to many of you who have been absolutely spoiling me the last week - flowers, ice cream, new pajamas, a new USD sweatshirt (!), supportive texts and hanging out with me. I really am blown away by how much you guys care about me/us. Your support is such a gift during this time, so thank you. 

Now I'll leave you with this really great video of me doing my shots this morning to the one and only song of last summer (and my life really.) Sometimes giving myself these shots makes me feel just as bad ass as Cardi and Megan, TBH. Take note of my intensely focused look, I swear I look cross-eyed.

We're off to Denver this Wednesday - staying hopeful and excited that we're getting closer to knowing if a child is part of our future. 

xoxo,

AJ