Tuesday, November 18, 2003

Follicle Update

Wow, I guess everything written about "Pottermania" was dead on. My list of Harry Potter in translation was mentioned by Languagehat yesterday, garnering me more hits than any previous day. Thanks to those who have pointed out errors; I am aiming to have things correct on the list, but working with poor-quality cover pictures and languages I don't know leads to some errors. As of today, I know the Hindi title is at least partially wrong, but I think I have the rest corrected.

Moving away from language, Evelin called to say that she'd heard from the clinic. Her E2 levels are still rising, so we are coasting tonight, continue with the morning injections of Lupron to stave off ovulation and will probably trigger Wednesday or Thursday night with retrieval 36 hours later. So what does that mean? Well, although Evelin has fortysomething follicles, most are on the small side. If we were to trigger ovulation with an hCG shot tonight (which is what the doctor thought we might have to do), then only the top few follicles would be able to release mature eggs. The rest would be immature and very unlikely to be viable for IVF.

The good news is that as long as the estrogen (E2) levels are rising, the follicles are still growing. By coasting (skipping the Gonal-f/Repronex injections) the E2 will start to plateau and the larger follicles will hopefully mature enough for us to retrieve a good number of eggs. So it's back tomorrow for another blood draw and ultrasound, and then maybe again on Thursday morning.

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