My Brain on Drugs

During my blood draw today, the phlebotomist told me a story of how a patient completely forgot to come in for a blood draw one day in the middle of her cycle. The patient was three hours away, in the mountains, when she realized and called in a panic.

The phlebotomist said she could understand how a patient might forget something like that at the beginning of a cycle, but she didn't know how it could happen in the middle of a cycle, when you have to go in every day.

I have the answer for her: that's what happens to your brain when you're on all these drugs.

Immediately after that conversation with the phlebotomist, I left the draw room, went up to the receptionist and inquired about getting claim forms to submit for insurance purposes. Then I walked out the front door.

And about 9 hours later, while sitting at dinner in a restaurant and mentally running through tomorrow's schedule in my head, I let out a lound gasp that made R jump. Because I realized that I had forgotten to make an appointment for tomorrow's ultrasound and blood draw. Immediately after hearing a story about someone else who forgot to show up for an appointment.

I blame it on the drugs. At least the phlebotomist will get a laugh out of it the next time I see her. (Assuming, of course, that unlike the appointment, I can actually remember to tell her about this.)

So I guess I'm going to have to call first thing tomorrow morning and find out when they can fit me in. I don't think they're going to let me skip a day, because my estrogen doubled in the course of 24 hours, from 1,100 yesterday to 2,200 today. So at least for the next 24 hours, I am on almost zero stims - they've eliminated tonight's Follistim dose (150 units) and cut tomorrow's Menopur dose from 75 to 37.5 units.

To try to prevent OHSS, they've also told me to eat lots of salty foods to try to keep fluids in my veins rather than filling all the empty follicles I'll have after retrieval. The only thing is, high levels of salt cause hypertension. And my thyroid issues are already causing hypertension, so I'm on beta blockers to keep my heart rate and blood pressure down. So eating lots of salt probably isn't the best idea for me at the moment. Let's hope it doesn't cause my pressure to spike and wind up getting me canceled on retrieval day, because they said my pressure has to be normal for them to do the anesthesia.

The nurse is also now saying that my retrieval will probably be Sunday or Monday. It was originally supposed to be yesterday, but every day I go in, it gets moved one day further out, even though my eggs do seem to be growing. (At least, they look a heck of a lot bigger on the screen now than they did a few days ago. And I've done upwards of 50 ultrasounds, so I've gotten pretty good at reading them.)

I sent my mother (who lives with us) an e-mail tonight that said, "You might as well start packing up the house and plan to move up here, because I don't think we're ever going to get to go home..." I didn't think I'd get to see MamaSoon when she arrives for her cycle at Thanksgiving, but at this rate, I just may!