Data Girl

I admit it, I'm kind of a data junky. I loved science in school, but decided after a semester in college not to go pre-med because I am a massive klutz. (I am one of those people who falls up stairs!) And, truth be told, I was terrified that I was make some horrible mistake and mess someone up for life. So, I went into an occupation where time and money can erase most mistakes. It's not painless, but it's usually me who suffers not some other poor innocent person.

Anyway, getting back to data... I definitely like to collect as much as possible. I find it fascinating. If I had a enough time and money, I'd probably run every IVF protocol on myself that I could come up with just to see how my body would react. But sadly, I have both only in very limited amounts. Near egg retrival, on our first IVF, my RE wanted to cancel the cycle. I only had 8 eggs and she thought that I could do better. (Which, by the way, I never did.) I asked her if there was any knowledge that could be gained by completing the cycle using IVF rather than converting to IUI and she said "Yes, we could actually learn a lot." So, a lot we did learn. We learned that my eggs were pretty good and we didn't have any fertilization issues. And we learned that if there is a 1% chance something will go awry, it will happen to me. Not very many people get an infection from a egg retrival, but I did. Oh, such a lucky girl! 

So, in this vein, I'd like to say that I found this cycle a little fascinating, although obviously disappointing. Not many people react like they are being oversurpressed when they use the DHEA / Estrogen Priming protocol. Some people ovulate early. Most people have more eggs than they did before and the ones that have less, have better quality. Me, I like to blaze my own trail. I mean, why not take the road less traveled, right?! Instead more eggs, or even better eggs, I have.... one egg. One beautiful egg. Ridiculous! My ovaries look like I've been taking Lupron instead of Follistim and Menopur.

For anyone that's following along, I decided (mostly by default) to continue the stims and take another look. And there it was my ONE EGG. Oh well. We triggered on Saturday. And I have to say that we did it like the true pros we are (please don't pass any judgement)... My husband had a gallery opening to go to and so we had to shoot me up (because I never got the hang of doing intermusculars myself) before my son was in bed. So Saturday evening looked like this...

...son in the bathtub (because I couldn't have him running around)
...me lying on the bathroom floor (because I couldn't leave him unsupervised)
...hubby jabbing me in the ass

Oh, the joys of trying for number two. (Don't worry my son was fully engrossed in trying to fill his colander full of water. Obviously an endless task that can be quite absorbing for a very long period of time!)

And now we are onto the scheduled sex part of the protocol. We love a little roll in the hay as much as the next person, but I have to say it's much easier (when number one is cutting molars and up crying most nights) to try for number two in a petri dish!

Stay tuned... I'll let you know how this saga plays out. (And if I can stay awake long enough to play it out.)