One Day At A Time

The last two weeks I've been faithfully taking my 3 shots per day (sometimes more), administered by my awesome momma, and seeing my RE (Reproductive Endocrinology) doctor every other day for blood work and ultrasounds. My belly and arms are now full of bruises and I'm officially looking like the poster-child of IVF. If only I could get reimbursed for such fine advertising! ;) 

This morning I headed back to my RE for my final ultrasound and blood work before my retrieval Saturday morning. Everything looks great and he anticipates about 20 eggs to harvest, but only time will tell if they're good quality and therefore what the quality of our embabies (this is what I call our embryo babies) will be. My estrogen is currently at 8,500 (typically women are at 25-75 and then increase to 200-300 during a period) so as you can tell, this is an EXTREMELY high number. With pregnancy, this number only increases, and the more it increases the more it puts my own health in jeopardy. Severe OHSS (ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome) can actually be life-threatening so my doctor is taking a very cautious approach and suggesting we freeze these babies, wait a month, and then do a transfer. This will give my hormones a chance to level out and get me out of the severe OHSS danger zone. I guess I'm okay with this but it's still frustrating to have to push this out even longer. And then there's always the big "what if" hanging in my head about how much further this infertility road can go and how long it will take. One day at a time though. One day at a time.

So this Saturday I'll head in at 9:30am and the surgery will start at 10:15am. I'll be home later that afternoon to rest in bed, and for about the next week I'll either be laying in bed or on the couch. Matt flies out Sunday night and my parents leave Monday so if anyone would like to sign up to bring me dinner, walk my dog, or have a pajama date please be sure to let me know! :) My plan is to catch up with Downton Abbey, and watch several seasons of Chuck and Big Bang Theory. I'll throw in some other movies and perhaps a few books too. I read six books last week so I'll have to find a few more- maybe on my iPad!

When it comes to IVF, anything can change, but we should know for sure after the retrieval Saturday if we'll be doing the transfer this next week or next month. Being a planner, my brain goes into hyperdrive to plan out all the situations that could occur and how I should be ready for them all but that's when I have to remind myself...one day at a time! And, sometimes, one moment at a time. :)