Day 3 - Ultrasound

We got up bright and early for a trip to the fertility clinic. For those of you following my trouble getting subs, you'll be happy to know (and I was surprised) that I actually had one for this morning. So we took the long drive across town.

First was bloodwork and then the ultrasound. I'm very curious about the ultrasound machine. It fascinates me, even as many times as I've seen it now. And I always want to touch it, but I don't. Mostly because my girlfriend won't let me. There's no keyboard, but somehow it always has my name at the top of the screen. It's called a Sonic Touch but one time my girlfriend thought it said Sonic Ouch because the T was covered or something. Could you imagine, Sonic Ouch? Lol, I don't think a lot of people would want that in their vagina. There's a button on it with a snowflake. My girlfriend watched today and that's the button that freezes the screen for images. And it's a snowflake! Well, I think it's funny anyway.

We usually don't have much time to admire the Sonic Touch. The doctor came in and we got down to business. I always look at the screen but I still have no idea what the hell is going on there. It looks like gray blobs to me, except that I can recognize my ovaries and I can see my bladder if I have to make water, which I did today, so I could see it. My doctor can somehow tell how the uterine lining is progressing and a whole bunch of other things. She said everything looks great and we are on schedule.

They also said that we have to make a final decision next week about how many embryos to transfer. It's a dilemma. This IVF method uses usually just one, but the odds could be better if we transfer two. But then we might get twins, which we don't want. It's a tough choice. We're going to ask the doctor next week and defer to her judgment.

The nurse gave us some new instructions. Tonight is the last night at the high Lupron dose and I am happy because I've been getting some nasty headaches from that shit. Tomorrow we go down to the normal dose and start the estradiol.

Now that we're so close to the transfer, I face a new problem. I have been a vegetarian since I was about 13. And on top of that, I have a terrible diet. I knew I'd have to change my eating habits and I also knew protein would be a problem. I don't care for beans and I won't touch tofu or soy. I know. Some vegetarian I am. I had planned to eat chicken and fish for the pregnancy and I didn't think it would be a problem. I was actually looking forward to hot wings and stuff.

Well, it was a problem. Of course. I tried eating some chicken nuggets and my body literally would not let me swallow. I couldn't get it past my gag reflex. It wasn't the taste or texture, that was all fine. I literally just could not eat the chicken. And I don't know that any amount of trying is going to get the chicken past an almost 20 year mental block.

I could probably develop a taste for beans and I'm still going to give that a try, but I decided that a protein supplement is going to be best for me. I went to GNC (a nutrition store, if you've never heard of it) and talked to the guys there for a while. They gave me a couple of shakes and drinks to try. Well, not gave. I bought them. Anyway, I had one with dinner tonight, but it was gross. So I did some more research online and found an unflavored powder that has great reviews on Amazon. I ordered a pound and it should be here Thursday (yay Amazon Prime!)

I figure I can mix an unflavored powder into something I know I like. The Amazon reviews say that this powder dissolves well and really has no flavor. Most people mix it in milk and I can handle that if it really is unflavored. If this doesn't work, I don't know what I'm going to do. Vegetarians can have perfectly healthy pregnancies, but like I said, I don't have the typical vegetarian diet. So this has to work.

My next appointment is Monday morning, so I'll write more then.