Tag Archives: Lupron

Sham-Wow

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I just have a quick little update today. As I wrote yesterday, my lips started tingling and feeling a little bit numb about an hour after I took the Lupron shot. As the day progressed the numbness got worse and my hands started to feel numb too. The worst part was that my legs suddenly started itching to the point that it felt like fire ants were crawling on me. The doctor said I was having an allergic reaction to the Lupron and needed to stop taking it immediately. He switched me to the Ganirelix protocol. Ganirelix prevents premature ovulation just like Lupron, but you don’t start taking it until you begin to produce eggs. Luckily this wasn’t too big of a snafu and it won’t change the timing or anything else. Thank goodness!

The tingling and numbness finally stopped, but my legs continued to itch mercilessly. I had promised to help my little cousin do her makeup for prom, and I was determined to be a woman of my word. When I got to her house I was running around like I had ants in my pants. She had the brilliant idea of putting Chilly Pads (used by runners behind their neck) over my legs and I got immediate relief. A-lle-luia! I’m pretty sure her date’s family thought I was a weirdo, because I was essentially walking around covered in giant shammies. The moral of the story is: don’t be afraid to get creative when it comes to home remedies. You just never know what might work. 🙂

It’s Friday…let’s do shots!

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Happy Friday! Let’s take shots! Lupron shots, that is. I’m finishing up my last few days of birth control (Levora), and this morning I started 20 daily units of leuprolide acetate, or Lupron. This stage of IVF is called suppression. It puts your body into a temporary state of menopause and allows your ovaries to rest. After all, they are about to be put into overdrive producing as many follicles in a week as most people produce in a year or two. The Lupron also dramatically lowers estrogen levels and, therefore, allows my doctor to regulate my body’s production of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH). Ovulation cannot occur naturally on Lupron because LH, which stimulates ovulation, is suppressed. This prevents a premature release of LH before the egg retrieval procedure.

I know this sounds like a lot of medical mumbo jumbo. In a nutshell, these meds won’t let me ovulate until the eggs have reached maturity and my doctor is ready to go in and retrieve them. It’s only been a few hours, but the only side effects I’ve had so far are numbness and a tingling sensation in my lips. Now I know how Kylie Jenner feels. I’ll post a full update when I go back to the doctor to start the stimulation phase next Thursday (May 21st). If anything interesting or funny happens in the mean time, I’ll be sure to let you know. Have a great weekend, y’all! Drink a cold one for me 🙂