This is part 2, if you are confused.... go back and read part 1. Duh :)
Back in April we decided we were ready to start trying. So, I
went off of my birth control and waited for something to happen. Nothing
happened. Let me get graphic, no ovulation and therefore no period. This went
on for several months. After getting an ovulation test and confirming that
ovulation was not occurring we decided to look into it further. Now, most
people do not have amazing OBGYN’s like I do. Most OB’s make you wait a year
before coming in with infertility issues. Mine, was great. We went in after six
months (which seemed like an eternity) and he was very receptive to the issue.
He suggested we start trying a progesterone pill to induce a period. I tried
it. It didn’t work. So, we went back in and he suggested we take the plunge
into infertility treatments. We agreed that it was something we wanted to try.
He started us a 50 mg of clomid and was very optimistic. Every single month I
got my hopes up, and every single month I didn’t ovulate. After the 50 didn’t
work we went up to 100 and 150. After trying the 150 with no results he
suggested we go to an infertility specialist because he thought we needed a
more aggressive treatment. All we saw were dollar signs.
That brings
us to March of this year. We went in, met with our new doctor and he guided us
into the overwhelming world of infertility medication (for real). This stuff is
no joke. After our first appointment we were excited and optimistic to be
trying a new medication. We went home and got on the computer because you can’t
just get this stuff from any old pharmacy. Oh, no. You need to research and
find the cheapest pharmacy. After about a half an hour of research we were a
bit discouraged. The prices were outrageous and most of the decent prices we
found were from Canadian pharmacies (which we were not allowed to order from.)
Deciding to bite the bullet and order the medicine, as expensive as it was,
felt a little like walking the plank. Thankfully for us we had a great
representative at MDRX who clued us in to Alexander’s pharmacy. That, ladies
and gentlemen is who you need to talk to. Your pharmacy will price match with
Alexander’s or you can order directly from them. Don’t get me wrong, it was
still thousands of dollars, but it was a better price than the other places.
Once we had the medicine ordered we took the “shot classes” and learned what my
daily torture would be like for the next several weeks. Then the medicine came
and I did about two weeks of shots of Menopur with a trigger shot of Novarel.
What a horrid experience. I am not going to sugar coat this. It was an awful
experience. During the shots I was an emotional wreck and after the shots I was
in so much pain I didn’t know what to do with myself. There are several things
they don’t tell you about this medicine ahead of time (probably because most
people wouldn’t do it.)
1. Menopur burns like you are injecting liquid fire
into your leg. Battery acid if you will. For me, I found that injecting in my
leg instead of my stomach, mixing the medicine a couple of hours before you
inject, icing the injection sight and rubbing the medicine in to disperse it
helped a ton.
2. Mix the
Menopur with more dilutent. I used double the amount of dilutent they initially
told me to. Especially when I had to up my dosage of Menopur and put more into
the syringe. You don’t want that stuff concentrated. Yikes.
3. Novarel
doesn’t burn. It just creates a softball sized lump in your thigh that gets hot
and hurts like f#$% for a week or two. Oh, and a red rash. Yay.
4. Menopur and Novarel can cause OHSS. What is
OHSS, you say? Well, it is ovarian hyper stimulation syndrome. In simple terms,
your ovaries swell up, you retain ridiculous amounts of fluid in your abdomen ,
you can’t breathe, and you want to die it hurts so bad……. and organ failure, if
you’re really unlucky.
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