Well this should be an interesting cycle.

Yesterday I began the preparations for another frozen embryo transfer (FET). My baseline ultrasound went well – my lining is thin as it should be at the start and my ovaries are “quiet”. Glad there’s no party going on in there. My blood work came back normal and so I was given the green light for estradiol valerate injections. Somehow I managed to forget that this medication is an intramuscular (IM) injection. Who wouldn’t want to block that out?  Also I’ll be doing progesterone in oil  – the dreaded butt shot – later in the cycle. So with these two, I’m anticipating a sore back end. However, I recently realized that my husband had previously been doing my IM shots way too low, which probably accounts for much of the pain and bruising. Mind you, I used PIO for 10 weeks during my IVF pregnancy so you’d think we would have known better. In any event, I think (or hope) things will go smoother now that we know to aim higher.

What makes this cycle so interesting, though, is that we are using 2 embryos that have the odds highly stacked against them – my PGS “abnormal” embryo and my bonus embryo left over from last cycle. I wrote more about these embryos here. If this works I’ll be shocked.

This cycle feels pretty different from the rest. I feel calmer. I’m not stressing about every little thing, analyzing every option, and second guessing every choice. And you know, all of that mental effort is exhausting and time consuming! I’m taking a cue from my beloved ocean – going with the flow and riding the waves. I’m not fighting the current. There is strength in that. Of course I hope this goes well, but honestly I’m not expecting it. I’m not clinging onto the outcome. I’m just riding the wave and waiting to observe where I end up. This is my visualization, my mantra.

That’s not to say this will be easy, or that another negative outcome won’t hurt. But I know I can weather that pain. I know the storm will calm and there will be sunshine again. So let’s see what happens…