It’s been a little more than 1 year since my ectopic pregnancy and the first round of AI.  Since then I’ve fully recovered: physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  And I’ve taken the time to put some things right in my life…

Now, it’s time to take the plunge again, and give it another go.  Nevertheless, having had one ectopic pregnancy, the doctors have cautioned against using AI again and so we’ve hired the big guns and are going with In Vitro.

My experience: it’s a LOT more complicated than AI.

For starters, the doctor who’s doing IVF is not half as humorous as my AI doctor!  I do miss Konstantinos and his crazy comments.  But, I am finally getting a good vibe from the new doctor.

I started injections in late January, but the hormone levels “weren’t right”… so everything got called off, and it was back to square one… After 5 weeks of waiting, we restarted the injections, and second time round everything was “perfect” for the doctor.

So, about 2 weeks ago, he started pumping me full of hormones, and I started having 4 ultrasounds a week to check the growth of the ovules – talk about hyped-up ovaries!  Totally mass-producing eggs.

Last week was tenderhooks – when will we finally be “ripe for the harvest”?  And I finally got the go for Saturday morning.  So, 7.20 a.m. Saturday found me in the Doctor’s office.  The anaesthesiologist gave me some kind of benzodiazepine as well as a general anaesthetic – to “knock you out” for a couple of minutes and then leave you with complete amnesia about everything that happened… Anyway… other than feeling like I’d had a few too many drinks, I don’t remember much after that!

Apparently they were able to harvest 6 eggs, 5 healthy and one with not quite developed follicles.  Even though they went ahead and injected all 6 eggs, only 4 were fertilised, and of those it looks like only 2 are dividing properly.  So, tomorrow morning at 7.30 a.m., I’m back to the doctor’s surgery for the implanting.

But… back to my horror story of “forgetting”… I distinctly remember “waking up” at 10.30, and speaking with the nurse.  I don’t remember WHAT we talked about, although I do remember the 6 eggs part, and I remember thinking (after she’d injected me with progesterone) that it didn’t half as much as last year’s injections.  But, come to think of it, I remember thinking about how it didn’t hurt, but I don’t ACTUALLY remember her injecting me.  Weird, huh?

We then drove home and I went to bed, waking up at 2.00 p.m. or so.  I felt BRILLIANT.  But lazy.  So, A went off to do errands, while I pottered around the house.  Then, at about 5.00 p.m. or so, my little chihuahua Susy starting coughing blood.  I tried to call A and sent him a pin.  When he didn’t respond, I picked her up (feeling QUITE good still) and drove to the vets.  Unfortunately, we were at the vets for about 2 1/2 hours, during which time I stood, holding Susy while she received IVs and treatment.  I wasn’t feeling quite so well by 7.15 p.m. and by the time I left the vets at about 7.40 I was feeling down-right terrible.  And starting to wonder why on earth had I thought I was in any condition to drive or leave the house by myself!

So, I got home and about 20 minutes later A arrived home.  By this time, I wasn’t doing very well at all – the pain had set in with a vengeance (no more lovely anaesthesia to hold it at bay) and I had definitely overdone it.  To top it off, since I had gone to the vets, no food either.  And no food in the morning, because I had to fast before the procedure.  So, feel really bad, and on top of that got a gut-ache from having gases!

At about this stage, I ask A if the Doctor didn’t give me a prescription of something for the pain.  Of course he had! The nurse had given it to me… four pages of prescriptions!  Instructions of what to do when I got home, what to take in the evening… and how often to take everything!  All erased from my memory. Poor A!  He’s looking at me going “in the car on the way back from the surgery you told me everything we had to get at the pharmacy”… and I said to him… yes, and the nurse told you to IGNORE anything I said, because I wouldn’t remember a thing!

Well, you guessed it, the doctor and nurse were right – memory erased completely! I couldn’t remember a thing that was on the 4 pages… and poor A could have SWORN I had it all memorised!  So, at 8.30 in the evening, off he went to buy me a stack of pills and injections to tide me through the recovery!

Sunday I went to get an injection, and couldn’t remember where the prescriptions were!  And I had them at 8.30 p.m. the night before.  Total chaos having no short-term memory!  But good for a laugh today!

Sunday was a much better day!  I once again may have “overdone it”, but at least I can remember everything.