Wow, it’s been a while! Almost 2 weeks since I went to the clinic.
Today I got a special delivery – the drugs that I’m going to inject myself have arrived, hooray! They are sitting in my fridge as we speak. I’ve made a video of me unpacking them, and will upload it here once I figure out how to do so… Now, note that not all the drugs have to stay refrigerated, but some do need to be. The nurse she told me that it’s fine to keep them all in the fridge and so that’s what I did. But as long as it isn’t too hot (under 25 degrees), you can keep some of them in room temperature. I got a massive box full of the stuff and now my fridge is quite full! Hopefully my flatmates won’t confuse it with food…
So last time I explained my reasons for doing this and talked a bit about the first stages of the process – initial checks, which consisted of a scan and a blood test, and consultation with a doctor. My clinic also offered a counselling session, which I chose to have. In addition, you need to have a valid smear test in order to start the process (this is done in the NHS so it’s free). Once you’ve done all of this and decide that you’re ready, you call the clinic and schedule another day to come in for some more checks. Note that they are only valid for 3 months, so you need to really be sure you’ll start the process within that time, otherwise you’ll have to pay for it again (£150 at my clinic). On the same day, you also see a nurse who goes through the process with you again and shows you how the injections work, and you can order and pay for the drugs.
That is what I did on that Friday. I met a very nice nurse who answered all my (somewhat hysterical) questions and gave me lots of forms to fill in and bring with me next time (of course I haven’t touched those yet, always a procrastinator…). She showed me how the injections work and gave me some printed instructions and a youtube link to help me with that. From what I could understand, I start with one injection every evening and after a few days add an additional one in the mornings. Then, two days before the egg collection there’s another injection. So pretty much injecting round the (biological) clock!
The evening injection doesn’t look that bad – it’s like a pen that you stick to yourself, so I think I can handle it. The morning one, however… It’s a powder that you have to mix with a liquid and then put back into a syringe, and then make sure there are no air bubbles (scared yet??), because, you know, those can kill. So while trying to reproduce you might accidentally kill yourself. Well, this really freaked me out. It’s now been 11 days and I don’t really remember everything that she explained… Oh well, I’ll just take it step by step and see how it goes. Oh, and I forgot – side effects. There will be some. She only mentioned feeling tired, but I’m sure there are more. Apparently you need to do the injections at the same time every day, and you should avoid drinking alcohol and drink a lot of water. Two litres a day. And only one cup of coffee. God help me.
Then it was time to order the drugs and proceed to be tested for HIV and other STIs. But first I had to make another gamble – how many days of medication do I pay for? You get an initial amount that lasts for 9.5 days, but most people take anything between 8 and 15 days to have enough eggs. You can’t predict how many days you’ll need, and every additional amount of drugs means more money you need to spend. So I decided to add another 2 days just in case (for now), and paid for 11 days. If this is not enough I’ll have to buy more.
After seeing the nice nurse and paying for the checks (£150) and the drugs (£1162) I went to see another nice nurse who took some blood and urine and dismissed me. And there it was – it’s really going to happen! My checks were all clear by the way, in case you were wondering. And as I said before, today the drugs were delivered and safely placed in the fridge. I’m now waiting for the first day of my period and will then call the clinic and have a first scan. Seems like I’m all set and ready to go. And this is really bloody happening.
Me and my eggs 