It’s Saturday morning–correction!  It’s Saturday afternoon and I’m relaxing on the couch while Mike wrestles with Charlotte.  I can’t wrestle with her or run with her currently, I’m on restricted exercise while my follicles (and eggs we hope?!) grow.  I’m allowed to walk and I can use a stationary bike.  Mike and I will head over to the gym later this afternoon; he’ll run and I’ll walk on the treadmill next to him.  When we were told I’d be restricted with what I could do during stimming, I figured I could elliptical, because that’s low intensity, but it’s too much up and down & I have to avoid ovarian torsion…and as awesome as twisting an ovary right now sounds, I’ll stick to walking.

Speaking of ovaries (ha! I actually smiled and laughed a little when I typed that), the ultrasound tech couldn’t find my left ovary yesterday during my follicle check.  It was hiding, but rest assured, after I pushed on my abdomen for a few minutes and she searched, and searched, AND searched, she found it tucked away.  There are 2 main ultrasound techs at the RE’s office.  One is magnificent and sweet and very quick.  The other, who walked into my exam room yesterday, well, isn’t.  Don’t get me wrong, she’s nice enough.  And she eventually finds what she’s looking for, but she struggles with the machine, and takes significantly longer to complete an ultrasound.  Significant being a 3 minute ultrasound vs 8 or 9 minutes…trust me, there’s a difference!  Once she found my ovary, she took the images she needed and was on her way.  And yesterday afternoon my nurse called with good news.  I had some better growth and development on the higher doses of meds, so they’re keeping me on the 300 Follistim and 150 Menopur another two nights — last night and tonight — with a return for repeat blood work and ultrasound Sunday morning at 8.  

Once I knew my appointment would be Sunday morning (I’m moving into the every other day monitoring now), I contacted the acupuncturist at my RE’s office and set an appointment for tomorrow morning following my blood & u/s.  I canceled my original appointment with her when we went to CT last week, and our schedules didn’t match this past week, so I’m excited to go tomorrow morning.  

I asked if I’m still on track to have my egg retrieval on the 8th and she said it may be a few days after that, which is fine.  She said that everything looked good and there was appropriate growth from the last ultrasound, it would appear I’m going slow and steady.  In fact, she said there’s 5-10 follicles on each ovary that they can see but aren’t big enough to be registered/measured yet.  So the hope is that the meds make some of those pop up and become players in the game.  Fingers crossed!  And toes!  But not ovaries!  Again, not ovarian torsion, please.

I’ve had some more side effects/notable changes the past few days.  My small lingering headache stuck around for a bit; Thursday night into yesterday morning it was really bothering me.  But last night and today, it’s gone.  Thursday when I went to inject myself, Mike said, “Oh Melly!”  That’s because my abdomen was/is quite poofy.  The left side, notably, was more swollen than the other side.  I assume it’s because of the follicle and ovary growth, which doesn’t bother me one bit.  It was, however, terrible wearing jeans for dress down day yesterday.  I couldn’t WAIT to get out of jeans and back into some leggings.  Even some pj pants bother me, because the elastic band is right at the area below the belly button, where all of the shots go.

Please don’t get me wrong–I’m not complaining, looking for sympathy, nor am I bothered by any of this.  I’m so hopeful that the end result will be worth all of this (a million times over).  And if some bloating/swelling and a small headache are my greatest complaints, then that’s fine by me, and I’m sure Mike, too.  We both remember what I was like when I took 5 rounds of Clomid in 2016/2017…and she was a really crazy person!!  The only connection I can make between this IVF cycle and life on Clomid is hot flashes.  I had 2 small hot flashes this week, but they were NOTHING compared to the fiery hell that my body was during months of Clomid…not to mention what an emotional lunatic I was…that’s probably a story for a different time (or maybe for never!).  

You know what IS an interesting story?  The story of Tonya Harding.  I was a big figure skating fan when I was younger.  My mom was (and continues to be) awesome and brought me to see Stars on Ice a few years in a row and we had a great time..at least I think we both did.  Mom, if you didn’t, thanks for pretending!  I digress.  Anyway, I remember when Nancy Kerrigan was attacked.  I don’t recall all of the news fallout, but as an adult I’m fascinated by the story.  Last night Mike and I went to see “I, TONYA” and we really enjoyed it!  This morning I was reading more about the attack and looking at the media coverage from the time (as you do on a Saturday morning in bed with your half-caf coffee), which eventually brought me to some Nancy Kerrigan life stories.  And…big surprise!  She struggled with infertility, too!  I’m telling you…it’s everywhere.  (It was also a part of the 1st episode of “Waco” that we watched this morning.)  Kerrigan went through IVF twice in order to have 2 of her 3 kids, after 6 miscarriages.  SIX.  I can’t even imagine.  Our one miscarriage still haunts me.  And Mike.  And probably our friends who were visiting that night, which is another story.  But.  It’s part of our story…and thanks for reading it so far.