Shots, pills, patches, and more

What is this, you ask?

It's the day by day sheet of all the drugs I'm scheduled to take.  Let's talk about them, shall we?

First, things started off with Lupron, a ridiculously large shot into my bum to suppress ovulation.

This is, by far, the largest shot I've ever had in my life. The craziest thing is I picked it up from the pharmacy and was expected to administer it myself!  Well, not ME, but my husband. I'm thankful that my stepdad is a doctor and he was nice enough to do it for me.  Well, maybe "nice enough" isn't the right term....maybe "giving him the chance to get back at me for having all those parties in high school" would be better.

The day after I took my shot, a girl on my team at work left this note on my desk:

Every other night, I put on between 2 and 4 estrogen patches called Estradiol along my hips, trying to find a new spot along the mine-field of previous patches.  This is to build up my uterine lining, since my body isn't ovulating.  

Both in the morning and the evening, I take a pill called Medrol, which they tell me makes the embryo transfer more successful. This tiny pill, irregardless of the length of time on my tongue, leaves the nastiest taste in my mouth.  Every morning, I pop a Synthroid pill, which is bringing my normal thyroid level really low, which also increases the chances of successful implantation.  To make things more fun, I have to take Synthroid on an empty stomach, but Medrol I have to take with food.  This kind of high maintenance shit is challenging for a girl who could barely remember to take a daily multivitamin.  I also take a multivitamin pill with folic acid, which I have found is less likely to make me nauseous when I take it right before I go to bed. 

Also in the morning and night, I take progesterone in the forum of a vaginal suppository called Crinone.  This one is my faves, let me tell you!  I'll save you from the details of this one, except to tell you there was a thrilling three part instructional video on administering this drug.

Luckily, despite all of these meds, I feel....not much of anything. I had a brief few moments of headaches after my big shot and sometimes I get sleepy when I'm perfectly well rested - although who knows if that's from my low thyroid level or from having two kiddos with endless amounts of energy. But for a girl who rarely even takes Advil, this is a pretty substantial change in pace.