Just a very quick update: on Augmentin to fight off whatever it is that's causing my liver problems and inflammation of the gallbladder. Augmentin sucks arse and makes me feel like I need to walk around with a bucket attacked to me so I can vomit at any time.
Bleugh
Tuesday, 23 July 2013
Monday, 22 July 2013
CD 12 - My uterus and gallbladder have teamed up to form an elite baby hating gang
Soooooo I have finally been discharged from hospital at 8pm this evening. Hurrah!
Findings; acute cholestistius (inflammation of the gallbladder) with gallstones and some form of liver damage. My liver function tests were apparently far too high to be caused by just a gallstone, so there is something else there that may have passed, possibly a gallstone.
MRI shows gallstones but luckily no stones in the bile ducts (anymore..) MRI was exciting, I pretended I was in an episode of House.
Despite everything that I told the surgeon they were still determined to tell me I had hyper stimulation of the ovaries - sent me for an abdominal and pelvic scan. Abdominal scan showed a very contracted and damaged gallbladder with plenty of stones - clearly the cause of the pain. Worst part? The ultrasound tech showed me the ultrasound of my ovaries - all my "juicy eggs" (her words, not mine) that are going to waste. There were A LOT, my left and right ovary were touching to make just one nice egg producing line. She tried to count but we made it to 20 and gave up. I'm not saying that all of those would have actual eggs on them, but at least we know the meds worked well and I responded exactly as I should. Just to note: the gynaecology specialist came to see me and confirmed that I didn't have OHSS or any symptoms and my ovaries were perfectly healthy, just larger. Fucking annoying that I now need to just leave them!
The clinic called while I was at the hospital to speak to me, and the nurse explained they had had a meeting just about us to decide what action to take. They did agree that the gallbladder needs to come out now before treatment, and they want me to continue Cetrotide for 5 days without stimming and use protection this cycle (tempting not to...but god knows the consequences) and keep them informed. If the surgery goes well and I recover I should be OK to get back into IVF as soon as its complete. I know it's a day surgery with a 7 days recovery period, but lets see.
I have been given a weeks worth of antibiotics to help with the pain and inflammation of the gallbladder, I need to return in a week to have more liver function tests carried out as they were still abnormal today, and call my surgeon tomorrow to arrange gallbladder removal. Hopefully, it will be within 2-3 weeks. So fingers crossed, we may be able to pick up where we left off on September, or due to the holiday, we may have to wait until November.
Fuck shit wank balls / typing it up like that is no fun.
We are devastated the IVF is a no go, but there's nothing like being carted off to hospital in an ambulance and being in so much agony you pass out to make you beg for surgery.
Findings; acute cholestistius (inflammation of the gallbladder) with gallstones and some form of liver damage. My liver function tests were apparently far too high to be caused by just a gallstone, so there is something else there that may have passed, possibly a gallstone.
MRI shows gallstones but luckily no stones in the bile ducts (anymore..) MRI was exciting, I pretended I was in an episode of House.
Despite everything that I told the surgeon they were still determined to tell me I had hyper stimulation of the ovaries - sent me for an abdominal and pelvic scan. Abdominal scan showed a very contracted and damaged gallbladder with plenty of stones - clearly the cause of the pain. Worst part? The ultrasound tech showed me the ultrasound of my ovaries - all my "juicy eggs" (her words, not mine) that are going to waste. There were A LOT, my left and right ovary were touching to make just one nice egg producing line. She tried to count but we made it to 20 and gave up. I'm not saying that all of those would have actual eggs on them, but at least we know the meds worked well and I responded exactly as I should. Just to note: the gynaecology specialist came to see me and confirmed that I didn't have OHSS or any symptoms and my ovaries were perfectly healthy, just larger. Fucking annoying that I now need to just leave them!
The clinic called while I was at the hospital to speak to me, and the nurse explained they had had a meeting just about us to decide what action to take. They did agree that the gallbladder needs to come out now before treatment, and they want me to continue Cetrotide for 5 days without stimming and use protection this cycle (tempting not to...but god knows the consequences) and keep them informed. If the surgery goes well and I recover I should be OK to get back into IVF as soon as its complete. I know it's a day surgery with a 7 days recovery period, but lets see.
I have been given a weeks worth of antibiotics to help with the pain and inflammation of the gallbladder, I need to return in a week to have more liver function tests carried out as they were still abnormal today, and call my surgeon tomorrow to arrange gallbladder removal. Hopefully, it will be within 2-3 weeks. So fingers crossed, we may be able to pick up where we left off on September, or due to the holiday, we may have to wait until November.
Fuck shit wank balls / typing it up like that is no fun.
We are devastated the IVF is a no go, but there's nothing like being carted off to hospital in an ambulance and being in so much agony you pass out to make you beg for surgery.
CD 12 - IVF over
It seems like a slap in the face that Kate Middletons labour announcement happened within me being informed that our IVF cycle has been cancelled.
I get it. I do, I need to be healthy. We can have one cancelled cycle, so we do still have 2 rounds of IVF, but if either of them need to be cancelled we loose one.
What I am so angry about is the hospital I've been admitted to haven't sent a doctor to speak to me in over 25hours. I have no idea what's going on, I don't know what they have planned or what they want to do. They wouldn't let me home last night, but doctor wouldn't see me, I was just told "No". I've still not been seen by the doctor. I could have gone home, slept, gone to the ACU clinic this morning for my scan and then come back to the hospital to continue. The main reason they cancelled IVF is because I couldn't make my scan this morning.
I'm starting to think this just isn't meant to be, how can it be?!
I get it. I do, I need to be healthy. We can have one cancelled cycle, so we do still have 2 rounds of IVF, but if either of them need to be cancelled we loose one.
What I am so angry about is the hospital I've been admitted to haven't sent a doctor to speak to me in over 25hours. I have no idea what's going on, I don't know what they have planned or what they want to do. They wouldn't let me home last night, but doctor wouldn't see me, I was just told "No". I've still not been seen by the doctor. I could have gone home, slept, gone to the ACU clinic this morning for my scan and then come back to the hospital to continue. The main reason they cancelled IVF is because I couldn't make my scan this morning.
I'm starting to think this just isn't meant to be, how can it be?!
Sunday, 21 July 2013
CD10 - IVF day 7 - blogging from my hospital bed.
I agreed with Martin, when he looked at me last night and laughed saying "things were just going too well, weren't they?"
At 3am on Friday evening I had a bad gallstone attack, I may even go as far as to say severe. I was hot, clamy, in agony and could barely keep my eyes open. This time the pain was not subsiding with pain meds. I passed out on Martin (which apparently scared him) and although I tried and wanted to get in the car and drive to hospital, every time I moved I thought my chest and stomach were going to explode. So my very first ride in an ambulance occurred at 7am Saturday morning (I managed to sneak in my meds before being carted off)
I arrived at hospital and wasn't in a good state, the pain had subsided some what but I felt awful. Light headed, sweaty, sick, barely with it. I had every test under the sun, was given IV fluids and IV morphine and left until my blood work came back. Blood work and X-ray normal....
Doctor looked at my history and diagnosed me with a brand new stomach ulcer which was causing me excruciating pain, I didn't buy it (I told both Martin and my Dad straight away it wasnt ulcers) and I was sent home and told to return if the pain did.
I went home, got into bed (having slept around 2hours the night before) ate 3 rashes of bacon and 2 sausages, both grilled so no fat) and then slept in bed whilst Buffy was on. At 4pm the pain returned with avengeance, this time accompanied by vomiting and more light headed-ness. Straight back in the car to the hospital. After seeing another doctor, having my second line of the day put in (1) ouch and 2) my arms looks awful!) more bloods were taken and I was left while the results came through. We arrived at the hospital at 5.30pm, at 9pm we saw a new doctor. She informed us that one of my liver function bloods had increased a lot since the morning, and she believed I have a gallstone blocking the duct between my gallbladder and my liver. I was admitted to the surgical assessment ward at 10pm last night.
Which brings me to now, lying in my hospital bed, very bored and very tired (thanks to crazy elderly patients on the same ward whose favourite pastime is screaming between the hours of 2-5am) and waiting to be told whats next.
What does this mean for IVF? I have no idea as of yet. My first thought it cancellation. Although the doctors and nurses at the hospital were nice enough to store my IVF meds in the ward fridge and still administer them this morning. The clinic were fine with me not being able to make it on Saturday, and asked me to go in tomorrow instead. I now need to wait for a scan of my abdomin to show what's going on before I get some answers.
Chances of this cycle happening now? I'd say around 10-20%. It could be the next time I write in this here blog of mine, I've already had the surgery.
At 3am on Friday evening I had a bad gallstone attack, I may even go as far as to say severe. I was hot, clamy, in agony and could barely keep my eyes open. This time the pain was not subsiding with pain meds. I passed out on Martin (which apparently scared him) and although I tried and wanted to get in the car and drive to hospital, every time I moved I thought my chest and stomach were going to explode. So my very first ride in an ambulance occurred at 7am Saturday morning (I managed to sneak in my meds before being carted off)
I arrived at hospital and wasn't in a good state, the pain had subsided some what but I felt awful. Light headed, sweaty, sick, barely with it. I had every test under the sun, was given IV fluids and IV morphine and left until my blood work came back. Blood work and X-ray normal....
Doctor looked at my history and diagnosed me with a brand new stomach ulcer which was causing me excruciating pain, I didn't buy it (I told both Martin and my Dad straight away it wasnt ulcers) and I was sent home and told to return if the pain did.
I went home, got into bed (having slept around 2hours the night before) ate 3 rashes of bacon and 2 sausages, both grilled so no fat) and then slept in bed whilst Buffy was on. At 4pm the pain returned with avengeance, this time accompanied by vomiting and more light headed-ness. Straight back in the car to the hospital. After seeing another doctor, having my second line of the day put in (1) ouch and 2) my arms looks awful!) more bloods were taken and I was left while the results came through. We arrived at the hospital at 5.30pm, at 9pm we saw a new doctor. She informed us that one of my liver function bloods had increased a lot since the morning, and she believed I have a gallstone blocking the duct between my gallbladder and my liver. I was admitted to the surgical assessment ward at 10pm last night.
Which brings me to now, lying in my hospital bed, very bored and very tired (thanks to crazy elderly patients on the same ward whose favourite pastime is screaming between the hours of 2-5am) and waiting to be told whats next.
What does this mean for IVF? I have no idea as of yet. My first thought it cancellation. Although the doctors and nurses at the hospital were nice enough to store my IVF meds in the ward fridge and still administer them this morning. The clinic were fine with me not being able to make it on Saturday, and asked me to go in tomorrow instead. I now need to wait for a scan of my abdomin to show what's going on before I get some answers.
Chances of this cycle happening now? I'd say around 10-20%. It could be the next time I write in this here blog of mine, I've already had the surgery.
Friday, 19 July 2013
CD8 - IVF day 6
More of the horrid cetrotide this morning. It actually wasn't as bad as it was yesterday, although the immediate itchyness and reddening of the skin still happened, I didn't have any hives like yesterday. Maybe me body is getting used to it.
I don't feel 'bloated' as such, but definitely increasing in size in the general abdominal region, heres my day 6 ever-increasing-belly. Theres a nice bump in there where hopefully some lovely eggies are growing. Fingers crossed for the morning! (Excuse my underwear and unsightly thighs!)
I don't feel 'bloated' as such, but definitely increasing in size in the general abdominal region, heres my day 6 ever-increasing-belly. Theres a nice bump in there where hopefully some lovely eggies are growing. Fingers crossed for the morning! (Excuse my underwear and unsightly thighs!)
My body is seriously geared up for ovulating like its never ovulated before! I have EWCM coming out of my ears and my cervix resembles the grand canyon - I was a bit paranoid yesterday that my sneaky eggs would escapes before we had chance to do ER, but these symptoms are apparently common the further into stimming you get due to increase in hormones, which makes perfect sense. My scientific brain needs to react before my panicked patients-going-through-IVF brain does.
Tiredness well and truly setting in and I feel like I could get into bed around 6pm in the evenings - This morning I got up at 6am to complete the injections, did some work and responded to emails til around 8am and then doozed off until 11am! I'm also peeing more than anyone has ever peed before , which is great as lots of pee is a good indication of no serious OHSS going on. I got up 4 times in the night for a wee, which is a new personal record. Although again, scientific brain needs to remember i'm also drinking around 3litres of water a day, which could play a huge role in this!
Fingers crossed for tomorrow scan - They could potentially do EC anywhere from 3-6 days time depending on my response. It's almost all over before I've even got my head around it beginning!
Thursday, 18 July 2013
CD7 - IVF Day 5
So my usual morning injection routine stepped up a gear this morning with the introduction of the cetrotide to suppress ovulation. We woke up 10 minutes earlier to ensure we had enough time to do both of the injections before work, as the cetrotide takes some mixing together!
Few more side effects with the cetrotide, a headache very shortly after taking which doesn't appear to be shifting anytime soon, and general sicky feeling-ness. Still nothing I can't cope with.
In the box you get a vial full of powder and a syringe full of solution to dissolve the powder into a liquid to inject. So in when the solution, gently swirl around the powder until it's dissolved, replace a needle with a more skin friendly one, draw the liquid back up and ta-dah - Inject away.
Before this I think I administered my gonal-f in under 60 seconds, not bad! Then I was able to use my saved fat to finally inject the other solution.
Let me tell you, it stung like a bitch. The needle is a little longer and there is more fluid to inject compared to the gonal-f. Immediately after I removed the needle the area of skin surrounding it became red, and immensely itchy. I thought at first it was because of my 'pinching an inch' but by the time I had got upstairs to get dressed, I had developed a lovely array of swollen lumps around the injection site which resembled insect bites. Ouch. Its now 4 hours since the injection and the red swelling and itchy-ness has completely gone, but it was quite a shock to the system with how well my nice gonal-f shots have been!
 |
| The two different injection sites - On my wobbly tummy. |
Few more side effects with the cetrotide, a headache very shortly after taking which doesn't appear to be shifting anytime soon, and general sicky feeling-ness. Still nothing I can't cope with.
Tummy continuing to get a little bigger by the day - only slightly, but I can definitely notice an increase in size! Hopefully this means I have lots of lovely follicules to look at on Saturday!
Wednesday, 17 July 2013
CD6 - IVF Day 4
I'm running out of my prime fat spots on my tummy for the injections. This mornings stung a lot more than the others, still no bruising though. The nurse suggested we use one side of my stomach for the gonal-f and the other side for the cetrotide, that way if I have a reaction to one I know which one it is. So this means Martin has been playing Nurse Briggs and has banned me from using the prime fat real estate on the right hand side of my tummy, as this is only reserved for cetrotide.
So far side effects have been slim to non. No bruising or soreness around injection sites and no real problems with comfort. I do, however, have a nasty banging headache this morning which won't shift and I feel exhausted, so this could be the first signs of the drug. I am getting slight twinges and pains in my ovary region in the evenings, but that's to be expected, I'm being harvested and I expect it to get worse as the injections go on.
If anything I feel more calm and relaxed on the gonal-f than I usually do, I seem to be in a good mood and feel good, I have read some woman report the same thing, or it could be psychological, who knows! Martin did tell me yesterday that I had a 'mood swing' on Monday evening as I was feeling clingy, and I was upset he was going out for the evening with a friend. Normally I would have thrown him the daggers for pulling me up on my moods, but I didn't feel the need to. (...I know you're reading this! Don't be mean to me and my mood swings...)
I do feel more squidgy than usual in the ovary region, however Martin claims he can't see any difference in my shape. However that could have something to do with me asking him whilst top-less, so his main focus was not at my growing uterine area!
Cetrotide begins tomorrow, so hoping these injections go just as well as the gonal-f have been. I've been told these can sting a lot more and irritate the skin quite a bit, so loose dresses it is, which isn't too bad when its 30c out!
While I'm on the subject of my lovely husband, as much as I like to tease him and throw insults his way (meant with all the love in the world!) he has been brilliant these past few days, he really has. He's determined to be apart of the IVF and gets up every morning and prepared my injections for me downstairs while I'm usually trying to drag myself out of bed. He regularly asks how I'm feeling and asks what he can do for me, and is generally being the best nurse I could ask for, he even gave my ovaries a good prep talk last night and I believe the sentence "Soon you'll see a tadpole looking thing come close to you, let it in" was uttered.
This means even more to be as we lost his beloved Grandad on Friday who Martin adored, yet despite all the grief and upset he's going through, he continues to be my big strong husband and has been amazing so far. This is how I know that one day, who knows when, he'll not only be an amazing husband but and amazing dad as well.
I know you read my blog, and I love you.
xxx
So far side effects have been slim to non. No bruising or soreness around injection sites and no real problems with comfort. I do, however, have a nasty banging headache this morning which won't shift and I feel exhausted, so this could be the first signs of the drug. I am getting slight twinges and pains in my ovary region in the evenings, but that's to be expected, I'm being harvested and I expect it to get worse as the injections go on.
If anything I feel more calm and relaxed on the gonal-f than I usually do, I seem to be in a good mood and feel good, I have read some woman report the same thing, or it could be psychological, who knows! Martin did tell me yesterday that I had a 'mood swing' on Monday evening as I was feeling clingy, and I was upset he was going out for the evening with a friend. Normally I would have thrown him the daggers for pulling me up on my moods, but I didn't feel the need to. (...I know you're reading this! Don't be mean to me and my mood swings...)
I do feel more squidgy than usual in the ovary region, however Martin claims he can't see any difference in my shape. However that could have something to do with me asking him whilst top-less, so his main focus was not at my growing uterine area!
Cetrotide begins tomorrow, so hoping these injections go just as well as the gonal-f have been. I've been told these can sting a lot more and irritate the skin quite a bit, so loose dresses it is, which isn't too bad when its 30c out!
While I'm on the subject of my lovely husband, as much as I like to tease him and throw insults his way (meant with all the love in the world!) he has been brilliant these past few days, he really has. He's determined to be apart of the IVF and gets up every morning and prepared my injections for me downstairs while I'm usually trying to drag myself out of bed. He regularly asks how I'm feeling and asks what he can do for me, and is generally being the best nurse I could ask for, he even gave my ovaries a good prep talk last night and I believe the sentence "Soon you'll see a tadpole looking thing come close to you, let it in" was uttered.
This means even more to be as we lost his beloved Grandad on Friday who Martin adored, yet despite all the grief and upset he's going through, he continues to be my big strong husband and has been amazing so far. This is how I know that one day, who knows when, he'll not only be an amazing husband but and amazing dad as well.
I know you read my blog, and I love you.
xxx
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)