I Love Letrozole :-)

Let's see.....time to catch up.

The TTW was annoying as usual. I am not pregnant. Valentine's Day nearly killed me at work and I have now enjoyed three days off in a row to recouperate.

Yesterday we went to the aquarium with all the thousands of other's on Mass school vacation. So many kids to chuckle about in awe of the creatures on display. And then we had a killer dinner at Island Creek Oyster Bar over by BU/Fenway/Kenmore. Super-highly recommended! Today, we're going to a wine tasting, delish! Okay, now for the better baby stuff.

We met with our doctor just before my period started to come up with a game plan if I was in fact not pregnant (you know, since we're just so freakin pro-active and all, but I'm glad we did). This cycle, we decided to use Letrozole instead of Clomid (no more Clomid ever). It's the same deal essentially; take your dose over 5 days time prior to ovulation. The Letrozole and Clomid work differently in the brain and block different transmitters. The major difference for me: zero side effects. Litterally zero. *sigh* Awesome.

We also discussed using an ovulation 'trigger' Ovidrel injection. The injection is done in your stomach, and about 36 hours later, you go in for your IUI. Essentially, this let's the doctor time my ovulation as closely as possible to my IUI. Very exciting, well, except for the self-injecting part. This will be our track for the next 4 cycles....but this is the one, so we won't be needing the other 3.

So my nurse called in the prescriptions to CVS (like always). I got a message from CVS a few days later saying that my prescription was delayed. I called to see what that meant, and the lady on the phone said, 'Oh, it's because we wanted to let you know that one of the prescriptions is not covered by your insurance and costs $129.00.' More freakin money. She suggested that I call around to other pharmacies and see if I can get a better deal somewhere else. I am so glad I did because it really opened up my eyes to the fact that no two pharmacies prices are equal. The most expensive place (which was Walmart people) wanted $156.00 and the cheapest place (Walgreens) had a 'members club' that you could join and save money on prescriptions. For only $85.00, I got my Letrozole. Walgreens did not carry the Ovidrel injection that I needed so I went back to CVS to get it....only to discover that I had my prescriptions reversed in my brain and that the Ovidrel was the expensive one not covered by my insurance, not the Letrozole. FML!! I blame my mix-up on Valentine's Day Brain. Another $129.00.

Everything is getting more expensive. Midwest raised their IUI-ready specimen price to $525 including shipping and Dartmouth raised their IUI price to $407. Happy New Year, right?!

Ooohh Oooohh....and we went for an ultrasound to look at my little folicle eggies. It was really cool to see on the screen. They measured my eggs so that they could decide when they would be ripe enough to ovulate and then tell me when to take the injection.

Yesterday was day 12, and I gave myself the injection at 9:15pm. Our IUI is Monday at 10am :-)

My buddy Clomid and me

Oh my GOD. What is the deal with hormones? Why do we have them again (yes, I know why, but really)? I cannot wait for this to be over.

Today is day 4 of clomid. The first three days were worse than previous clomid cycles. I've been getting hot flashes, headaches, dizzy spells, vertigo, slightly blurred vision, a little nausea. Sounds pleasant, right?! How badly do I want that baby again?! Oh and to top it all off, I'm out of town buying for work.

It's a holiday, which means my nurse hasn't called me back. Her voicemail has a pager number to send a page to, but I don't know what that means...(hehe) so I think I'll google it. Pagers, that's so 20 years ago.

If you're out there, nurse, what I want to say to you is 'do I really have to take this for another day? I have to fly tomorrow.' Considering the vertigo that I had today, flying sounds horrendous and highly unpleasant as well for the poor sucker sitting next to me. After doing some of my own research, I discovered that all of these symptoms are common, but yet not. Only up to 10% of women have any or all of these symptoms.

Hold up, phone just rang and it was my fav nurse. She said I shouldn't take any more clomid and that vertigo/vision changes are not a good side effect....thank god. Also noteworthy, she said I should only do 3 clomid cycles before stopping, as I ovulate normally without clomid (apparantly there are risks after the 3-cycle point). No more clomid ever :-)

Another office visit is in our future I think.