IVF post 5 ~ injection days 11/1-11/8

Nov. 1 - Nov. 3 ~  (Thursday-Saturday)
Gonal-f and HCG medications injected into belly at night between 6-9 pm.  First dose wasn’t bad at all! Day 3 was given on the way to districts for cheerleading…nothing like getting injections sitting at a stop light!  Left a HUGE bruise!

Nov. 4 (Sunday)

Had my 1^st ultrasound monitoring and bloodwork to check follicle growth after being on medication for 3 days and bloodwork to check estrogen levels (checked every time I had an u/s).  Instead of going to Charlottesville we met the IVF Dr. in Roanoke (Dr. Slackman) who agrees to do “satellite” visits with Dr. Williams patients who are local.  He said everything looked good and that my follicles were ranging in size from 5-10 mm (they want at least two to reach size 18 before they give the ok to do the “trigger shot”).  He said he would be in touch with Dr. Smith and then she would call me later that day. 

In the afternoon Dr. Smith called and said my follicles had responded fast to the medicines and they wanted to see me in their office the next day for another ultrasound.  We had been told this was a possibility since I didn’t have fertility issues!  She lowered my Gonal-f and HCG dose and said she would see us in the office the next morning. 

Nov. 5 (Monday)

My mom and I drove to Charlottesville Monday morning and I saw Dr. Williams. I have to mention that James felt horrible that he couldn’t go to the daily appointments but we knew he needed to work!  Each daily monitoring was quite funny because I would have him on speaker phone, holding the phone up so he could talk to Dr. Williams who was doing an internal ultrasound on me (quite a few…haha)!  He said that everything looked great and that they were going to monitor me very closely (daily) because my follicles (eggs growing inside of them) were growing so quickly.  I was given a “hotline” phone number that would have my own personal message for me each day telling me what my medication dose was, estrogen levels and when I needed to be seen (which I already knew was daily).  On the way home I called to get my message for the day (which I have to say was kind of exciting listening to each day..ha) and was told to start the 3^rd medication, cetrotide which was used to help stop ovulation from occurring.  When I got home I called Stephanie (IVF nurse to ask her about the cetrotide medication because we hadn’t talked about it in office and she said that typically once cetrotide is started Egg Retrieval is 2-3 days after so I knew this part of the process was moving fast!  Follicle sizes ranged from 11-12.5mm.  That night when I took my normal Gonal-f and HCG medications I also took my first cetrotide dose in the belly which itched very badly for 20-30 minutes!

Nov.6 (Tuesday)

Mom and I traveled back to Charlottesville for another u/s and estrogen blood work check.  Dr. Williams said everything looked great and I was progressing nicely.  The biggest follicle was 14.5 mm.  He said for me to do cetrotide injection again tonight with my normal Gonal-f/HCG dose and he would see me again in the morning. I had a bad reaction that night to the cetrotide leaving a bad rash on my belly and lots of itching (very common)!

Nov. 7 (Wednesday)

This time I drove to Charlottesville by myself because my mom had to work.  Another normal appointment.  Dr. Williams said I would probably do the trigger shot on Thursday with an egg retrieval on Saturday.  I talked to Stephanie for a while about the procedure and she said that the egg retrieval procedure would take approx. an hour and I would be under anesthesia and have mild cramping after.  I was hoping that Dr Williams would have told me to do trigger shot Wed night vs Thurs. because I had already missed three days of work, had driven to Charlottesville 3 days in a row (and now had to go a 4^th) and I knew that the High School State Cheerleading competition was Saturday and I really wanted to go and watch Allison cheer!  That evening I did another dose of Gonal-f/HCG and cetrotide.

Nov. 8 (Thursday)
I woke up this morning exhausted and definitely NOT wanting to drive to Charlottesville for the 4^th early morning in a row!  This u/s showed that a few of my follicles were 18-18.5 mm but Dr. Smith said she would wait to make the trigger decision until she saw what my estrogen levels were. Bonnie went ahead and went over everything just in case the trigger shot was tonight and gave me back up medication of the cetrotide *just in case* I had to go to Charlottesville again for another monitoring day.  On the way home I got stuck in two different wreck traffics so it took me FOREVER to get home!  On the way home Stephanie called to tell me the great news that tonight was trigger shot night and egg retrieval was set for Saturday morning!  She said as soon as I could give myself a dose of Gonal-f to do it (basically once I got home) and at 9:30 that night I needed to do the trigger shot.  I’m sure you’re wondering what the trigger shot is. It is a bigger dose of the HCG medication that is given 36 hours before egg retrieval to get your ovaries, follicles ready!  It is very important that the HCG is given at the correct time or it could mess up the egg retrieval..no pressure right??

 Nov. 9 (Friday)

REST DAY!  No appointment in charlottesville (yay) and no medication given!  James and I drove to Charlottesville that night to stay because we had to be at my doctor’s office at 8am the next morning.  I was told no foods after midnight since I would be going under anesthesia!

LONGEST WEEK OF MY LIFE!!!!

Here is an ultrasound picture of follices growing (the black circles).  This isn't a picture of my follices but I thought it would be fun to show what the doctor's are looking at and measuring!