Super-Secret Post
Concerning month 35 (approx. August, 2014)
There were a few crossed wires when I went in for further diagnosis, but it went OK anyway.
First, I was experiencing my regular anxiety over determining if I was really on day one or not before calling.
Also I didn’t know how much to drink beforehand (the booking confirmation email said “not empty bladder” but the assistant had said “full bladder”) and when I called for clarification I got the line “Oh it is in your welcome package.” Uuuuuugh since I am coming from another clinic I am a weird special case so somehow I skipped receiving the welcome package but still ended up punted back to the beginning of the process and was now trying to navigate it package-less.
Then I was missing a requisition for my bloodwork (which it turned out I had never received).
And finally I did a terrible thing by not noticing for a good ten seconds and two sentences that I wasn’t speaking to the same receptionist I had been speaking to 3 minutes earlier (they’d switched out while I ran upstairs for the req form) aaaaaand since they were of similar-looking ethnicity this seemed extra rude and callous. But I did start to realize that the person wasn’t wearing glasses or the same outfit and started to say “Wait a second…” just before she said “Yeah you weren’t talking to me; what can I do for you?” Then when the other receptionist came back and I realized an additional reason for my mixup, I made sure to apologize profusely.
But somehow despite all these things going wrong, the kinds of things that usually drive me crazy, I was walking on air when I left.
First, the ultrasound technician actually had a sense of humour, unlike those in Kitchener who I couldn’t get a smile from. When she asked how I was doing (in a mindless “How’s it going?” pleasantries way) I replied “Well the good news is that my bladder is full…” while obviously in discomfort. “And how are you?” “Well *I* was allowed to pee this morning so *I’m* ok.” Then she tried to give me better guidelines about how to make my bladder full enough but not bursting for the scans for an IVF cycle, and asked after who it was who told me “full bladder” so they could be corrected.
After the scans she asked if I was indeed blogging this (as my tshirt proclaimed “I’m Blogging This”) and I told her a bit about the blog.
The literature I did have about the test mentioned that the ultrasound technician would not discuss my scans nor interpret the images for me, which sounded completely reasonable. But not only did she count maturing follicles out loud, but also chatted away about what she was seeing.
The biggest reason I was walking on air? My mature-follicle count was nearly double the last one, matching my AMH number which had implied I have tonnes of eggs left. So there’s that to work with.
A week after that, we sat down with the doctor to talk specifics. Things looked good for them to medicate me minimally (which is easier on the pocketbook too) with no need for a ramp up cycle.
Too bad we’d already booked a trip in September and would need to skip that cycle anyway. Although this was a really good thing since my husband got to visit his grandmothers and we had a final chance for a big unpacking and organizing push (mostly it was only decorations still packed) and a housewarming party.
I did leave a little confused that they would need to stimulate me and then be worried about over-stimulating me. It’s just scary since the number of large follicles that would cause the doctor concern for hyperstimulation syndrome was “30-35” and that’s what I was already maturing.
The next steps were consent signing, an online education course, and an in-person injections tutorial. With six weeks to do this instead of just two, we were hoping for a less-stressful ramp up, but the anticipation may have been worse.