Slow and Steady

I just got out of my appointment and the follies are looking excellent. All seven are still plugging along, just at a slightly slower rate since the decrease in Menopur. I think the largest was 15 and the smallest was 13 so they're developing together, nice and even, but they're not quite ready for triggering.  I'm very pleased with their growth but but a little bummed that we'll need more Menopur like we originally thought. I thought we'd get off easy this cycle!

I just picked up two more boxes, another 10 vials, and got my Ovidrel trigger too just in case. If they need me to trigger on Sunday, the pharmacy is closed over the weekend so  I'd have no way of getting it. I will probably be back in for a rare Saturday appointment tomorrow morning depending on what Dr. K decides. If I don't trigger on Sunday (I don't think I will), they're thinking Monday might be the next contender.

My E2 levels came back this time at 926, an absolutely beautiful number, which if you average it out is about 132 per follicle. I'm sure they're not all in the 130s, probably more like 100-150 given the range of growth, but they're all on track and I have no reason to suspect that they won't all be ready to ovulate by the time I trigger. I love seeing those little follies on the screen, they show up as large, round, dark circles which is such a nice change from the empty, blurry grey ovarian tissue we saw last cycle. 

What a tiny order! This is the smallest one I've bought yet, it was only $730. What a bargain!

Although the appointment went well, the blood test this morning was a little hairy. I didn't have my usual phlebotomist and this new one didn't take my warning of difficult veins seriously. She tried first on the left, which is nearly impossible to find, before giving it up as a bad job and moving to the right. The right was already a little bruised from the draws on Monday and Wednesday and she only made it worse by repeatedly poking me and wiggling the needle around in my arm. It wasn't super painful, but was enough to raise my blood pressure up about 20 points as we saw when I went up to the nurse after. I usually have low pressure, especially in the morning, with a systolic reading around or below 100. My pressure today was 126/67 whereas Wednesdays reading was 103/60, already 4 points higher from a good blood draw than my usual haven't-been-stuck-with-needles pressure.

A nurse should be calling in the next couple hours to give me instructions on the Menopur and let me know if I'm going in Saturday. I'm predicting now that they're going to keep me on 6 vials, have me come in Saturday, but not trigger until Monday. I received a wonderful offer to hang out with my friend M, Roxie and Deano's mama, but my acupuncture appointment is smack in the middle of the day and doesn't allow for any other plans. Although I'd much rather hang out with M, it looks like I'll be spending the rest of the day driving to and from the acupuncturist in horrible Friday traffic. All this acupuncture had better be worth it in the end!