Ouch!

My morning monitoring appointment went well in that my ovaries are responding to the meds, but it didn't go so well in that the nurse had the hardest time finding blood. It's not that I don't have enough of it, it's just that my veins do not want to part with it, apparently. 

The nurse tried in my right hand first and got only a few drops. My hand blew up really badly, so she moved on to my left elbow, but no dice (yeah, yeah, I know I'm not supposed to have any blood draws there, but I was desperate, ok!). Ditto for the first try on the right elbow, but then she finally got some blood. All of this took forever (in felt time) and made me late for my next appointment, not to mention scared for the next week. After all, I'm on daily monitoring now, which means daily blood draws. Let's hope they find a good vein tomorrow...but today definitely did not have a good vein day. Hopefully, by egg retrieval day I'll have one good vein left somewhere for them to put the IV for the sedation in... Keep your fingers crossed for me.

So tonight my hand is blue and swollen, my numbness much worse and I'm having trouble typing. Ditto with the general dexterity, which made the three injections hard. I feel like such a pincushion. Tomorrow I'll have TWO blood draws, actually. One for the IVF, and one for my poison man, aka medical oncologist Dr. V. But that one comes out of the finger at least... but still, OUCH...

It's all for a good purpose, it's all for a good purpose, it's all for a good purpose, it's all for a good purpose. I keep reminding myself of that...

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. 

Three things I am especially thankful for today:

That DH was there with me through it all to hold my hand. That the radiation oncologist Dr. B that I saw today was really nice, frank, and took me seriously. That my follicles are growing.