We did it; we made it through our extra 10-day wait and we were headed back to the clinic on December 30th to make sure my pesky cyst was gone. We has just a few things to check off our list until we had the all-clear to start stims that night. First up was another estrogen (E2) draw along with a TSH draw to check my thyroid (this is done every few months) then an ultrasound. This was a pretty standard appointment: vitals, labs, pee in the cup, undress from the waist down, ultrasound. Approximately 0.3 seconds into the ultrasound, we heard Dr. F say “Damn, your cyst is hanging around to ring in the New Year.” Um, was that supposed to be funny because I sure as hell wasn’t laughing? Although my cyst was a smidge smaller, it was definitely still there.
We didn’t get the news we were hoping for but Dr. F said that we could potentially start stims a week later on January 6th, pending my E2! Or my E2 would still be too elevated and I would go back on BCP again and try this whole thing over in another two weeks. I’ll let you take one guess at which way this went.
Yep, you guessed it – my E2 was still incredibly high, although lower than our last appointment, at 191. Don’t forget, it needs to be under 70 to start stims. I’m sure you can imagine the choice words I had for Dr. F on the phone that afternoon as he reminded me that this wasn’t something I could control or rush but he felt it was possible that we could start after our next appointment. I mean, my cyst shrunk during the last 10 days and my E2 dropped over 200 points, so another two weeks would surely do the trick.
Here we go, it was 15 days later (we added an extra day so that we could have Dr. F do my scan while he was at the local office near us) and we headed to the clinic on the morning of January 14th. This was it, our third potential start date was here and I just knew everything was going right, I could feel it in my bones and ovaries!
“I know my estrogen has gone down via Google because my boobs don’t hurt anymore!”
This statement was followed by a quick chuckle and another plea to stay off Google by Dr. F as I put my feet in the holsters. I was so excited that everything was going right this time (according to me) that I almost missed his joke… “Well, it looks like your cyst-er is hanging around after the holidays. Get it? Cyst-er like sister!” Yep, got it.
Just as my good mood was flying out the window he let us know that my cyst shrunk a little more and as long as my E2 was good, he was giving us a 98% green light and that he would have my cyst drained during my retrieval. I could live with that! We left the clinic that morning and waited on what was hopefully our last phone call about my E2.
A few hours later, I received my self-appointed E2 Expert Certification as Dr. F called and told me that it was down to 76, the lowest it had been. I mean, did I know what I was talking about that morning or did I know what I was talking about? I was told to take two more doses of BCP, ending on the 16th, and that our next appointment would be on January 20th, which was a Monday (MLK Jr. Day) meaning Dr. F was at the main office in Jacksonville. That was no problem as we both had the day off and I was so excited that I took his first appointment of the day at 8:45!
All was right, right? Not so fast. Less than 24 hours after we left the clinic, I couldn’t breath through my nostrils and my throat was more sore than it had ever been. What kind of sick joke was this? Was I living in a warped universe? And to make it even better, Jeremy was feeling the same. Want to know what made it even worse – neither of us could take anything to help our cold symptoms. Of course my restrictions were in place because taking anything medication could alter how my follicles developed while on stims and Jeremy hadn’t done his part yet (sperm collection happens at the same time as retrieval). I made a quick run to the store to get masks, gloves, orange juice, lozenges, nasal spray and throat spray. We were going to try any and everything to get ourselves back to normal before our next appointment.
