Dragging along

Last March I had the longest IUI cycle in recorded history. Or at least in MY recorded history. And since it was only my second IUI cycle, my recorded history wasn't very extensive. That cycle went on forever. hCG trigger was on CD 31. Thirty One! IUI on CD 33! Dr. S. called me a "two-pager" meaning that in the old days of paper charts, I would have been one of those patients whose cycle notes went on to the second page.

Not to worry, he assured me. Because historically, two pagers had a remarkably high pregnancy rate compared to shorter cycles (you know, the cycles where trigger happens on Day 12 and IUI is on Day 14 like a textbook?). I remember I really appreciated his reassurance (actually, I still do), but the long cycle was slightly problemmatic because I had a one-day trip scheduled to go to Florida (to see my father and a friend from Scotland) when I figured I'd be in the two week wait, but was actually not even close to IUI day. Dr. S. said no problem and let me push off my next monitoring appointment an extra day, figuring it wouldn't be too big a deal. It wasn't, and the cycle dragged on another week or two after I got back before I triggered.

That cycle ended horribly and dramatically while I was away for Passover. It was probably the worst bleeding I'd ever had until that point, and that's saying something. It was unbelievable amounts of pain, componded by the fact that I was away from home, living in a hotel for a week, not able to start a new cycle because I was nowhere near my fertility clinic (a 10 hour drive each way seemed extreme just for CD3 monitoring). I snapped a lot at my husband that week, had very little energy most of the time, suffered from migraines throughout the trip, and cried a lot. (Believe it or not, I still had a tremendously good time on that trip, especially considering the circumstances)

Do I have a point? Not really, actually. But fast forward to today's CD16 monitoring appointment. Last cycle I triggered on Day 14 and had an IUI on Day 16. This cycle I am not anticipating triggering anytime soon. Dr. S. was covering monitoring today, so I needled him about the fact that Room 1 doesn't have a mobile. He said they were waiting for a donation and I said that for what I'm paying this place... he chuckled. On to the ultrasound, the funnest part of the day!

Follicle growth is weird. The follicles on the Right Ovary seem to have stalled, while the follicles on the Left Ovary (previously known as the completely, utterly, evil, underperforming, useless ovary) made a little bit of progress.

Right Ovary: 12.3 (down from 12.6), 9.6, 9.4, 9.0
Left Ovary: 12.0 (up from 10.7), 11.0 (up from 10.0), 9.4
Lining: 11.41 (down from 11.75, should I be worried?)

No word yet on my E2/LH, but Dr. S. was not worried about the lack of growth of my follicles. He said that I had a beautiful jump in E2 on Tuesday (67.5 to 113!) and that we should expect to start seeing some more growth soon, based on that estrogen jump. I trust him, I believe him. I mentioned that I thought this was going to be another two-pager cycle and he laughed that I remembered that, but reminded me that historically two-pagers have relatively high success rates. When I told him that my last two-pager cycle was a resounding disaster he said, "and that's my cue to exit stage left!" (except he was wrong, it was stage right)

Anywhozit, the bottom line is that there is very little progress happening in Ovary-Land, perky or otherwise, so I'm sorry to give you such a boring update. Not to worry, I'm sure I'll have some dramarama for you soon!

(You know, for example, the fact that I have a trip scheduled to go to Florida for three days Feb. 18th-20th...Since I figured this cycle would be similar to last month's I figured this IUI would already be over, at the end of the 2ww, and failing by Feb. 20th. Now I'm wondering if my IUI is going to end up being scheduled right smack in the middle of that trip, meaning I have to cancel either the cycle or the trip. I haven't seen my father in almost a year and my father hasn't seen J in a year and a half so I really, really, really don't want to cancel this trip, but I also don't want to skip this IUI. DRAT, DRAT, DRAT!)