Trigger

Tonight is the trigger shot - aka my HCG shot! I went to my appointment today in Spokane, and let me tell ya, I am tired of driving that drive. The Dr. asked if I thought my ovaries were ready and I said "yes, I really think they are". He looked at my follicles and said that indeed I was ready and that I "must really know" my ovaries. I laughed and joked that we were old friends. Really what I wanted to say was that, "how could they not be ready? They feel like 2 cantaloupes playing pinball with my internal organs"!

So, I left and still had to wait for confirmation from my nurse. I just talked to her on the phone and she gave me my instructions. Tonight I am not supposed to take my Follistum, Menopur, or Lupron - woo hoo, no tummy shots! I will, instead, take my HCG shot. This shot is given in the backside, kind of above the tushie and near the hip area. It is completely impossible to reach which is why Bobby gives me this shot. The HCG shot basically "triggers" ovulation. They give you an exact time to give the shot because ovulation occurs 39 - 42 hours after the shot is given and this is how they know when to do the retrieval.

The time they assigned me to give the HCG shot is 11pm. Thank goodness! I know some people that have to give it at 2am and I was praying that wouldn't be us. We are actually on the same schedule as the first round, so this feels familiar.

So, we mix the shot at 10:45 pm to make sure we give ourselves plenty of time. Then we give the shot at 11pm. Then I go back in tomorrow for blood work and ultrasound (I think to make sure that my body hasn't decided to ovulate on it's own - scary). Then tomorrow night is the "glorious" night. I call it "glorious" because it is my only night without ANY shots. This is wonderful since I am on my 23rd day of shots and it is no fun at all. Also, once they retrieve my eggs, Bobby has to give me a progesterone shot (in the same area as the HCG) until we know if this round was successful. And if it is successful I can look forward to that progesterone shot everyday for 8 weeks. Whew!

Thursday is egg retrieval day. I'm not really too nervous about it - it is a simple outpatient procedure. They give you anesthesia, so I will get a good nap. Thursday is also Bobby's "big moment". He finally gets to "contribute" to the process - ha ha! We go in at 7:45am for Bobby's part and then back in at 9am for me. My procedure isn't until 10am, but they have to do some prep like putting the IV in, and signing various paperwork, etc, etc.

Think good thoughts for me around 10am on Thursday - the last round they were able to retrieve 12 eggs, but only 6 were mature enough to be fertilized. Let's hope we have some better results this time around.

More later....