Triggering The Hunt

It's official....I'm scheduled for egg retrieval on Thursday at 8:00am. Today was my last e2 blood test and ultrasound before the big day. Today's ultrasound showed the same total number of follicles. The lead follicles ranged in size from 16-22mm and my uterine lining still looked good. By 1:30pm, the dr. was still determining whether we would do the egg retrieval on Thursday or to wait one more day. He decided to have me do one more dose of Menopur (a sarcastic yay!) while I was there. So I holed myself up in one of their exam rooms and did it. I didn't have the luxury of an ice pack and was too embarrassed to ask for one, so I just sucked it up and did it without icing up first. It was actually the best Menopur shot ever. It didn't burn and I was able to push the plunger down pretty easily and quickly. So maybe the pre-icing was actually hindering me. Too bad I didn't figure that out earlier.

So in preparation for egg retrieval day, I need to make sure I do he following:

5/13/08 (in addition to having taken my last Lupron dose this morning and continuing to take the Medrol nightly)

• Take my last dexamethasone pill tonight


• Administer the HCG injection in my rear end at 9:00pm


• Begin drinking 6-8 oz of V8 vegetable juice 3x/day. A little trick that's supposed to help with bloated and edema. Awesome because I'm starting to feel the edema forming.

5/14/08

• Take my last acetyl-L carthinine alpha lipoic acid today


• Not eat or drink anything after midnight

5/15/08

• Not eat or drink anything. Liquid or food can be vomited and inhaled into the lungs during the procedure which may result in serious complications and can be fatal.


• Not wear any perfume, cologne, body powder, hand lotion, hairspray or deodorant (both of us) - I learned today that fragrance can actually harm/kill the eggs. Yikes! We can't have that!


• Not wear any makeup, nail polish, or contact lenses. Just a precautionary measure to ensure that my body gets the most oxygen as possible during the procedure.

After the procedure, I'll be in recovery for about an hour before they'll let Ryan drive me home to eat something, take my first dose of Doxycycline and rest for the next 48-72 hours. I also need to continue to take Medrol nightly until they tell me to stop. I didn't receive any instructions for progesterone yet. Maybe that will happen the day of egg retrieval and they'll share that good news with Ryan since he'll be the lucky one administering that.

I'm so relieved that we've made it this far and to actually see more than one big follicle on that lovely ultrasound screen. I'm hoping and praying hard that we'll get some nice, healthy, excellent quality eggs to successfully fertilize.