Day 9 - too many grapes, not enough big ones

Lovely husband likens my ovaries to bunches of grapes. Its a pretty good analogy actually but at the moment the bunches of grapes aren't doing what we need them to!

I had my Day 9 bloods and ultrasound today. Unfortunately, my veins are starting to give up the ghost. I thought this would happen, and perhaps surprising it took until now. The phlobotomist had a try in my left arm (since my right arm has a massive bruise from Mondays bloods) and had no luck. She didn't keep trying but instead went and got one of the nurses, who got it in first go. But both arms are looking quite bruised. Its short sleeve weather again - hope no-one thinks I'm got a habit.

Anyway, then I went upstairs for the ultrasound. Had D, who was a bit officious with me on Monday since I didn't know the drill about timing a visit to the toilet before my u/s. I got it right this morning but she was still a bit business-like.

Unfortunately, the follicle counts weren't what I was hoping for. I've now got a total of 34 follicles - 22 on the right and 12 on the left. This is getting into the rather scarily high range I think. There were still 8 over 10 mm but they really hadn't grown very much - I think one had made it to 18 mm.

I talked to the nurse later in the day and my E2 levels are 6200 IU/l, which I think is fine but it seems all the estrogen is being used to stimulate more little wee follicles instead of making the big ones bigger! Also, my endometrial lining is weirdly less than yesterday - 6mm.

So, the plan is that I am reducing my Puregon dose down to 175 IU, which I think means that the wee follicles won't grow much but the large ones will - hopefully that's the case anyway.

Next ultrasound and bloods are scheduled for Day 11 - Friday. Still no idea on when egg pick-up will be. Its incredibly frustrating and I really just don't know how to handle the day off with work. I'm just going to play it by ear and see how we go.

The nurse said I will continue to get increasingly more tired from here on and more bloated. The bloating hasn't really been an issue so far but I am tired. I'm managing it fine though by going to bed really early. She also said I should up the water I'm drinking to at least 2lt a day or even 3lt.

Lovely husband is AWOL this week - working crazy hours. He came home at 2am the last two nights and will be late again tonight. We are sleeping in the same bed but not actually communicating with each other apart from by e-mail during the day, since we are not awake at the same time. Hopefully life will return to normal in a day or two.