Clever Ovarian-Related Title

We had another peek at Shrike's follicles this morning and things seem to be moving along in there.

Dr E was in the room for the ultrasound this time, and as soon as we had ovaries up on the screen she said, "Wow, look at all those follicles! Start drinking lots of Gatorade."

I'm not 100% sure what's up the Gatorade, but it's what you do to stay ahead of the possibility of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome.

My assumption is that the Gatorade doesn't affect your ovaries at all, but from what I read the OHSS screws up your fluid balance and electrolytes and that's what makes you sick. So, if you push the electrolytes, you head off the bad effects of the OHSS. Or something like that.

I quizzed the nurse on that later, and she said that OHSS doesn't actually happen until after retrieval, and Shrike's estrogen level isn't near the danger range now (although it will continue to rise over the next few days) but they want to be careful.

I made her buy four big bottle of Gatorade when we left, with orders to drink up.

But, and I know you're all waiting for this - what were her numbers?

Her estrogen is 957 (over 3000 is when they worry about OHSS) and she's got 27 follicles. One is 12 mm, several are 11 mm and several are 10 mm. Others are smaller than 10 mm.

The threshold to trigger is 3 follicles at 18 mm or bigger, and they grow 1 - 2 mm per day.

This morning, Dr E estimated that we'll be ready for retrieval "late next week, or maybe the weekend."

Later, on the phone, the nurse estimated Wednesday, but now that I think about it, I believe she may have been talking about triggering on Wednesday, which would mean retrieving on Friday.

(A Wednesday trigger date would be based on the 11 mm follicles growing 1 mm/day.)

Tonight, we'll cut her medication dosages back to where they were for the first three days: Gonal-F 112 units and Menopur 1/2 vial. The Lupron will stay at 10 units, and then we monitor again tomorrow morning.

At this point, we'll probably be monitoring daily until she triggers, which will mean two 1.5 hour drives to the main office over the weekend.

Because we just love that trip.

More numbers to tomorrow!