Olympics - a welcome distraction

For anyone living under a rock these past few months, yes, the Olympics are here and they've finally started. And for anyone living in London who somehow wasn't aware, every square inch of space seems to have been taken up by bright fushia flags proclaiming 'London 2012', meaning that there is absolutely no escape! 

But the whole thing is proving to be a welcome distraction from this IVF, which was fine at first but now feels like it's getting more tricky. Since I have PCOS, I'm reacting pretty strongly to the Gonal F injections I've been taking since last weekend, and the follicles on my ovaries look like an accident in a popcorn factory... This shot is very similar to what they look like: 

The reaction is so strong, that after four days on 150iu of Gonal F a night, they cut it in half to 75iu for two days, then told me to stop entirely. I've had a blood test and a scan two days in a row now, and at first they thought they might do the egg collection in two days time, but I guess they want to give it a bit more time for for more of the follicles to develop to sufficient size (I have 20+ of varying sizes on each ovary, yikes), so I've just given myself another 112.5iu of Gonal F tonight. At first I felt fine, as I have done since this whole thing started at the end of June, but now I'm getting lower back pain and I'm not being quite so blase about things. 

I'm back again at the hospital tomorrow morning for another blood test to see what should happen next. At this rate, they'll do the `egg collection' (what a lovely thought!) by the end of the week. 

Update

I thought I'd write a few words on what has happened since I last posted:

• my cousin has had her baby, a boy
• SIL1 has had No2, another boy
• SIL2 has had a m/c
• I have started IVF/PGD

I started the 'down regulation' at the beginning of the month, taking a nasal spray twice a day. On Friday I had a scan to see if it had worked, i.e. if my ovaries had been shut down. That showed that they had, and since I have PCOS, I had about 18 folicles on each ovary. So the scan was the green light to start the injections, and last night I had my first injection of 150iu of Gonal f, which will kick start my ovaries into producing eggs. I will inject once a day while still taking the nasal spray; then I will have a blood test on the Wednesday (25th) which will determine what happens next: if they need to alter my dose of Gonal F etc. Because of the PCOS, they will probably need to scan me every other day to make sure I am not overreacting to it, and risking ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS). Anyway, that's where I'm at. Hopefully not long to go now until we find out how it's going to go.