So I managed to trigger with the Pregnyl when I got home on Tuesday, around 6:15pm or so. The Pregnyl is really fussy and annoying. This time I managed to break open the glass vials without crushing them which was good. But then I think a tiny splash of water came out when I snapped off the top of the water bottle. Then, when I was priming the needle a tiny bubble of fluid came out and fell on the floor. So I was feeling stressed when I finally managed to inject, only to do it in a funny way that's left a dark point bruise on my belly.
Having done some more reading around the internet, it seems that having two follicles (or three, or even sometimes four) is not at all unusual for an IUI so I think my odds are still 6% (or 11% if you consider both cycles). I was a little disappointed by that, but I'm still happy that I had two good sized follicles for this cycle because that's got to be better than one!
On Wednesday my morning meetings went late so I only had 20 minutes for lunch and to turn myself around before the taxi came to take me to the clinic. It's a small indulgence I have to take a taxi to the clinic but the alternative would be to cycle and I don't really want to cycle around the procedure. In the grand scheme of things, the £14 return is really not an issue.
My procedure was a little bit late because the doctor had to come from the main hospital to the clinic. Once she arrived it was all very quick and straightforward like the first time. I was the only patient there. I changed in the recovery area in my own little cubicle, then when the doctor arrived and all was ready, I walked with the nurse to the procedure room. It was a little bit different from last time because there was no trainee doctor. So the regular doctor did the procedure and this meant there wasn't any ultrasound. I asked her about this afterwards, she said that because embryo transfer is similar to IUI, they would have used the ultrasound to watch the placement of the tube during the IUI for training, but it wasn't necessary. It also wasn't necessary to scan my ovary to see if the follicles had released she said. Basically, with IUI, it's a less precise procedure. There's really nothing they can do other than the insemination at that point. The ultrasound won't tell you anything and would potentially only be stressful if you didn't see that the follicles had disappeared or released. So fair enough.
The way the IUI works at my clinic is the doctor gets you all prepped with the tube through the cervix, then the nurse knocks on the window to the embryologist's lab and he hands over the sperm through the window after confirming who you are. I also have an ID card that I insert into a scanner that I think registers in the embryology lab as well. At any rate, I had a chat with the embryologist as well with my legs all up in the stirrups. I asked about the sperm motility since I didn't the first time. I think he said it was 36 or 37 which was well over the 25 guaranteed by the clinic, so that was good.
The sperm got connected, inserted, the tube was removed and all was done! They said I could lie there for a bit if I wanted or get up. I decided to lie there for a bit but asked the doctor some more questions while I did so it ended up being useful. While obviously I really want this cycle to work, I'm realistic that it may not so I asked the doctor about moving on to IVF. She explained that I'd need to come in for additional consultation and that there's a lot more HFEA paperwork that needs to be filled out for IVF. So I wouldn't be able to start an IVF cycle next month, it would have to be the month after. But that's okay. April is actually a very busy month for me so it would potentially be difficult to schedule scans around my work commitments. Again, I obviously hope it doesn't come to that, but I guess I'm more of a realist than an optimist.
So now the two week wait begins again. I've scheduled my progesterone blood test with my GP for next Thursday. The clinic also gave me two pregnancy tests and the date to take them on. I'll probably do the same thing as last time and start with my Ebay ones until the day I'm supposed to take them according to the clinic. But maybe I'll use the extra one they gave me for the day before.
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