Challenging weekend

Friday night, I had some bleeding -- a pregnancy first. Of course I panicked, but after talking to the midwife on call at my OB's office both Friday night and Saturday morning, I was reassured. It was mainly one episode Friday night around 11 p.m. and then just a few drops of blood at about 3 a.m. Saturday. Since then, it has all been brown, which the midwife said is good because that's old blood. We couldn't identify anything I've done that might have caused this but it isn't uncommon, so I'm not going to worry too much about it. We have another ultrasound Tuesday morning, so I hope to be reassured for sure then. I had to go to a meeting yesterday until mid-afternoon, but after that, I camped out on the couch. Today I went to church and then a baby shower (which lasted forever) but I returned to the couch when I got home around 6 p.m. I am thankful this episode was brief, but that doesn't make it less frightening. I immediately started thinking about the possibility of going back to that very familiar uncertain feeling that has permeated my infertility experience -- the question of what my life is going to be like. Fingers crossed that all is truly well. Will let you know Tuesday.

My best friend's dad died today. He had been ill and we had hoped he was on the mend, but his condition deteriorated rapidly last Wednesday or Thursday. I'm so sad for her, her mom, her four siblings, and all of his grandchildren (especially my godchildren). I knew him as a kind and hardworking man who loved his family. I know they weren't ready for him to go and he will be dearly missed. I haven't seen him much in recent years but my sense is that he loved being a grandfather. Those kids are going to miss that. And so is my friend. (I'm so sorry, S. I wish I could be there for you this week.) My mom has offered to go to the memorial service to represent our family and I hope she can go. My going is unfortunately out of the question because it's out of state and I'm still grounded, travel-wise. Especially after the bleeding episode from Friday. I hate this because S. was there for me when my dad died and it meant so much.

Good day before retrieval

Today's been a good day. Lots of down time. Time for checking in at work, doing laundry, and drinking lots and lots of water.

Trigger shot last night went just fine with a nurse for hire who seemed waaay too happy to be showing up at my hotel at 1:30 a.m. It was an IM shot in my bum, which I couldn't do and my DH was afraid to do. The nurse was good. It was much less irritating than the acupuncture I had yesterday.

We had a late lunch and then drove around a bit to find some dirt for my godson. Yep, you read it right. His kindergarten class is trying to collect dirt from all 50 states, so of course I had to get some Colorado dirt for him. S, if you're reading, it will be in the mail tomorrow, I hope! (It's good dirt. Nice and brown, unlike our red Georgia clay.) Ah the things we do for the children we love. And I do love this kid. And his sister, too. : )

After the dirt excursion, CCRM called with results from this morning's blood draw. E2 was up to 7,654 from 5,700-something yesterday. Wow. They gave me cabergoline tablets to take for 8 days starting tonight and 3 ganirelix shots to start tomorrow night. Having never heard of cabergoline, I scanned the patient insert and under precautions - psychiatric, it says, "Pathological gambling, increased libido, and hypersexuality have been reported in patients treated with dopamine antagonists including cabergoline." DH was excited to hear that! Considering that tomorrow I'm going to have 17 follicles aspirated and hopefully 10-17 eggs sucked out of them, I was most interested in the gambling precaution. Another funny thing about these pills? Nurse Ellie said I can take them orally but if they make me nauseous, I can take them vaginally. There's something not quite right about that.

I think we are going see Avatar -- the IMAX 3D version -- in just a bit, so I gotta go.

More later!