Another day, another appointment, another ultrasound, another blood test. I feel like I should be walking into the clinic with no pants on, and my shirt sleeve rolled up at this point. Though, I am pretty sure that there are laws against that…
Anyway, I finally got to see Dr. Cass! I’ve been having appointments with other doctors because she has not been available each time I am in for monitoring. It was so nice to see her. The other doctors are nice enough, but she really has such a wonderful way about her. Dean and I both feel at ease whenever we see her. We started my ultrasound and the first thing out of her mouth was, “Wow, these have grown!” which obviously meant things were off to a good start. It looks like my left ovary is still being an underachiever. It is also hard to view on ultrasound, so she dealt with that one first. I have five follicles on that side, 3 of which vary from 11-12mm. The other two that she was able to see are only measuring at 6mm, so I dont think they will be maturing to where I need them to be within the next three days.
Then we move over to the right ovary…let me write these out for you (I actually recorded this portion of my appointment so I would not forget). They are length by width:
- 16 x 11
- 14 x 11
- 14 x 9
- 17 x 10
- 16 x 12
- 13 x 11
- 15 x 7
- 14 x 12
- 18 x 11
- 15 x 9
Now remember, the average size for a mature follicle that they are looking for is 15mm to 20mm. I have three more days of medication that we just picked up this morning, so obviously things will be progressing. I now have another injection to do for the next three days in the morning. Luckily, this one is already prepared so Dean doesn’t have to prepare another shot for me early in the morning<3. This injection is to prevent me from ovulating too soon, and is called Ganirelix.
That being said – I have an appointment this Friday (shocking, I know) and pending the results from that appointment they will either be administering my “Trigger” shot on Friday or Saturday . What is a trigger shot, you say? I’m so glad you ask! It is a shot that I receive in my BUTT that is actually a dose of hCg. That this the Human Chorionic Gonadotropin, i.e. the preganncy hormone that is produced by the placenta. So why are they injecting me with a pregnancy hormone before they even take out my mature follicles? This shot is used to kickstart ovulation, so the protocol I have been on looks like this:
- Birth control to regulate my cycle/surpress cysts
- Inject stims to create follicles/build up my lining
- Once the follicles are maturing, introduce the injection to keep me from ovulating too early
- Injecting me with the trigger shot so that I will ovulate which prepared me for my egg retrieval.
So this is the long way of saying that our egg retrieval is going to be scheduled for Sunday the 29th or Monday the 30th! Once they do the retrieval they will grow the embryos for 3-5 days before they transfer one back to me. Yes, one. All you crazy people that have insisted that I implant two (I’m looking at you ALAINE), that is not happening. I highly suggest that you read about Elective Single Embryo Transfer: https://www.reproductivepartners.com/fertility-treatment/eSET.html. Growing and maturing the embryos is far more important when it comes to achieving a sustainable pregnancy than it is to implant more than one embryo. Thus, the rest of our fertilized embryos will be frozen for either future attempts (should this one not be successful) or, to expand our family if we so choose.
Best appointment to date. Keep your fingers crossed that all my follicles keep growing and that we stay on track. Oh, and my Estrogen is 1419. Needless to say, I am very, very tired.
xoxox,
Jen