My Aching Head

As this in vitro process has progressed, I've noticed that I have had a lot of headaches.  I'm not prone to them, but clearly they are a side effect of the process.

The first bad headaches, of course, came from the many tears shed at various occasions, whether they were a result of the incredibly acute pain from the HCG test or the IUI attempt being unsuccessful.  In those instances, however, the headache was shot lived.  I would take some Ibuprofen, go to sleep and wake up feeling like myself again.

Now, however, the headaches are brought on by the ever increasing hormones I'm injecting into my abdomen on a daily basis.

At first the headaches would come on around 4 or 5pm and sitting in a darker room would provide relief.  Then, over the weekend, the headaches started closer to noon.  I found that a midday nap would help a little bit, but then this morning I woke up with the headache.  I didn't realize how sensitive I would be to light until I was driving to the office where I now sit with the blinds drawn and soft light from a lamp illuminating the space around me.  I can only assume the increased sensitivity and earlier onset are a result of adding the Ganirelix into the mix.  That's the GnRH antagonist which I started administering last night and I'm guessing that combining it with the FSH results in hormonal madness, hence the bad headaches.

Tomorrow I head back in early for more blood work and another ultrasound.  I'm crossing my fingers that all my little follicles (13 at the last count) will be ready for for the trigger shot and that the egg retrieval will be on Friday.  We shall see.