Help, my follicles aren't growing!

Considering it is Valentine's Day, I was hoping to start the day with some good news from the clinic, but it was a disappointing visit. From Sunday's visit, I was REALLY concerned that my follicles won't grow large and fast enough to be retrieved. When I researched online, many women said they started eating lots of dairy and using hot water bottles at night to stimulate follicle growth. So I bought a tub of ice-cream and a gallon of milk, and I've been snuggling with my hot water bottle for the past two nights. Turns out my fears were accurate: this morning's ultrasound revealed that I now have a grand total of... TWO follicles that seem to be responding and growing (a 15 mm and a 14 mm). Others are still slow and sluggish.

So the doc said that we may have to cancel the cycle. He explained that it's not worth going through the entire IVF procedure, only to collect two eggs that are simply OK (they usually like to have at least 5-7 mature follicles; anything less indicate lower chances of success). Further, having produced awesome-looking follicles in past cycles (like 20 mm ones), the doc thinks that I could definitely make better follicles given the right dosage of meds. (He actually said, "I know you could better," like any of this is under my control at all). This cycle, they started me out slow because I'm younger and they wanted to risk overstimulating me. I understand all of that but I really wish they had not gone conservative with my treatment plan.

Upon hearing this, I drove home from the clinic feeling completely in despair. Been waiting for the dreaded call from the nurse all day for her "I'm sorry, but Dr. M thinks that we should cancel the cycle... yadda yadda yadda" message. DH isn't really sure why I'm so upset about this; it doesn't seem rational to be so upset over something I never had. But all that time, those meds... all for nothing. It's not that simple to pull the plug and say, "OK what's next?" No one really understands how each cycle is an emotional investment and when the cycle fails, it sucks like hell because you go through yet another month lacking the slightest hint of hope or success.

Update: the nurse just called and for some reason, my RE is still hopeful that those little follicles will just snap out of it and have a growth spurt over the next two days. So we're maintaining a high dosage of meds (300 units of Follistim, 30 units of low-dose HCG and 5 units of Lupron) and hope that they start growing. Yay? Who knows? All I know is I'm snuggling with my hot water bottle again tonight.

Another tiny speck of good news is that my estradiol levels have more than doubled since the change in the dosage two days ago. I'm now up to a whopping 294 (not great, but whatever). Probably explains why I've been super agitated with everything and everyone lately.

Back to the doctor on Thursday.