14!

They got 14 eggs! I'm delighted, hopefully they'll fertilize, we'll know tomorrow.

The nurse said I had 21 follicles at the last count, so to watch out for OHSS symptoms. I think they went down quite heavy with the sedation this time, I could barely get up all day (still feeling quite spaced out) thankfully my sister could look after Oliver and Mike wasn't late coming back home.

I'll update tomorrow with the fertilization report.

And would you believe it, last night, Oliver's monitor went off 3 times! Of course all false alarms, which is great in one way, meaning there's not a hint of panic in me any more, but on the other, if we don't understand what the hell is wrong with it, it's going to be a real pain!

Update: Mike just came down and said the sensor pad was not in the centre of the bed so he repositioned it. Any time it went off, Oliver was at the top of his crib where he tends to migrate all the time. We'll see!

Retrieval on monday

Last scan this morning and all looks good. I think I have 20 follicles in total and 14 are of a very good size. Also I was scanned with a different (older) machine and even the measure of the lining (incidentally the best I ever had!) was less than 2 days ago so I am thinking there may be a couple more follicles in the "right zone", but we all know this means nothing till you have actually eggs and then embryos. So I don't want to have my hopes up too much as the disappointment the last time was massive. If I don't hear anything this afternoon from the clinic, I'll trigger with the full dose on saturday night and I'll be the first one in the morning going through the procedure.

In Oliver's world things are well, he had his first cold which had him up at night (and us too!) even more than usual, being quite uncomfortable and slightly feverish. But yesterday he was already much better and last night...oh yes, last night we NEVER had to get up! I'm looking 10 years younger this morning!! And it's just as well...we had the official opening of our new research facilities and the Prime Minister was on the premises...big big deal as you can imagine, in difficult economic times you have to really show that your job and research are worth the investment.

Finally we had another full on alarm with the sensor monitor. It happened one the afternoon, Oliver was actually awake and all smiley when Mike run up to check on him. Mike had heard him cooing seconds earlier so we are now absolutely certain the thing it's false alarming on us. I think Carlito may have started playing with the cable that connect the under-mattress sensor pad to the unit...I have to say I'm so so relieved!!!

So disappointed...

6 eggs.

Out of 18 follicles they found 6 eggs.

With an E2 of over 10000 they still only got 6 eggs. What went wrong I don't know. I spoke to the doctor, she said I had not ovulated earlier, all the follicles were there. I asked maybe the 5000 unit trigger was too little. She said they drained all the follicles and not just those that were big.

If I have to say I have any hope for this cycle I would be lying through my teeth. I'm thinking maybe the metothrexate in September has affected the egg production despite the impressive number of follicles. What a blow.

Tomorrow I'll be called with the fertilization report. I feel very close to that woman who had to be called by the doctor because none fertilize.

Update: I have done a bit of reading and I think now I know what went wrong. There is actually a name for the condition and it's called Empty Follicles Syndrome. When the number and size of follicles correlates well with E2 levels, the most plausible explanation for poor egg retrieval is an error in the trigger. I of course triggered at the right time, so timing would not have been the problem. But I was told to use only half the dose that would have been normally used. Just to explain better, if women forget to take the trigger, at ER they will get no eggs at all despite the presence of follicles of the right size. It's not like they get immature eggs. I think I would have been ok if I had been warned that 5000 U was what I had to take to prevent OHSS but that the possibility of retrieving a high number of eggs was small. Given that I specifically asked the nurse about this and she was completely positive that 5000 U would have been sufficient to trigger everything I didn't think about it at all. I feel I was not given the full picture and I am indeed dreading the call tomorrow. Perhaps I should call the clinic and see if I can talk to the Favorite Doctor.

Update 2: thank you for all your comments, I'm trying really hard not to give up hope but I'm sure you understand it's not easy. I did call the clinic, I could barely talk on the phone and left a message for my Favorite Doctor asking if she could call back because ER didn't go very well. She of course called back and was very sorry about it all. I told her I thought the trigger had not been enough she said possibly, but that many women do well with just 5000 U (Hi, I'm the one that falls in the 2% shitty stats of ectopics...twice...I mean come on..). She said it was a difficult decision to make, they didn't want to chance me having OHSS and having to freeze it all given that I don't do well with FETs. I said of course I would have understood that but when I asked the nurse she dismissed me quickly saying I didn't need to worry. I told her I thought all the 6 eggs would have been immature. She said I'm going down to the lab and ask, I'll call you back. So all the eggs were mature and have been injected. We have to wait and see if they fertilize tomorrow. I'm still not that much better, this was a shit result and there's no sugaring of the pill.

Ready to trigger

My dears, I didn't have a second today to update the blog. Did you notice the new look? I thought I needed a change so after various attempts at changing things I'm happy with the result!

Anyway, I had my final scan today, I think they counted over 14 follicles above 14mm and 4 around 10mm. Lining looks good at 10.4 mm which I think it's the best I ever got. Now, they took blood also for E2 with the agreement that if I didn't hear anything I would have triggered with 10000 Units of Pregnyl, otherwise they would phone me.

And sure enough...

E2 is quite high, around 10000 (thankfully I lowered the Puregon!) so I'm to trigger with only 5000 U of Pregnyl this evening at 9.30.
ER is on wednesday at 9.00. I better be the first one!! And hopefully the moron won't be there to take pics of us!! They hope in this way I won't hyperstimulate as I'm borderline for OHSS with these values and number of follicles.

So strange how I responded much more to a lower dose this time around. Ah well, we just take it one day at a time and see how it goes.

9 eggs collected

Thank you all so much for the messages of good wishes...I brought them all with me this morning!

I wore my planned outfit (a very comfy track suit my sister gave to me as a present).

I got to the clinic by 8.30 as indicated. I took my two pills of painkillers also at 8.30 am as indicated. At 9.15 am I was still in the waiting room....waiting. Should I not have the procedure done at 9.30 am (35.5 hours after trigger)?? WTF is going on?? They make your head explode by telling you constantly how important it is that you get your trigger done EXACTLY at the time they tell you, NOT half an hour before, NOT half an hour after. Of course I went to reception and asked what was going on, they said they call theatre to find out. Anyway, a few minutes later the nurse came up brought me and Mike down to the recovery room next to theatre, and in two seconds I was wearing the gown. But I could har the doctor talking to another lady, going through all the signed consent forms and explaining her the procedure. So she went in when I thought I should have been in.

Needless to say I freaked out. Mike was fantastic, he called the nurse, told her I was very worried about this delay and that we knew timing is paramount in EC so how come we are late? She was lovely too, of course she said it's not that the follicles start popping on the second and that 36 hours after trigger is perfect timing and she went into theatre to ask the doctor just in case. But at this pace I'll be getting my eggs out well after 36 hours (which in my mind was the absolute latest that should happen). The one in theatre before me was there for maybe 20 minutes, so I thought we are still on time!

At 9.55 the doctor came to us and we went (very quickly) through the consent forms etc. He said to go to the loo and that he'll be waiting for me in the theatre. I went, nearly no pee at all, out in a flash. And then this moron from the lab came out to us saying he had to confirm our identity and take the pics. Ok, moron, hurry up though! He was as slow as a dead snail, I was looking at his watch, 10.05 am. Took the pics with some kind of device and then said to us he had to do it again as the device wasn't sending the pics to the lab. WTF WTF WTF, tried again, still not working (10.10 am), he went to the lab to take a second device, still not working. I was almost in tears. Mike said "can we not do this later?" and he said "yes of course" (moron!! we've been there one and half hour where the hell were you?). I could hear the docor asking the nurse what was the delay about... I went in for the procedure possibly at 10.20.

I suppose it went well, I don't remember anything and I have no pain at all even now. Like I had absolutely nothing done. And then I slept and slept and slept. When I was waking up a bit, the nurse came talking to me and said it went very well, they got 9 eggs. I thought "great, they got eggs!" But since then I'm obsessing over numbers, over the quality of the eggs if the retrival was in fact done bit late (had the best popped already?), and of course over the phone call we have to wait for tomorrow between 4 and 7 pm to find out how many were good eggs and how many fertilised.