Great appointment!

Today was a major answer to prayer. I was hoping so much for the start of a couple of good follicles on the right side, but not too many. Wouldn't you know it, with today's ultrasound they found 2 "perfect follicles" ready to go! With my last cycle with this same treatment protocol and same medication I had to take 5 of the shots to stimulate my ovaries to produce follicles. This time I had to take 2! Every treatment we've done has taken longer than expected. Today I'm on day 9. That's almost a week earlier than normal. This has caused a few scheduling conflicts because I wasn't quite ready for this yet. I thought it would be this weekend or early next week. I took my hcg shot this afternoon to cause the follicles to rupture and release their eggs. The eggs generally release 24-36 hours after the hcg shot. So we will be having an IUI procedure done tomorrow. The only downside to today's visit was that the lining of my uterus was a little on the thin side. They want it to be a little thicker so that an embryo has something to attach to. So I was giving a prescription for an estrogen medication that should help boost the development of the lining.

I intended on giving a fresh explanation of the IUI, but I'm tired tonight. So I'm going to recycle the description I gave in February.

This afternoon I took my last injection for this cycle. Yep, that's it. I just took a shot called hCG. That hormone is very similar to LH, the hormone the body naturally releases to signal the follicle to rupture and release the egg. hCG is also the same hormone that is released during pregnancy. It's exactly what a home pregnancy test is testing for. Soooooo, if I took a pregnancy test tomorrow it would be positive. It would be a false positive, but a positive. :) I've talked a lot this week about follicles. So here is the progression of a follicle in the ovary. Just so you have a little picture to go from.

Tomorrow afternoon, we will be at our clinic in Boise for a procedure called IUI. IUI stands for intrauterine insemination. An IUI is performed by threading a very thin flexible catheter through the cervix and injecting washed sperm directly into the uterus.

The whole process doesn't take very long — it usually only requires the insertion of a speculum and then the catheter, a process that maybe takes a couple of minutes (60-90 seconds to introduce the catheter, then sperm injection, and another 60 seconds or so to remove the catheter. Most doctors have their patients lay down on the table for 15-30 minutes after the procedure.