Cycle Day 3 - First Ultrasound

"Plans are nothing; planning is everything."
~Dwight D. Eisenhower

Sunday, unlike Saturday, I managed to only check my messages on the portal twice. Considering I was constantly checking it Saturday, I consider that a victory over my anxiety.

I was able to go to bed Sunday night, feeling much better about our situation. We prayed about it with one of the pastors at our church and then our small group prayed about it that evening. Knowing that a group of believers knows what is happening and is lifting us up in prayer helps to settle my soul more than anything else has.

We woke up this morning at 7:40 (lazy people!) and I immediately checked to see if they had responded - and they had!! I was grateful that I had checked it first thing, because they had scheduled me for a 9:45 appointment. That was two hours to get up, get us all dressed, feed the baby and drive almost an hour to the clinic. I was about to have a transvaginal ultrasound -  I HAD to have a good shower.

At the appointment, they drew blood and sent it off to Reprosource for my Ovarian Assessment Report (OAR TEST.) They also did an ultrasound to see the number of follicles I had. The Dr. sounded really happy about what he saw.  He didn't go into detail, but said that he was seeing about 7-8 follicles on each ovary.

Our next appointment is one week from today (December 19th) and we will be having more blood work, doing a trial transfer (where they map out the uterus for the best placement of the embryos next month) and ultrasound much like the one we had today.  Dr. Prough will also be going over the results to today's lab work and ultrasound in more detail.

This week, we are both starting an antibiotic (not something I am a fan of - I think they are way over prescribed - but, I will do what I am told in order to get this baby.) and I begin birth control on the 15th (Wednesday.)

Having a timeline to look forward to and feeling like there is progress being made feels wonderful. Yes, there is still a lot of waiting, but I feel like it is good waiting, as I have a specific date and time to wait for, and not an unknown.

Based on what I (THINK) I know about the process, and this sample generic treatment plan, (and this one too) here is what our next couple of weeks might look like:
Ovarian Suppression Stage:

• 12/15 - Begin birth control - active pills only
• As early as 12/29 or as late as 01/12 -  Could begin Lupron (Or other medication) injections

Ovarian Stimulation Stage: 

• As early as 01/12 or as late as 01/26 - Could begin STIM meds and injections (taken for 8-12 days)
• As early as 01/20 or as late as 02/04 - HCG trigger shot

Retrieval / Baby stage: 

• As early as 01/22 or as late as 02/06 - 36 hours after trigger shot, is egg retrieval (ER) surgery 
• As early as 01/25 or as late as 02/09 - 3-5 days (beginning the day after retrieval) after ER  - Embryo Transfer (ET) 

Beta Test: 

•  As early as 02/08 or as late as 02/23 - Beta Test #1 Two weeks after ET is a blood test to check my HCG levels and get a pregnancy result. 

Add in here lots of blood tests, several more ultrasounds, etc. and you have a pretty good picture of what my life is going to look like. I may be crazy for having spent the time to come up with this timeline, when it is probably not accurate at all. It could be much sooner than this, but at least it gives me a kind of 'worst case scenario' calendar to help me while I wait.

**UPDATE**
I received a timeline from my clinic, and I wasn't far off in my estimation.