The morning of the baseline scan we arrived early and had a small breakfast down in the little cafe before heading upstairs to our appointment. Whenever we arrive at Bourn Hall we check in at the front desk of the main building. Here we are given a pass and head out one door and into another that you must use your pass to scan into. Once in the second building we head upstairs and check in at the desk there. Finally, we are shown to the waiting room. It sounds like a lot, but it isn't too bad. We only waited for a few minutes before being called back. I was expecting to see my fertility doctor, but quickly learned that at scans we would be seeing a nurse and sometimes a specialist who comes up from another facility. We were shown into a room with the scanning equipment on one side and a privacy curtain and desk on the other. The nice nurse, Sue, closed the curtain and told me to change and cover up with the paper provided... thats right PAPER! I am used to the nice sheet that woman get when going to their pap appointments, I was given a oblong paper coverup. During the scan on the screen we were able to see what I call blobs, my nurse calls them follicles. As a nurse myself, I was never trained in reading scans and it still amazes me to watch them count the blobs on the screen. This particular day I thought I saw two, they said about four on one side and I believe eight on the other and it still perplexes me. After the scan, it was explain to us that we are in the medium category and it was time to start Gonal F. The Gonal F is a once a night pre-filled pen that is given at the same time as the Surprecor. The Suprecor was then reduced to a smaller dose, but this still meant two shots a night. Our next appointment was scheduled for the following Wednesday to see how well and if the medication was working.
The time flew by and we were quickly at our next scan. Chris kept it together (he has not missed an appointment yet!) and I was super nervous that they would not find any follicles or they would not be growing at all. Once again we arrived and headed through the different checkins and eventually made it to the waiting room. We didn't wait two minutes before Sue called us back and again I was shown to the scan area and again I looked at my tiny paper cover-up. During the scan, we were able to make our more blobs and the specialist told us that I was responding well to the medication and he thought I would need only one more scan. This time before leaving Sue had to draw my blood. I was highly impressed when she got me the first try, this doesn't happen often and it made my day. She explained that once my hormone levels were read she would call if I needed to up or lower my dose of the medications. They scheduled my next scan for Friday and off we went. The appointment was over in less than twenty minutes. No one called later that day so the medication dose didn't change.
Friday arrived and we were off to Bourn Hall again. It is about a thirty minute drive between our home in Mildenhall and Bourn. This time it was a different technician/nurse that did our scan and we were a bit confused when she said I had more follicles on my left side than my right. Prior to this scan we had always been told there were more on my right side. After the scan, she showed us on a chart how the follicles were growing. I believe she said there were about seven doing exactly what they needed to. There are some slow growers that we don't expect to catch up. We had heard of other people having more and this still makes me nervous about the outcome. It was decided I would not need any more scans and that egg collection would be on Tuesday. We were sent to the medication nurse to get the last medication, a trigger injection. Before egg collection a trigger injection must be given in order to start ovulation, this is done about thirty-six hours prior to the retrieval procedure. We were told I needed more labs drawn (I wasn't as lucky this time, it took three tries!) and that we would be contacted the next day with the specific time to give myself the shot. We went home and luckily we have had company this week and so we haven't been at home or work going stir crazy waiting on a phone call.
On Saturday we spent the day in Windsor Castle (and yes the Queen was home, we even saw her flag) walking around with our guest. Throughout the day Chris kept asking if Bourn had called with our info and even kept telling me to call them. I think at times he had been afraid as the day went on that they had forgotten us. I started becoming concerned, but as we sat down for dinner the phone rang. Lucky us the reception wasn't great and I had a momentary panic when the line cut as the woman on the other end was giving the instructions. Soon after it cut, she did call me back and the instructions were to take the trigger injection at 9:30 p.m. on Sunday evening and report to Bourn Hall on Tuesday at 7:30 a.m.. At this point the medication instructions became a little confusing, on Saturday the two usual medications continued as normal, on Sunday I was only to take the Suprecor at my regular time and the trigger at the time they had given me, and on Monday (today) no medications.
When the time for the trigger shot came, it was no worse than the other two daily injections. Tomorrow morning is egg retrieval and then we await another phone call to find out which day we go for them to implanted. We have been told it will be either Friday or Sunday depending if we have eggs that fertilize and how far they make it. The doctor explained to us at our first appointment that they try to let the eggs get to five day blast as they have a better chance, but in order to do so we must have at least four good quality eggs or it will be a day two transfer. We just pray for the best results possible.
Uterine Lining Scan
* I usually try and check over these entries several times for errors however, we are both extremely exhausted and have an early day tomorrow! Apologies if anything his misspelled or sounds off.
