Conversion

Three years ago, I undertook a huge task: I converted from Christianity to Judaism. That year of study and work changed my life completely and forever.

I now face another conversion but unlike my religious conversion, this is not one of my choosing. The IVF about which I blogged last failed to reach the goal of more than four mature follicles and thus, Doctor Lipari gave me the option to convert it into an IUI. It seems I was able to make one follicle which had reached 15 millimeters by the day before I was to have a trigger shot.
Insemination was scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday of that week. Upon having the first of the two, Tropical Storm Fay made landfall in Jacksonville, Florida and I was told that the clinic would likely be closed on Thursday due to the conditions. This would be disastrous, as I was scheduled to ovulate on Thursday and that would be my best chance for conception.
When my neighbor and nurse, Wendi, gave me my trigger shot, we talked about an alternate plan. Wendi offered to do the insemination at her apartment. She said she'd just take my tank of frozen sperm from work when she leaves and we can do it on her couch!. I promised to bring the wine! Unfortunately, we soon found out that it would not be possible to do it as an intra-uterine insemination because the sperm would need to be washed and that required an andrologist. We could do intra-cervical insemination (ICI) but that would again lower my already pathetic odds of getting pregnant!
Plan C: It turned out that there was a woman doing IVF who would need to have her egg retrieval on that Thursday -- storm or no storm. That meant that there would have to be an andrologist, embryologist, reproductive endocrinologist and a nurse at the clinic on Thursday morning. I wasn't supposed to have my insemination until 2 PM, but if I could make it over there at 9 AM, I could have one of them do the IUI. Even better, the Fertility Nurse Coordinator who did my first IUI on Wednesday, Lisa, came in that Thursday morning and performed my second IUI.
Upon my return just a half hour later to work to finish my shift, I found out that one of my bosses who saw me leave but did not know for what, was furious and demanded to see me. The manager who knew why I had to leave was out of the office and I had no one to defend me. I was treated as if I just skipped out because I felt like a coffee break! (Yes, I always enjoy the insertion of a speculum on a coffee break! Doesn't every woman?) It was all straightened out later, but it didn't remove the feeling that I had been wrongly accused.

I am now 9 days past ovulation and insemination. I have had many days of premenstrual symptoms but have managed to resist the temptation to do a home pregnancy test. I will wait until Thursday, September 4th when I will have a blood test.