IVF Attempt #6 Update: A Walking, Talking Pin Cushion

This morning marked the 12^th day of this current IVF cycle.

For more than a week now, I have been delivering approximately 3 shots per day into my wife’s stomach; medicine designed to encourage her body to crank out as many eggs (or egg follicles, technically) as possible.

In past cycles these drugs have, to put it kindly, played with her mood.  This time though, her demeanor has remained relatively even-keeled. 

I’m unsure of the reason.  It could be that we started this cycle after a week of vacation.  Perhaps she’s becoming desensitized to the onslaught of drugs (is that possible?).  Or, perhaps other stresses are filling the void (As if we didn’t have enough going on, we moved forward with buying a new house in the last few weeks.  Apparently, we thought it would be a good idea to up the ante ).

In any case — Mandy has, once again, been a trooper as she endures these daily injections which result in an abdomen that looks like I am beating her with a fire hose.  (I would put up a picture, but I don’t want to make members of the Ike Turner fan club jealous)

This morning, Mandy went into our local clinic here in Orlando for her first ultrasound.  The test revealed that she had 8 egg follicles, all of good size and where they needed to be at this time.

That’s a total of 8 potential embryos, after fertilization.  And, that’s a total potential of 8 babies.  As readers of this blog know, that number stands a strong chance of being cut in half at least once (if not twice) before it’s all said and done. 

Still, we are on pace to (hopefully) have a couple of strong embryos.

Tomorrow, Mandy (and her mom, thank you Tippy Davis!) will depart for Denver and the Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine.  For the next week, she’ll undergo daily testing as these eggs grow.  I’ll be joining Mandy on Friday.

At least tentatively, she’s scheduled to have her retrieval procedure for those eggs about a week from today. 

That’s it for the moment.  As the roller coaster gets to the top of the hill, all signs are positive!

- Carson

9 July 2012 ·

• Tags
• Infertility
• CCRM
• pregnancy
• ivf
• ivf medication
• Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine