The Cancer Whirlwind Continues

[originally posted April 26, 2016]

Reality Check: Fertility Treatment

Since Saturday I’ve had to go to the fertility clinic every morning between 6:30-8:30am for bloodwork and, some days, ultrasounds and do three nightly injections. I had originally been told I would come in on Saturday morning then again on Monday morning, so after my early Saturday appointment, my sister and I drove up to Massachusetts for my cousin’s engagement party and to visit my Nana.

Problem was, I got my daily call from the clinic telling me that I actually had to come back the next morning – Sunday – for more bloodwork and an ultrasound. Apparently, my body responded very quickly to the hormones and I could not delay until Monday. This process is incredibly exact – you must do your shots between 7-10 every evening, and within an hour of the time you first inject. I’ve stuck to between 9:30-10pm.

They adjust your dosage every day based on the bloodwork. So on Saturday they dropped my levels and started me on the third injection early – very fortunately I had ‘overpacked’ and brought one of those just to be safe! PS – you should have seen how packed my Mini Cooper was for one night… between my injections and pillows and organic food, I’m far more high maintenance than an infant at this point! So the next morning my sister and I rolled out of bed at 6am (Nana had gotten up to lay out breakfast and on the dot of 6, exactly as both of our alarms went off, she yelled up the stairs ‘are you girls up?’ 🙂 and hopped in the car so I could get to the clinic before 10am – when they send out the blood to the lab. At that hour on a Sunday the roads were completely clear and we made record time. Phew.

Then, finally, laundry. Organizing. Wig research. Searching for organic almond butter that isn’t insanely expensive (…it doesn’t exist). Injections. For the record, I’ve gotten SO much better with blood and injections… I’ve even been giving the nightly to myself. Progress! And I don’t have reactions from the blood draws. I do warn them every morning and lay back and close my eyes, but so far no further incidents. I still hate it, but necessary evils…

My Week So Far…

Monday: More bloodwork. More calls. More emails. More organizing. Wonderfully relaxing yin yoga/ cranial session with my yoga teacher. Cuz again I hadn’t slept. More organic food shopping. More shots.

Tuesday: Bloodwork, ultrasound, errands. Meeting with nurses. Emails. Calls. Forms. More oncology bloodwork (this time 8 or 9 vials). Check-up with my oncologist. Anti-anxiety prescription since I haven’t been sleeping. The steroid I’ve been taking causes insomnia and I already have sleeping issues as it is. Meeting with nutritionist. More of all the other stuff. Injections.

Wednesday: Bloodwork and ultrasound again. Meeting with nurses. Calls with doctors. More calls. Organizing. Planning. Work emails. Call with an awesome young lady like me I was put in touch with who went through the same treatment and had the same oncologist and who has an uncanny amount in common with me… Immensely helpful to hear what her experience was like and how treatment impacted her. Echocardiogram to make sure the pericaridal effusion – extra fluid around my heart – won’t render my chemo drugs lethal. More calls. More emails. More injections. Finally, this 🙂

At this point it seems my treatment start date will be confirmed by Friday, when the results of both the blood work from yesterday and today’s ECHO are in. My egg retrieval procedure will be Sunday, or Monday latest, and I told my oncologist I need a few days off from the poking and prodding and blood work and injections and craziness. The PA said next Friday evening or Saturday should be ok assuming I feel ok and the results come back clean….