Trigger!!!

2pm
"Hello?"
"It'sssss D-DAY!  Your ultrasound shows just enough mature eggs for us to move forward, and your blood test shows your estradiol at 1762 -- it didn't spike as we feared, so you're good to go.  Tonight, you're going to give yourself the two trigger shots -- Lupron and HCG.  Do so precisely at 11pm.  We'll test your blood tomorrow to monitor the effects, then in exactly 35 hours, come in for surgery to harvest your eggs."
"Great...".

That afternoon, I met my girlfriend for lunch to catch up on details from her amazing trip to Barbados.  We chose a nice Indian restaurant near her home. So much catching up to do...we spent hours chatting and eating and snacking and chatting some more.  I had nothing on my schedule...so spending 6+ hours catching up wasn't unusual.  8pm...time to part ways and get ready for the upcoming week.  I was excited but nervous to take the hour-long drive home, and mentally prepare for my last two injections -- the culmination of a long, painful IVF treatment and the beginning of new life hopefully.  I'd have just enough time to get home, pour a glass of wine, prep the injections and chill them in the fridge before 11.   ....or so I thought!

"What's wrong....your headlights aren't on?"
"uhmmm....my car won't start".  I remembered earlier in between snacks, I tried to get into my car to grab my portable phone charger but the remote wouldn't work. I assumed its batteries needed replacement and opened the car with the physical key instead.
"Do you have jumper cables, because I can align my car with yours and jump your battery?"
"Sure".  Finally....a chance to use my Christmas gift....I've had them for 3+ years...they were beginning to collect dust.

"I have never jumped a car before...but have seen it done on TV"  I said to her.
"Oh it's easy...just hook two ends to your battery and two ends to my battery, start both cars together and VIOLA!".

25 minutes later...we were reading the Audi manual trying to locate her car battery.  It wasn't exactly intuitive.

We spent about 1.5 hours on this process.  In that time, 3-4 different families emerging from the Indian restaurant offered to help.  One guy read the manual front to back and insisted the car battery was either in the trunk of the car or under the passenger-side seat.  Bizarre!  Another guy insisted that Audis don't have car batteries, instead moving his car into that spot would serve us better.  We obliged.  Nothing!
Another guy brought his car over and claimed to have been a pro at jumping cars, and that my spark plugs were damaged.  His mother, insisted cars usually don't start when the wheels are crooked (they needed to be turned facing forward before the car can start).  That was my first hearing this new myth!  Others claimed my starter was damaged and battery was perfectly fine.

It seemed not one person in the entire Indian population in Central Jersey knew much about cars.  It was almost 9:30pm and I was getting very nervous.  I wasn't nervous because I'd possibly be without a vehicle for a few days but because I needed to be home precisely at 11pm to inject my trigger shots or the ENTIRE IVF process this cycle would have been in vain.  The trigger shot would cause the follicles to release the mature eggs (ovulate) and the medical team would have to extract the eggs exactly 35 hours later (10am a day and a half later).  I had to do my part, in order for this to work.  Being an hour away from home where the drugs were, didn't help.  I called my husband to alert him of the problem and advised he make the trip to me with drugs in hand.  Meanwhile, our roadside assistance dispatched a mechanic who ...within 20 mins, arrived and successfully started my car.

And the race begins....as my husband was arriving, we were finishing up.  It's 10pm.  We both raced home in our respective cars...made it home in 49 minutes.  Ran upstairs.  Washed hands.  Mixed injections...no need to refrigerate...prep alcohol wipes....wait. 11pm -- pinch skin, wipe with alcohol, stab skin, inject!  11:03pm -- pinch skin, wipe with alcohol, stab and inject #2.

Inhale glass of wine.  Get seconds.

....and a third!