I vaguely remember complaining about how slowly time was crawling while taking birth control at the beginning of August. And yet now it feels as though I blinked and we are 36 hours from retrieval day.

Follicles are locked and loaded (and feeling slightly uncomfortable). I pull the trigger (in the form of yet another injection) tonight at 830 and show up bright eyed and bushy tailed (and with my coffee and ovaries – though minus the coffee that day) Tuesday morning. I’m still not sure of an actual follicle number, but the number of eggs on Tuesday is what really matters. I do have to start a med and a hyperstimulation (OHSS is basically fluid accumulation where the eggs were but in the worst cases can end up in your abdomen and cause a lot of bloating and pain) diet, which recommends 3 things:

1. Fluid – and mostly electrolyte based sports drinks

2. Foods high in potassium- bananas, oranges, and the like.

3. Foods high in sodium – are you ready for this list? Fast foods, chips, bacon, lunch meat, pepperoni, pickles.

I was looking over the list this morning while my nurse was explaining a few things to me when I suddenly interrupted and said “wait a minute, this piece of paper is TELLING me to eat fast foods and chips? Like, the doctor is ORDERING me to eat chick fil a french fries? SWEET!” Though naturally the crazy person in me is freaking out at the concept of fast food and no running.

Yes, I fell out of the crazy tree and hit every branch on the way down, but I’ll do what I have to. It’s been a long road and I actually find myself feeling like this could work. It’s the closest shot to a pregnancy we’ve ever had. And we are close now.

The loss of my friend has had me thinking a lot lately about the importance of cheerleaders. (Not literally, they are bit too peppy for me….plus what would they cheer for me anyway?  Gimmie an I-M-P-L-A-N-T!! What’s that spell!!?? Pregnant! GOOOOOO embryos!!!) I’ve participated in group sports and activities since I was a kid and nothing feels better (even when your team sucks) than a good group of people there to back you up and cheer you on. I’ve been public about our journey since the beginning and have really appreciated all of the words of encouragement, prayers and humorous ancedotes (bonus if sarcasm was thrown in). The clinic has been wonderful, my nurse has been FABULOUS (I want to give her a huge hug every time I go because she has just been so truly encouraging), and I feel blessed to have this many people cheering us on.

Put me in, coach. I have all my cheerleaders behind me.

(And gatorade and french fries in my pocket…)