Transfer

I have just arrived home from the clinic after having our first (and hopefully only) transfer for this IVF cycle. It all went very smoothly and was far less complicated than the pick-up. First I had to undress from the waist down and put on a green gown, just like the one I wore last week, and then we went into a small room with a monitor high on the wall and a large chair with stirrups. D was able to sit next to me and hold my hand throughout. First we were brought up to date with our embryos. Five had been successfully fertilised last week but unfortunately two of them had since stopped growing. Of the remaining three, two were growing well but one looked better, so that was chosen for today's transfer. The rest will be frozen in case we need them.

Almost half a cricket team!

This morning a technician from the clinic rang me to let me know how things had gone in the laboratory overnight. She said that of the nine eggs that had been picked up, six were mature and five of those had been fertilised with D's sperm. That's a good number - certainly better than the two we had last time!

Egg pick-up day

This morning we were up bright and early to get to the clinic by 9.15am for our pick-up appointment. I wasn't allowed anything to eat, but I did sneak in a mug of chamomile tea at 6.00am - the closest I could get to coffee! I was feeling very hormonal and grouchy and my breasts were especially sore. I chose a comfortable bra!

Trigger

This morning I went to the medical centre for a blood test, just to confirm where my hormones were at. In the afternoon Nurse K rang me from the clinic to run through what happens over the next couple of days. Tonight at exactly 10pm I will have an injection of Ovidrel, the "trigger", which will prompt the follicles to begin releasing the eggs. Our pickup appointment is scheduled for 10am on Wednesday, exactly 36 hours later. D and I will need to take the whole day off work. I won't be allowed to drive and D will need to keep an eye on me while I recuperate during the afternoon. It's a bit tough on the body, but at least there are lots of healthy-looking follicles, so hopefully we should get plenty of eggs and I won't need to go through this again. Still feeling positive!

Saturday scan

This morning we were up bright and early to go into town for another ultrasound scan. It showed that the three follicles on the right side and seven on the left had all grown larger, though not quite large enough, so we have scheduled the egg pick-up for Wednesday rather than Monday. We were also given another preloaded needle of Gonal F to last us until Sunday night.

How many?

Today we went into the clinic to see Dr C for our first ultrasound scan for this cycle. I have been having the Gonal F injections for five days now and the blood test I had yesterday showed that my estrogen levels were "nice and high", so it was time to see what my ovaries have been up to.

Two jabs

Yesterday the nurse from the clinic rang me with my blood test results. They showed that my hormones were very low, so it's time to start the Gonal F injections tonight. We will keep going with the Buserelin every morning as well. I have to have another blood test next Wednesday and then on Thursday I'll go in for an ultrasound scan. The Gonal F will stimulate my ovaries to create lots of eggs - the more the better - and we will be able to see the follicles at the scan.

And we're off

I had another blood test yesterday and the nurse at the clinic rang me this morning with the results. It showed that I have ovulated and that it's time to start the first of the injected medications, Buserelin. I was surprised to hear that I need to start it this morning and, since D has gone to work already, I had to inject it myself. It was a bit fiddly drawing the right amount into the syringe from the bottle and I was slightly nervous doing the actual injection, but it seems I am a good nurse and it didn't hurt a bit (though the site is slightly itchy now). So the pattern for the next ten days or so will be a Buserelin injection first thing in the morning before D leaves for work, then I'll have a blood test on 5 April, and then we'll add an evening injection of Gonal F to the regimen. It feels very much like we're at the beginning of another journey but we don't know yet what we'll find at the end.

Blood test result

The nurse from the clinic called me yesterday afternoon to give me the result of the blood test I had on Monday. She said that the test showed that I had "surged" (i.e. ovulation had occurred) and that I need to have another blood test next Monday morning. At this stage it looks like we'll start the injections sometime next week.

Blood test

This morning I popped into the doctor's surgery to have yet another blood test. This one is to help pinpoint the time of ovulation. It was expected around day 11 and today is day 13. The nurse at the clinic will call me tomorrow when they get the results to let me know when we can start the injections.