Blood robbers, betas, and boobs

Rewind back to when I initially began my monitoring appointments prior to the transfer. Before this process began, one of the things I secretly hated the most was having my blood drawn. I've always managed to keep my cool and pretend everything is fine, while in my head I'm freaking out and dread every single moment of it; the tying of the rubber band, the tapping on my vein, the cold feeling and smell of the alcohol swap (because I know what follows), the term "here's a little stick", the TERM stick, the initial stick, sitting there and hoping they're almost done and don't have to stick me again, and the feeling of the needle coming out and having to put pressure on the gauze afterwards. Oh and just the mere SIGHT of the bruise afterwards as an ugly reminder of something I absolutely despise. For most people, having their blood drawn is not this complicated. I don't know why it bothers me so much. I'll never forget when I was about 10 or 12 years old and some pregnant lady told me that you have to have your blood drawn a lot during pregnancy, my first thought was "well I'M NEVER having children then!". I know I mentioned this in my post about my first appointment at La Jolla because the nurse had to draw 7 vials and I couldn't (and still can't) get over how she managed to draw that much blood while I laid there and didn't feel a thing. Almost every time I have my blood drawn, for my own purposes and for the surrogacy, I know there is a strong chance that I will wind up feeling faint, see spots, go pale as a ghost, get all sweaty, with my head between my knees, and about to pass out (or worse, actually pass out). So far, I haven't had any issues with the blood draws and I've even graduated from laying down for them to sitting in the chair like a normal person. That was until I had a different nurse at the monitoring clinic who drew my blood a couple of weeks ago, it hurt like hell for some reason, and it left a really nasty blood blister and bruise. Every appointment thereafter I crossed my fingers that she wasn't the one to draw my blood. Nice lady......but drawing blood is definitely not a strength of hers. I remember when she was getting everything prepared and how she was fumbling, I could just tell it wasn't one of her better skills. Monday the nurse I usually have was trying to find another vein to use because my one and only was so bruised and abused. Ick. She wound up using it anyways. I think the phrase "one and done" was all she needed to hear from me and she decided to just go with it :) This morning while sitting in the waiting room, I wondered "where are they going to try to draw from now?", because, yes, I seriously worry about this way too much. I'm also nervous and have adrenaline rushing through me because TODAY is THE day. Wouldn't you know it, in walks the "nurse from blood drawing hell". She's really a nice lady, I just don't want her drawing my blood. I couldn't fathom hurting her feelings and hoped that the last time was just a bad day for her. Let's be optimistic! Well, it wasn't the case, today was just as bad. I want to throw up just thinking about it.

Fast forward to 11:30am; my phone vibrates and it's La Jolla. I wasn't expecting them to call so early. In fact, I had planned to take a very long lunch just so I could sit in my car, in privacy, and wait for the call just in case the results weren't what I wanted to hear. When I picked up, my co-workers came into the room to hear the results right along with me. I was SO nervous. My heart was in my throat! The results...........197! They more than tripled in 72 hours! That's SO wonderful! It sounds like we have one comfortable little embryo sticking around for the long haul :) I know that T&Y are hoping for twins (one from each), and I would love to give that to them, but at this point we're all happy just to have a positive with a behaving beta! 

Over the past few days I've been feeling a lot of cramping and have been holding on to hope that it's a little one or two making some room in "here". I chalk most side affects up to the meds at this point, although I don't have very many, thank God! For side affects, I am currently experiencing; big, sore boobs (I'll take what I can get, thank you very much!), acne, and that's about it! Now if I could just keep the boobs and lose the acne we'd be golden!

I have a repeat beta on Monday and then I'm not sure whether I'll have another one or not within the week. I seriously hope not. Can they just put a port in my arm?