From Zero to Sixty...

It all gets a bit confusing and I'm a little befuddled myself to explain it properly, so I'll try my best:

I got off the phone with the clinic around 1:30 (I was trying to catch a little cat nap and of course they called just as I hit some serious dozing). I was still half asleep and I came downstairs told my grandmother that I had to get back to the clinic. She jumps up from reading her book - tosses it across the room, grabs her purse, her keys and before I'm even able to finish my yawn I hear her start the car in the garage. You've never seen a 70-something lady move that fast.

I didn't mean to sound the hounds THAT quickly, but apparently she's more caught up in this stuff than I thought. Hilarious.

She also has a bit of a lead foot. Not so hilarious. I had to remind her that, you know - I have to be alive for IVF to work. I mean they can grow great-grand babies in the lab...but they haven't perfected that whole 9-months thing yet.

I got there - doc took me right away. My grandmother (who accompanied me to my appointment this morning) is fascinated - and equally baffled - by this whole process. The doctor was very sweet and pointed out everything on the ultrasound for her. She was enthralled - and on the way home regaled me with stories from her youth when she was training to be a nurse. In fact, she gave pointers to the nurse who came to take my blood. She has no idea what LH is, but she was in her element. She'll be giving me my trigger shot tonight.

Trigger shot, you say? Oh, did I skip that part of the story?
Here's the technicals:

They took more blood this afternoon - but because they have to send their blood to the lab, they won't have the results back until the morning. My morning bloodwork showed my LH to be at 14. How it works is, LH (Leutenizing hormone) gives the final maturity to the egg and it also surges at a certain point in your cycle and triggers ovulation. So the first few days of your cycle, it hovers around 4 or 5. Then it will pop up to 10 to 12 and chill there, then very quickly it hits around 50. So when my morning hormones came back at 14, the doc called me back in. I'm on the high side of LH - and it looks like I'm about to surge.

If your LH surges prior to your Novarel injection (aka "The Trigger Shot"), then you're screwed. So what you're trying to do is get as close to that surge as possible and trigger (the shot) before your body does. Once you trigger (either by injection, or naturally), then you ovulate approximately 36 hours later. So the idea is, if you trigger via injection, then they go in for the egg after 34 hours and get it. It's entirely a timing thing. A game of chicken - get as close to the surge as you can so the egg is mature, trigger manually so you can time it OR wait too long, your body triggers, you have no control, egg ovulates prematurely, I go home and drink.

Based on the fact that my LH is a tad on the high side, I will be taking my trigger shot tonight at 9:30. My egg harvesting is scheduled for Wednesday at 7:30am. Now the screwy part is - since I had blood taken this afternoon I won't get those results back tomorrow morning. If my LH comes back high....then we'll know that I triggered too late and yes...I go home and drink. If my LH results come back and are still around 14, then it will appear that my triggering tonight was good timing.

In a sense, as I sit here typing, this cycle has already been determined. Either my bloodwork from about 3:30 this afternoon will show a surge or it won't. I'll find out tomorrow morning at 7am.

In the meantime, I have the pain-in-my-ass injection coming. My grandmother (that nurse's training is coming in handy!) will be shooting me up tonight. J is coming in tomorrow night - unless of course they cancel my cycle in the morning.

There are a gazillion things that have to go right in the next 12 hours, but I'm feeling pretty hopeful. Compared to my cycle in April, my follicle is a little smaller (still at 17mm, compared to 19mm in April). My LH is higher - BUT, my estradiol is lower. Based on the estradiol...I don't think I'll surge before tonight. We'll see though. I'm still feeling action in my abdomen - but nothing too intense yet.

Keep your fingers and toes crossed. Tomorrow is D-Day and boy I'm sick of needles.