Getting Ready for the Egg Retrieval - IVF

This has been an eventful, busy week full of blessings and it isn't over yet. On Tuesday night, Brad gave me my injections like normal. I even did a full body scan like I do before my daily meditation. I started at the top of my head and took deep breaths thinking about my entire body relaxing. Brad started with the Follistim (the one I barely feel) and then he injected the Ganorelix. I thought that it was the Menopur because I felt a burn. After he was done injecting it, he said "Uh-oh," which was a little unsettling for me as I was lying there on the couch. I immediately asked, "What?!?" He said that he thought maybe he hadn't pushed the needle down all the way into my skin because there was a welt on my skin where the injection had been. He thought maybe some of the liquid caused my skin to bubble up. Since I hadn't experienced that reaction before, I kind of panicked. I looked at the bump and it looked like a blister. I still had one more injection, the Menopur (my least favorite one). Brad told me to calm down and relax so he could give me the last injection. I teared up a little, but with his reminder, I put those awful-izing thoughts away and focused on accepting the injection into my body.

After the injections, I iced my stomach and texted my neighbor. It just so happens that my neighbor works in an ER, and has had experience with injections (what a blessing!). While I waited for her to respond, I googled "reaction at Ganorelix injection site." As you know, I try not to google anything about IVF because I don't want to think about what could go wrong and bring that negative energy into my body. However, I felt like this was a good time for an exception. It turns out that many people have experienced a welt after the injection, but I didn't see any pictures of it, so I couldn't quite tell if I had what they were describing. They also mentioned that it happened when the air bubble in the Ganorlelix syringe wasn't removed before injecting. The Ganorelix is the only injection that comes already premixed and in the syringe, and I didn't think to look for air bubbles. The air bubble thing made me more unnerved (someone online mentioned death due to an air bubble being injected - that wasn't what I needed to read at that moment ;)). I didn't hear back from my neighbor, so I walked over there. Brad thought I was a little crazy for wanting to go talk to our neighbor, but I said that I bet I wasn't the first woman who ever went to the ER because of a bad reaction to an IVF medication (at least that's what I was choosing to believe), and going to see my neighbor was like going to the ER and being seen by a doctor so my mind was made up. My neighbors on both side of our house are amazing! We are truly blessed to have them and feel like they are a part of our family. When I went next door, my neighbor was eating dinner outside with her family (sorry for the interruption, guys!), and she stopped everything and helped me out. Wow! She took a look at my stomach and said that it was okay, but to keep an eye out for it growing hot to the touch and/or redness spreading around the welt. She said to ice my stomach. She also said that the air bubble was okay because the injection wasn't injected into an artery. Phew! I was going to be okay. I may have overreacted (don't tell Brad), but the peace of mind I got from my neighbor was priceless. I went back home, iced, went to bed, and woke up in the morning welt-less. Yay!

Going out of order, lets back up to Monday night of this week. One of my friends (the "seasons" and "hen" friend) texted me after reading my blog Monday night and said that she had an appointment with Quest Diagnostics on Wednesday at 7:45 a.m. and would be happy to give me her appointment if I didn't get seen before then, so I could make it to my field trip on time. To me, that was a sign that I was on the right path. What are the odds of a friend having an appointment on the same day that I needed to go in and have an appointment time that would work for me?! Wow! And what an awesome friend to be willing to donate her appointment to me?

Now, let's fast forward to Wednesday morning. I arrived at Quest Diagnostics at 7:01 a.m. (a little later than I had wanted). There were four names ahead of mine on the sign-in sheet, so I thought I'd be good. I waited for about 10 minutes, and no one had been called back yet for blood work. I was anxiously (but trying so hard not to be anxious) watching the time go by. My mom was right about the slow pace there. That was my first experience using Quest Diagnostics, and they did what I needed, so I don't want to complain about them. I'm simply telling my experience as it happened. Anyway, my "hen" friend texted me and said she was on her way. She arrived at 7:15 a.m. and she instantly brought me a sense of peace and calmness. We chatted and she helped make the time go by quickly. I was finally called back at around 7:40 a.m., had by blood drawn, and was sent on my merry way.

I got to school at 7:52 a.m. (the bell rings at 8:00 a.m.) before the start of school. I was able to get some last minute things done before the start of the day (I did forget to put out the math station recording pages and the pocket chart activity for my 1st graders, but my wonderful sub made it all work). The bowling alley trip was really fun and went quite smoothly thanks to the teacher that was in charge of setting it up for all the kinders at our school. After the students went home (it was a minimum day for staff development), I went to lunch with one of my wonderful colleagues and talked her ear off. I am blessed to work with the people that I do. They are more than just colleagues - they are like family. After our short lunch, we went back for a training.

My lining

By the end of the training, I was exhausted! I went home for about 45 minutes, played with the girls, and then got in the car to head to HRC in Ontario. There wasn't as much traffic as I had expected, but there was still more than I'm used to. I ended up getting there right on time. Dr. Norion said that they had received my blood work from Quest and that all my hormone levels looked good. He gave me an internal ultra sound and measured my follicles. He said that my follicles are growing nicely and that Sunday is still the plan for the egg retrieval. Apparently, there is an egg inside of each follicle, so a growing follicle means a growing egg. I currently have 18 follicles on my right ovary and 14 on the left. He also said that the lining of my uterus is great. Based on the ultra sound and blood work, he decreased the dosage of my Follistim. I sent the info to the person that gives me acupuncture, and she said that she wants to see the size of the follicles on Friday morning, and decide at that time if she'll give me acupuncture Friday afternoon.

Some of my follicles (eggs are inside!)

It took me an hour to get home (lots of traffic), but I talked to my mom via Blue Tooth the whole way home, so it went by pretty quickly. When I got home, I started getting all my stuff ready for injections. Brad wasn't home Wednesday night because he had a work dinner. His aunt (and mine, too :)), said she'd be honored to come give me my injections. Another blessing! I'm pretty sure that I couldn't have given myself the injections. Nope, that wouldn't have been good. She's a nurse and she lives right by us, so it worked out perfectly. She's amazing! She suggested that I use a heating pad before the injection. One of my friends on Facebook suggested the same thing but I never tried it because I knew what to expect with the ice and I was worried that the heat may not work for me. Since she was the second person to suggest that to me, and since she is a nurse, I decided to give it a shot. I actually had the heating pad out already. The heating pad worked nicely. I think it even made the Menopur burn less. She stayed for awhile after the injections and we chatted. I am loved!

Now, it's Thursday afternoon. Brad is back and will give me my injections tonight. I see Dr. Norion tomorrow morning. If all goes well, he'll tell me about the retrieval on Sunday and will tell me about the trigger shot I'm supposed to start taking before the retrieval.

Since the beginning of our IVF journey, I have felt like this is what we were meant to do. I don't regret any of this process. I don't regret the medication that has entered my body. I don't regret the thousands of dollars spent. I don't regret the time on appointments. No, there are no regrets. I welcome it all because every single part of this journey is taking me to where we're meant to be. There have been many things that I hadn't expected, like deeper friendships being made, a deeper appreciation for doctors, a deeper appreciation for modern medicine, using Facebook again (I don't go on the News Feed part very often yet - baby steps :)), a better understanding of my self, a feeling of connectedness with others, and so much more. Oh, and I also never expected to feel like a hen taking care of her eggs, but now, that's exactly what I feel like. I've got you eggs!