Finally, My Follicles Have Kicked Into Gear

This morning was the second day in a row that my follicles showed good growth - yea!

The down side is that it looks like there are 20-25 that may be growing. I know, I know, for most IVFers, that sounds like a great problem to have. And if only quantity equalled quality, I'd be thrilled. But during IVF #1, we got 32 eggs and still have no baby to show for it. So I'd much rather have a lower number of eggs and actually wind up with a kiddo out of this.

RE was hoping to keep it down to 20 eggs retrieved. We'll see if a few of them stop growing during the next couple of days, but my guess is we'll wind up closer to 30 than 20 in the end.

Stimming for this long (9 days so far, with probably at least 3 more to go) is a new experience for me. Not that I have a lot of experience to draw on, since we've only done one other IVF prior to this. But that time, I only stimmed for 9 days total. What I gather from the nurses is that it's common for PCOS patients to stim much longer here, and in a way I'm glad about that - it gives me a little bit of hope that maybe the outcome will be better this time.

The only things I'm not liking about the long stim are all the needles and ultrasounds involved. The ultrasounds usually don't bother me at all, but I was wincing a lot today - those parts of me don't see action on a daily basis, well, ever! :-) So I'm starting to get sore.

And the needles - ugh. I didn't have a lot of good veins for blood draws to begin with when we started this process 6 years ago. Now, between the scar tissue that has formed over some of the veins and others that have just plain worn out, phlebotomists have even fewer options. After drawing me today, the phlebotomist gave me a baby heel warmer and told me to activate it as soon as I'm done with tomorrow's ultrasound and stick it on whatever spot I want her to try for. (The heat brings the veins closer to the surface of the skin.)

I also don't remember my last clinic having me on Lupron this long. I think they had me stop the Lupron soon after I started the shots, although I could be wrong about that. Between that, the Follistim, the Menopur and the Lovenox, I'm doing four injections a day. I have a big stomach, so lots of surface area to work with, and I'm still running out of room! (This is the only, and I do mean only time I have ever looked at my stomach and been even just a teeny (very, very teeny), tiny, little bit glad that it's not totally flat, because if it was, I don't know where I'd stick all these needles!) If someone who didn't know me saw my stomach, they'd think I'm a drug addict for all the track marks I have. :-)