Clear to Trigger!

We are a go for triggering tonight! I will be taking my Ovidrel at 10pm tonight and then I'm done with injections! I love that the syringe comes pre-filled, it's such a nice change to not have to mix a million little powders.

Ovidrel ironically next to my eggs

We need to be at Kaiser for our IUI at 8:30am on Monday so they can start prepping the sperm. Whether you give a fresh sample or a frozen one, they need to assess the sperm for washing and confirm that the counts are sufficient. The IUI itself will probably be around 10:30am and then I'll be heading to an acupuncture appointment to encourage those swimmers to swim, baby, swim!

We have our sample on ice, ready to go and I'm definitely feeling like the time is right physically. I finally have enough estrogen in my system to get some decent, trackable EWCM and I'm actually debating taking an ovulation test tonight before I trigger and tomorrow to make sure I'm not ovulating too soon on my own.

OPK Cheapies. I still have toooons of these from TTC naturally

I might be extra bold this cycle and test out my trigger to see how quickly it leaves my system. I'm feeling really good and positive about this attempt and I might be up for testing a bit early this time! I just want to make sure I won't be getting false positives from the HCG in the trigger.

Send good vibes and positive thoughts to my follicles for me, I need these little buggers to yield healthy, unaffected embryo(s)!

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!

Black Outs and Trigger Shots

I'm currently sitting in the waiting room of my RE's office. I should be going in for my 4th monitoring ultrasound in a few minutes but the power just went out to the whole block. Living in Southern California, losing power is not exactly a shocker in the summer.  It's ridiculously hot right now and a city block with at least 6 hospital buildings must draw an insane amount of power.

The back up generators clicked on almost immediately and now the nurses are trying to get the stubborn computers back up. It sounds like half the building is without computers which makes patient check in an interesting experience. Three different nurses have now called for the same person who I'm pretty sure is already back in a room. 

Lucky for me, I was able to get my blood drawn before the power went out. My right arm which I use for blood draws 99% of the time is a little battered and bruised so I asked the tech to use my left with its more stubborn veins. I'm starting to make friends with the tech since I'm there basically every day, and I was super impressed when he got it in one go.  The vein on that side is really deep and hard to find but he only left a tiny bruise. 

Veeeeeeiiiiinnnnnssss

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Damn, I had typed up a whole post but it didn't save when I put my phone down for my exam. The appointment this morning went well, but it was conducted entirely in the dark.  The nurse led me down the dark hallway and into the exam room, lit only by the screen on the ultrasound machine. It actually felt a lot like my acupuncture appointments, minus the candles and soft music and I was afraid I might fall asleep since it was still so early.

Everything was a little awkward since the table was electric and the back up generators didn't provide power to lift it up, but we made it work. The "group of follicles" on my right has been reclassified as a cyst (as I had initially thought) but it's very small and isn't a big concern. The mature follie on the left is a perfect 20mm and has several too small 9-10 follies behind it. There's also a 13mm follie on the right, but it's pretty small too. Dr. K said not to discount it entirely, so we're calling my total loot a follicle and a half. My estrogen supports that at around 280 so I was given the all clear to trigger tonight!  I'm nervous and excited all rolled in one, I need that egg to have my healthy X chromosome.

In the midst of all this infertility chaos, my best friend J is marrying his wonderful fiancee, C. I'm the Best Woman in their wedding and have felt awful about my infertility crap interfering with their wedding plans. Luckily, our IUI will be done before the wedding but it's still on the morning of the Bachelor/Bachelorette party, and I'm going to have to sneak away after the rehearsal but before the rehearsal dinner for some quick acupuncture. I'm so excited for them to tie the knot and the ceremony should be intimate, personal and beautiful.