Decisions and Directions

I went to my appointment yesterday (and enjoyed a lovely evening at Longwood Gardens which was a nice distraction). The Saturday staff is different than the week day staff though just as nice. I was able to sit down talk with the doctor about the upcoming retrieval and transfer. While reviewing my data my doctor noticed that there was a discrepancy between the weekday ultrasound tech’s measurements and the Saturday tech’s measurements. The Saturday person stated that there were some follicles that were very close and appeared to be stuck together and that it was possible that they could have been measured as one large follicle by the week day tech instead of two smaller follicles. Because of that my doctor decided to have me take medications for an additional day just to be sure that everything would be the correct size. Therefore it was decided that my egg retrieval would be on Tuesday (instead of Monday). I was told to take more shots (I can’t remember how much) and then waited for further instructions. The nurse called me and told me I was to take another 75 of Menopur and 25 of Follistim and then on Sunday morning I needed to take the Garnirelex, 75 of Menopur and 150 of Follistim. I then had to stay home from church because I had to wait for the nurse to call me Sunday morning with all of the instructions for the egg retrieval.

The nurse called and gave me my instructions, which I had to write down on a worksheet that was given to me at one of my appointments. I am to do the HCG shot at 9:45pm exactly Sunday night. It is extremely important to do the HCG shot precisely as directed. It is the final icing on the cake and helps to ripen everything for harvest. It is a one time shot that must be injected intramuscularly…to be blunt…in my butt. The location is very specific and is impossible to self-inject so my husband gets the job of injecting it. Though not pleasant the butt shots make me giggle endlessly because the scene that it creates is quite humorous. I was also instructed to begin my antibiotics, one of four oral medications that I will take between now and the dreaded pregnant/not pregnant phone call. My egg retrieval will take place at 9am on Tuesday. I’ve been praying very hard that my egg quality will be good. Bad egg quality may be the reason we have had trouble growing good quality embryos.