Who needs two of 'em anyways? :-D

First and foremost, thanks everyone for your sweet comments and for all the support and prayers. We wouldn't be making it through this without them!

Before I get on to the great news about our US today, I'll mention that our second, and looks to be last, Luveris (LH) injection last night went MUCH better than the first night. Thank goodness. By the end of yesterday, I was definitely feeling quite tender and bloated. I weighed myself right before bed and I had gained about 4 lbs! Luckily when I did it again this morning, most of that must have been water weight, because I was back down to only about 1lb from where I had been. Whew! Don't need any early signs of OHSS!



So... onto the good stuff: Our CD 9 US Results!
Can I just say that I'm oh so proud of my single, solitary ovary (and what remains of my right). The tender little thing is definitely doing double duty. Thank you ovary! In a nutshell, Dr. A thinks we should expect to get in the upper teens for retrieval count. Yay, Yay, YAY!!

In he walked with a nurse - I just knew that meant business! He cut right to the chase and started measuring all the ones worth measuring (mentioning there were still a decent amount of smaller ones that we wouldn't count). I'll be real honest, I started counting up in my head each one as he called out "12 mm", "14", "16"... but I lost track right when it mattered the most. I knew I should have pulled out the pen and paper. I did, however, play back the voice recorder I took along and I'm pretty sure the below is fairly accurate.

So, as of CD 9, here is our count, according to measurement:
12mm - 8
13mm - 8
14mm - 5
15mm - 1
16mm - 2
18mm - 1

He summed up the scan by stating most are currently in the 12-14 range, with a couple outliers and that we won't need much additional stim; tonight he had me do 75 IU, with the idea of keeping them going and nudging the size up a bit. As of my appt this afternoon, they still hadn't received my estradiol level from the lab. He said they will look closely at that when they get the results and want me to go for another E2 draw tomorrow AM.

As for my uterine lining, it is measuring at 12, which he said looks very nice. This site states, "There is some ongoing debate as to "how thin is too thin", as well as to "how thick is too thick". In general, 8-13 mm is good, less than 6 is potentially a problem, and greater than 15 or so might possibly reduce chances for a successful pregnancy. During IVF treatment, the uterine lining starts at about 3mm thick at the end of the menstrual period. After the estrogen levels rise sufficiently, the lining of the uterus then thickens by about 1mm each day during IVF."

I have another scan for Wednesday at 1pm to assess where things are at. For some reason he felt compelled enough to say that he has a feeling ER will be Saturday, vs Friday, and that they'll have "no problem getting upper teens on ER day". Yippee!!! Go ovary go!!

I am supposed to hear back from their office by tomorrow afternoon regarding how my estradiol numbers are looking (from today and then again tomorrow). In going back and rereading a passage from the book "The A.R.T of Making Babies", by Dr. Geoffrey Sher, it appears as though "a woman who is optimally stimulate will, in our opinion, usually demonstrate a continuing rise or at least maintain a sustained level of blood estradiol while receiving gonadotrophins. This would confirm that the follicles and eggs are continuing to develop optimally. It has been demonstrated that a large drop in the blood estradiol level after gonadotrophins are discontinued is often associated with poor-quality eggs." With that said, I guess we won't really know the latter (because I'm not off the stims yet), but we should be looking for the numbers to be high or slowly climbing still. At least that is how it sounds.

FWIW, his book also states, "The optimum time for ER is about 34-36 hours after the final gonadotrophins injection is administered. (aka trigger shot). The average number of eggs retrieved varies from program to program. We average between 8 and 15 eggs per retrieval attempt, and can usually successfully fertilize about 70-80% of the mature eggs retrieved." He goes on to say "while the level of hormones and the US findings roughly correlate with the chances of retrieving a large number of eggs, this doesn't always hold true. Sometimes the follicles don't want to give up the eggs, or scar tissue may prevent us from reaching the ovary. And just because we retrieve an egg doesn't mean it will fertilize or that a fertilized egg will produce a "good-quality embryo". If we get a lot of eggs, that's great. I always emphasize that we have had many pregnancies result from the transfer of just one embryo." It'd been awhile since I read that and I feel like now it's a good overview for what's to come.

Ok, back to my E2 levels... depending on how those look, it could change when my trigger shot is or if we do another night of stims, which he didn't really mention today, but I suppose isn't out of the realm of possibilities. When I was making my appt for Wednesday afternoon, I was thinking to myself, "but what if I end up triggering before my 1pm Wed appt?" I asked the woman at the desk that and she said that if I wasn't given specific instruction today, that it wasn't a concern (timing of the two I guess). So, we'll see what happens!

Sorry this post is all over the place. I am so freakin excited that my mind is just racing!! Thanks again to everyone who is following our progress - for your prayers, words of encouragement and good vibes! I'm not too proud to say, keep them coming :D

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