Okay, so to pick up from where we left off, the next step in the process was to go in for an ultrasound to see how the medications are working out. The first ultrasound was on the 14th, and it was done the same way as the SIS ultrasound. Dr. Sparrow turned the monitor so I could see what he was doing, and he pointed out where the ovaries were and how many follicles were growing in there. It was looking pretty good - we had seven follicles on the left side and five on the right. Dr. Sparrow took measurements of each follicle with the computer by clicking on the top, bottom, left, and right edges. You can see the measurements on the screen while they're being taken, and you're looking for the average of the two diameters to grow to be around 18mm per follicle (this is not likely to happen early on!!) I didn't pay much attention to their size at this appointment because I didn't know what size we were trying to get to yet.
The same day as the ultrasound, they took blood to check my estrogen level. It came out at 125 and everyone seemed happy with that. Dr. Sparrow was guessing that we'd be doing the retrieval on Tuesday, the 21st. I went home and kept giving myself shots. I don't remember the exact date that I started the Ganirelix shot, but it was around this time, and that meant that I was now doing two shots in the morning and two shots in the evening. This still wasn't bad at all.
Two days later, on the 16th, we repeated the whole process, only a resident was there to work with Dr. Sparrow. It was kind of funny, because she was supposed to be trying to find the follicles on the left side after he had found the ones on the right, but she was just really struggling with it. After letting her try for several minutes, Dr. Sparrow took over and two seconds later, my follicles were on the screen. I felt kind of bad for the poor resident! This time, Dr. Sparrow sounded a little bit less enthused about my follicles. He changed his prediction to doing the egg retrieval on Tuesday or Wednesday. I didn't say much when he said that, but I was a little worried because that meant that I needed to figure out coverage at work for both Tuesday and Wednesday in case it did get delayed. My co-worker has been absolutely amazing about covering, but it's still stressful to be gone. I've only called in sick once in four years, so taking time off for medical stuff is not something that I'm very comfortable doing.
Thankfully, my next ultrasound was scheduled on Saturday. This time Dr. Sparrow was out for the weekend, so Dr. Sheep did the ultrasound. She was great. She also wasn't sure whether I'd go on Tuesday or Wednesday, and scheduled me for yet another ultrasound the next morning.
Sunday morning, looking at the ultrasound screen again. This time, everyone was happy! We had seven mature follicles ready to go and Dr. Sheep told me to do the "trigger shot" that night. The trigger shot is a shot of HCG (human chorionic gonadotrophin) that "triggers" ovulation so we can do the egg retrieval. It was an intramuscular injection, which meant a big long needle, so I made Mark do it for me. I also freaked out like a little kid (maybe something about not being in control?) and squealed while kind of laughing through the whole thing. I always laugh when I'm kind of panicking over some medical treatment, it's a weird trait of mine.
The day after we did the trigger shot, I had a break from all shots for a day (yay!) Then it was time for the egg retrieval. And that deserves its own separate post.
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