I feel like I’ve been run over by a bus…that backed up and ran me over again for good measure.
We had an early start for the Follicle check today, after finishing up Follistim injections yesterday. First I had my blood drawn for an FSH test. The phlebotomist managed to rupture a vein and I have a nice blue puffball on the inside of my elbow.
On a positive note,the nurse told me (while the phlebotomist was making my elbow art) that my FSH level (that the other nurse wouldn’t tell me) was 4. “Four?!?” I asked. “Four,” she repeated, and said that it was great. Indeed it was – even though FSH tests are compared on different scales based on the lab, I can’t dispute the fact that 4 is a low number – and with FSH, the lower the number the better the result. Based on this Day 3 FSH chart, it’s a really good number.
Then, I had the sonogram done afterward by the nurse (doc was nowhere in sight) who either didn’t know what she was doing or drew pleasure from torturing me like a Mord Sith (she is not nearly as sexy). I tell you the sonogram was painful. I’ve had this done before and there was never any discomfort. She was poking and prodding, and had a difficult time telling which ovary was which… In the end we gathered that my right ovary produced 3 (or 4?) nice big follicles, but my left did nothing – at least, we THINK it was the right one and not the left. Anyway, since my right tube is blocked, it wasn’t the news we were hoping for.
She said we wouldn’t do the HCG shot – but we pushed for it. “Why not?” I asked, and explained that if there were any health risks or benefit to withholding now, we would. It seemed to be only the benefit of saving the shot for another month so we decided to go ahead and do it. I know there is a chance that the left tube will pick up an egg from the right ovary – and hey, we have 3 (or 4?) chances for that to happen this month.
Will an egg from an ovary with a blocked tube be picked up by the other, open tube?
I did some searching and found several instances where women have said they have had this happen. There are two sides to this story – some of those I read say this is ‘very rare’ and the other half says that as their RE explained to them, the ends of the fallopian tube that is clear and functioning will reach for the egg from either ovary. I read that the ends of the tubes are not as far apart as they look when you see a diagram of the female organs – that actually they are even intertwined, so there is most definitely hope that eggs from the blocked side will make it over to the open tube. My right ovary is actually scooted over behind my uterus – like a plant towards the sunlight, it makes sense that maybe its reaching for the open tube, or is being pulled toward the open tube.
I hear you, mom.
The hardest part of this is taking things day by day. My mom gave me that advice over and over when she was alive. I can even remember her writing it in my 5th grade graduation book – “One day at a time.” She also told me time and again to ‘Never give up”, and so my focus now is on the here and now, pushing forward one day at a time, and being thankful for all that I do have – and all that is to come.