Suggestions for ladies going through IVF

I plan to keep adding to this list as I think of more things but here goes!

• I wish I had 1 pair of maternity pants or skirt.  I know this seems silly but my stomach is so bloated and sore that I can't wear jeans.  I know it seems cart before the horse but my clothes are very uncomfortable right now.
• Low-rise undies!  Must have!  I know it doesn't seem possible but the elastic on my underwear really bothers me.  I woke up this morning and had apparently folded mine into low-rise sometime in the middle of the night.  I wish it hadn't taking me this many days to think of it.
• Make sure to be stocked up on food and lunch ideas if you will be home alone.  Going to the grocery is not adviseable.  I made this mistake and felt like I was going to faint or vomit in the middle of the store.  This was 2 dp ER.
• Pretzel Crisps are a great snack and help with any nausea.
• Prune juice!  Colace doesn't cut it.
• Movies, books, and anything that will occupy you.

I  will add more later.

ER day!

So, my egg retrieval went very well!  We got 27 eggs which isn't bad for my old, crusty ovaries.  Of the 27, 23 fertilized.  That is a great number!  We are looking at a 5 day transfer on Sunday, March 18th.  I'm really excited and nervous to get the final fertility report on Sunday morning.

FX!

What a roller coaster!

This past week has been crazy.  I had monitoring appointments on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday.  On Wednesday my RE was concerned because I had "muchos, muchos follicles".  That was his words.  He was afraid we were looking at OHSS (Ovarian Hyper Stimulation Syndrome) which can be very painful and even land you in the hospital.  To avoid OHSS he suggested possibly doing a Lupron trigger (instead of Ovidrel) to avoid it.  The problem with Lupron is that it can interfere with implantation so if we did Lupron we would have to freeze all the embryos and do a FET later.  This didn't make me happy in the least.  I know the stats on a fresh cycle are a little higher than FET so I wanted that opportunity.  We just crossed our fingers and prayed for the best.

Fast forward to Saturday and our prayers were answered.  My estrogen came back at just over 3,000 and my lead follicle was 17 mm with most follicles at 16 mm.  My RE instructed me to stim one more night and trigger on Sunday. 

I'm so excited to finally be through with stims!  I trigger tonight at 9:15 pm and go in Tuesday morning, March 13th for my egg retrieval.  I'm nervous, excited, hopeful, terrified, scared, and so ready for this.