How I Am Feeling After My First IUI

Trying to conceive after loss has been an emotional trek, yet somehow we keep finding the spirit to continue. I’m so glad that I sought out help from my doctors to help us along the way. After completing many tests and screenings, we dove in head first for our first IUI last week!

Here is how it went from my perspective.

Wednesday – I went in for my Cycle Day 12 follicle scan to see how my body responded to the day 3-7 Letrozole prescription. Honestly, I feel like I am always anticipating a little more information that I ever get but I never know which questions to ask. What questions do you ask at these appointments? The ultrasound tech said the lining to my uterus was looking healthy and measuring well (13.1), and I had two big, fat, juicy follicles! One was on the right (23mm) and one was on the left (17.5). She said that this was a great response, however, they were not both on the right side but there was a “beautiful follicle” on the right. My left tube is blocked but the tech did say it was a reasonable decision to go through with IUI because of the size of the follicle on the right. I called my husband and we decided that yes, we wanted to give this a go, that is what we had planned after all!

After the scan and checking in with the hubs, I had one of the nurses at my doctors office do the trigger shot for me. Why? Because I am a huge chicken and I know for a fact I would never be able to pull this off at home. After following all my #ttcsisters and #iuisisters on social media, I was totally expecting the trigger shot in the fatty tissue of my tummy. Apparently, that’s now how this goes when you have it done in the doctor’s office. The nurse asked me if I had a preference to which butt cheek I’d like her to stick me, to which I giggled and said no, and then I crossed my legs and bent over slightly so that she could stick me.

Follicle scan – check! Trigger shot – check! Appointment for IUI the next day – check!

Thursday – Thursday morning I realized why the nurse asked me if I had a favorite butt cheek for the trigger shot. I was up all night long! The side she chose to stick me was the side that I sleep on. I didn’t realize how sensitive the spot was until I tried to sleep and now I know how to respond to this question should we have to do this again (fingers crossed we won’t)! Other than that, I was a little crampy that morning from the shot but didn’t notice any other side effects.

Hubs went in for his part of the procedure at 11 am so they could gather a sample to wash and prepare the strong little swimmers for insemination. I met him at the hospital as soon as I got off work. We had lunch together and I felt like I could throw up! I was so excited but I was also SO nervous. I wasn’t really sure what to expect other than what I read on the internet, and we all know that everything we read on the internet is true. 😉 But I was also just nervous about the whole idea of this, I was nervous of getting my hopes up, I was nervous they would cancel it for whatever reason, I was just downright nervous.

The actual appointment was so fast and put me at ease right away. The sperm wash had high numbers and were in great shape, which put a big smile on my husbands face. The nurse also told us that just because one of the big follicles was on the blocked side doesn’t mean that it can’t be picked up from the right side. I will be looking more into this as I feel that is a useful piece of hope to know. The insemination was just like a pap with a little pinch. It was slightly uncomfortable but it had nothing on the HSG! It seriously took no more than five minutes. Use this time to be close to your husband, just in case our bodies can sense the love and use it as good juju. Hold your husbands hand, hug each other, just focus on being close and connected. (Confession: That was the advice my mother gave me). We relaxed in the room for a few minutes afterwards and then we went out to frozen yogurt to celebrate completing our first IUI. We were officially in the two week wait window!

Saturday – On Saturday, I started progesterone which I will stop if our pregnancy test is negative in 14 days from the day of IUI, and if it’s positive (please please please!) then I will be committed to taking it to about ten weeks. The progesterone they prescribed me is a suppository that I take one time a day, right before bedtime. Just like everything else, there is a long list of possible side effects for progesterone, but I have not really noticed anything. There is some leakage, totally gross I know, so don’t be alarmed if you see this and just have liners on hand.

It feels like it’s forever before we can test so I’m just trying to focus on other things and not drive myself crazy by thinking about it. We are both feeling happy and are hanging on to hope but we also know that there is no guarantee that this will work. We celebrated four years as a couple and our second wedding anniversary on Friday night (for those of you in the Seattle area – if you haven’t tried Tipsy Cow yet, it is a must! So good!), went out to dinner with some friends on Saturday night, and visited some other friends  at their new home Sunday night. Not isolating ourselves and getting too much into our heads has been positive for us so far and I am hoping to keep up the positive attitude through to next week!

I hope we have good news to share soon!