Weekly Rundown: We've Almost Made It!

We've had a busy week since the last time I posted. On the one hand it seems like ages since my last Weekly Rundown post, on the other the week has totally flown by and I can't believe I'm here on another Sunday writing another post.

So I'll get to the point first of all and then we'll work back to actually getting here:

We're getting to Egg Retrieval this time!

If you were reading last time we had a go at IVF you'll be aware that we had to cancel our last cycle at the eleventh hour when I hyperstimulated and became very poorly. All that money and effort and it was all wasted. It was heartbreaking.

It's been my biggest fear during this cycle. We've had two scans since the last appointment I blogged about and at both of them I was expecting to be told some bad news. And it's not happened.

Friday we had our one and only appointment so far that has not been affected by disruptions to the ferries. The clinic was heaving and so we had a bit of a delay, first I got my blood taken and then after a short wait we were called back for the scan.

And it all looked good. I'd been feeling twinges (kind of like extreme ovulation pain) and tightness on the right hand side and things were starting to come along nicely there. I had a bunch of follicles there measuring up to about 14mm; on the left I'd managed to grow two 15mm ones without even feeling it.

The nurse was very impressed and said we could be looking at retrieval as early as Monday so we got a brief explanation of how to do the booster (sometimes called a trigger) shot, before being sent away to await a phone call to let us know when we would be back.

Which as it happened was the very next day!

We got the phone call on the way home which immediately sent me into a panic. This obviously meant I was overstimulating (especially as I was told not to do my morning injection on Saturday). That evening I turned to Google and decided that they were probably 'coasting' me to allow my blood levels to go down to avoid any danger of overstimulating.

My nerves were not helped by yet another disruption to the ferries; we'd planned to catch the 11am boat but when we heard about the problems we headed out to catch the 10:10am one, only to find that at 9:55am the 9:30am boat hadn't actually left!

Suffice to say, we made it to the hospital (an hour and a half early for our appointment) where I didn't need another blood test. Instead we had a scan and were told that we would be having egg collection on Tuesday!

They wanted me to have at least three follicles measuring 17mm before going forward with the booster shot; I had at least one plus a couple of 18mms and some slightly less than 17mm. They grow at roughly 1mm every twelve hours so those ones that are lagging behind at the moment will have a few days to get caught up. Basically they're all plumping up nicely.

And boy do I know it!

The best way to describe the feeling in my abdomen right now would be to take a couple of bags of marbles and tape them to your stomach on either side of your belly button. Every time you move, they move. Obviously certain movements make them move more; things like sitting down and standing up. It's not painful, just different and a little uncomfortable.

Things feel rather crowded in there as well. If I sit upright I feel like something is squashing my bladder. The something is probably my ovaries. I have nothing but sympathy for pregnant women.

Today I'm counting down my 'lasts'. I've done my last injection of Menopur. After tea I will have my last Metformin. At 6pm I will have my last injection of Cetrotide. Then at 9:30pm I do my booster shot. It has to be done exactly thirty-six hours before egg retrieval so I'll be in on Tuesday morning by 9:30am.

As I've mentioned, we've had a few problems with the ferries recently and due to the time sensitive nature of our next appointment we can't afford disruptions; so we've booked a hotel. It might be almost romantic, except we can't y'know and after midnight I'm not allowed to eat anything.

You can probably imagine that all these appointments haven't left me much time for blogging so I have next to nothing scheduled for the coming week. Plus I've got family coming to stay so we're getting ready for that as well. Don't be alarmed if I go silent for a day or two. My regular Friday and Saturday posts will be subject to disruption (because I've not read any more of Twilight or watched any more of The Fellowship of the Ring).

In the meantime, cross everything for me and if you feel like sending happy thoughts, good vibes or prayers, all are greatly appreciated. :-)