Ahhh... I can relax. On Monday this week, just at the end of the business day, I received a call from my nurse at Boston IVF. They wanted me to come in for the retrieval on a certain date, but thankfully they are flexible by a couple of days by manipulating my menstrual cycle. It all depends on the injections really, so we were able to work it out perfectly with my work schedule. I am arriving there over the weekend, and returning home the following weekend. I only have so many vacation days and because I'm expecting to do a second cycle in Boston, I wanted to make sure I could reduce my days gone from work as best as I could. It worked in my favor that one of those dates that week is a paid holiday. I don't expect to be so lucky next time.

On Wednesday, my medication package was overnighted from Boston's pharmacy. A few of the items have to be refrigerated. My package included: mixing needles & syringes; the smaller injection needles; the Gonal-F pen that is self-measuring (another similar injection to this is Follistim); Luveris kept separate in two vials - one with the powder medicine and the other with sterile water to be mixed at the time of injection (this is like Menopur); Ganirelix kept in its own syringes; the HCG trigger injection Ovidrel kept in its own syringe for when I'm instructed to take it to release the eggs for retrieval; alcohol wipes; gauze pads; ibuprofen for the retrieval; and a sharps container for disposing used syringes. I'll talk about the injections in more detail when I become more familiar with them. Only thing my box didn't come with was the instructions on how and when to take them! So, I decided to wait a little longer before I started crying to the nurse.

Friday, the snail mail letter from my nurse arrived. Cue "Mission Impossible" music: Take your last birth control pill on the 17th, start taking your injections on the 23rd in the following doses, visit your local fertility clinic on the 25th and 27th for a blood draw and you will receive further instructions on the injection doses after each appointment. You will travel to Boston the following day and continue your appointments the next morning for in-house monitoring. Your retrieval date will be judged with these visits and will be between the 4th and the 6th, depending on how the follicles develop.

I felt a little overwhelmed when I received this letter for the first time, because I don't want to mess anything up and forget something. This is the most nerve-racking part of the whole process in my opinion; I'm afraid that by making any mistake, I am throwing away the couple's chance of success. I don't want to risk anything for the couple when they are paying who-know's-what for all of this. Everything is riding on me to get this right for them.

I knew this was going to mean I had to accept a lot of responsibility when I signed up for this. I'm ready for it, but it sure does feel heavy right now.