T-Minus 36 Hours!!

That's right everyone, i have officially triggered and will be having my eggs retrieved in 36 hours. For those of you who are mathematically challenged like me that means I will be doped up and out of it Saturday morning at 8am while Dr. Lee sticks a needle through my vaginal wall, up into my ovaries, and aspirates the eggs out! OMG I think I just gave myself a panic attack! But I'll get to that later. First up (as I slurp up a delicious chocolate shake that Mike made me as a reward for all my shots tonight) is a pic of my final night of shots - well my final night of stims shots; there are quite a few more shots in my future.

I graduated from one to two and now three shots in one night! The two larger bottles in the back left are the HCG Trigger (which will force my body to ovulate). The small bottle in the middle with the dark blue cap is the Lupron Trigger (what is going to hopefully prevent me from getting OHSS). And the 2 little bottles in the back right is my final Bravelle shot. And I'm guessing the plethora of needles don't really need much of an explanation.

I am going to admit that I was terrified for all the shots tonight!! I knew what to expect from the Bravelle so I opted to start with that one but the HCG and Lupron Triggers brought me to tears. I've only ever taken the HCG Trigger once before and that was my very first IUI cycle in which I was only on Clomid, not injectables. I remember it hurting more but looking back I think that might have just been because I wasn't as used to shots. In all honestly I felt a little pinch as Mike stabbed my booty but then it was over before I realized what had happened. Finally, it was time for the Lupron Trigger. This one frightened me for multiple reasons. First and foremost was the fact that it had to be injected into my thigh muscle, not my belly or booty fat like the other shots. Maybe it's just me but the idea of stabbing into a muscle sounds more painful! Secondly, this shot was A LOT of liquid, literally the entire syringe (1mL) was filled. I had visions of the pain lasting forever as Mike slowly pushed all the medicine into my thigh. Anyways, I hate to disappoint you all but this shot was also relatively uneventful. After a few minutes of reviewing the diagram I was given to figure out where exactly on my thigh to stab, I sat down on the couch, hugged a pillow and closed my tear filled eyes only to be told a second later that it was over. I can't believe I made such a huge deal out of all this; it really wasn't that bad! Never the less, I am looking forward to taking a couple days off from injections...

All these shots are really messing with my emotions lately. I think I have done really well this time around with not being overly emotional but it seems that all the hormones are finally playing catch up. The simplest thing is making be burst into tears, happy and sad things. And the most bazaar thing yet, I spontaneously burst into laughter last night for no reason at all while Mike was giving me my shot. I was so scared that my laughing was going to cause the shot to hurt more and I was desperately trying to hold in the giggles but I couldn't control myself! Mike hurried up the shot as fast as he could and then just looked at me like I had completely lost it. I'm just glad that Mike and I are able to laugh through it all...

I'm also trying to pay really close attention to my body for any signs of OHSS. Sometimes I really think that I might be a hypochondriac so it's typically best not to tell me about random diseases and/or their symptoms because I will usually begin to freak out that I am dying. Anyways, by this time in our last cycle I was feeling very full/heavy/bloated and was having really bad cramping. This time, however, I have been feeling so good and hardly even felt much bloating. At my appointment yesterday Dr. Lee seemed to be pretty surprised that I was feeling so great because I have even more follicles then I did last time with the OHSS. At first I didn't think much of it and just took that as a good sign that I won't have OHSS this time. So he sent me on my way and told me to pay close attention for any signs of OHSS, especially after I trigger since the HCG can actually make OHSS worse. I think Karma is paying me a little visit since I was bragging about how great I was feeling because ever since my shot last night I have been feeling very bloated. I'm not really in any pain like I was last time and I don't think the bloating is really bad but I don't have anything to compare it to since my only other cycle with injectables resulted in OHSS. I know that it's normal to bloat during IVF, I just don't know when I need to be concerned...

Next up is the egg retrieval Saturday morning. I'll be sure to fill you all in on how everything goes once I get home from the procedure. Until then I guess I'm just going to lay around and hope my little eggs are good and ready!