Tomorrow is...

the big day! Retrieval will be tomorrow, a day earlier than we expected, and I'm really happy because this means one less day of waiting! Luckily AC was able to change his plane ticket to fly in this evening rather than tomorrow morning so he (and his boys :) can be there. Even though I'm sad about his eye flaring up again, the injury is what's allowing him to arrive a day earlier than we'd planned. Every cloud has a silver lining, right? As for his eye, it seems to be healing well for now. Only time will tell if this is going to be a persistent problem.

Since I haven't posted in a few days, allow me to backtrack a bit. My appointment on Saturday with Dr. M was the same as the Thursday appointment. I had blood taken, they did a sonogram, and Dr. M told me everything was coming along nicely and that I should continue the same dose of the medications. He was still projecting a Friday or Saturday retrieval at that point. On Monday (after the usual blood and sonogram), he reduced the Follistim to 100 IU and said that retrieval might be Thursday, but we'd know for sure on Tuesday. Yesterday (Tuesday), I had a feeling the retrieval day would be moved up. Not be too graphic, but the flood gates had really opened up "down there" if you know what I mean! This wasn't any normal mid-cycle increase in cervical mucous; it was a deluge!

Anyway, Dr. M said it looks like I have 15 mature follicles ready to go and called in a prescription of Ovudrel for me, which I injected in my belly last night at exactly 10pm. The timing is important because retrieval needs to be done exactly 36 hours later. The actual procedure should only take a few minutes. AC and I will be going to Dr. M's at 8:15 am tomorrow, AC will do his thing (although we have frozen back-up sperm in case he, ahem, has performance anxiety!), I'll be put under anesthesia, they'll stick a giant needle in my vagina to extract the eggs (I'm glad I'll be asleep for that!), and then I'll wake up and go to the place we're subletting on the Upper East Side while the doctors do their magic in the lab.

I knew that AC and I would not be able to maintain our sanity if we stayed with my dad for an entire week (plus we want some privacy), so this past week I've been searching for a place to sublet on Craigslist and have even checked out a few in person. I finally managed to find an adorable and quite spacious studio apartment on the first floor of a doorman building on East 71st St. between 2nd and 3rd. The only downside is that we only have it until Tuesday at 2pm, so we'll have to spend two nights at my dad's before AC leaves next Thursday (February 19th), but I think we'll be able to survive for that short time.

Suffice it to say, I am so happy right now! And me, my bloated, distended belly, and my 15 mature follicles are so ready for tomorrow! More news later--until then, wish me luck!