Happy Halloween!

Guess what… they weren’t kidding when they said the Repronex could cause “injection site redness and pain.” I’ve had two injections with Repronex now, and both have left itchy red welts on my belly. And I thought the bruises looked bad! Yikes!

Mike got the call from the clinic about his critical morphology analysis the other day. He was advised that he has a high level of abnormal sperm, so they recommended we do a procedure called intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI, pronounced ick-see). They said it was possible for the IVF to work without it, but that our chances were dramatically higher with it. Basically, they are able to isolate the healthy-looking spermies and inject one directly into each egg to fertilize them. That way we don’t have to worry about them being able to break through the egg’s shell or get to where they’re supposed to be going. It’s an added expense, of course, but we think it’s well worth the cost. Our grand total is up to about $7800, plus medications and co-pays, but they’re pretty insignificant now.

I go visit the vampires this Halloween morning. I’ve got a prescription for this blood draw, so I’ll only have to go as far as Riverside Hospital. On days I don’t have to have an ultrasound, I can do blood draws there, which is nice. Most of the techs there are nice, with the exception of one male vampire with a foreign accent (Transylvanian???). He argued with me once about where he was going to take my blood. He thought he was going to get it out of my hand. Silly him! The veins in my hands are worse than the ones in my arms. He then proceeded to tell me that he would only stick me the one time and if he didn’t get it then he would have someone else do it. Well, la-ti-da! Bring someone else on! You still aren’t poking me in the back of my hand! Anyways, I won that argument and he got the blood on the first try in my arm. Other than that, there’s not much to report on the infertility front.

This weekend was hectic. Mary Ellen’s dog Scoobie escaped from the back yard on Saturday, sometime before 1:30pm. Mary Ellen, Mike and I spent about 5 or 6 hours looking for him Saturday, and several hours on Sunday checking the pound and humane society, and putting up flyers. FINALLY someone called to say they had him. Whew! He has no idea how much he was missed! I’m abbreviating this whole ordeal because otherwise, Mary Ellen (and me) will probably cry every time we read it, and I can’t be having that.

Well, I'm off to bed. I have to get up early for the blood-sucking so I'd better get some rest. Hope everyone has a Happy Halloween!