One Day More…

To quote one of my favorite musicals Les Miserables, we have “one day more” until our aspiration/egg retrieval (ER)! The trigger shot went well last night. It took me a little while to get the needle in, as it didn’t slide in effortlessly as the Follistim pen ones had and hurt a bit when I broke the skin, but once I got it in the injection itself was easy and painless and I didn’t have any noticeable side effects. I missed it coinciding with a “whacking” on the Sopranos by 5 minutes! 😉 Anyway, it feels good to be done with the suppression and stimulation phase of this IVF cycle. I am pleased that I was able to give myself the injections over the past 17 days and overall the experience of doing so wasn’t that bad. Now I get a few days off from injections until after the embryo transfer (ET) when Bob will get to start giving me the Progesterone-In-Oil (PIO) shots in my rear end. Today I started an oral antibiotic medication (Doxycycline), I assume it is to prevent infection after the surgery tomorrow. The day after the ER I will start another oral medication (but I have to review what it is and why I will be taking it). There are also estrogen patches in my box of medication, I am not sure when I might start wearing those, but I guess it would be to supplement the hormone estrogen in my body, if in the midst of the IVF cycle my body isn’t naturally producing enough.

A friend from one of my online buddy groups, who has been through IVF, pointed out to me this morning that the follicles will keep growing, even after I gave myself the last dose of meds. Thus she said that we might be surprised with how many eggs they are actually able to get tomorrow! I am trying not to get my hopes up, but do find that encouraging and exciting! Another of my online friends, who recently found out that she had conceived on her second try with IVF, went into her ER expecting to get 7 eggs (based on the number of follicles that looked big enough) and ended up with 10! That said only two made it to the ET, but it worked and she is now pregnant!

Over the weekend I was tired and very crampy (having 8 + maturing follicles, rather than the 1 that would develop during a natural cycle can do that to a gal) and spent most of Saturday and Sunday resting on the couch. Bob and Sean were both sweet and supportive and took good care of me during that time. Today I got a burst of engery, maybe from being a couch potato all weekend and the excitement of our impending ER! I feel like the IVF equivalent of the “nesting” women experience towards the end of pregnancy. I know come tomorrow I will be back on bed rest for a few days, so I guess my body just wanted to get a little light exercise. So I have just been doing light housework (like laundry and straightening) and playing low key games with Sean. When I feel too tired or more crampy I know I need to rest and make sure to do so.

I was told the ER procedure itself only will last 5-10 minutes after it begins around 8:40 a.m., but that I will be in recovery for about an hour afterwards. So I imagine we will be home sometime between 11:00 a.m. and noon. I will check in sometime tomorrow afternoon to update you on how it goes, how many eggs we get, etc. My dad, who conveniently retired last fall, will be graciously driving down here, from Evanston, early tomorrow morning to stay with Sean so that we can leave by about 6:00 – 6:15 a.m. It is almost time for me to take Sean to his soccer class, so I will sign off for now. In case I don’t check in tomorrow before the ER, thank you again for all of your thoughts, prayers, phone calls, emails and comments. They mean so much to us and we are grateful to know that we have your support and good wishes!