Frustrating Recovery

I've been making progress, but it's of course been slower going than I like.

It took until yesterday to finally be able to button my jeans AND be able to sit with them buttoned without pain. The bruising below my belly button was quite extensive. It's also very annoying that the other two incisions are right on the front of my hip bones. I get the point in putting them there to disguise the small scars they will leave behind, but any pants I wear rub against them. The red rash and bumps on my butt from the PIO shots are finally fading. My butt still hurts from the shots. The pain has gone down, but it still hurts when it gets bumped and I have random sharp shooting pains. I went for a walk the other day and I attempted a mild jog. Not a good idea. The pain in my butt was unbearable. I was planning on starting running this summer, but that just isn't going to happen. I tried to do some digging on the internet and it looks like the pain from PIO shots can last for many months. I know one good friend that did them and two years later she can still feel the scar tissue when she runs. Not cool. Not cool at all.

I had another beta today to see if my level was negative yet. Last week it was down to 15. Today it was 3. I was all excited to be done with them until the nurse told me the doctor that did my surgery likes to see it at 0 or 1. So I have to go back next week for another beta. I'm incredibly frustrated by that. Next week is also my surgical follow up appointment. I'm guessing that won't be much of anything. I'm really hoping my cycles get back to normal quickly. I know it can take awhile after a miscarriage.

Our plan moving forward is to do more mini-IVF banking cycles before transferring. We have been blessed to have insurance coverage for IVF, however we are getting close to maxing out the benefit. Last year we spent over $20k on medical bills, including the cost of travel. I'm guessing we will spend more than that this year. We're going to do the three cycle package my clinic offers for around $12k. It includes three retrievals and three transfers. The monitoring will be covered by what we have left of infertility insurance money. We are going to do two mini banking cycles and then a transfer. If that transfer doesn't work, then I'll use up our last retrieval to bank again. Then we will proceed to transfer the remaining blasts. If none of them stick, then I think we will be done. I can't keep doing IVF forever. It's been almost a year since we started at our current clinic. Frustrating to feel that we haven't gotten anywhere. I'm guessing the earliest I will be able to do a banking cycle is the end of May, then another one in July and then a transfer in September. I prefer taking a month off in between cycles to give my body a break even though it does stretch out the timeline.

And of course, as always, I will be hoping and praying for a miracle baby to just pop up on its own.