Viva Las Eggas

I’m not much of a gambler.  It may come from growing up poor, but I just can’t stand seeing money wasted, and gambling seems a potential waste of money.  I don’t participate in office sports pools, managed to lose only $20 when we were in Las Vegas a few months ago, and typically only place a bet if I know I can win (you may recall I have a slight issue about being right…).  But even as I watch other people bet, I’ve wondered what it would be like to take a big risk.  And now I wonder no more.  Around noon today we took a big, big chance.

Time for another lesson in assisted reproductive technology.  Doc has the most success with 2 back to back iui treatments, given 24 hours apart.  The idea behind her philosophy is that you inseminate right before ovulation and again just following ovulation. The sperm will live 24-36 hours after insemination, so this technique gives the best chance for one of the swimmers to finish the race.  The home ovulation predictor kits just tell her when ovulation might naturally occur, but the trigger shot she gives will actually “schedule” the egg to leave the ovary, usually sometime the evening following the shot.  When doc saw a very mature follicle yesterday after my early positive opk, she inseminated, but only after giving the trigger shot to ensure my ovulation would take place sometime by midnight tonight.  Here’s where it gets tricky…

I was inseminated yesterday morning around 10:00AM.  That means the swimmers from yesterday started to die off around 11:00 today, and won’t be viable at all after midnight.  I’m not terribly thrilled about knowing the sperm’s in there to begin with, but now all I can think about it a batch of stale “yesterday’s swimmers” hanging out.  Eww.  When we got to doc’s office today just before noon, the hope was that I’d have already ovulated.  If the follicle had already ruptured from the ovary by the time we got into the exam room, we would know to inseminate, since that would give 1 sample before ovulation and 1 after.  But of course, this is me we’re talking about.  My body’s not about to make anything easy…  Doc looked at the ultrasound machine and said, “It is still unruptured.”  Oh.  Ok.  Ummm…now what?

Doc instantly let us know that we would not be inseminating again today, as that would not allow for the pre-and-post-plan-of-attack.  But as she began to think aloud and do some kind of new math I’ll never fully understand, she back pedaled.  She started to think about the chance that yesterday’s positive opk could have been a false hormone surge, and started treating this cycle as a triggered cycle, since she indeed gave me the profasi shot yesterday.  Based on how my body responded to the shot last cycle, she predicted I’ll ovulate sometime between 8PM-midnight tonight.  My appointment for tomorrow is for late morning.  So if I ovulate at midnight it’s possible that all of yesterday’s sperm will have died by the time it happens.  But there’s also a chance the egg wouldn’t be viable by the time we send in the next batch tomorrow.  On the other hand, going ahead with the insemination today meant changing the plan of attack by sending in 2 batches before ovulation.  Doc was great.  She stood in her Redskins jersey (I love seeing her on the weekend), calmly helping us weigh the options but making it clear that no matter the decision, we’re taking a risk.  It became obvious by the numbers, that inseminating today would be the way to go.  Today’s swimmers would be good until midnight(ish) tomorrow which would give them 24 hours to hang out with the egg. 

There exists the chance, though, that this whole hormone surge is one giant fake out.  There’s a shot that my body hasn’t responded to the meds in the same manner it did last month, and that I just won’t ovulate.  If the egg doesn’t leave the ovary by tomorrow evening, we will have rolled the dice with 2 vials of sperm and lost.  Big.  So far we’ve remained beautifully calm about the whole thing.  We knew immediately that we wanted to go forward with today’s insemination.  It was doc’s recommendation and we trust her.  It’s an expensive gamble, both financially and emotionally.  And it’s the only time I’ve ever immediately said yes to a bet that wasn’t a sure thing. 

So we thawed, we inseminated, and now I’m engaged in an internal chant aimed at my right ovary: “release the egg…go ahead, let it go…”  Tomorrow morning we go back to see doc again and she’ll check to see if the egg is still unruptured.  If so, we’re still not sunk.  There will still be another 10-12 hours of viability from today’s batch.  It could still happen this cycle.  That’s how we have to look at it.  Pessimism is no good for either of us.  Once you’ve placed your bets there’s no sense in regretting the risk.  But that doesn’t mean we’re able to focus on anything other than what doc will see on the screen in the morning.  So say it with me: Go ahead, release that egg.  Just let it go…you don’t need it anymore…ovulate…ovulate…ovulate…