"You've Made It"

Those were the words of our RE this morning when I asked him how this cycle was going.  This cycle has been very different from the last cycle, in many many ways.  He did a dosage change last night, which I wasn't really expecting, and so I asked him about it this morning.  I was worried that things weren't going well, or that he was desperate to make things work, or something like that.  His response?  He told me that while I didn't have thirty eggs (we never thought I would, not in a million years), that I have enough for IVF, and in his words, "You've made it!".  That was really reassuring to hear.  Getting my ovaries to respond is the "hard part" for me.  Hopefully things go fairly smoothly from here on out.

So, if we've made it, where does that mean we are?  It means that we trigger tonight!  10 pm is the magic time to inject myself with hCG in order to trigger ovulation.  That means that retrieval will be at 10 am on Friday.  Exciting stuff!  

Here is the run down of the last few days:

Monday - Same dosage - 2 menopur vials and 450 of follistim as well as cetrotide.

Tuesday - Had bloodwork and an ultrasound, and we upped my menopur to 3 vials.  Still stayed with the 450 of follistim and the cetrotide.

Wednesday - Bloodwork/Ultrasound.  Dr. J still had me take 450 of follistim early in the evening, and I trigger with 10,000 ius of hCG

Tomorrow, I will go in for bloodwork and my pre-op instructions.  Friday morning, I will have my retrieval, and two weeks from then I will know if I am pregnant or not.  Crazy!

I mentioned above that this cycle has been very different than the last.  I realized today that the world stopped for me to do IVF last time.  Every evening was sacred in order to find time to do my injections.  Most of the people I had daily interactions with knew exactly what we were doing.  I spent my days relaxing and taking care of myself.  This time, injections are done while real life goes on.  I hurry to get them done so we can get on with our evenings as opposed to last time where time stood still so I could prepare the injections and then rest and relax after it was done.  Working through this cycle has mostly been a good thing, but I will admit that I am distracted at work, which means I haven't been as productive as I probably should be during my limited prep time.  The entire world seemed to stop turning so I could have my egg retrieval last time.  This time, it's conveniently situated on Friday so we can hop on a plane Saturday morning and head out to Chicago for Grandma's funeral. Last time, I stared at the phone, waiting for the embryologist to call.  This time, I might miss the call altogether because we will be flying.  Last time I did acupuncture leading up to and following retrieval and transfer.  This time, I will do it right before and right after transfer, but that's it... I simply didn't have time otherwise.

Those are all differences without even mentioning chasing a toddler around!  It's going to be very hard on Friday to stay in bed and recover after retrieval, once I know that Nate is home and playing downstairs.  The same goes for the embryo transfer day.  He's an active little guy and I will be on a day of bedrest.  Hopefully that will go okay.

Alright, as I finish typing this, it is about 9:40 pm.  I'll start mixing the trigger in about 10 or so minutes in order to be ready for "go time" at 10 pm.  Up early for a blood draw in the morning!  My veins are getting tired!!!