June 2016 - IVF #3, Day 21 of Shots - Trigger Time!

This morning's check went well, and all 4 of the follicles are now in range!  The right ones are 21mm and 19mm in diameter, and the left ones are 16mm and 15mm in diameter!  My estrogen is now a whopping 1200pg/ml.

Around 3:30pm, I got the call from my nurse.  It's finally time to trigger!  Our instructions are to take the trigger shots (2 of them) at precisely 10:00pm.

Here's a chart I made from my portal data with my blood test and ultrasound results from all the checks after starting shots.  The line shows how my estrogen changed and the bars represent follicle diameters and how they changed from start to end.  While the follicles will continue to grow, I won't get another scan before the retrieval, so this is as complete a picture as we will get from cycle 3!

Red bars are right ovary follicles, blue bars are left ovary follicles.

My retrieval is scheduled for 9:30am on Saturday morning, and we will need to be there to sign in at least 1 hour ahead of that.  We also live about 1 hour away from the surgery center where this procedure takes place.  Over the course of the last couple of weeks (and months), it has been raining heavily and flooding in Houston.  We may need to allow some extra time for finding alternate routes if it doesn't ease up by Saturday.  Flooding should NOT be the reason this cycle fails!

I'm so happy to be finished with the shots routine and on to the next step, though the next phase (retrieval and embryo growth) is probably the most difficult for me.  Not so much the retrieval itself, but the helpless waiting afterwards.

Retrieval process feels fairly routine to us at this point.  The only worry I have regarding the retrieval is if they can't find as many eggs as we have follicles.  This happens sometimes...they are called "empty" follicles.  Either the follicle doesn't have an egg, or (more likely) the egg didn't fully mature and detach from the wall of the follicle in a way that it could be sucked out.  It would be a disappointment if we worked hard to grow these follicles and then didn't get the egg from them, especially with our small numbers.  For those ladies with a few dozen follicles at this stage, losing a couple eggs is a much smaller impact.

Here's a cartoon of how a retrieval works:

Using an ultrasound probe equipped with a long needle, the RE will perforate the wall of the vagina and into the follicle within the ovary, sucking out all fluid, and hopefully the egg with it!  Rinse, lather, and repeat for each follicle...

Here's a video of what it looks like as the RE aspirates the follicles (black & white ultrasound view, not scary or graphic).

Just like the last two retrievals, my RE will come see us in the recovery room and let us know how many eggs they were able to retrieve.  We haven't had any empties so far, so here's hoping for 4 happy, healthy eggs!

Once they have my eggs, and Michael's donation, the process is the same as before.  We aren't sure yet if they will tell us the next day (because it will be a Sunday) about how many of them fertilize successfully and start growing.  The usual checkpoints are 1 day after fertilization, 3 days after, and 5/6 days after, meanwhile there is absolutely nothing either of us can do about it but wait.  Regardless, by Friday next week, we should know the outcome of this cycle.  Hopefully we will have an embryo (or two?) that we can sample for genetic testing this time!

For now, I'm going to focus on my favorite part about the retrieval:

A big 'ol Whataburger chocolate milkshake on the way home!!!  ...aaaand a reprieve from the NFD!