Day Before Day 3 Transfer: IVIg

Got up ultra early and jetted over to Dr. Beer's office. It sounds strange saying "Dr. Beer's office" now that he's gone. They were wonderful and squeezed me into the last place with absolutely no notice at all. One of my online friends, TS, whom I never met in real life up to this point, was there bright and early and it was great to finally meet her.

I had to pay $2015 upfront for the IVIg. They wouldn't let me swap the Gammaguard that I had on order from Columbia for their Gammunex, thereby saving me $400. That sucked, but the fact that they squeezed me in last minute was so appreciated that I sucked it up and said nothing further on the matter.

My NKs were only at 16.9, but the second dilution it dropped to in the 9's, which signifies that if IgG was added to my blood the level of NKs dropped to 9 something. Last time I did a NK test it was at 15 and it barely budged when the IgG was added. This time my blood seems more responsive to the addition of IgG, so hopefully it wasn't done for nothing. 16.9 isn't a high NK number by any means, but Dr. Moustache has anyone at 15.0 or above to an IVIg. So infuse I did.

The IV nurse was amazing with her skill of placing a needle into someone that hadn't eaten breakfast, or drinken much fluid at 8 in the morning. I basically had no veins to speak of. She hooked me up to a 10gram bottle of Gammunex, and then a second, and me and my 3 companions settled in for a 3 and a half hour infusion.

The worst side effects for me was that my left arm, that one that had the needle in it felt so cold, chilled to the bone, and the right one was nice and toasty. The left side ached nearly the entire time, but it was bearable. I massaged the lower part of the arm during the infusion and it helped to relieve the pain. My friend, TS, was there on her second infusion and she said that she got a headache from her first one that lasted four days. Four days. That is an eternity when you have a migraine. So the IV nurse gave her a needle full of benadryl into her drip line and she eventually slouched down into her chair and nodded off towards the end.

I didn't know that you're supposed to bring loads of fluids with you to an infusion, and that you should also bring extra strength tylenol, but since I was on restricted fluids today, I was lucky that I had the insight to bring my measley 0.5 liter bottle of gatorade. I worried that it might not be enough to get me through the session.

My other two companions were a young German gal, who also nodded off, and a nice woman of 43, a patent attorney for the gaming industry, who was attempting her first ever IVF with Stanford. It was an interesting mix of company, and they made the trip enjoyable. As enjoyable as it can be when hooked up to a IV for the entire morning.

So tomorrow is our big day. We have our consult with Dr. Moustache at 10:00AM and the transfer is slated for 11:00AM. The nurse that called me to give me the time said that it is going to be a busy day there in the OR, to slate about 3 hours total for everything, but that I'd be the first transfer of the day. (I guess he does all the retrivals first, 8:30, 9:30, and 10:30, and then the transfers begin at 11AM. At least that is the pattern I've noticed). I've got my bag of pineapple ready to go (for the bromelain...supposed to help with implantation) and my bottle of propel. I'm not sure what else I can do or take at this point to help things along. Maybe I could direct the Feng Shui of the recovery room from my bed or something?

We have no idea how many of the embies have made it to this point but I'm hoping at least 10 made it. Even if we get 10 good ones, I don't know how many I'd put back in. I know I'm going to be a basket case tomorrow.

Hopefully they're handing out valium in the waiting room tomorrow.