2nd Monitoring Appointment

I went in for more bloodwork and an u/s this morning.  At the u/s they measured all the follicles again and they had all grown quite considerably.  I was trying to keep count in my head but I lost track.  There were even more that have developed since Wednesday.  We're working with well over 30 follicles.

After my bloodwork came back they gave me a call this afternoon.  Apparently, I'm almost done cooking these eggs!  Tonight and tomorrow I inject 75 follistim, 75 menopur and the ganirelix shot.  Sunday I do the ganirelix shot and then the HCG trigger at 11:30pm.  Except for a blood draw, I have a shot free day on Monday (Yay!) and then my ER will be Tuesday morning at 10:30.  On Tuesday we'll know how many eggs they were able to retrieve and on Wednesday we should know how many fertilized correctly (using ICSI).

A bit about the process for those that don't know:

The ganirelix shot I started last night is to prevent premature ovulation.

The HCG trigger shot that I give myself Sunday night will do several things.  It will induce the final maturation of the eggs within the follicles, cause the resumption of meiosis, loosen the egg's attachment from the follicle wall and allow for the timing of the egg retrieval.  If the egg retrieval is not performed or  not performed at the right time after the HCG injection is given, I would ovulate on my own which would not be good.  There would be no eggs to retrieve from the follicles because they would have already released them.

The ER process is much like the cyst aspiration and when they drained the fluid when I had OHSS.  The BIG difference this time is that they knock me out for it!  He will go in, guided by u/s (my good friend, the dildo cam), and insert the needle into each follicle and aspirate the fluid out of each one.  The eggs are microscopic so he won't be able to tell how many eggs are there and some of the follicles could be empty.  Once he aspirates all of the fluid from my follicles he will hand the fluid off to the embryologist.  They will examine the fluid under the microscope and isolate the eggs.

Our RE uses a process called ICSI.  This is where they inject the sperm into the egg to fertilize; as opposed to combining the egg and several sperm in a petri dish and hoping it fertilizes.  So as they wheel me away for surgery, Brandon gets to go to the "happy room" and do his thing (that's really what they call it).  I'm not trying to get any sympathy here but really????  That's all I'll say about that.

So we're definitely on the right track.  I will feel better after I know some of the eggs have fertilized.  Since we haven't been able to get pregnant at all, I'm a little worried that maybe that's one of our issues.  The only way to know is to go through this process and see how they fertilize.  I'll be anxiously awaiting that report the day after the retrieval.

So there you have it.  The next few days in a nutshell.  I feel a little overwhelmed but excited at the same time.  We're one step closer!