Follicles!

I am still feeling dizzy, but a little less dizzy than before. The headaches are still there though with the little popping lights and so very tired. I'd love to just sleep for a couple of days. Unfortunately I had to have an extra early start this morning, so sleep will have to wait a bit longer.

My early start was because today I had my 'baseline' scan at the clinic. This scan is to look at a couple of things - the thickness of the lining of my womb and to count the follicles forming on my ovaries. The scan showed that the lining of my womb is thin (as it should be) and measuring less than 5mm. It's always a weird experience seeing your insides, so I just nodded and agreed sagely as if I could see exactly what the nurse saw on the scan. 'Oh right, yes, that weird blobby shape is my uterus, ok. And the bit in the middle is the lining, yes of course!'

We then looked at my ovaries. More grey blobs on the screen. But the black blobs on the grey blobs are the follicles forming.
A bit of science for you, in case you don't know, or had forgotten. During a normal cycle, a woman will produce so many follicles, each containing an immature egg. Usually only one of these follicles will mature into an egg and will be released as part of the natural cycle waiting for a little sperm to come along and fertilise it. With IVF, each of these follicles is encouraged to grow in order for multiple eggs to be collected for the fertilisation process. 
In the past, I've had approximately 8 follicles on each ovary forming. This is not a bad number, in fact it's a pretty decent number and gives a good chance of getting a decent number of eggs (I seem to remember 14 being collected one time). This time I have 12 follicles on one ovary and 14 on the other! If these all mature, it gives us a better chance of getting a good embryo for implantation. So let's take a minute to cheer my ovaries!

However, the danger is something called Ovarian Hyper Stimulation Syndrome (OHSS). If the level of drugs isn't measured correctly, the ovaries will over produce and it can lead to some pretty nasty side effects.

I start my injections on Thursday and will be monitored closely after that to make sure I am on the right dosage.