After a certain amount of drama resulting from storm-related issues, our donor took her trigger shot and our retrieval is done!* My original medication calendar has been revised so many times that they had to write me a new one from scratch. It has been... a roller coaster of a week, but for the moment there is hope.
Prof went by himself to drop off the swim team (a first in our ART adventures). Afterwards, he said the crowd in the waiting room was particularly bizarre. So bizarre that he thought perhaps someone slipped some LSD in his coffee.
The nurse called a few hours post-retrieval to let us know that we got eleven eggs. They will do ICSI on half and let the rest fertilize naturally (or as naturally as possible when floating in a petri dish). Don't ask me how they "half" an odd number of eggs...
Welcome to my sci-fi life.
UPDATED:
Nine of the eleven eggs were mature.
Eight fertilized.
We are scheduled for a Day3 transfer.
*You wouldn't believe the amount of tension and relief deceptively
encapsulated in that single sentence. Really, I should get some kind of
award for understatement there.
Monday, November 5, 2012
Saturday, November 3, 2012
A-Feared
I'm so scared that this will be another one of those cycles, where just enough goes RIGHT before it all goes wrong... leaving us feeling like we really should dig just a little deeper and give it another shot. Funny. It only rarely occurs to me that things might only go right, and then that little voice says, "Yeah, sure. I've got a bridge you might be interested in as well."
This time last year, I was processing the fact that my ovaries were out of the game. We spent nearly three months debating the decision between walking away and getting on with a childfree future versus one last hurrah with donor eggs. Ultimately, the whole point of moving to donor eggs was to reach a place where we wouldn't feel like we should have done something more.
I'm afraid of the cycle failing, but being left feeling like there's more we could try.
This time last year, I was processing the fact that my ovaries were out of the game. We spent nearly three months debating the decision between walking away and getting on with a childfree future versus one last hurrah with donor eggs. Ultimately, the whole point of moving to donor eggs was to reach a place where we wouldn't feel like we should have done something more.
I'm afraid of the cycle failing, but being left feeling like there's more we could try.
Monday, October 29, 2012
One Step Closer
We had our lining check and YAY for another 10mm triple stripe! My ovaries may be slackers, but my uterus is a very diligent worker. We are expecting an update on the donor's progress any day, at which point we will have a better idea what the rest of the calendar looks like. Of course, like any IVF cycle, things will remain flexible and tentative until the last minute. Naturally, this has served as a wake-up call to the hamsters in my brain and my anxiety has suddenly exploded. Until quite recently, I was calm and unconcerned. Today, I need more information like a junkie needs a fix. I am ready to crawl out of my skin for lack of information. I also feel like I have a massive reserve of energy that needs to be targeted to some sort of "productive" project. Like a crochet blanket, or perhaps building a second bathroom on our house. With my bare hands.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
We also had our IM injection instruction "refresher". We did have the verbal instruction a year and half ago, but as we never made it to retrieval in an IVF cycle, we have never had an opportunity to put it into practice. THUS. Prof had to perform a practice injection in the presence of the nurse when my lining check was complete. Neither of us was expecting that. I mean, we knew we would have to do a PIO injection at some point, just not right that moment.
The nurse did a dry run so we could see the process and drew the targets on my hips. I was surprised how high up and how small the viable area was. Not much room for site rotation in those little circles... I was having a really hard time refraining from vomiting and/or running from the room in a panic with my pants around my knees. The nurse then turned it over to Prof and he did the actual injection (with saline only as it's still too early in the cycle for actual PIO). He totally nailed it! I barely felt it. That great huge needle, all those nerves... and it was much less painful than a flu shot.
I've seen so much talk about the trauma of PIO injections. The huge needle, the excruciating pain... I know that once we're dealing with oil instead of saline the after-effects will be more troublesome, but at least I've conquered the fear of the giant needle itself.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
We also had our IM injection instruction "refresher". We did have the verbal instruction a year and half ago, but as we never made it to retrieval in an IVF cycle, we have never had an opportunity to put it into practice. THUS. Prof had to perform a practice injection in the presence of the nurse when my lining check was complete. Neither of us was expecting that. I mean, we knew we would have to do a PIO injection at some point, just not right that moment.
The nurse did a dry run so we could see the process and drew the targets on my hips. I was surprised how high up and how small the viable area was. Not much room for site rotation in those little circles... I was having a really hard time refraining from vomiting and/or running from the room in a panic with my pants around my knees. The nurse then turned it over to Prof and he did the actual injection (with saline only as it's still too early in the cycle for actual PIO). He totally nailed it! I barely felt it. That great huge needle, all those nerves... and it was much less painful than a flu shot.
I've seen so much talk about the trauma of PIO injections. The huge needle, the excruciating pain... I know that once we're dealing with oil instead of saline the after-effects will be more troublesome, but at least I've conquered the fear of the giant needle itself.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Hindsight
I had to go back and review my notes from the mock cycle to check if the side effects I'm seeing now are a repeat of those I had previously. Good news? They are. I'm so glad I took notes!
The crazy thoughts and fears, the bloating... all down to lup.ron. And lo and behold, now that my estrogen is rising, the crazy is fading fast (though not the bloat... sad trombone). Knowing the crazy for what it was made it SO much easier to ride it out this time. I've really been surprisingly calm so far, though a little more diligent about my meds schedule than I was during the mock cycle. I am also loving the smaller estrogen patches y'all. I am now sporting four of these little transparent beauties and I barely know they are there! I love them even more for having been covered by insurance...
We have not yet received an update on our donor, but she is stimming now. We are hoping to get an update in the next few days. Trigger should be sometime next week and at that time, Prof will get his appointment to drop off our swim team on retrieval day.
The crazy thoughts and fears, the bloating... all down to lup.ron. And lo and behold, now that my estrogen is rising, the crazy is fading fast (though not the bloat... sad trombone). Knowing the crazy for what it was made it SO much easier to ride it out this time. I've really been surprisingly calm so far, though a little more diligent about my meds schedule than I was during the mock cycle. I am also loving the smaller estrogen patches y'all. I am now sporting four of these little transparent beauties and I barely know they are there! I love them even more for having been covered by insurance...
We have not yet received an update on our donor, but she is stimming now. We are hoping to get an update in the next few days. Trigger should be sometime next week and at that time, Prof will get his appointment to drop off our swim team on retrieval day.
Friday, October 19, 2012
2012 Creme de la Creme
Just a quick heads-up... the 2012 Creme de la Creme is open for submissions! Please note that there is a new deadline this year - so get yours in while you still can.
I did.
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