Bring On The Big Shots

Tuesday, 7-21-09 (Day 21)

Dexamethasone (.75mg, oral pill): I think I'm finally learning to control my appetite, about three weeks too late.

Lupron (5units, subQ injection): This was my final Lupron shot, hopefully forever. I think I'll miss the simplicity of it now, especially since we're bringing on the big intramuscular shots next-the HCG trigger and the progesterone shots.

They'll make my subQ's feel like a walk in the park.

Wednesday, 7-22-09 (Day 22)

HCG Trigger (1ml, IM injection): There's nothing quite like waking up at 1am to get shot from behind.

Just as I became accustomed to the shallow subQ shots, they were done and over with, quickly replaced by this bad boy. With a 25 gage 1 1/2" long needle, we're not trying hard to find uncharted and unbruised territory on the pooch any longer, we've moved onto the behind, though the skin, and into the muscle.

Rescued again by the convenience of having a nurse for a mother, I slept on my parents couch until 12:55am when I woke up to grab the icepack and cover my entire right butt cheek with it-not sure exactly where she was going to stick me-trying to get it as numb as possible.

I woke up my mother, gave her the alcohol wipe and syringe, and laid down on the coach-stomach down-to await the pain of the needle ripping through my muscle.

I'm so dramatic; she was done before I even knew she stuck me.

Dexamethasone (.75mg, oral pill): How much longer do I have to take these?

Clindamycin (150mg vaginal suppository): Administered right before bedtime, these little rocket shaped suppositories are an antibiotic. I'll spare you the somewhat inappropriate details.

I'm finally starting to experience some minor discomfort, just one day before my retrieval. It's nothing unbearable or worth complaining about really, it just that it's hurts a little to go to the bathroom. Almost as if squeezing my bladder is putting pressure somewhere down there and irritating my rockstar ovaries, upsetting them as they finish growing my superstar follicles.

It's going to be hard to sleep tonight knowing that tomorrow holds the start of the most important part of this whole process-the retrieval of our eggs. In less than 24 hours we'll know how many mature eggs we have to work with, how acceptable their quality is, and quite possibly how many of them fertilized. Then we'll spend the next few days receiving reports on how many are growing and maturing, cell splitting and dividing, until we finally hand pick the one precious embryo that will be placed back in my uterus and pray that the rest make it to freeze for future siblings.

I feel such an unexplainable peace knowing that God is watching over us and our unborn children, guiding everyone that holds a part in this process and working to complete His will in our lives. He already knows what tomorrow holds, and I have no doubt that it's in our best interest no matter how this cycle turns out.

We're just praying it had a positive outcome. Literally.

"The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain."
-Dolly Parton