Scheduling Zygotes

This weekend was a bit crazy – and I’m not sure why it had to be. I suppose things just don’t seem right sometimes unless there is the proper balance of chaos. However, I think some of it comes from a "pre-nesting" phase we seem to be experiencing from this whole IVF process - and truth be told, I am kinda being the girl about most of it. However, after Saturday’s ultrasound and adjustments to the amount of Menopur Kristina continues to take, we now have a 95% certainty of when we will be performing the extraction procedure.
 

The difficulty in timing really boils down to how Kristina’s body responds to the hormone levels with which she’s been injecting herself. Here’s how it works via the sixth-grade-health-class explanation we all remember: a woman ovulates fourteen days after beginning a new cycle and her body produces differing levels of hormones during the month to tell her body when to do what. Well, as it turns out, the human body, as amazing as it is, has not been engineered in an assembly line so that all the models work exactly the same way.
 

The hormones tell the follicles to grow. They grow to a maturity level in about fourteen days. Please note the important word “about.” Because different women grow them at different rates – and like the Pirates’ Code, this is more of a guideline than a rule. Kristina’s eggs are growing at normal rate and maturing just fine, but it takes her body closer to twenty days to really get things to the right size, cellular maturity, etc.
 

In the meantime, she is continuing to take a drug called Lupron, which is a suppressor to certain hormones. Specifically, it is ensuring that her body doesn’t naturally ovulate while she continues to grow the oocytes. Without that drug, her body could release the cells too early and then they could not be harvested for the procedure. That’s the upside; the downside – all of this is making her ovaries and uterus swell and she endures a general abdominal discomfort nearly all the time.
 

So, all of that said – here’s the point: Thursday is our schedule. Today Kristina goes in for another reading. (I won’t be able to attend this one because I have an interview – yes, I’m actually unemployed while going through all this, but that’s another story). Anyway, today we should get the “go ahead” for the exact timing of the “trigger shot” and that solidifies the schedule.
 

After this morning, we should move from 95% certainty to 100% certainty – but I suppose anything can happen. Keep in mind, we thought we’d be doing the procedure today, as today is actually our “49th” day. It’s a good thing we have flexible schedules.