Double Digits

Egg retrieval went smoothly.  I love dormican and pethadine.  You come out of sedation so nicely…

We ten eggs out.  Ten.  A good solid double digit.  I must admit that I was expecting more considering the reactions of the doctors throughout my scans  leading up to the ER but I am SO, SO happy and grateful for the 10 wonderful eggs that we have got.

I had my second dose of intralipid drip directly after the ER, and it went very quickly.  The super hero vein did it’s  job well and my drip was done and dusted in just under an hour and a half.  I also had my very first gestone progesterone shot.  It was not too bad, although the injection site is now a little tender to the touch.  I got a really good tip from one of the IVF nurses, she said to rub my butt constantly to ensure that the oil gets distributed nicely through the muscle fibres.  Cliff’s gonna have a go at doing my jabs – so please send him lots of “good jab” vibes   I’ll also be sticking estroderm patches onto my abdomen from tomorrow and taking estrofem tablets twice a day as well.

We came home and I had a nice snooze (the weather is aweful today so bed just seemed like the right place to be anyway) and now am up and about and feeling pretty good about the whole thing.

Now we just wait until tomorrow, when we find out how many of our eggs fertilized.  This to me is always the most “tenterhook” part of any IVF treatment, I mean you have so many pass/fail points along the way but the time between your ER and waiting to find out how many fertilized is a special kind of torture.

Come on eggies!  Fertilize and grow nicely for Mom and Dad now…

On the Eve of ER

I sit here and I allow myself the excitement.  I deny any feelings of anxiety or fear.  I focus on the good, the blessings I have in my life. 

My wonderful husband, my wonderful family and my wonderful friends (both in RL and in Blogland).  My home, my dogs.

Tomorrow I’ll lay these eggs and be on our way to achieving our dream…

Is this really real?

I’m in a complete state of denial.  This whole IVF cycle just really does not seem real.  AT ALL.  Even with the mild OHSS stopping me in my tracks, it’s almost like I’ve stepped into a time warp and have somehow found myself in the middle of a 2ww. 

My whole approach to the treatment this time was to focus on each day as it came and to try not focus too much on the end result.  So I popped clomid daily and just went about my business.  I got up before sparrows fart for scans and injected myself happily taking each day as it came until I was being wheeled into a theatre and put nicely to sleep with the aid of dormican and pethadine and came out with a cool sticker on my hand.  The OHSS struck at the right time I think cos it kept my mind off the fact that I had growing embies in a dish at the lab that needed to be obsessed about.  And we all know the great time I had at transfer right?

So now I am sitting in my office hurridly typing this post before my guests break for tea and I’m feeling… weird.  Disconnected.  Like this is all a dream and that soon I’ll wake up and try to roll over and fall back asleep again.  I must admit that the twinge analysis genes are kicking in but not quite to the extent that I had expected them to at this stage of the game.

Here I sit at 4DP5DT and it really does not feel real.  But that being said it is EARLY days.  Yes, very early days in this this we like to call the 2ww…

Seven + Four = Eleven!

Proof that when push comes to shove I can count!

That’s what we got today my lovlies – 11 lovely eggs.  I’m feeling a little tender but happy that we got a good number of eggs.  I’m really hoping that the 11 we have are excellent quality.  Now the tenterhook wait starts until we get to call the lab for our fert report.  I hate this part.  It feels like pure torture not to know immediately how many embies you got. 

Please continue with your good vibes, postive thoughts, prayers, thumb holding etc.

Egg Retrieval

What was I supposed to think?

One thing I can say about this cycle is that it is leaving me feeling exhausted – all the early mornings are not good for my constitution (I am a night owl, not a early morning budgie) and I went to bed reasonably early last night.  As normal, I turned my phone onto silent knowing that if for some reason anyone had an emergency that they could call on our land line to wake us up.  Well this morning I see that I have two missed calls from my cousin, Mark and a text message saying “I no longer have a girlfriend…”

My heart stopped – I love Cindy!  She is already part of the family and I could not believe that they had broken up, so at 05h30 in the morning I sent him a text explaining why I never called him last night and saying how sorry I was to hear the news and asking if he was OK and if there was ANYTHING I could do to help them… So I get a call at about 06h30 from him and I’m like a mother hen asking what happened and how is he etc… So he puts me in my place and says “Why are you assuming the worst?  All I said is that I no longer have a girlfriend…” and at that time about ten million pennies dropped – They had got engaged over the weekend!  Not broken up!  Commited and solidified!  Naturally I am super happy for them and told him that, but man, don’t I feel like an arse?

I guess that is one thing that I hate about infertility.  The fact that after being in this ringer for a while, one tends to think naturally of the worst that could happen… or is it just a human trait?? Perhaps it was the way he worded his sms and the fact that he called so late (about 23h00) to give the good news, but man, why did my mind automatically think bad news?  The fertiles in my family all got the engaged vibe immediately, but not Dumbass Sam…  Will I ever automatically look for the silver lining again?  I don’t know, but I sure hope so.

In other news, my follies grew like beans over the weekend!  Scan this morning showed 3 -4 follies on the left ovary sitting at between 18 – 20 mm and 2 or so on my right in the same growth range.  Lining is at 10mm and doc is happy with that.  Had some more drugs (cetro & menopur cocktail) this morning and back tomorrow for another scan to see if I can receive trigger shot tomorrow… Egg retrieval either Thursday or Friday!  Crikey Moses, this is real people!  Egg Retrieval!!!