Impressed

I had every intention of writing down every step of my IF journey for many reasons. First, it helps me sort through what is going on and gives me an outlet to vent and talk about it. Second, if there was someone I knew that was going through something similar I could direct them here and maybe they would know they are not alone. Alas, that didn't happen. That's not to say that this journey is over because it's not, not by far!!!

The pain I experienced in May tapered off the next day and eventually disappeared. I still do not know what caused it.

So what has been going on you ask?

I called in my CD1 on May 25 to schedule my CD3 blood work and U/S. CD3 also happened to be my friend T's wedding which I was baking 144 cupcakes for. Needless to say that was a busy day! They took soooooo much blood on that first visit. Something like 8 or 10 vials! The U/S took a little while, because they were establishing a baseline that all of the other ones would be measured against. They did both a regular pelvic and an internal U/S at this appointment, but it would be the only time I would need a full bladder. Awesome! I think that is the worst part of U/S's - having to fill your bladder and hold it FOREVER!!!

After that initial appointment, they only took a single vial of blood for the BW and did an internal US. These appointments were so incredibly quick! I was very impressed at how efficient they ran things. There were some mornings that I was in and out in 5 min! Initially they told me that I would go in every other day until I got close to O and at that point I would have to come in every day. I ended up going in on CD5, CD7, CD9, CD11, CD13, CD15, CD17 and CD20.

For the last 5 or 6 months I have O'd on or around CD19, so I expected them to tell me on CD17 to start to come in everyday. Instead they inform me that all of my follicles are still small but my BW shows that I am surging. They said that due to the surge combined with small follicles, I may or may not ovulate over the next 3 days but that either way, they didn't want to see me until Monday (CD20). On Monday they would know if I had ovulated or not. Then the following Monday (7DPO) would be my last appointment until I met with the Dr. on August 8th.

Because I chart my temperatures, I can see that it appears that I did, in fact, O on CD20 but I don't know what it means if all of my follicles were really small. Did I release an immature egg? Is it possible that I didn't ovulate but still had a temperature shift? Has this been happening all along? Is there a solution for this? Will clomid work? I guess I will have to wait to see the Dr. to find out the answers.

D also had a test to do and boy was that fun - ya, not really. Because he didn't want to take time off work to complete the test, we made the appointment for a Saturday. This meant that we would have to take the sample into the Mississauga clinic.  The sample is only viable for 1 hour after it is collected and we live about 45 min from the Mississauga clinic.  Or so we thought.  Apparently when you account for taking a short long cut, we live 1 hr away from the Mississauga clinic.  The sample arrived at the lab about 10 min past when it should have.  The lab tech said it would still be fine.  I hope so, or next time he is going to have to find a really nice public washroom and a good magazine!

I was very much dreading this next month... more WAITING!!! This whole IF process is nothing if not a lesson in patience. I asked to be put on a cancellation list but didn't really think that we would get an earlier appointment. I was really hoping that we could at least get something 1 or 2 weeks earlier so that i wouldn't have to wait until the start of my NEXT cycle at the end of August to begin a treatment in September. September just sounded soooooo far away.

Out of the blue this afternoon I got a call from the clinic... they have had a cancellation and want to know if I want the appointment. I asked when it was and expected them to tell me it was for August 1st or something equally far away, but nope - it's for Monday!!!! as in,this Monday! meaning in 4 days! I confirmed with D that he could get the time off, and we are good to go! i have been in such a good mood after finding that out :) which is a really good thing because I have been pretty down since the weekend when we held a baby shower for my youngest cousing who accidentally knocked up his girlfriend. Can you feel the bitterness oozing out of that last sentence? That's a separate post altogether... back to happy!! I might get some answers on Monday!

I've never looked forward to the Monday after a long weekend before. It just feels so wrong!