Trigger happy

I've triggered!

...meaning, at 2am last night, I woke up and jabbed myself with yet another medication. This one is to "trigger" the final maturation process of the eggs. Before the eggs are released during natural ovulation, they go through meiosis to halve their chromosomes from 46 to 23, and that's what this trigger shot does for me via SCIENCE! instead.

The tricky thing is, ovulation will naturally occur between ~38-42 hours after this process, so the timing of the trigger shot is VERY SPECIFIC so they can schedule the egg retrieval for exactly 36 hours after you administer the shot, and catch as many perfectly mature eggs as possible right before they would normally be released during ovulation.

And seeing as my retrieval is scheduled for 2pm on Saturday... my trigger shot was at 2am last night.

They are SUPER SERIOUS about the timing of this shot, and were at great pains to impart on me how crucial it is to administer the shot at the EXACT RIGHT TIME, no seriously literally THAT TIME EXACTLY, we cannot stress how important it is (and given the window with which we're working, it's easy to see why). But that means I was in turn SUPER STRESSED about sleeping through my 2am shot time. I set two alarms to try to put my mind at ease. It did not work. I dozed fitfully, waking up in about panic about once an hour, sure I'd missed my trigger time. When I did it again at 1:30, I gave up and just waited in bed until 2 at that point.

...and then got up at 6:30 to have one more blood test done at the office before work this morning. I'm a wee bit groggy.

I also spent all day yesterday frenetically googling signs, symptoms, and prevention tactics for OHSS, because once I started googling, I rapidly terrified the pants off of myself with horror stories, which led to more googling to figure out how I could make this NOT HAPPEN OMFG. And guess what! There is absolutely nothing you can do to prevent it! If it's going to happen, it's going to happen, and you can only try to treat it once you have it! HOW REASSURING!

(Quick recap of OHSS, or ovarian hyper-stimulation syndrome: after egg retrieval, your now-empty follicles often fill with fluid, which causes your already swollen and tender ovaries to swell even more. This kicks off a chain reaction of events that can be "just" painful abdominal bloat and swelling, or can cartwheel into fluid leaking into your abdominal cavity and even start collecting around your lungs because your blood vessels become "leaky", which in turn leads to severe dehydration because any fluids you consume just leak out of your blood vessels into the now-giant collection in your distended abdomen OMFG.)

SO. Having the doctor sort of offhandedly mention that my follicle count + hormone levels might put me at risk for OHSS, but the next move is everyone just sort of shrugs and hopes it doesn't happen? I'm not usually inclined to be a hypochondriac, but this is freaking my shit out. Last night I ate pho for dinner (hydrating but with salt and protein! both of which are supposed to help suck fluids back into the rest of your body should your veins get leaky!) and bought a scale for the first time in my life, so that I can weigh myself daily to ensure I am not rapidly gaining weight due to IMMINENT DEATH fluid accumulation. And I mean, I fully realize it's all just to make myself feel better in the face of something I have no control over, but I'm still going to eat the hell out of some salty food, hydrate with gatorade, and stock up on protein bars.

On the cheerier side of things, because I *am* at risk for OHSS, they had me trigger with Lupron instead of HcG which should absolutely help the situation. And I don't know whether it's the Lupron trigger specifically, or just the fact that I stopped stimming with the other meds, but I feel WAY better today. Yesterday I had gotten to the point where I had to slowly waddle, with my arms clasped around my midsection, because walking was too "bouncy" for my ovaries to take. Today I feel great! Much less pain, and can walk like a normal human again! (I - of course - also had to google whether THIS was okay, or meant that my ovaries had already, like, shut down or ovulated or something, but it seems this sometimes happens and hopefully I should just enjoy the respite while I can.)

So. Assuming I stay OK, and assuming they are able to get some mature eggs at the retrieval, and assuming some of those are able to fertilize, and assuming some of THOSE make it to day 5... I'm looking at a Thanksgiving Day transfer.

We'll be putting both a turkey and a bun in the oven, with any luck ;-)