CD 8 + 9: A Scan and a Mega Road Trip

Wow. What a way to spend a Tuesday. We have just returned from the clinic where we did the first ultrasound scan to check this IVF cycle is on track.

Results: Yes, all good.

Lining = 7.9 mm

Left side: 12, 16, 14, and 13 mm follicles

Right side: 16, 16, and 14 mm follicles

Total of 7, although the nurse said at this stage only 6 of them will probably be useful.

My scribbly notes from the meeting post-scan with the nurse.

The scan itself was the only part of the day that went well.

We started off getting up nice and early, and realising we had forgotten to pack any breakfast and wouldn't have time to get to our favourite cafe. I was due to have a FSH and Oestradiol blood test early enough to get the results in to the clinic. Got over to the path lab at 8.05am and I walked in while Hubby waited in the car. The waiting room was about a third full, and I started the-first-of-the-things-to-go-wrong! It took over 35 mins for the technician to call my name, which was plenty of time for Hubby to get worried and come looking for me.

We hurried out of there, and had 20 mins so we skipped around the corner to a cafe and got a quick bite of quiche lorraine and a cuppa tea.

In the clinic doors and up to the reception. The clinic is arranged with two wings, I like to call them the "office" and "doctor" wings. I was expecting us to be led through to the office wing to have the scan, like last time, but instead we were given a slip of paper and told to go across to the doctor wing. The doctor wing has no reception, and you have to just wait, in limbo, in the waiting room for the locked doctor-doors to open. Sometimes someone in the office will take pity and come and check on you, but most of the time we get left there for ages staring at the horrid crart (craft-art).

The nurse associated with our old Dr R came out to see us, and informed us that we were terribly early. To which I said, no, you are 6 mins late! She then pointed to the slip of paper and it did indeed say 10.22am. We had been told 9.10am!!! "Oh! But so-and-so called you yesterday and left a message!" I said no, I got no messages and no phone calls. I have asked them who-knows how many times to EMAIL ME. How hard is that? This nurse gets super-defensive very quickly, and sure enough she was intimating that I didn't know how to work my phone, or Hubby his phone, or either of us our home phone!! Grrr. Long story short we had another hours wait, so we took off and drove to a mall. I was wanting a bit of walk and it was raining, so a mall seemed like a semi-tolerable option. Of course, as soon as we got there it was time to turn around and come back. Red lights all the way back to the clinic.

When we strode into the doctor side for the second time, there were two other couples (?) in the waiting room. One of them had a toddler (! Why would you do this??? To the other patients? I mean really? You brought your CHILD to a fertility clinic. Words fail me.) and when a passing nurse asked who we were and what time our appointment was for, I said "9.10" this patient-with-toddler snidely commented "9.10!!" because we were now a tad late. Grr. Anyway we were hurried through the locked doors and I was asked to go for a wee then join Hubby and the doc in the scan room.

A new nurse, a new doc. Just whoever was on-call. I don't know their names. "Just take your bottom-things off" I nearly cracked up. Damn, should not have worn skin-tight skinny jeans! Doh! I was just hopping up on the exam table when the doc whipped back the curtain and at the very same moment my knee went through a hole in the table! Turns out it is a fancy pants table/bed and most people do not get on it knee first. lol.

Ice broken.

The scan went well, no pain at all. See the good scan results above. 7 follies. Definitely no over stimulation. Whew.

Pants on, go next door to get more drugs and talk to the nurse.

Turns out the egg retrieval will be this Friday (3 days away CD 12). I have one more stim injection of Puregon which I have given myself tonight (Tues CD 9). Tomorrow morning (Weds CD 10) I have the last Orgalutran injection, and in the afternoon the clinic will call to tell me what time to give the trigger Ovidrel injection. It has to be given exactly 36hrs prior to the egg collection procedure.

We asked what that procedure would be like, and the nurse said it was done under sedation (hyponovel and fentanyl) and should take about 10 - 15 mins in theatre. I asked to have a dextrose IV ready, and Hubby asked to have the IV cannula inserted as early as possible because we have learnt from prior surgery that a diabetic hypo + collapsed veins = no fun. The nurse agreed that this was all a good idea, and then said "so are you what, type 1 diabetic?" This was after telling her directly that I was type 1 diabetic, and showing her my dexcom and insulin pump prior to the scan to check it wouldn't interfere with the ultrasound. So she finally understood (at one point she thought it was Hubby who was the diabetic one! Read the medical notes PLEASE) and went to check with another doc if the egg retrieval procedure could be scheduled as late as possible so that I could still eat breakfast on Friday morning. This was after telling her not to worry, and that I would prefer the first appointment actually, and that I could miss a meal now that I am on the pump. People hear what they want to hear, not what you tell them sometimes.

She gave us these drugs:

Puregon Pen and needles.

My dosage for tonight is 150 more units of stimulation using the drug Puregon this time.

Puregon (Tuesday night, 150 units) (for the record, I had an unexpected low blood sugar 30 mins after injection. Don't know if it's related or not.)

Orgalutran (for tomorrow morning, this one is to prevent premature ovulation)

Ovidrel (this one is the trigger injection and is to be given 36 hrs before egg collection)

It was a bit hilarious being taught how to use the puregon pen, considering I had been doing multiple daily injections for diabetes since I was 5. Still good to watch and just make sure there was nothing new to see.

We got out of there are started the drive home knowing that a major storm had just thrashed the north island and the road south was currently closed.

The trip should consist of 3 hrs in the car going across one mountain.

It ended up taking us 9.5 hrs, and we went to 3 cities, tried to get over 1 mountain, went around 2 other mountains, across a gazillion rivers, through a million puddles, past a trillion slips and goats, and got turned back back sorry-for-themselves looking road workers in orange jackets telling us "the bridge has been washed away" "there is severe flooding" "you will have to go back" "the road is closed".

We were trying to go from a northern region to the south-western region. We ended up having to go south-east, then more south, then more east, then very south, to come right around and enter the western region from the south instead of the north! It was the longest road trip of my life and it is the only occasion that I have physically been unable to get to my homeland. At one point, I considered how it would have been easier to fly to Australia and back in, rather than drive!

But we are finally home. Everything went wrong except for the scan!

Oh, and I have to go in for a blood test tomorrow morning, do an infusion site change, and teach a class. Oh and re-book the motel for Friday. I need a nap.

p.s. If you're wondering what happened to CD 8: I went to work and taught class in the morning, then we drove up to Hamilton and checked into the motel. I had my Orgalutran injection in the morning and did a +20% temp basal increase for 4 hours which worked great guns.