New Fertility Treatment: Clomid

So as you may or may not know, M & I won't be having kids via the traditional bump-n-grind method.  Instead, I will be using a team of trained specialists to help my body figure out how to make the symbol of the unique and intimate love between two (or in this case, 2+) people - aka, a baby.

We started with a bunch of diagnostic tests - M is healthy and I appear to be generally healthy (now).  It started with blood (and other fluid) work, then I had an ultrasound, a HSG (imaging tests) and finally a laproscopy.  The blood work indicated that I have decreased ovarian reserve (what I heard: old eggs), clear fallopian tubes and a bit of endometriosis (which they took out during the laproscopy with a laser. how cool.).  This all results in a diagnosis of...wait for it...unexplained infertility. Whee.  We've also reached the end of what the insurance will pay for - they cover all the diagnostics, but once they name what's wrong with you, they don't cover any of the treatment. (Isn't that fantastic and totally logical?)

So now we start on a round of Clomid & IUI.  More about IUI later as I actually go through it.

Clomid is a pill; a 5 day supply from a Walmart pharmacy only costs $9.  I take it for five days, it helps (through a hormonal cascade) to make my body prep more than one egg per cycle.  This has the added advantage of making me full of estrogen with all of those attendant side effects.  I have taken this as a license to act however I want with the get-out-of-it free card of "chemically hormonal, sorry!"  I have prepped M for this potential interuption in our already a little-bit-crazy December.  He is not willing to actually make me a get-out-of-responsibility-free card for bad behavior.

Side effects that I actually experienced?
Day 1: This was the day after the dog had to be put down.  So I was a little weepy.  But not as much as I'd feared.  No dizziness, hot flashes, breast pain, etc. Weighed in at 123.0 lbs.
Day 2: This day involved a lot of housework and then a drive up to Dallas in anticipation of our attendance at a bowl game.  We stayed the night in a hotel with the SIL's and my parents.  So far, so good. Still no side effects
Day 3: Football day! I almost forgot to take the pill, but remembered right before I packed everything up.  Pretty basic day.  I got verrrrrry tired in the middle of the game and almost fell asleep on M's shoulder, but I woke up in time to watch Army finish it off and hear M sign the alma mater. Not sure if the sleepy was a side effect of the meds, but since I'd gotten plenty of sleep the night before, I don't know what else would have caused it.  I also got a quick stabbing pain where I think my right ovary is, but it lasted the span of two deep breaths and then went away.  Oh, also, I ate like crap - two hot dogs and split nachos with M.  Drank two large Coke Zeros.
Day 4: At home again, M and I adopted a puppy.  I spent a bit of time painting some shelving inserts in the garage.  No mood swings, but I was verrry tired at the end of the day.  We went to bed earlyish even though it was New Year's Eve.  I ate healthy food, but also drank beer and ate 5 meals (no, not five small meals, five full sized meals).  I was still weepy about loosing my Bailey, but I don't think we could call that a "mood swing."
Day 5: Last day.  I was tired again during the day, but not as extreme as before.  Weighed myself in the morning to see what my crap eating for five days had done to me....and I was at 120.0 lbs.  Wow.  I ate the 5 meals again and drank an entire bottle of wine.  Whoops.
Follow up: On Day 6, I am feeling dizzy, but that could also be from the bit of a hangover.  Stoopid wine. Any other follow-up symptoms will probably go in the comments section as they arise.

Other worries?
I have been warned that, since my ovaries are in overdrive, they are going to get bigger than usual while I'm on hormonal stimulants.  This means there is a greater chance of ovarian torsion - basically twisting them up around themselves and all the other crap in there (like ligaments, etc) - which would be a huge huge problem (emergency surgery, removal of an ovary, really reduce my changes of getting knocked up).  There is lots of conflicting advice out there on whether exercise is a good idea in a time like this.  Some people say "OMG, you should treat your body like it's made out of glass! I mean, OMG, like totally, ok?" (These people annoy me what with their no-foundation-in-fact and opinions-but-no-credentials and women-are-fragile-attitude. In case you can't tell.)  Others say exercise moderately - a long walk.  Others say just avoid twisty things like sit-ups and yoga and (maybe) jogging.

I went for a super-lite jog on Day 2 (kept my heart rate below 140 bpm, which is basically a fast walk).  I'm keeping my eye out for more info, but there's a lot of opinion and not a lot of fact. Which is pretty much true of the entire infertility-interwebs world. Or true of the interwebs in general. Whatever.  I'm gonna go use The Google and check it out anyway.