The Moment of Truth

08 July 2010

Today was the moment of truth for my ovaries -a monitoring ultrasound after shooting up Gonal-F for several days would show their response. I was nervous because I’ve had no side effects at all with this protocol.

Today also happened to be the hottest day of the year so far, I think it got up to 35 degrees C. It always feels hotter when you are riding in a vehicle for several hours. We left home about 8:30 this morning. I carefully packaged up my Gonal-F pen in a cooler with cold packs. There is often part of a dose left in the pen, and at the price it goes for every drop is precious, so the instructions were to bring it back to the clinic to see if they could squeeze out another dose with a syringe.

It was straight to the magic wand room when we arrived. Dr. H started spouting out numbers for the nurse to transcribe “Right 17, 10, 9, 8, 8; Left 14, 10, 8; Lining 11” He then let me get my pants on and asked to meet with us in his office. My husband and I looked at each other and wondered what he was going to tell us next. The not so great news was that my day 3 labs from last week showed normal estradiol levels this time, but FSH was again elevated. This confirms that my ovarian reserve is low but... he was very pleased at how my ovaries responded to the injectables. He thinks the 17mm and 14mm follicles will be the lead ones that will mature, but he said the development of the smaller ones is indicative of a good response and important information too. This confirms that IVF would be an option for us if the IUI’s don’t work. I am so relieved!

So tonight it’s another hit of Gonal-F, and tomorrow it’s off for blood work which will dictate whether it’s more Gonal-F or straight to trigger. Saturday we make the trip again for an appointment and it will either be another ultrasound or the IUI.

I made another purchase from my drug dealer, another Gonal-F pen, and an HCG trigger. They did manage to get another dose out of my first Gonal-F pen, saving us $150. The goods were concealed and packed out with the cooler bag. The day just got hotter and hotter. We stopped for a swim to cool off of the way home. I checked on my drugs a few times and they were still cool when we did finally arrive home. Whew! Now to see what tomorrow brings.