Monday's going to be a big day!

Well, we've almost made it to a very important milestone date. My egg retrieval has been set for Monday! Insert the excited word of your choice here: yippee, yahoo, woo hoo, yeah, etc.! Can you tell I'm excited?

I had a doctor's visit this morning to check on the (numerous!) follicles and for follow-up bloodwork. The ultrasound/follicle check was first. Comments from those performing the ultrasound included: "Geez, girl, what have you being doing!" "OK, you're going to have to write down the size of all these follicles because I'm not going to remember!" "Holy &*#* you've got a lot of follicles!" etc. All of those are very good things!

I can't remember the exact numbers, but we continued to have 10-12 follies on each side (left ovary and right ovary) and they were all looking good size wise. There are some bigger ones as well as some slightly smaller ones that have a chance to catch up in the next few days (which is exactly the way it's supposed to be at this point).

So just a bit ago I got the word on my bloodwork - and it was good news, too! My hormone level has evened off with the lower dose they had me do the last 3 nights and they are very happy with my current level. (That doesn't mean I'm not hormonal, though. I've had to mute or ignore any commercials with dogs in them today because they simply are making me cry!)

What does all this mean? It means:
A) only one more night of double shots - tonight we'll do one more dose of the stimulatory meds (back at full strength) and one more dose of the meds that keep me from releasing the eggs in the follicles
B) tomorrow night we do the "trigger" shot that tells my body "Release the eggs!" Yes, I imagine it much like a fox-and-the-hound chase of "Release the hounds!" The trigger shot tells my body to release the eggs in about 34 hours, so it's a very precisely timed shot so that I can go to the hospital at a specific time Monday morning (early!) for the retrieval.

(For my work friends, this also confirms I won't be able to make it to the Awards Banquet tomorrow night. First, because of the trigger at a specific time and second because I just don't feel up to it. I'm a bit...bloated...for a lack of a better word and don't feel like putting on real clothes without elastic waists and leaving my couch! Hey, this frees up more prizes for you! If anyone asks why I'm missing the banquet for my 5th anniversary recognition, you know the drill - my medical procedure just didn't allow for it.)

My next "big" update should be how many mature eggs were retrieved; then we see how they do with the fertilization and post-fertilization period and will determine the embryo transfer date.

So far so good - those good thoughts are landing right where they need to (mostly in my heart where they are most effective!). I'll update soon - love to you all!