Transvaginal Ultrasound Wand, It's Been a While

Today C and I made the 90-minute trek up to the RE for a quick ultrasound to check out my uterine lining, and a quick blood draw to make sure I didn't ovulate. There were TWO babies in the waiting room, leading me to almost post to FB "two babies in the infertility waiting room: advertising, or inconsiderate?" (I didn't, though. And for the record, I didn't think it was inconsiderate, I could just see how someone else may have felt that way.) The ultrasound was the quickest I've ever had - probably about 30 seconds, tops. Lining looked good, OK, all done.

Next was the blood draw. Somewhere along the line someone decided that I don't do regular needles well, apparently, because the last several times I've been in there they've used a butterfly needle. I actually looked at it this time. (Usually I just look away, for no good reason, because they don't really freak me out that much but watching just doesn't sound like fun.)

And then we were done, and after picking up some very cheap progesterone (only $10 for 4 vials, with all the needles and the sharps container to boot!) we went back to a very busy office to await the nurse's call.

The phone rang late in the afternoon, which brought back sad memories, but the nurse was chipper. "Your progesterone was at 1.32, which is good, and you're all set to go! So decrease your estrace to 2 per day, and start your daily 2cc of progesterone tomorrow night." I asked about the level of progesterone doubling, which she said had to do with how my body is doing less work with the FET than it does with a fresh cycle, and needing more help. She also confirmed transfer day is November 4, and that they'd call the afternoon before with an appointment time.

After that we talked about the transfer itself. I have two vials that each have two day-6 embryos inside, and one vial of two day-5s. My doc had talked to me last month about how they were going to transfer two of the 6ers. But this morning during their team meeting (where they review everyone's protocols and talk about everything) the embryologist mentioned that the 5ers were in better shape than the 6ers. So the nurse asked for my consent to transfer the 5ers instead. It kind of worried me that the older ones looked worse than the younger ones - was that why the last cycle didn't work? Does that mean the 5ers will suffer the same fate, shriveling away after day 6? Only one way to find out.