A Few Days Delay

Tuesday was the day of my appointment to begin the next phase of the IVF process (or the very beginning, whichever way you look at it) I was prepared to begin the stimulating medication and bloodwork, but was delayed. My period was 3 days late this month. Al and I kept hoping excitedly that maybe we were pregnant naturally, but I was experiencing cramps that were fairly intense and just knew it was coming. It doesn’t matter the physical signs I get leading up to actually starting my period, each month I have that hope that it will happen through a natural miracle.  Since we had set the appointment up for what we predicted to be day 3 of my cycle, and I hadn’t started my period yet, I decided to go anyway, thinking I would just start on my way there and wasn’t sure if we could move forward or not. It would also be my first time navigating the taxis, bus and train stations alone so I decided that even if we weren’t able to start the stimulation it would be good practive for me to find my way by myself. I arrived without a hitch (although there was a Union Railroad strike so the train rides were not running as frequently, but I had left over an hour earlier than I needed to get there) and still no period yet. I had already taken 2 pregnancy tests at home to make sure, both negative. I was told by the sweet Korean nurse who’s English was very soft spoken that today I needed to take a pregnancy test and I think she described to me that the medication may be painful that we would start today, but I couldn’t fully understand. She asked me what day of my period I was on and I let her know I hadn’t started yet, but I was confident I would start that day. She had originally planned to also do bloodwork but decided I should talk to the doctor first.

I was ushered into the doctors office and we went over the results of my last blood work. Everything looked good, except my estrogen levels were unusually high. She also mentioned I am a very likely candidate for ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) since my ovarian reserve was very high, I am young and have a low BMI. She went over the procedure and risks again, gave me the paperwork to take home and sign and we rescheduled my appointment to Friday.

As soon as I got off the subway and to make my way to the train station, I started my period. I think it was good for me to make the trip by myself for practice, but I was also happy that the next time I would be visiting, we would be starting the stimulating meds (I’m not sure which ones yet) and Alex would be able to be there! This will push our egg retrieval back to December 30th or 31st. Since I am a very likely candidate for OHSS, my doctor let me know very bluntly she thinks it will probably happen to me, which would mean a delay in our transfer for a month or more. I initially started to worry about the pain of OHSS and more waiting. Since we’re over 2 hours from the fertility clinic and about 25 minutes away to the nearest Emergency room, and 40 minutes away from the nearest hospital (which isn’t English) I started to worry about medical care, but as soon as I stopped googling and opened my Bible, I had much more calm and peace. Its useless to worry about something that might not even happen. I also decided that I now know better how to pray for the procedure and protection from the many things that could go wrong. After all, there are already so many things that have been so beautifully orchestrated in our being able to pursue IVF that I needed to place my trust in the One who has control.

The snow here is falling so softly here, it’s so beautiful. I’m taking time to enjoy my last day of just having to take suprefact and trying to prepare for the next step- stimulating meds tomorrow! So far, I have not been advised about a change in my diet. I love coffee so much, but have read multiple places that it is recommened to not drink caffeine while doing IVF. I’ve tried to cut back to less than a cup, but am wondering if it would be best to cut it out completely (bring on the headaches?) What would you reccommend? Any advice is greatly appreciated!