Cycle with me

March 31, Day One of Cycle Monitoring

It’s 7:02 am. I’m sitting in the waiting room, waiting (obviously) for my name to be called to ultrasound.

I’ve just given blood for my first day of my first cycle monitoring. First of how many, that remains to be seen. I could be back again tomorrow morning, and then Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Or maybe I’ll be back only two more days, and on the third be back for my first attempt at insemination. At this point, that all remains to be seen.

Insemination. It’s a funny word.

If you Google it, you’ll find the word artificial appears in front of it 95% of the time. I’m not a fan of this term, artificial insemination. What, exactly, is artificial about it?

The sperm, though purchased, is real. Nothing artificial about it.

The needle they put into my vein to draw blood to measure my hormone levels is very real.

The lubed-up, rubber covered wand they poke around inside you with, taking snapshots of your baby breeding ground, is anything but artificial.

I digress; at this point I heard my name, followed by “go on into change room number two.”

So it’s now a few hours later, and I’m full of cake, surrounded by excited 4 year olds at the Extreme Fun Zone, celebrating the birthday of my very good friend’s daughter.

One of the moms here is pregnant, and there’s a newborn and a 4 month old. My friend tells me it’s good luck to be surrounded by all this “babyness”.

You should hold the baby! she says. Good juju.

Why don’t I just rub him all over my stomach? I counter.

I don’t, in case you’re wondering.

Shortly after 11 a.m. I receive the email they send with the next day’s instructions.

April 1, Day Two of Cycle Monitoring

There’s 3 of us sitting on a bench in front of the elevators on the first floor. At 6:55 a.m. we can go up; that’s when they open on weekdays.

By that time, there are 6 of us. When the doors open to the 5th floor, we shuttle out like polite Canadian cattle, and each take a number, single file, to give blood in an orderly fashion.

She takes from my left arm today, and the pinch isn’t as severe as it was yesterday, when the needle was in my right.

As soon as I’m done with that they call my name and tell me to head into change room four.

Annie is my sonographer today, and we make small talk while she lubes up the wand. I’m in and out in less than half the time than yesterday. I wonder if that means anything…

Next, I wait to see the nurse coordinator, but not very long. By 7:30 a.m. she’s told me that they see two good size follicles in my right ovary.

They’re 1.4 cm in diameter, but they should be a minimum of 1.8 to 2.2 cm at time of ovulation, so she tells I may get a “day off” to allow them to grow a little bit more.

Woohoo! This waking up at 5:45 in the morning is not my preference. Though I suppose I better get used to it.

I’ll watch for my instruction email later, and then I’ll know if I get tomorrow off.

Now, I wait until 9:30, when I have my sonohysterogram with Dr. V.

Good thing there’s a Timmy’s on the 2nd floor.