Two Posts in One

I'm back. I didn't get a chance to post yesterday. We were at the surgery center most of the day and got home around 2pm. The surgery itself went really well. The surgeon told me that when he got in on the left side, there were actually two separate holes, so he technically had 3 separate hernias repaired.

Yesterday was extremely rough for B as he was in a ton of pain and the doc didn't give him sufficient painkillers. They gave him a prescription for per.cocet, but the dose was the same as what I had for my first retrieval (when we knew my transfer was cancelled) and for other ailments I've had. B generally doesn't feel the effect of medications as quickly as I do, he has a pretty high tolerance, so I'm not surprised the per.cocet wasn't enough. We had to go pick up another prescription for another painkiller at the doctor's office because they can't call in prescriptions for opiates. The two together seemed to help make his pain a little more tolerable by nighttime.

Between going up and down the stairs and generally moving around more than I have been, I was pretty sore by the end of the day and not feeling great. At one point I broke down sobbing. I just felt so overwhelmed and stressed by everything and it was so hard to see B in pain without being able to do anything to make it better. I felt so horrible for him. Just wait until I've got a kid to worry about.

Luckily my mom was here helping. I would have been crying a lot sooner and a lot more frequently had she not been here. The one stupid thing we did was not thinking about kenneling the dogs. They were a bit wigged out, off schedule and knew something was up. They were pretty rambunctious for awhile so today we kenneled them through Saturday. Things are much more calm at the house now.

I had to work today so my mom sat with B all day. He had a pretty good night last night, actually slept some and was feeling a bit better today until mid-afternoon. That's when the nausea and vomiting started. That just can't feel good when your abdomen is already so sore. He seems a bit better on that front now and tried to back off the pain meds a bit for the afternoon dose, but the pain came back pretty strong. Looks like this is going to take some time to recover. I don't know about B, but I don't think I was expecting it to be quite this bad. I just feel awful for him.

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I had blood drawn this morning to check estrogen and progesterone levels. While I was at the palace, I asked to speak with a nurse so that I could figure out when I needed to schedule my first ultrasound. Unfortunately, my nurse wasn't there and I spoke with one of the new nurses (two toned blondie) who seemed less qualified for her job than I am for her job (and I'm not a nurse). She tried to tell me that the first ultrasound should be 6.5 weeks after RETRIEVAL. I tried to explain to her that no, it would be 4.5 weeks after retrieval because that would be considered 6.5 weeks pregnant (you count two weeks before retrieval, which simulates ovulation in a natural cycle). She seemed confused and had to pull out that pregnancy calendar wheel thingy. There was no WAY I was going to settle for waiting until I was 8.5 weeks along!

She played with the wheel and finally agreed with me. Unfortunately, 6.5 weeks for me falls smack on Memorial Day. While they are open on Memorial Day, they have a reduced staff and only do ultrasounds for those who are cycling or being monitored. She suggested I come in the Tuesday after, but I have a training at work all day Tuesday and Wednesday that I can't miss (my absence would be noticed as it is an HR directed training with the whole department, including our VP). I asked if I could come in the Friday before and she said that would be too early. So I ended up having to schedule it for Thursday, May 29th, fighting back tears the whole time. Hormonal much?

Now, I know for a fact that some clinics do the first ultrasound at 6 weeks. The Friday before, I will be 6w1d. As soon as I got into work, I sent an email to my nurse, thinking she would get it tomorrow or next week, whenever she got back into the office. She called me about 2 hours later. She wasn't really working, but had gone in for something and saw my email and decided to call. This is why I heart my nurse. She takes care of me.

She said we can schedule it for Friday, but she warned me not to freak out because it could be too early to hear the heartbeats. Yes, she used plural (ack!). She said we should be able to see the sacs and fetal poles, but maybe not the heartbeats and if not, they would have me come back in a week after to check heartbeats. I am totally fine with this. Just let me see something! She then said she would find out which ultrasound tech was working on Memorial Day, explain the situation, and ask if she was willing to fit me in. She said she couldn't make any promises, but she would check and let me know tomorrow. This would actually be ideal because then B and I wouldn't have to miss any work and we would know that a heartbeat should be audible at that point. So that's the plan.

My hormone levels came back great today (E2 = 3,994 and P4=181.4), so I get to start reducing my meds on Saturday. Because I started 2 new estrogen patches today, I have to wait until Saturday (you change them every other day). So starting Saturday, I go from 2 patches to 1 and from 3 suppositories a day down to 2. Yay!