6 Days To Go - Intralipids

So last night I started spotting and freaked out that they were going to cancel my cycle.  By morning the spotting had stopped but I was still really nervous.  At 10am I went for my monitoring appointment.  Kristen was my nurse which was great because she knows me so well and could calm me down.  During the ultrasound, she measure my lining about 5 times and each measurement was over 8 which is great.  The lining is where it needs to be and it has grown since the last appointment so things are moving in the right direction. They took my blood to test the estrogen levels, which came back a little low but still in the normal range.  They added an extra vivelle patch so now I'm on 3 patches changed every 3 days.  I also got the rest of my calendar for the rest of the cycle.  Because of the spotting and my anxiety over all this, I requested another monitoring appointment.  I didn't want to go almost a week and then just show up for a transfer so I am going back on Friday for a piece of mind appointment.

At the appointment we turned in all of our consent and legal forms.  We both signed on the dotted line to transfer 2 embryos.  So it looks like we are going full steam ahead with transferring both embryos.

The bigger news of the day is that today was the day for my intralipid infusion.  This has been a long time coming.  I originally scheduled an appointment with a company that does them way back in June for September.  When I came back from Hawaii there was an email waiting for me from the company stating that they were going out of business in San Diego and they were cancelling my appointment.  I scrambled all of last week to find another place that could do in and compared cost.  The intralipids could have been done at my doctor's office, but the costs was really high.  I was able to find an outside company that did it for 1/4 of the cost and after 5 IVF cycles, every dollar counts at this point.

Here is some info about intralipids from an article on ABC News. 

Intralipid infusion therapy is a sterile fat emulsion containing soy oil, chicken egg yolk, glycerine and water.  The infusion is in liquid form and administered intravenously.  It is a non invasive procedure carried out in clinic as part of a treatment cycle.  Research has found that raised natural killer cell activity (toxic white blood cells) can act against an embryo and prevent its implantation into the endometrium.  This is known as implantation failure.  In addition, some autoimmune disorders can also have a detrimental impact upon the healthy implantation and early progress of an embryo which can also cause implantation failure and early miscarriage.  Intralipid therapy is designed to combat these factors.

My appointment was at noon today.  The company was located in a business park.  Inside it had a room for infusions, some admin cubicles, some offices and a giant lab where the make the IV drugs.  I walked in and picked a chair.

I have had a few friends do this ahead of me so I knew what to expect and what to bring.  I bought a neck pillow, a blanket, magazines, my iPod, some snacks and an eye mask.  They provided water and snacks, but none of the snacks were gluten free some I'm glad I brought my own.  The neck pillow definitely made it more comfortable.  The blanket was to put over the IV so I didn't have to look at it.  The magazines are really easy to read as compared to a book.  Remember you only have one hand, the IV arm is not that usable and a friend of mine that brought a book was unable to read it with just one hand free.  The iPod just helped to pass the time.  From start to finish I was there about 2 hours and 45 minutes but part of that was arriving early to fill out paperwork.  The eye mask was in case anyone else was in the room with me.  They have three chairs and can book all three at the same time if needed.  I would have worn the the mask if someone else was in the room, I am just not very good at looking at needles.  Luckily I had the room to myself.

I had a small amount of paperwork to fill out and a ton of questions to answer.  My main concern was making sure that every single thing was latex free.  After my last latex allergy issue with my last surgery that is the last thing I wanted to deal with.  After everything checked out they started to make my infusion in the lab.  The weird thing was that it was bright white.  I wasn't expecting that.  All the other IVs I've had have been clear so it was just weird.

I tried my watermelon trick again and it worked like a charm.  The IV was started on the first try. They connect the intralipids to a machine and the drip starts.  From this point, it takes a little less than 2 hours to finish.  So I put my neck pillow on, placed the blanket over they IV on my arm, put my iPod earbuds in and tried to relax.  The nurse didn't stay in the room with me, but about every 20 - 30 minutes would come in and check on me, ask me how I was feeling and then would take my temperature and blood pressure.

The IV was not painful but the whole experience was upsetting.  It brought about a lot of emotions.  I was mad.  Mad that I was there having to do this.  Mad that the whole infertility journey is just so unfair and takes forever.  Mad that I am in the position of pumping weird things into my body on the off chance that this will work.  I put on Pantera and just went with my feelings.  Pantera is the best band to listen to when you are upset, it is just angry pissed off music.  About an hour into the treatment, I started to feel less angry and just accepted of the situation.  I read my magazine and switched to listening to Velvet Revolver.

There was very little physical side effects of the intralipids.  The main thing is the arm with the IV in it got really really cold.  I was glad I had the blanket to cover up looking at it as well as keeping me warm.  I also got really tired towards the end.  As soon as it was over, i came home, through on some pjs and took a quick nap.  However, that could have been the stress and anxiety of the day finally being over too.

For those folks in San Diego, here is the information about the clinics in the area that do intralipid infusions.

Corum Infusion Services
858-576-6969 (phone)
866-484-4397 (fax)


Crescent Healthcare
858-547-8487 (phone) 
858-578-5372 (fax)

Thanks for Reading,
HEATHER