First Milestones

So, we've made it to eight weeks, which is longer than two of the other pregnancies.  During all four of them I had started spotting by this point.  I suppose I have the Endometrin (progesterone) to thank for this change for the better.  It comes in delightful little 100 mg suppositories I have to put where the sun don't shine every twelve hours.  Inevitably they eventually dissolve and come out, which always sends me running to the bathroom to check for blood.  I haven't found any yet, so I'm gradually becoming less neurotic about it.  I'm also becoming less convinced the baby is going to spontaneously fall out if I walk around too much.  Not that it hasn't happened before.

More about Endometrin.  I read all the fine print on that two-foot long piece of paper in the box, and when I was done I almost didn't want to use it.  There is a long and colorful list of side-effects, some of which we're enjoying already

• abdominal pain
• nausea 
• abdominal distention
• fluid retention
• constipation
• vomiting
• fatigue and drowsiness
• urinary tract infection
• headache 
• mood swings
• depression
• irritability
• ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome
• uterine spasm
• vaginal irritation
• vaginal bleeding
• blood clots in the legs (thrombophlebitis)
• blood clots in the lungs (pulmonary embolus)
• blood clots in the eyes (blindness)
• blood clots in the heart (heart attack)
• blood clots in the brain (stroke)

The boldfaced are the ones I'm familiar with so far.  The constipation and abdominal pain have just about made me immune to the panic-inducing effect of cramping.  The real kicker was "Call your doctor immediately if you have abnormal vaginal bleeding."  I thought I was taking it to make the abnormal vaginal bleeding go away.  I've been buying anything I can get in cranberry to combat the mini urinary infections, which seems to be working so far, but more later on difficulties associated with eating.  Whatever.  We'll see what it brings us.  If the meds do what they're supposed to do and don't kill me in the process, that will be perfect.

Now, the perennial nausea.  I'm not sure whether I have hyperemesis this time or not because I stay as drugged-up as possible.  Even the Zofran is pooping out on me, so it must be bad.  My lofty ambitions of maintaining a perfect diet are long forgotten.  For alternative remedies, I found some chocolate-covered ginger at the organic market and some liquid concentrated ginger drops.  That stuff is not for the faint of heart.  Tastes like ginger ale but burns like battery acid.  I hate ginger.

In the meantime, any day without bleeding or vomiting is a relatively good day, even if I feel like crap the whole time.  I've put my face in the toilet at least four times, but always chicken out.  I really hate the smell of toilet water.  The problem is usually linked to the fact that I'm hungry, but nothing fresh and healthy looks even remotely palatable.  No one on the brink of vomit is going to lurch into the kitchen and make a green juice.  Even eating grapes is dangerous.  Relying on Chipotle every day isn't feasible, so my fallback was frozen burritos.  Failing, by the way, in my gluten-free aspirations.  Dave has been bringing me Chick-fil-A in the evenings to take the edge off.  Today I was driven to stumble out of the house in my pajamas with the cabin-fevered dog and swing by the nearest drive-through window, which happened to be Little Caesars.  Salt seems to be key.  The nausea keeps coming back unless I keep eating the salty fast food, and eating all the time with Endometrin-induced constipation does not do a body good.  I'm about to risk the peppermint.  I love peppermint, and it nukes the nausea quicker than anything else I've tried, but I read somewhere that it can cause uterine cramping.  Go figure, right?