rolling into retrieval.

Had my last follie check today with Fave NP. The 17 grew to a 19 overnight and kicked the rest of the follies to the curb. Yesterday's 12? Shrunk to an 8.

So I'm going to retrieval on Sunday with my one egg ("Maybe it's an uber egg," Mr. Hope said). Still feeling okay about that. The plan is to thaw the four donor embryos out on Monday, grow them to blast, and then do the transfer on Friday. The timing of this couldn't be better; we don't have to miss any work since my office is closed on Friday and Mr. Hope had already taken that day off. Black Friday embies for the win!

The only thing I do not feel super hot about is the fact that Dr. Smiles isn't working this weekend, so my retrieval will be done by Dr. Colleague whom I have never even met. The nurse who called to go over my retrieval instructions was like, "Oh, don't worry, she's nice."

Nice? I don't care if she's a raging bitch - I just want to make sure she's able to retrieve the Lone Egg. This is very important to me, even though I'm fairly certain that she won't make it to blast.

Yes, our plan is still to try to grow everything out to blast, ours and the donor embryos. I am feeling like this is still the right decision for us. Thankfully, Mr. Hope agrees.

Tonight, at exactly 10:45 p.m., I will take my Ovidrel trigger shot. Then, 36 hours later, Dr. Colleague will go up in my lady business to retrieve the Lone Egg. They'll perform ICSI, and, if everything works out, our fertilized embie will start to grow, grow, grow.

Saying goodbye to Fave NP today was bittersweet. We've grown quite close, this cycle in particular. She hugged me at the end and wished me luck. I felt a little teary-eyed. Sure, it could've been the hormones. But it was more likely the fact that I genuinely like this woman, and feel grateful for the level of care and compassion she's shown me the past several weeks.

On my way out, I got hit with the $2600 bill for the donor services. I was expecting it, so the number itself wasn't a shock. But no one had warned me that the $2600 would be do that day. I had to move the money from savings into checking and then call the bank to get them to up my daily spending limit to accommodate the charge.

As I was working all of this out, I overheard a frantic woman talking with a nurse about being out of her medication. She was asking if Posh Clinic stocked any that she could buy. The nurse asked her what she took and she said Gonal F and Menopur. The Menopur alone was $67 for a single vial; each box holds five vials.

I interrupted them, apologized for eavesdropping, and let the frantic woman know that I had 10 full boxes of Menopur that I was going to donate to Posh Clinic. That's 50 vials of medication - way more than she needed this cycle, but enough for a subsequent cycle. She asked me how much I wanted for them. "Nothing," I said. "I've never had to pay more than $90 for my meds."

She laughed bitterly. "I've already spent four grand."

I knew I wasn't coming back to Posh Clinic until Sunday, possibly Monday, and J lived an hour in the opposite direction from me, so she still needed to buy a couple of vials of Gonal F and one of Menopur. While I was still on hold for the bank, she called the pharmacy to get some stop-gap medication, thinking it would cost less than the clinic. It didn't; they wanted another $3000.

She hung up the phone.

I felt even better about giving J the Menopur. We chatted and it turns out she was a fellow DOR gal, though not as severe as I am. She was also plus-sized (like me), pushing 40 (a little older than me), and had experienced several delays in her cycles - including needing to resolve her Type 2 diabetes (one thing I thankfully didn't have to contend with).

She got teary as we said goodbye and gave me a big hug. It was nice. She said she didn't have a lot of people she could talk about her infertility with. I told her to seek out some super secret Facebook groups of her own, as the one I belong to has literally changed my life.

I know I'll have to start my progesterone in oil (PIO) injections soon enough, but I am so looking forward to a couple of days free from injectibles. My poor stomach has gotten several bruises this cycle. Plus, mixing four vials of Menopur twice a day is kind of a time suck, and I'm always worried I'm not capturing enough of the meds.

Oh, and one other upside to all of this? I won't have anything inside of me on Thanksgiving. Which means I might allow myself a small sliver of pie. Woo hoo!