The IVF Marathon

The last two weeks have been a graft. Normally, the stimulation part of an IVF round lasts anything between 7-10 days. The way my body has been slowly, but steadily, responding to the injections means that Dr Dellis had me on them for twenty days. Not only is that daily injections of hormones into your tummy, but it's also blood tests at the lab, and scans at the hospital every two days to monitor the progress of the eggs they're desperately trying to grow. As we're in France you also need to join up the different aspects of your care too, like booking your anaesthetist for the egg collection, and reserving a recovery room in the hospital. And remember to throw into the mix that I was still recovering from bacterial pneumonia. 

It's physically demanding (pumping your body full of a cocktail of a drugs every day - and, of course, I was on the highest dose possible), but it's also mentally draining when you're balancing the rest of your life and trying not to tell everyone the truth when they ask, "what have you been up to?". I've never hidden the fact that we're going through IVF but when you don't really know people particularly well, for example, the new school mums, you don't want IVF to be the first big conversation you have. But, in the same vein, I was finding it shameful to explain away my days in France as a Lady Who Lunches. A real balancing act. 

Getting the news: "You're still not ready"

More drugs

Anyway, Dellis got me absolutely full of the drugs and finally, on Friday, he said I was ready for the ovarian puncture. I went into hospital yesterday morning, hopeful but typically nervous. I was also relieved that this part of the round was finally coming to a close. After all that, they got two eggs. One wasn't good enough but one was fertilised! Dellis said that my hormones were all over the show (not surprising, really) so if the egg made it to embryo stage then he would freeze it and give my body a month to get prepared for the transfer. He's not taking any chances, and it feels like I'm getting the chance to come up for air.

I'm knackered, but hopeful. 

Lorna. :-|

PS - Here's my Sans Gluten after I woke up (wow!):