// ivf part two, week two //

day 6: thursday, october 1st, 2015- continued
i had such a great day and as soon as i got home, i was consumed with my long to do list and realizing that i just didn't have the physical time to get everything accomplished. i am taking four days in a row off of work for this since our next appointments are saturday, monday and wednesday (that type of travel would drive us crazy). we set out to leave in the wee hours of saturday morning to make our morning appointment in northern los angeles. that left thursday night and friday night to get ready. well, i had committed to working friday night. therefore, that left only thursday night and my exhaustion was out of control. i nearly started crying, not being able to function and have the energy to get shit done. luckily, geoff gave me a reality check pep talk and i posted about it on ig, which brought forth a lot of support i didn't realize i needed to hear. a lot of things didn't get done, but oh well. we still are managing.

day 7: friday, october 2nd, 2015
today was absolutely busy. from work, to a lunch break of packing, washing my car for travel, gassing up, running around for work's event at night, ahhhh. but it went a lot smoother than i imagined. i went to pick up oliver after i finished packing to take him to work with me. i had to take my shots there and after i finished, we started talking about adding the third shot on saturday. geoff then realized that our shot really should have started tonight. ahhh. i had to be super late to work to get home, mix the new injection and then administer it. holy quickness. work went well but we didn't get home until 9:30pm and still needed to finish things to leave in the am.

day 8: saturday, october 3rd, 2015
we left arizona at 6:30am (a whole hour later than we had planned) as geoff was up sick all night- oh no. we kept each other awake the entire trip and arrived to our appointment with 10 minutes to spare- woot! this was our first appointment taking oliver in and we bought him headphones and the iPad to help- and it did. but even without it, he was on his best behavior. we had been sooo worried about taking him because last round, at one of our last appointments, we noticed, for the very first time, a sign that discreetly asked patients with children to not bring their kids, out of consideration to other patients dealing with infertility. shit. we felt horrible. lucky for us, they love oliver and he had always (by the grace of god), always been on his best behavior. we had explained that we had no choice but to take him with us at prior appointments this round, and they immediately took us inside and i had my ultrasound first. everything looked so great and our doctor was very pleased. we had to get more medicine because we didn't have enough to start with. we were so excited and grateful.
we spent the day being tourists in l.a., eating good for the mind/body/soul food, and sneaking up to the hollywood sign! we stayed with my parents this evening, and oliver really enjoyed being around them. at this time, we found out that our rented apartment in l.a. for the week had a water leak and we were out an apartment, on an already sold out week. legit- everything was sold out. we spent the entire time on a shitty internet connection trying to find something. unnecessary stress! i did have my mami help me with shots, even though she didn't want to. i really wanted her to feel a part of this. <3
Lining: 12
Follicles: 12-17mm

day 9: sunday, october 4th, 2015
we spent the entire day with my family. i ended up getting pretty stressed and emotional and it was my first real breakdown of this journey. probably a mix of the hormones and just being home (geoff says mainly the latter because he felt the same), but thank god everything got cleared up because no one needs drama, especially not with family; that shit's sacred, you know? oliver had a great time with his cousins and was so sad to leave. we found a last minute rental and on our way to it, stopped to visit my roommate from senior year in college, cely cel! we hadn't seen each other since a year after graduation and she is now married, with a gorgeous house, and a beautiful 18 month old baby boy. we had an amazing time, catching up, having the boys play, and enjoying each other. so happy for her happiness. she has always supported me, even when not seeing other for years! she was the very first person who ever bought cinnamon clothing from me when i first launched in 2005- you just don't forget shit like that. we rushed to our new place, checked in, and then spent the evening into night walking around downtown l.a. it's insane to me to be here, pretending to live here. i remember living here as a little girl, being dirt poor, the shelter and church food life. damn. so blessed.
my ovaries were definitely feeling all the action today! oh and oliver is homesick- crying to go home. awww, my little social homebody!

day 10: monday, october 5th, 2015
ahhh, oliver would not go to sleep last night until way past midnight. we woke up way early and he cried the entire way to the doctor's office. luckily, we are only 15-20 minutes away. we arrived and calmed him down and even though we had an 8am appointment and arrived 25 minutes early, the office was jam packed and oliver was so grouchy. i had my blood drawn and then we finally got put in a room where oliver screamed cried the entire time until one minute before our doctor walked in. omgosh. i wanted to hide under a rock. our doctor didn't seem to notice and was more cheerful and talkative than usual and said "everything looks really realllllly good in there!" F yes! We went to our meeting room to discuss the ultrasound but he never came back. instead, our ivf coordinator told us we we had progressed so well, we were done with hormone injections and were going to trigger tonight! at this appointment, last round, they kept us on hormones for 3 more days!! wow,  huge difference. because we had progressed so well, i run a high risk of ohss (ovarian hyper stimulation syndrome) which is horrible by what i have read and heard from other ivf girls. the follicles that are emptied out after egg retrieval surgery get filled with water and you bloat big time; it's painful, uncomfortable, you often times have to go in for drainage (we're talking liters of water extracted) and even hospitalized. go ivf! anyway, to help me against it, he wanted me to trigger with 2,500 units of HCG (instead of 10,000 like last time) and 1ml of Lupron (which i had never taken). Our pharmacy is in Beverly Hills, and even though it'd be nice to go towards the UCLA area, Geoff had to get to a conference in DTLA, so our kind pharmacy tech had our meds sent over to our apartment. that was pretty stressful since i had to idea how i would know if the delivery was going to make it on time. luckily, it did! we triggered at 10:45pm. Our egg retrieval surgery is set for 9:45am wednesday morning. i felt sick all day, queasy and achy and with a headache. all side effects of the meds.

day 11: tuesday, october 6th, 2015
today, geoff is going to be at his conference since early morning until late evening. so it's the day before surgery and oliver and i are on our own, ready to explore the city. i am currently working on drinking my breakfast smoothie which i'm kinda force feeding myself. i woke up feeling a bit better but now with plugged ears. wtf? ahh, this journey sure is something!
we were able to spend the day with titi/bff isa; she came over and we hung out at our dtla rental, then took O to the park, then enjoyed lunch, then back to the park for adventures. our dear friend shanika came to see us there, too. such a blessing. we went back home and nino jake and titi/bff marlyna joined us. we were all starving by this point and decided we should order pizza! probably not what i should be having but balls to the wall! haha! we had a great time, and geoff was able to join us once he got out too!

day 12: wednesday, october 7th, 2015
we were pretty nervous about what we would do with oliver since geoff needed to be present for post-surgery directions. luckily, he was a dream all morning. he did start to whine when i got called back but geoff says he calmed down quickly. what can i say about surgery. it's weird and awkward and scary. i had the sweetest and most down to earth anesthesiologist that started befriending me mainly because i was nervous, i'm sure, but i am so grateful. we were talking about anything and everything and she confided that my dr was her dr for her ivf! next thing i new, i was on cloud 9, happy as can be, with all of them laughing hysterically since i apparently kept asking for champagne every time they asked me if I was ready for water. go me. lol. we retrieved 21 eggs. i was a little surprised it wasn't the same amount as last cycle but really, we only stimmed for 9 days versus 12 last time, so really it's a good number (average is 8-11). and as soon as the anesthesia wore off, my pain came in so high. my re came in and we discussed only using the 2012 sperm this time, and using it all if needed (the embriologist came to ask too). we discussed possibly trying for picsi and my anesthesiologist said she recommended some champs! haha, the best! geoff got us home and i felt so nauseous from the painkiller since i was still on an empty stomach and was in so much pain. i collapsed onto the bed and cried myself to sleep. i woke up to still-slightly-warm oats, i ate them best i could and fell back into sleep, waking and going back to sleep until the early evening. geoff went back to his conference at this point and came back with an acai bowl for me and then took O to get some dinner. o fell asleep and we watched the first episode of american horror story.

day 13: thursday, october 8th, 2015
i woke up feeling better and probably took a little too much advantage of it. around 8:30am we received our first fertilization report. out of 21 eggs retrieved, 17 were mature. they did picsi on those and 13 fertilized- same number as last time. we checked out and we walked around lacma today and the trip home was long and hard. bumps hurt. i broke down. we got home past midnight and geoff gave me the first progesterone in oil (pio) shot, and ouch. it made me sob and i cried myself to sleep. i am feeling frustrated and sad. such a hard journey.

day 14: friday, october 9th, 2015
i woke up earlier than my body and mind wanted me to and went to work. i wouldn't have but grades were due and i had already missed four days in a row. it was a busy day but luckily ended early. i came home and rested until the boys got home. still feeling a bit low.

day 15: saturday, october 10th, 2015
spent the day taking meds, not changing out of my pjs and finally showering at 9pm. then breaking every rule and having geoff fulfill an ice cream craving after. baaad. we got a call from our dr's office with day 3 fertilization report. our 13 embryos are still thriving. one is even passed the 8 cell stage. thank God. seriously. i didn't even want to hear anything, thinking the worse. but this was exactly the boost we needed. tomorrow we travel back to la since our monday embryo transfer has a 7am arrival.

day 16: sunday, october 11th, 2015
today was our travel day! i started feeling like i was getting a head cold 3/4 of the way into the trip. noooooo!