Another Hospital Appointment

If you found this blog during the A to Z Challenge you might have noticed that my theme was about IVF/ICSI treatment. It's something that we've had a false start on before and have been waiting to start again this year. The A to Z Challenge helped to kill some time between our initial appointment to start treatment (in March) and treatment actually beginning (now). It was quite useful seeing as it was the main thing I was thinking about, so I was able to share what I was thinking with everyone who reads the blog.

Kind of like therapy but less expensive. ;-)

At our last appointment we were given our provisional dates to start treatment with the first instruction being to call the hospital when I got my May period so I could go and collect my first lot of drugs. I should add here that I'm beginning to feel slightly alarmed by the casual way that I refer to 'picking up my drugs', 'taking my drugs' and generally 'being drugged up'. I suspect I should rephrase this slightly because people might start to worry about me.

Anyway, because life just works that way, it took ages for the May period to actually arrive. When it did I made the call (and couldn't get through, left a message, tried again and again and again) and booked an appointment, which we went to last Wednesday.

We met a lovely nurse, S., who knows the little island where we live so we spent about half the appointment talking about people and places we knew. During the appointment the nurse we saw last time, C. stopped in for something and said hi. I love it when things like that happen, it makes you feel less like a patient and more like part of a team (which let's face it, when you're doing fertility treatment you're just a cog in a machine, a pretty important cog if you've got a uterus, but still just a small part of a whole all the same).

I was a little bit shocked to learn that while we were there I was to have more blood taken. I thought it was just Mr Click's turn on this particular trip. Apparently my face was a picture when I discovered I got to have some taken as well.

The main point of the trip to the hospital was to pick up the Metformin which I will be taking from Friday. As with last time, it's a single tablet in the morning for a week and then an extra one in the evening every day from the following week until you're told to stop. I didn't have too much trouble with it last time, the main side effect can be an upset stomach (which I'm hoping I continue to avoid) though I did get the decreased appetite and nausea which some people warn of. I got a bit headachy too (which I'm expecting again). I'll keep you updated on those.

We were in and out fairly quickly with instructions to call when I get my next period. That'll be for my first of many encounters with the dildo cam. As you can imagine, I'm really looking forward to that. Plus we'll get our crash course on the other medications I'll be on along with the injections. That'll be a fun one, I'm sure. ;-)

And then, as we were in Glasgow, I went clothes shopping.

It was technically IVF-related, since last time, once we started on the injections, my belly got a bit swollen from all the follicles I was developing and I couldn't do my jeans up. At the time I got by with unbuttoned jeans and long tops, this time I decided I needed something different so it was off to Matalan to stock up on leggings and jeggings. I feel the need to pause here to just question who came up with the word jeggings? You cannot say it and sound remotely grown up.

This means that I am actually venturing into the world of skirts and dresses as well. It's a whole new look for me.

Just don't expect to see any photos of that here any time soon. I might be feeling more confident in my wardrobe, but I'm not planning on making too many personal appearances on the blog!