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Wednesday, Nov. 07, 2001 - 8:39 p.m. - The Second Ultrasound
We started our injections (stims) less than a week ago and can you believe that I am almost ready to be “triggered”?!! I couldn’t believe it when the nurse was doing the ultrasound today and said that we might do the hCG shot tonight!! In fact, I panicked a little at the thought of doing the retrieval as soon as Friday. Fortunately, my follicles weren’t quite ready to be “triggered,” so instead I continued my stim shots today and will go back in for another ultrasound tomorrow at which time they will look at my follicles and my Estradiol (E2) levels and determine if I’m ready to do the hCG shot. I’m glad that I’ve got another whole day to get used to the idea. Today’s ultrasound showed that my uterine lining was nice and thick (12 mm). You want your uterine lining to be between 10 – 12 so I guess I’m right on target for that. Uterine lining is incredibly important since it plays such a key role in the implantation of the embryo. I was reading a book yesterday called In Vitro Fertilization :The A.R.T. of Making Babies by Geoffrey Sher and Virginia Marriage Davis and Jean Stoess and it compared the importance of uterine lining for implantation to a pot full of soil in which you would plant seeds. The pot with the best and deepest soil for developing roots will produce the best plants. Unfortunately, while I had hoped for some more follicles to develop between my ultrasound on Monday and the one today, it only looks as though we will have 9 – 10 mature follicles by the time we do the egg retrieval. I know I should be happy with that, but I know that just because we have 9 – 10 follicles does not mean we’ll get 9 – 10 eggs. In fact, we’ll be lucky to get 7 – 8 eggs and hopefully 7 of them will be mature and perhaps of those 7, five might fertilize and develop well. Chances are that we will be transferring 3 – 4 embryos (unless they are of poorer quality and then we might actually transfer one or two more), which doesn’t leave many, if any, to be frozen for future FET (Frozen Embryo Transfer). I’m trying to remind myself that we really just need 3 – 4 good embryos and we will have as much success as we could hope for as far as embryos go any more would just be a plus, but I must admit I’m a little disappointed that we probably won’t have many extra to freeze. FET is much less involved and MUCH less expensive than going through the whole IVF process again. Then again, I’ve heard of a woman who had 31 eggs retrieved and only a single one fertilized and was transferred and that one embryo is now a 10 year old girl! I’ve got to keep stories like that in my thoughts rather than stories of unsuccessful IVF cycles. So chances are that we will be doing the retrieval as soon as Saturday or Sunday! It’s hard to believe!! Of course, we have a booked weekend – two different birthday parties to attend, a great big 40th birthday bash for a neighbor on Saturday and a party for our friend’s 3-year-old on Sunday. I already know that we won’t be able to attend at least one if not both of them depending on when the retrieval is and how I’m feeling afterwards. I’ve heard that women are pretty sore after the retrievals (after all it is minor surgery), so I’ll just have to see. I guess I should be happy we’ve made it this far, but I’m already anxiously anticipating the next hurdle. Keep those fingers crossed a little longer. I promise you can have your fingers back in about 3 weeks!
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