This morning my husband and I drove the 2.5 hours south to Tallahassee for a second attempt at a pre-transfer scan. It’s a good thing I don’t fully believe in signs from a higher power, because there were no good ones this morning. It rained the entire drive down, and it wasn’t just your average rainfall. No, it was one of those torrential downpours that makes it extremely difficult to see the road and the cars in front of you. Luckily, it wasn’t like that the entire drive, but it was a long-enough period that I had my husband call the doctor’s office to say we’d be late because I had to drive about 25 miles under the speed limit during those parts of the storm.
When we finally got to the office, the nurse had a heck of a time drawing blood from my arm. She’s done it about a half dozen times before with no issues, but this morning my veins did not cooperate. After two attempts on my left arm, she decided to try my right arm (I’ve NEVER had luck getting blood from that arm), and with a little flicking of a vein and some digging around, she was finally able to draw blood from a vein on the top of my right wrist. The neon green bandages they gave me to cover the multiple needle sticks made me feel like I was in some kind of 80s workout video.
Then, it was finally time for the scan to determine whether or not the twice daily doses of estrogen I’ve been taking for the past 12 days increased my uterine lining enough to create a hospitable environment for an embryo. And … it worked! There are no abnormalities in my uterus any more (as of today) and the lining is thick enough to proceed! That means tomorrow I’ll add two new medications to prep for the transfer — a progesterone oil shot every other day (the nurse drew bullseyes on my backside to give my husband a target for the needle and he said it looks like I have eyes on my butt), and a progesterone suppository twice daily, along with continuing the twice daily estrogen pills.
The transfer is scheduled for the afternoon of Thursday, Nov. 8. I’ll go to my acupuncturist Wednesday morning before we leave for Jacksonville that afternoon (that way we don’t have to do an 8+ hour round-trip in one day). After the transfer, we head home, I go back to the acupuncturist on Friday, and then wait 10 days from Thursday to get a blood test to determine if the embryo has implanted — the official pregnancy test. Two days after that (the day before Thanksgiving), I do a second blood test to make sure the numbers continued to rise as they should. If that one also comes back positive, the first ultrasound is about 10-14 days later.
It’s very weird to know the exact day and time that I’ll have an embryo inside of me. Most people don’t know they’re pregnant until it’s been a few weeks. Please, please, please don’t congratulate me on a pregnancy. Just because I know (and am sharing) the date the embryo is transferred into my uterus doesn’t mean anything is guaranteed. It’s WAY too early and I’ve heard lots of heartbreaking baby news over the past few months, which means I’ll probably be anxious the entire pregnancy (if this one even works). However, I’m happy to accept wishes of calmness, good juju, healthy growing, etc.
Unless something goes wrong/doesn’t take, my next blog update won’t be until after the second blood test to determine pregnancy.