IVF 4: Day 11

Weekend monitoring appointments are usually more involved than regular mornings. I went in on Sunday for a 7:45 AM appointment and got taken back for bloodwork 10 min later. By 7:58 I was back in the waiting room to wait for the ultrasound, just in time to see the opening sequence of the TODAY show. It wasn't until 8:55 AM that I was called back for the ultrasound. I waited in the smaller room for another 20 min before the technician came in.

Not only was the wait long, the appointment sucked too. The weekend staff is different than the regular staff, and everything was worse. I got stuck twice with the needle for blood because she went too high and missed the vein. Once the tech finally came in to do the ultrasound she pushed unnecessarily hard trying to find my right ovary. When she couldn't get it right away she pushed on my pelvis, hard. It was so uncomfortable. I've never had that happen before.

Worse than any of it, I was in a rush to get to my appointment on time so I ran out the door without my phone. That's right; I was stuck in the waiting room for over an hour without my phone. My emotions ranged from mildly annoyed to bored to concerned at what I was missing to panicky. By the time I got home, two hours after leaving, I was sure there was an emergency that I was needed for and was missing because I didn't have my phone. Thankfully, there was not.

I assumed that there would be another appointment this morning but when I got bloodwork results later that day I was told I don't have to come in until Tuesday, so I got a free pass today which was great since I had an early meeting.

As things stand it looks like retrieval might be Thursday or Friday. I was kind of hoping it might be over the weekend since those days are important work-wise. If it does end up on Thursday or Friday I'll have to tell my supervisor what's going on. I don't think I can take off those days without a good reason, and short of calling in with the flu and keeping up with the lies that would bring, I think it's less complicated to just come out with. My husband thinks I should tell anyway, regardless of when the retrieval is, but isn't pressuring me in either direction. I honestly don't have a good reason not to say anything, other than liking the compartmentalization of work and treatment. Since that's not a good enough reason I may have to suck it up and get over it. I'll know more after tomorrow's bloodwork results come in and decide then.

It's not much better if they say retrieval is on Saturday because then we run into Shabbat issues. Even though I was kind of hoping it would happen, I know it would be more complicated. Regardless, the numbers have been running higher this time so I doubt I would need to stim that long. Again, no use in playing the what-if game... we'll probably have more answers tomorrow.

As for symptoms, things have been very mild this time. Maybe I've just gotten used to things, or know what to expect. I've been trying to watch what I eat and walk regularly, so that might be helping also. Other than the swings I've had right at the start, I've been feeling ok emotionally. I'm trying to stay positive and not think about negative what-ifs. I really hope and pray this cycle results in some healthy embryos.