Trigger Time

Things Are Happening.

Our egg donor is getting her trigger shot tonight.  This is the shot that completes the egg maturation process and causes the eggs to be released so they can be "retrieved."  Retrieval day is going to be this Wednesday - 36 hours after the shot.

Right now, the donor has about 15 follicles over 10 millimeters, and a few that are fully mature (I think this means over 15mm).  Between now and retrieval, they will all mature and grow some more.  I have not asked the clinic at all about how they time the trigger shot, but obviously, the idea is to time it so you release the eggs at the point when there are a maximum number of eggs at the right level of maturity.  The Internet is full of speculation about how to achieve this maximization, but I'm not getting into stressing out about it.  It is 100% in the interest of the clinic to maximize the number of good eggs retrieved, and therefore my chances of success, and they know 99.99% more than I do about the science (and art) of doing it.  There's really nothing to be gained by trying to micromanage my doctors.  (That's quite the opposite of my view when dealing with regular doctors - meaning ones that get paid by insurance companies.  Dealing with pay-for-service doctors is completely different. I'll have to write about my variety of experiences with that some other time.)

I'm going in for my last monitoring ultrasound tomorrow, and then Adam makes his contribution the next day, at the same time the eggs are being retrieved.  I think we'll find out how many are fertilized by the end of that day.  I'll find out more about the logistical details at my appointment tomorrow.  This is when things get busy and might change from hour to hour, including a lot of changes in my medications.  But ideally, the embryos will simmer for five days before transfer, so the Big Day should be one week from today.

I'll keep you posted.