Having moved to the Gulf Coast from the Midwest, I've always claimed to prefer hurricanes over tornadoes. Though both leave devastation in their wake, the advance warning you get from a hurricane allows time to prepare, time that I desperately crave. I love to plan, to organize, to get ready.
IVF is, in its own way, a hurricane of sorts. You've had time to plan, to prepare. You know what's coming. And yet, when it arrives, no one knows exactly what kind of damage it's going to do. Will the side effects be minimal, a minor "rain" of discomfort? Or will the winds of Lupron and Menopur destroy what's left of your fragile emotions? As you flood your body with injections and your mind and heart with hope, who can imagine what the fallout may be?
Hurricanes, like IVF, are unpredictable. No matter how many you've experienced, you can never know just exactly what to expect when the next one blows through. How many days of stims? Will you respond well, or not at all? Perhaps you'll overstim, and be forced to cancel. Or maybe, just maybe, you'll be a textbook case and make it all the way to retrieval, to transfer, to the day in which you finally see those two pink lines of legend.
My joint hurricanes, Ida and IVF, seem to be bumping into one another. My medications are scheduled to arrive tomorrow, just as Ida makes landfall. Should the fallout from the storm allow it, our injection classes and bloodwork are scheduled for Wednesday morning.
The whirlwind has begun, and I can't help but feel that, though I know exactly what to expect, I really have no idea what's in store.
So funny -- the Mr. and I were just talking about this a few days ago, and how sometimes knowing something's coming produces that much more anxiety.
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth, it was totally like that for my IVF cycle -- I was anxious and terrified for about a month before, but then felt much better once I was in the throes of it. You still don't know what to expect from day to day, but at least you're in it, doing something.
Good luck with getting things started this week!
Such an apt analogy.
ReplyDeleteI hope both hurricanes are kind and gentle and don't leave havoc in their wake.
ReplyDeleteTornadoes give you some warning, but not enough to actually do something to prepare. That's why I prefer earthquakes (having grown up in CA). No warning at all and it is over just as you realize what is going on.
ReplyDeleteI hope you pass peacefully through the storms.
Wishing you all the best as you face the storms.
ReplyDeleteJust battan down the hatches and get ready to ride it out. Good luck. (also, I gave you an award!)
ReplyDeleteJust like Ida seems to have calmed down, I hope that the IVF storm is not nearly as bad as you fear.
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