Annoying Reminders

Courtesy of Google Images

One of the things that annoys me the most about IVF is having to set an alarm as a reminder to take all of my various pills/injectables/insertables.  But, alas, I need the alarms in order to take the drugs at the required time... otherwise I get distracted with life, work.

It's not the actual setting of the alarm that annoys me, it's when the alarm goes off.  Like I need multiple reminders a day that I'm infertile and am now working on my THIRD IVF... but that's really what the sound of that alarm represents...  hey you, yeah, the Infertile one... it's time to stop life and set up your sterile area for your injections, pull the vials out of the refrigerator and let them warm up to room temperature so you can stick yourself (and bruise your belly) because, while there is no guarantee you'll have a baby by doing this day-in and day-out, there IS A GUARANTEE that you WILL NOT HAVE A BABY if you don't!

But the message the alarm sends is not the point of this post... it's just the alarm itself that's caused some annoying and uncomfortable moments.  I've had two recent incidents of bad timing with the alarm.

Acupuncture
The first incident was a few weeks ago... it was the reminder to take my BCP/Letrozol at 6pm daily.  I was at acupuncture...  you see where I'm going with this...  I had just replaced my iPhone a couple of days before (I'm so happy to be back on Verizon!) and I flipped the switch to Silent on my way to acupuncture.  Yet at 6pm.... RING... (old fashioned telephone sound)... RING... RING... RING... RING... RING... RING... RING... RING... RING... RING... RING... RING...  (warning:  with the iPhone 4, the alarm rings audibly even when the phone is set to Silent)   RING... RING... RING... RING... RING... RING... RING... RING... RING...

You get the idea, right?  Phone alarms don't take a break unless you hit snooze... so it just continues... RING... RING... RING... RING... RING... RING... RING...

Well, while I'm getting used to needles (and I used to be a needle-phobe) I am NOT getting off the table with needles sticking out of my head, abdomen, hands, legs and feet.  Moving around the room to get to my phone and shut the alarm... it's just not an option.  I yell out to my acupuncturist...  'A'...  I keep yelling out her name every few rings... I'm getting louder and louder... but she doesn't hear me.  I'm not kidding when I say 10 minutes passed before she finally came in and fished my phone out of my purse for me.  I didn't realize the walls were soundproof!

Yes, the benefits of that acupuncture session was a #fail.

Monitoring
Oh yes, I'm going there...  Yesterday, I was in for morning monitoring at 7am.  I had my bloodwork done, waited to be called back to an exam room, finally went back, got undressed from the waist down... you know the drill...  I sat back with my feet in the stirrups and my paper sheet covering my lower half and read my Kind.le waiting on the doctor to check my follies and lining.

In comes the doctor (not my doctor).  Over the last 14 months I've seen each doctor in the practice numerous times but they still tend to walk in and introduce themselves, like it's the first time we've met.  I know they see a ton of patients... but really...  you've seen me a dozen times or more over the last year+.  And this doctor starts asking me what I think about stimming so far... like it's my first time at bat.  Again, I don't expect him to know my case history off the top of his head... but at the same time... this is my third time in for IVF (not to mention all of the IUI's)... given the amount of business I've given them... anyway, not the point of this post!

So the Doc is in position and Wandy is doing its thing, the nurse is writing down the sizes of all of my follies and.... TRILL... TRILL... TRILL... TRILL... TRILL... TRILL.... TRILL... TRILL... TRILL... TRILL... TRILL... (I changed my alarm tone after the BCP/acupuncture incident because I couldn't stand to hear the RING... RING... RING... any longer).  Kind of ironic to be in the stirrups for monitoring when my alarm reminder for my morning injections goes off.

Of course, my purse (where my phone is) is across the room next to my pants.  I asked the nurse to grab it and I finally turned it off... all the while, the doctor barely pauses and continues to call out follicle sizes.


The good news is I have so many follies (the news I find disappointing is that they were all only 3 and 4mm in size).  The doctor was encouraging because I didn't have any outliers... they are all consistent in size.


Today I'm thankful for having 11 follies... more than I've ever had during this stage of IVF.  And, while I don't like the alarm itself, I am thankful to be in the age of technology that makes it so easy to set multiple alarms (labeled) and carry it with you... as much as I can't stand that damn alarm.

And now I need to pick another new alarm sound... any recommendations?  I find them all annoying.

Clueless

Back on the hormones again (to be read to the tune of "Back in the Saddle again").  I think my body, particularly my brain, acclimated back to the hormones immediately!

I have become... CLUELESS...  I am now what I would absolutely call "flighty".  I can't hold my train of thought, concentrate and sometimes I even have a hard time spelling.


Photo courtesy of Chic and Charming (I just had a hard time spelling "courtesy")


Sunday morning, I was out running errands.  I took a different route to the Home Economist Market and ended up driving several miles past my turn before I even realized I was driving aimlessly.  I attribute this to the lack of stress I feel right now... I was just taking a Sunday drive.

That's right my friends, I said LACK OF STRESS!  You should be so proud of me because I told my boss NO on Friday when he tried to get me to take the lead on another project using a technology I've never worked with, IVR (the phone robots we all hate).  But, I digress from the subject at hand.

After my Sunday morning errands I got back home and realized I didn't get trash bags.  Trash bags were very important to my goals for the rest of the day: declutter the house.

I grabbed my keys and drove the 3 blocks to the grocery store to pick up trash bags... and about 5 other items (because who can really go to the store and only pick up the single item they intended).

It was just past church time, which means the store was extremely busy.  I waited in line for a while and finally got to my own personal uScan - self check out - only to realize my purse was not on my arm....  Where was my purse?  I had breezed through the store so fast I know I didn't put it down in the store.  Did I leave my purse in the car???

My favorite employee at the grocery was working the uScan station.  He knows my name, always greets me with recognition, sometimes waving across the store and always has a smile.  Do you have any strangers in your life like that?  A person you don't know but you know, and when you see them you feel pleased?  Anyway, that's how I feel about my favorite employee at the grocery store... and again, I digress.  Point being, I left my basket with him while I went to find my purse.

Long story, less long, I had left my purse at home.  I had only grabbed my keys when I left the house in such a spontaneous fashion.  Home I went, grabbed my purse, went back to the store, yadda, yadda, yadda.

I've had a hard time concentrating and have gotten my cliche's wrong.  Yesterday on a work call I was thanking everyone for "turning on the speed of a dime".... yeah, that didn't make sense, but everyone knew what I meant.

Also, my monitoring appointment was yesterday.  Normally, as many of you know, I work from home.  I needed to be in the office for meetings yesterday so I had to go in straight from my appointment at the RE.

My instructions were to wait until after my monitoring appointment to do my injections.  I had a plan... I took my injectables into the doctors office with me and as I was getting dressed after my ultrasound I did my injections.  But since I was going straight to the office I had to keep the vials cool.  I had a small cloth lunch bag and used that to keep the medicine and put in the work refrigerator. I noted to myself (but not on paper) not to forget them when I left the office.

Well, as I was leaving, a business partner was leaving and we talked all of the way out of the building.  I was 4 blocks from my house when I realized my medicine was still in the refrigerator at work...  You know what comes next - U-turn.

So my monitoring appointment yesterday revealed 7 follicles all under 10.  The doctor (not my doctor) told me "it will be a while" before retrieval time.  I am continuing more of the same from my protocol.  This means I'll continue my adventures as the modern day Cher, from Clueless...

What flighty adventures will I get into next?