CD 1 - at long last

I can't remember a time when I was so eagerly waiting for AF to show. I was almost a week and a half late. Apparently this a normal occurrence after a failed IVF cycle, no one had told me that. I went in for my cycle review on Wednesday. The LPN that took my vital signs is, well lets just say she is not one of my favorites. She was in on the last retrieval and participated in the great let's make the patient a pin cushion fiasco. She is not terribly sensitive to the whole IVF process. One of her first questions: "So, you're not pregnant yet?" I told her that my period was late, but I was about as sure as I could be that I was not pregnant. We decided to do a pregnancy test, in my mind just to rule it out. But she started to get all excited about the prospect that I was pregnant. I kept thinking that this was not really appropriate for an IVF patient. So here is how the conversation went:

Nurse: That would be so exciting! You should wait and surprise your husband at Thanksgiving dinner!

Me: I really don't think that I'm pregnant, I just want to rule this out.

Nurse: Instead of bringing out the turkey, you could bring out a baby rattle on a platter!

Me: (smiling politely)

Nurse: Do you think you could wait until tomorrow to tell him?

Me (having ENOUGH of this conversation): Well, first off I am working all day tomorrow so there will be no Thanksgiving meal for me. Second, I was pregnant earlier this year and had a miscarriage so even if this test is positive, it will be many weeks before we feel like we could celebrate.

*Crickets chirping*

Nurse: Oh, of course, I understand.

I don't think she could have exited the room any faster. The rest of the review with the doctor went fine. We were only going to change my protocol to a lupron flare if I hadn't started my period by today. There was some talk about switching to a 3dt vs 5dt, if only to make a change to what we are doing, not because they feel like we need to. I'm going to play that one by ear. My RE says there are no differences in pregnancy rates with a 3dt vs 5dt, just a decreased likelihood of multiples with the 5dt because they transfer less. I think for my age they would transfer 4 at 3dt - that just scares me a little too much. We are going to repeat my FSH with my next period....that will be in the middle of the cycle, so it is not like it will change anything, it's just time to do it again. I also brought up donor eggs, my RE laughed and said that there is no reason for that now especially with the way I stimulate, fertilize and divide. She made a comment that when I got closer to 42.5/43 years old, then it would be time to consider that. It was my turn to laugh at that, I'm figuring that we will be done with this process one way or the other by the end of 2009.

So we are off today for the big vacation. I'm looking forward to getting out of all this snow (we have had about 2-3 inches on the ground for a week), and back into short sleeve shirts.