Fertile Myrtle

I had an ultrasound early Saturday morning and again today to take a peek at my ovaries to see if my egg sacks are looking plump and plentiful. Harvest is just days away. I will have an ultrasound each morning this week until it's time. The doctor was pleasantly surprised by how MANY egg sacks I have...even more today than we could see on Saturday! The goal is about 15-18. I have nearly 30!

This is my actual utlrasound from this morning.

See the web-looking design on the left half? Those are my egg sacks on just one ovary. There's about 14-15 visible in this shot alone.

What does this mean? The good and the bad...

The great news is, that I responded so well to the hormone injections, that if everything goes well with the ICSI process once they acquire Danny's contribution, that I will have plenty of 'reserve' embryos and God willing, will never have to undergo a harvest again. Although, this does NOT mean we will have 30 embryos. I want to make that clear. It just means we have more chances at creating healthy embryos due to my fertile output - more eggs to attempt to fertilize. It is possible a few of these egg sacks might even be empty, and certainly not all of them contain viable genetic make-up. They will attempt to fertilize each healthy egg, but some of them will die off before cellular division occurs, and some of them will die off because there are genetic abnormalities upon fertilization or some just may be weak. The more eggs they have to work with, the higher our chances are at having healthy embryos with enough left over to freeze. They will select the healthiest 2 embryos to transfer back into my uterus next week.

The bad news is, I will experience much more bloating and discomfort than the average IVF patient. I already feel huge, and he said it will get worse. Ladies - imagine how bloated you feel on your period after your body has released just 1 egg. Now, basically multiply that by a bazillion 30. Yep! That's how I feel right now! I look about 5 months pregnant. Please appreciate the look of discomfort on my face. Haha...

My egg sacks measured about 12mm on average today. The goal is about 15-16mm for harvest. On average, they grow about 2mm a day, but mine are currently growing a little slower than average. The doctor is estimating my harvest date for this Thursday. He will confirm with a phone call later today after my blood work results come back.

I will continue with my normal dosage of injections each night, so my egg sacks will continue to grow reaching their target size for Thursday. I have my trigger shot mixed and loaded. I'm just waiting on the green light :)

Countdown is on. Praying for a successful retrieval of the healthy eggs, and that they take to ISCI and fertilize! Babies, here we come!