I did another cycle of egg freezing. This time, I had Bravelle, not Follistim, and it took longer. I think part of the longer time and lower yield was that I didn’t know until the end that Bravelle doesn’t dissolve automatically into the water, and I could feel it stinging when it went in, which apparently happens when a drug isn’t fully dissolved.
Injections 1-5: 300 Bravelle + 150 Menopur. That’s 6 vials total!
Injection 6-7: 150 Bravelle + 150 Menopur + syringe Ganirelix. (2 separate shots.)
Injection 8-10: 1 Bravelle + syringe Ganirelix. It was supposed to be Menopur, but I was out since I had ordered just enough for last time, but the injections lasted 3 days longer, but they said that I could substitute Bravelle. I wonder if that’s part of why I didn’t have as good results as before. Lesson learned. Wish I didn’t have to learn from mistakes so much.
Injection 11: Lupron at 10 pm.
Day 12: Nothing
Day 13: Retrieval. They got 17 eggs, of which 14 were mature to freeze.
Disappointed that they got fewer. Maybe next time I will get follistim even if I have to pay for it myself. I have looked around, and the study results don’t find a difference between the two drugs in the clinical trials, but I wonder whether the mechanics of transferring drugs between 4 Bravelle vials results in losing more than just pushing out 300 units of Follistim. And then the dissolving issue.
Discovered that the reason for my post-retrieval nausea was that they put a narcotic in the IV, and the narcotic makes some people nauseated. Apparently I don’t drink enough alcohol to be able to metabolize it well or something. Anyhow, they suggested putting anti nausea drug in addition to the narcotic, and I asked if they could just leave both of them out. And that was fine. So all my pain relief came from Tylenol and a heating pad. Both of which I definitely needed, but no narcotics needed, although I had the same bottle of Percocet that I picked up last time (and didn’t use then either.) And no Tylenol needed the day after retrieval, although I’ve been sleepy.
The other piece of pain relief came from an unexpected place. The nurse (same as before) asked whether the guy who brought me was the same guy as last time. I said that he wasn’t since we’d broken up. She said, “Oh, good! I was wondering at the time whether I should say anything, but he didn’t seem good for you.” I asked what she meant, and she said that he seemed angry and not very nice, and being a woman in her 50’s, she has seen a lot of couples, and just knows what is a good relationship. And he just didn’t seem nice enough for me. And maybe he had some issues and needed counseling for them before he could be a good relationship partner. And I’m sure that since she sees so many couples going through a stressful time, I know that she must have a particularly unique perspective. And that was the best thing anyone said to me all month, and completely cured my heartbreak that I’d been feeling for just over a month. Which was lovely.
eggfreezer 