clomid cycle # 1 post mortem

Today is cd 2. So, obviously, the first cycle of clomid was not a complete and unmitigated success. But . . . I did ovulate! So that's a victory of some sort, right? Here are the facts:

1. Clomid (50 mg) days 2-6.
2. Haphazard supplementation with flaxseed oil/evening primrose oil days 3-10.
3. Basic multivitamin each day.
   
4. Guaifenesin days 7-18 (this was partly for the cervical mucous benefit and partly because I had some kind of evil illness located in my head and chest for much of this cycle).
5. Amoxicillin days 23-end of cycle and beginning of next (for evil illness . . . I was worried about this but Dr. RE's nurse assured me it would be safe and was certainly necessary).
6. Pre-seed days 10-13.
7. My very own eggwhite quality cervical mucous days 15 & 16 (especially 16).
8. Thermal shift (now that I have evaluated my cycle as a whole and thrown out one aberrant temperature) on day 19.
   
9. Presumably ovulation was on day 18. This is 2 days outside the 5-9 day range I was told to expect.
   
10. Nice luteal phase - 13 days of temperatures staying up, up, up above coverline.
11. Post-ovulatory breast tenderness/pain which peaked on Christmas eve (11 dpo), causing me to temporarily lose complete grip on my sanity and convince myself that I was pregnant, have welcoming chat (not out loud!) with nonexistent embryo, and almost (but I restrained myself) tell my MIL that I thought I really, truly might be pregnant.
12. Consolation prize for ovulating and not getting pregnant: seriously evil period. Painful cramps and heavy, bright red flow showed up yesterday afternoon (the morning began with a temp that dropped to the coverline and spotting that I tried to convince myself wasn't as bright red as it really was).
    

Yesterday I was crushed. I was depressed and angry and not fun to be around.

But today I am suddenly optimistic again. I am very excited that I ovulated. As far as I know, this was just the second time in my life. Ever. Which means that I do respond to clomid and that the dose does not need to be increased (yet). I was so worried about side effects but the worst of it for me was one night of nausea, two days of bloating, and three days of headaches. None of that was fun, but it's certainly not enough to make me not want to try another round. Also, there did not seem to be an adverse effect on my cervical mucus (the only other time I've ever seen real-true-just-like-the-pictures-in-the-book eggwhite was the one other ovulatory cycle I've had). Also, judging from the vast quantities of blood lost in the last 36 hours or so (much, much, much heavier that my usual anovulatory bleeding) I would hazard a guess that there was no problem with my uterine lining (obviously, this is just a guess, though).

I panicked this morning when I realized that my follow-up RE visit was two weeks away and we hadn't discussed what to do next. I called and there was much discussion of my chart with the nurse, who spoke with Dr. RE and then phoned me back to say go ahead with the clomid on days 2-6 again. Yesterday started with spotting, so today is technically cd 1 according to the nurse, which means clomid starts tomorrow. The official post mortem for this cycle will be at my follow-up appt, which will be day 15 of this cycle, and if last time was any predictor, I will be a few days from ovulating yet. I may ask if we could measure progesterone to verify ovulation this time. We talked about it last time, but he recommended a few cycles of just bbt. We'll see how I feel at my next appt.

I am sure that I am the only one interested in this level of detail . . . so I suppose this post was mostly to make a record for myself to look back at next time. Thanks for playing along at home.

So, what I have learned:

1. 50mg of Clomid is enough to make me ovulate.
2. 11 days of high temperatures and really, really sore boobs does not mean I am actually pregnant.
3. The nurses at my RE's office are easy to get in touch with (polar opposite of my gyn), helpful, and nice. (I had to call twice, once about the antibiotic and once about what to do next.)

Happy New Year!!!