Stim Day Six...and counting.

Well, it's been six days since I've started poking myself with the extra long needles associated with the stimulation drugs and 16 days since I started lupron (using small insulin needles). I have a few more bruises to prove it, but all in all it hasn't been bad.

I had my first bloodwork drawn on Monday. My E2 (estrogen levels to determine how many follies I have cooking...the score needs to be 200 for every viable egg at the time of retrieval) was 20. Needless to say, I wasn't quite there. I had my first ultrasound today along with more bloodwork. I haven't gotten my E2 for today back, but the ultrasound was good. I'm right on target. I had 14 egg follicles on my right ovary and 10 on my left. They were all hovering around 10 (need to be between 16 and 22 to retrieve). I go in again on Saturday to see how they are growing.

Now, for all of you that just shuddered at the idea of 24 eggs, don't worry. Not all follicles actually contain an egg. Even out of the eggs that are present, not all will fertilize. Out of those that fertilize, they will only reimplant the best two embryos. If the others are still viable, they will freeze them for future use. Most women do not have any to freeze, and if they do, there usually are just a few. Also, with each cycle there is only about a 50% chance that I will become pregnant...so I may have the chance to use those frozen embryos sooner than I would like. I'm hoping for a pregnancy now and a few embryos for next time...but beggars can't be choosers!