Welcome to the nutty

I'm leaving the last post up for posterity, just so we know what pregnancy can do me. And later, when I tell you all how calm and relaxed I was, you can point that thing out to me and laugh and laugh and laugh. Good times.

That last post is an example of what happens when you don't sleep, don't have your husband home to hold on to, and when your previous record of non-stop pregnancy sickness is really doing better. Leading you to suspicious belief that something is wrong because you are NOT hugging the toilet.

I have discovered something brilliant though. When I don't inject the heparin regularly, I feel sicker. I can't do it every single morning at the same time, so I'm trying to change the time to later in the day, maybe evening. So I did it this afternoon instead, and tomorrow I'll move it to evening. Well, I felt nauseated all morning. And within 15 minutes of injecting it today, my nausea was gone.

I had the same reaction to hcg injections when I did those last pregnancy. But even at 2,500 units/shot their half-life was longer, about 3 days. That high was great! I felt like SUPERUTERUS for 2 days after each shot. (I'm not doing them this time, I may later if I can convince my drug dealer/RE/OB to give some.) Seriously, energy galore! No nausea! Great sex life!

There are several theories of why NVP exists, and Motherisk has loads of research on it, but my favorite theory right now, is that some women's bodies react to the new embryo improperly, and together they create the wrong "type" of hcg, and the placenta is improperly constructed as a result. (This can accumulate over time, so a first pregnancy can be successful, but each successive one as you get older and older is worse.)

Poor blood flow, and improper passage of nutrients, cells, etc. cause the nausea, similar to when your body senses you have a flu bug or have ingested germs somehow, and tries to get rid of it by throwing up. In theory, by replacing the bad hcg with good hcg from healthy women, you can hopefully construct a good placenta. Or by using heparin or baby aspirin, or both, you can hopefully build a good placenta, and keep it from blocking up the arteries and veins, or inflaming the whole damn thing.

And hopefully get a live baby out of the whole adventure.

Anyway, the hcg injections were easy 3 years ago but the heparin shots haven't been. The first three days are marked by three bruises, each worse than the last. But thanks to Bea and the IVF Shoot 'Em Up site, today went like breeze! I'm on 5,000 units of fragmin, but it felt like nothing after following her instructions. Thanks Bea! You are a GENIUS!