"That's a beautiful ovary"

Well, this morning I got the news we've all been waiting for. I am ready to trigger!!!! I had another ultrasound and blood work this morning. As soon as my big ovary popped up on the ultrasound machine the doctor said, "that's a beautiful ovary". I couldn't help but agree. I now have 18 mature follicles and lots of smaller ones that he didn't even bother measuring. My estrogen has also gone up to 2,256 so I am in the perfect range. Joe and I are so excited and even my doctor seemed really excited. I'm on a cloud right now.

One other piece of great news, the daily shots stop for now! I take my trigger shot of Ovidrel tonight at exactly 7pm then don't have any more shots to take until at least Monday. Even then I may or may not be doing shots. I'm taking part in a progesterone study and don't know yet if I'll be doing shots of progesterone or vaginal suppositories. As gross as they are, I'm really hoping for the suppositories. One less needle in my life is a good thing.

I have to be back at the doctor's office tomorrow morning at 7:45 for my pre-op appointment. They will do a brief exam, listen to my heart and lungs, and go over instructions for the procedure on Monday. Then I go back on Monday morning at 7am for the actual retrieval.

For the retrieval, I will be placed under light anesthesia where I will be able to move but won't remember anything. To get the eggs they will insert a needle through my vaginal wall and into my ovaries. They will "wash" the follicular fluid away to find an egg which they will suck out through the needle. The egg will then be placed in a prepared petrie dish. They will continue this process until all follicles are washed. After that, the embryologist will introduce Joe's sperm to the eggs waiting in their petrie dishes.

After the retrieval, I'll stay for observation for about an hour. We'll find out before we go home how many eggs were retrieved. We won't find out until the next day how many have fertilized. I believe, at that point, they will schedule an appointment for the transfer. In the beginning they schedule that appointment for three days after the retrieval, which would put us at Thursday. However, if I have multiple embryos that are doing well they may push my retrieval out two more days to Saturday. Embryos that are thriving at five days post retrieval usually do better once they are transferred. Waiting five days also gives the embryologist a better idea of which embryos are doing best. So we're really hoping for a five day transfer!

We're still undecided on how many embryos we'll transfer back. Our original thought was two, then we switched to one, now we're wavering between one and two. We're worried about the risk involved with a twin pregnancy. Premature labor occurs in over 50% of twin pregnancies and a twin is seven times more likely to die in the first month of life. Prematurity is also associated with an increased risk of birth defects like cerebral palsy, blindness, and respiratory distress syndrome. Not to mention all the stress on my body and the stress of being first time parents to two babies. But, on the other hand, neither Joe or I want to do this again and we'd really like to optimize our chances of bringing home a baby. At this point we've decided to see how the embryos are doing before making our decision. If we have a rock star, 8-cell, grade 1 embryo on day 5 and several to freeze, we may transfer only one. But, if we only have a couple grade 3-4 embryos, we may transfer two. We'll just have to see what the embryologist says.

So that's where we stand now. I really can't tell you guys how excited I am. I can't believe that we actually made it through this without something terrible happening. A cycle like this is simply unheard of for us. There is always some kind of drama along the way. I really appreciate all of your comments and well wishes. You all have been an amazing support system and I am really glad that I let you all be a part of this. Writing my thoughts out on the blog has been extremely cathartic and has really helped me deal with all the emotions involved. I will definitely keep you posted on my appointments tomorrow and Monday. Can you believe I'm in the home stretch?! AGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!