Waiting, always waiting!

Let me start this post by saying... I am a ridiculously impatient person! Like really bad! I'll rearrange furniture at midnight because I don't want to wait until the next day kinda bad!

But...! I truly believe in order to not get frustrated with the waiting around that comes with infertility, IVF and TTC you must have the patience of an absolute Saint!

Stage 1 - To start with, the TTC waiting, starts when you get close to ovulation (if you ovulate or know when that is in your cycle), waiting for that solid line or smiley face so that you can orchestrate sex whilst still trying to maintain some romance, then the roughly 2 weeks before your period slog - could that be implantation bleeding? Am I late? Do my boots hurt? AM I PREGNANT?? No.

Stage 2 - So after too many moons of that crap the investigations start, we are private so we skipped the NHS waiting list but I imagine that's as much fun as it sounds too. Wait for your initial consultation, wait for results of this test or that surgery, wait for the clinic to get back to you about said tests. Waiting to day 21 to start, of course! All this going on and still all of stage 1 because well you never know right!

Next, stage 3 - ok we are injecting, actual IVF has started! But of course I was on long protocol (clues in the title!) So my first many weeks of injecting was a lot of waiting, clock watching for the next jab, am I ready yet - no, how about now - no. A cyst oh we'll just wait and see what happens with that. Surgery for cyst now you need to wait for a bleed and on and on it went. Stims went pretty quick to be fair but still a fair bit of waiting for my follicles to grow and a date for egg collection. Still with stages 1 and 2 waiting in the background because well the clinic still take longer than the 5 mins I'd like them to reply in and stage 1 - you can hope!

Stage 4 - after egg collection. This is where for me the wait became torturous, I think mainly because its out of my control. How many will fertilise, how are they doing, when will they call again - tomorrow - oh they aren't as good as they'd like on day 3 but could go either way, wait til day 5 - not good, give it 1 more day and see. Day 6 - no good. It's over - the waiting has stopped. 

If you go again, like we are you get 

Stage 5 - also known as stage 1, it all begins again. I wonder if I've got more patient this time...