We had a doctor's appointment today. (Today? On a Sunday?) Yeah, it was today. It makes sense if you think about it. I am dealing with time sensitive things here. If they took the day off, we could miss something.
I felt slightly bad because I had it in my mind that the appointment was at 8:45. 8:28 rolled around and I picked up my phone in time to see a calendar notification. "We need to leave. Now!" And of course the road was closed in front of our clinic so we had a four minute detour.
Today they were able to find 27 follicles. Most of them look like they are growing nicely. The largest follicle is at 19 mm and we have several that range from 16 mm to 18 mm. Because I have only been stimming for eight days, the nurses were unsure if I would trigger today. (They want at least three at or above 18 mm, so if you only look at that qualifier, I would have done my ovulation trigger shot today.) I was pleased with my 27 follicles. From my perusal of the Internet the past couple months, it sounds like doctors can often retrieve more follicles than they can see on the 2D ultrasound scans. Not all the follicles that are retrieved are mature enough to be fertilized, and not all of the eggs that are fertilized make it to the five day mark (a blastocyst). I am hoping that I end up with at least ten embryos that become a blastocyst.
When I was done with the ultrasound, I had my blood drawn with the sweetest phlebotomist. He kept asking me if I was comfortable. It was the most pain free blood draw ever (except for the time they forgot to swab me with rubbing alcohol).
I got the call at around 3:30. Even though I have some good looking follicles (I mean, if the follicles are mine, they definitely would be good looking), my doctor wants to wait at least one more day. We are reducing my gonal-f injection from 175 IU to 75 IU. That's a huge decrease.
Tomorrow I will go in for (probably) my final ultrasound to check on the growth of the follicles. I will most likely do my hcg shot to trigger ovulation tomorrow evening and do the egg retrieval on Wednesday morning. It's weird to think I probably only have four more shots to do for this madness.
In terms of how I feel physically: I feel slightly bloated. (I have 27 growing objects inside me that range from 10-20 mm.) I feel slight twinges in my ovary area, but the feeling is more uncomfortable than painful. I am not supposed to engage in any high impact exercise for a couple weeks. As of a couple days ago, I have not gained any weight. (I keep forgetting to weigh myself in the morning. The last time I weighed myself was at 3:00 in the afternoon and it was less than a pound more than before I started the injections.) My stomach is slightly tender from the injections with slight bruising.
I reported to my father that I had not had good days on Friday and Saturday, so he dropped by with these beautiful roses on Saturday afternoon. He is amazing and extremely supportive.
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