I've got eggs!

Lots of eggs!

Ok, so I went in this morning for an ultrasound to see how all my follicles/eggs are developing. Since the timeline is all subjective to how my body responds and there's nothing set in stone I've been trying to be prepared for it to take as long as possible - as in, probably won't have enough eggs till Wed or Thurs... trying to be patient!

So today when Anne Marie did the ultrasound and first things was check, my uterine lining looks "perfect" - great! Then she started looking at one ovary - she kept moving it around and measuring all the big black circles (follicles) - she quickly said, "looks like we'll be able to trigger you 1 day early!" (I didn't have a trigger day set in my mind but I guess she did!) She said even just based on the one side I had so many that were already almost the right size that we'd probably trigger me Tuesday evening!

Some of you are thinking - what the heck does "trigger" you mean? I will "trigger" my ovulation by giving myself a shot of HCG and then 36 hours later is when I would be about to ovulate so they will go in and do the egg retrieval then, so in this case if I trigger myself (give the shot of HCG) Tuesday evening then I'll go in Thursday morning for egg retrieval.

In a normal cycle you have 1 follicle that matures to about 20 mm and that is the one that is released when you ovulate. Like this:

So the black ish big circle...

In an IVF cycle where you are using the stimulating medications that I'm using (Follistim and Menopur) then you get lots of follicles developing, like this:

Got this off the internet but this is pretty much exactly what my ovaries looked like today!

Anne Marie said the criteria for being ready to trigger is that I need at least 2 follicles measuring over 19 mm and 5 over 15 mm - I already have 1 over 19 mm and the 5 over 15 mm and several other big ones. She counted and measured about 11 on each side so 22 total. I'm not sure if they retrieve all 22 or not but at least there are plenty in there we are sure to get a good amount out!

I'm just so excited that this is all coming along so nicely and that I might be doing the egg retrieval as soon as Thursday is just exciting!!! The sooner they take them out, the sooner they can go back in (2-5 days later, again depends on how they are doing!), then the sooner we can find out the results.