Day 6

Joel and I were at the clinic bright and early this morning.
He, of course, sat there all calm, cool and collected.
I, on the other hand, sat on the edge of my chair, and was practically hyperventilating until the ultrasound was performed.
I had pretty much convinced myself yesterday that this cycle was a bust and would be canceled due to my terrible E2 numbers on Monday.
I knew that as soon as my ovaries hit the screen the doctor was going to say "Huh, not much happening here."

Instead her response this morning was "Wow, you have a lot going on in there!"
I could have jumped off the table and hugged her.

Everything looks good. We counted 11 measurable follicles, and 19 smaller ones.

Follicles are the sacs that the eggs grow in. Eggs are far too small to be able to see on an ultrasound, so instead they look at the follicles. The doctor measures the size of their growth to determine their maturity. The follicles that continue to grow will contain an egg. When they get to a size of around 1.6 cm to 2.0 cm, then they are typically mature. When dealing with injectable meds and ivf the doctors also perform bloodwork to measure your estradiol, this is a second indicator of the number of maturing eggs. Estradiol levels are typically 150 -200 per mature egg. It will continue to rise as my follicles grow.
IVF is an amazing science. If we collect too few eggs, then the rate of pregnancy is much lower because there are fewer embryos to choose from. Too many eggs, then they tend to lead to lower quality eggs. Lower quality eggs create lower quality embryos that are not as likely to stick and continue growing once transferred back to you.
For where I am in my cycle, my u/s scan puts me right where I want to be. I am still waiting to check my medvoice line. My E2 numbers could indicate a change.
Our next u/s and b/w is on Saturday. I doubt that I will be ready to trigger that night. My initial calendar has me triggering that night. I think that perhaps after another u/s and b/w on Sunday, and/or perhaps Monday that I'll be ready for retrieval on Tuesday or Wednesday.