Disappointing.

I had my blood test done yesterday to check on my estrogen levels. Yesterday was cycle day 10 and the 9th day of being on Gonal F. I was having a lot of anxiety over this blood test, I've had no symptoms or side effects at all. Usually in the lead up to ovulation I get a headache, a break out and I get ovulation pains, but I've had none of that.

I also was a bit anxious about seeing the nurse who's been assigned to us. She really doesn't have a great bedside manner and she can be quite patronising. She's also very chatty, which is ok, but it means our appointments run long because she's spent 15mins just talking at us about unrelated topics. "Oh, your last name is M**, do you know a Peter M** who is a nurse at -hospital in another state-? I worked with him for years. What about Ann M** who works at -nearby public hospital-?" Keep in mind our surname is quite common and not at all unusual. I don't like it when she does that, it makes me forget the questions I wanted to ask and I find it harder to remember the information she's given us.

But this time my nurse was busy so I saw the nurse manager, her name is also Donna. She was chatty, but straight to the point! I asked her the questions I had, she took my blood and it was a 5 min appointment.

She rang me later that afternoon with not so great news. Ideally they like to see my estrogen level heading up towards the 300-400 mark. And once it gets there, then they do daily blood tests to check that the levels are climbing and then eventually the IUI. But right now it's at 130.

I was quite disappointed. I know I'm on a low dose of Gonal F, but I kind of had faith that after 9 days of injections my body would've actually done something right for once. The nurse manager must've been able to hear the disappointment in my voice when I asked what we do next. She wants me to have more blood work again on Friday and she gave me the option of having a scan as well.

The only thing is, is that Dr S isn't working this Friday so it would have to the other FS he works with Dr B. I've never met Dr B before, but while I was waiting in pre-op to have my Lap back in July, the women in the bed next to me was having a lap by Dr B and she raved about both him and Dr S.

Dr S and Dr B share a office suite and nurse so I've seen him walk through and talk to other patients while I've been waiting to see Dr S. It's a strange set up, their suite is right next door to the fertility clinic. The fertility clinic has the lab, the embryologists and nurses rooms. There's also a few other doctors on that floor who work with the fertility clinic too.

I don't really mind which doctor does my scan, so I said I'd rather have a scan as well as a blood tests just so we know fully what's going on.

I know this first cycle was always going to be a sort of a test cycle, to see how my body reacted to the medications. This is a bit of a let down. I thought the whole point of going straight to injectables was to shorten my cycle and make this all happen faster. But the way it's going, it looks like I'm going to have another stupidly long cycle, only this time I get the added bonus of doing a shot every morning, blood tests and scans to make it seem even longer.

The worst thing is, while I'm fretting and worrying about the blood test and scan tomorrow morning, my husband will be away watching the final football game of the season. And he's not going to be home this weekend either to distract me, he's off to a weekend of computer games at a LAN.