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!

The Dark Tunnel

So I'm finally ready for the trigger shot! I had some major follicular growth overnight and I think the time has come. My lead was 25 mm today -- that's like 6 mm larger than yesterday. Seem impossible? My nurse said it could be attributed to having a different sonographer today from yesterday. Or maybe the growth hormone injections have a lingering effect!

Trigger is tonight at 1:45 a.m. and retrieval is Wednesday around noon.

My E2 shot up again to like 5,700 so the doc ordered an injection of certrotide. The nurse said it would help make sure I don't hyperstimulate.

We had our regroup with Dr. Babycraft today. If IVF is a roller coaster, meeting with him was like flying through a dark tunnel when you can't see anything and you're screaming your head off. For some reason I felt, well, a little bit terrified in Babycraft's presence. This is an unusual response for me -- with most people, I'm typically pretty composed and articulate, but in our meeting with him I felt like my questions were not well formed and his answers were impossible for me to understand. At one point I felt my emotions getting the best of me and I just wanted to get out of there. I did get a few questions answered but I generally felt like I'd unnecessarily taken up an appointment slot in his busy day.

"Do you think we wasted his time?" I asked my husband as soon as we left. He assured me that no, that wasn't the case. He pointed out that like with many brilliant people, Babycraft doesn't have the best people skills. My doc in Atlanta has the best people skills of any doc I've ever had, but I don't think she's got anything on Babycraft. So bottom line -- I'll take it. I know he's following me very closely and making careful decisions about what to do and when to do it. He doesn't have to be my best friend. He just has to practice his craft.

Although it didn't thrill me, our meeting with Babycraft was a good reality check -- a good reminder that my chances of success are still only like 35%. We also confirmed that no matter how many eggs we get and no matter how many fertilize, we will freeze all. As Babycraft put it, the lining of my uterus and my follicles aren't on the same page right now. My lining thinks I've already ovulated, so a transfer now would not be a good idea. This means another trip to Denver if we have something to work with.

This afternoon I found myself feeling impatient in an old familiar way -- the "I don't care what happens here, I just want this to be over" kind of way. Luckily that feeling didn't last. I tremendously care what happens here, of course. I'm just tired of being away from home and I miss my own bed and kitchen and bathroom and cat and car and and and... I even miss work.

More tomorrow.