Stim Cycle #2

Our second IVF cycle is officially underway but we've had such a busy few days that I haven't had time to write about it.

On Saturday we went to Sheffield for our appointment to get things started.  We dropped Oscar off with Ant's dad and stepmum around 8 and headed off for our 9:30 appointment.  We paid, signed the consent forms and both had our bloods done then we had almost an hour wait before my scan.  It showed 7-8 follicles on one side and 5-6 on the other, which is around the same as last time and is a good number.  However, there was a bright spot on my endometrium which could potentially be a polyp.  It won't affect the egg collection part of the cycle but, if it is a polyp and is still there by the time I've had the egg collection, then it will have to be removed before we can go ahead with a transfer.  Only time will tell so I'm not worrying about it for now.  

Our appointment ran over the expected time so we only just made it back in time for Ant to go and have his second COVID vaccine (while I did my first Gonal-F injection in the car park, at a slightly increased dose of 175 iu this time) then we headed to pick Oscar up.  Technically I'm meant to be isolating but it was our nephew's 4th birthday party and we haven't seen that side of the family in almost 18 months so we decided, because it was outdoors, we would go and just keep our distance.  Oscar had a whale of a time and really enjoyed spending time with his cousin on the bouncy castle so we didn't leave until gone 19:30.  Needless to say Ant and I were both exhausted, especially from the social aspect, so we just had an early night. 

Sunday was Father's Day and we had bits and bobs to get done - I wanted to sneak in a last gym session before having to take it easy, we popped to drop presents off with Ant's dad (and the Hales' were there again so we stayed a little while) then had pizza for dinner which was yummy!

Yesterday I was at work all day and then shattered so went to bed for about 8 which brings us to today.  I've now done 4 injections and tomorrow I'll add in the Cetrotide too - this time they are all done together in a morning so no faffing about trying to get them 12 hours apart etc.  In terms of how I'm feeling I'm pretty tired and have been a bit crampy, but that could be the period itself.  The tiredness is no doubt in part due to a very busy weekend which involved a lot more socialising than we've done in the last 18 months or so but I do feel generally fatigued which could well be down to the medication.  My sciatica has also been playing up a bit for the last 48 hours however it seems a little better at the moment.

I have my monitoring scan on Monday which will be day 9 of the medication so we will see where we are at by then - I'm hoping to be good to go as that would mean egg collection on Wednesday which is a day I'm already off work anyway, but things never work out the convenient way so I won't hold my breath!