CD 10: Blood test and trigger shot

I was full of beans for most of today even after the huge road trip (9.5hrs) yesterday, trying to get home from the clinic through a storm, floods, slips, bridges out, trees fallen over!

The fertility clinic had called yesterday and advised that I would need a blood test this morning (progesterone and something else...?) so I was up early, had my last Orgalutran injection, then it was off to the med lab to visit the vampires. I passed over my "regular fertility patient" card for the first time, and decided to get an HbA1c while I was there. The technician was really great and told me an awesome story about the last time she got stuck on the road after a crash involving, of all things, a molasses truck. Good times.

Work was alright and I taught my class fine. In the after-lunch session the nurse called to advise me of the exact time for the trigger shot (Ovidrel): 9.40pm tonight. Since the egg collection will be precisely 36hrs after trigger, that means our appointment will be 9.40am on Friday morning (CD 12).

Mid-afternoon I felt absolutely exhausted. Yesterday is really catching up with me! I went around to have a chat with my Mum, and the Dr G (who did the scan yesterday) called twice to give me advice about the egg retrieval procedure. I can't eat for 4, preferably 6 hrs before the procedure, and can't drink for 2hrs prior. If I go low I can manage things with small amounts of clear apple juice, but the doc would really prefer if I woke up early and ate a small breakfast (this would be at 5.40am). At one point she wanted me to disconnect the insulin pump altogether as she thought that would prevent hypos, but I quickly informed her that it delivers my basal and I can't take it off. She was cool with it once I explained the difference between basal and bolus doses, but man, I really hate when other medical professionals (especially well meaning ones I have only just met) make sweeping proclamations about Type 1 Diabetes management! She wanted to know what model of pump I had, cos, she said, if I had one of the newer ones with the cgm capability that would be better. Why yes, yes I do have one of those, and Animas Vibe with Dexcom CGM and it is fantastic. I should have done it ages ago. But hey.

Paracetemol (acetiminophen) is contra-indicated with the Dexcom, and the nurse yesterday had asked me to take 3 x panadol tabs before the procedure. Dr G confirmed that I could just skip that altogether as it would be far better to have Hubby able to monitor my blood sugars, and they could manage my pain with fentanyl and codeine... good stuff. Codeine normally doesn't cut pain for me, it only makes me loopy. And I have had fentanyl before with no pain so I figure I should be fine. I confirmed that they will have a dextrose drip handy should I go low during the egg collection, and to get the cannula line in as soon as possible. That's all I really wanted them to do. I did not want suggestions on the pump or anything, I can do that thanks, been doing diabetes management for 25 years, and now Hubby and I have the Dexcom it's taken it, in his words "from a dark art to a manageable science." Indeed.

Oh, and I also had to do an infusion site change, and a dexcom site change! I was working my way through those site changes methodically while Hubby cooked dinner, and it took me over half an hour. By the end of it I thought I was going to slide off my chair with tiredness, but a tasty dinner of fish cakes, bacon, eggs on toast worked well to perk me up.

I took a shower after dinner, and didn't hear any of the reminder alarms going off telling me to take the Ovidrel. Whoops! step out of the shower and the insulin pumps says 9.39pm OMG rush out dripping and rip the Ovidrel out of the fridge. I quickly prepped my skin with an alcohol wipe and stabbed it in no probs. But man, I could have thrown the whole schedule out of whack!

No drugs or anything tomorrow. We have been madly checking the road closure websites, and it looks like we should be able to take our preferred route up tomorrow afternoon. Although Hubby has also been checking the airlines to make sure we can take a flight should it all go pear shaped! I figure we are setting off the afternoon prior to our appointment for a 3 hr journey, that should give us enough time to drive even the longest way should we need it. But I have to teach one more class tomorrow before we leave. Thankfully I will only miss one class this week (I don't teach Friday's on this semester) and then maybe another couple of days next week if we get to embryo transfer. Fingers crossed. I believe I am calm now, but I suspect I might get more tense and nervous once the transfer takes place cos then it's just up to me.