Thursday, February 18, 2010

No Frosties

Oh well. Got the news from my nurse coordinator, and the 2 morulas did not make it to freeze. I'm trying not to read too much into it. Hopefully, the 3 embies that we transferred yesterday will do the trick.

If not, another fresh cycle awaits me in the spring.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Back From Transfer!

Just got back from our transfer. It went very well. I only drank 10 ounces of water this time, and it appeared to be enough. Finally met Dr. Peters in person, after talking to him many many times on the phone.

So, here's the dirt. We wound up transferring 3 blasts. They grade on a 1-4 basis, with 1 being the best. We transferred a Grade 1, 2 and 3 blast. We decided to go with the graded 3 blast as they weren't going to be able to freeze it, so why not add it to the mix. We also have 2 compacted morulas. Assuming they keep dividing, they will be frozen tomorrow. And, we had 2 just crap out. Dr. Peters told us that if I get pregnant, we have a 30-35% chance of twins, and a 10% chance of triplets. Whoah!

I wore my lucky underwear and my new lucky socks. Hopefully, both did the trick. I go back in a couple of weeks for my beta.

Keep crossing those fingers, toes, and sending us all those sticky vibes!!

Transfer Set for 1:30!

Just got the call. We will leave here around 11:30 and head up for our transfer. I'll find out how many blasts we have, how many we are transferring, and what their gradings are when I get up there.

Here we go! I'll check in later this afternoon with an update.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Wow, Just Wow!

I got the call from Dr. Peters pretty late this morning. I had a dream the night before that we only had 3 embryos as of today...so I opted to stay home until I got the news from the office. Well, they didn't call until almost noon, but Dr. P told me that we had 7 embies growing. I was floored. We only had 6 as of Saturday. I swear, this cycle is all sorts of good. I don't think we have ever had so many embryos on day 3.

Dr. P. also told me their current grading, but I was so shocked about the 7 embryos, that I didn't really pay attention. Anyway, looks like we are doing a 5dt on Wednesday. I'll get the call Wednesday morning, and then Mark and I will drive up together for the transfer. So relieved!!

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Fertilization Report

Dr. Peters called today to give us our fertilization report. Out of 9 eggs retrieved, we now have 6 embryos growing. I'm happy with this number as the last few ivfs we have had, we only had 5 or less to work with.

I won't hear again until Monday. If we have at least 4 embryos still going strong, we will do a 5 day transfer on Wednesday. I really really really want to make it to a 5 day transfer!

Please send lots of embie growth dust my way!!

Friday, February 12, 2010

9 EGGS!!!

I just got back from my retrieval, and they got 9 eggs! This is the third best retrieval I have had, and the first one where I didn't cry when I got the results.

I did wake up during the procedure, which I wasn't thrilled with, but I didn't feel anything. The anesthesiologist asked if I wanted to stay awake, or have a little more drug to go back to sleep, and I opted for the more drugs. No surprise there.

Anyway, I'm a little crampy, but otherwise, I feel ok. We will get a call from the Dr. tomorrow to find out how many eggs were mature and how many fertilized. Then, I'll get a call on Monday morning to find out if we are doing a 3 day or 5 day transfer. It seems like SIRM really likes to do 5 days, so as long as I have a few good looking embies on Monday, we should be set for a Wednesday transfer. They only require bedrest for one day, but I think I'll still stay home on Thursday for good measure.

Please send good embryo fertilization and growing vibes my way. I really hope that this is finally it for Mark and I!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Oh What a Night!

So, last night felt like a comedy of errors. First of all, I realized at 9:30 that I had forgotten to take my anti-biotic to prepare for my egg retrieval. I was supposed to take it with dinner. OOPS, oh well, better late than never. Next, our power went out at 9:45pm. I lit some candles and joked around about how much fun it would be to do my trigger shot in the dark. I also was relieved that Mark would actually be home to give me the shot. It's hard enough to give yourself an IM shot in your butt, but even worse if you have to do it in the dark.

So, Mark and I set our cell phone alarms for 12:20am to get the shot ready. I was in charge of reconstituting it. That seemed to take forever. Then, Mark was in charge of loading up the syringe. Well, I freaked out because there was still some liquid in the vial. So, we had a huge fight about my meds. I was convinced that if he didn't get every last drop, the hcg wouldn't work, and my follicles would not be ready to aspirated on Friday. Yes, drama queen much?? Anyway, Mark went to do my shot and the needle kind of bent when it went into my tush. Buns of steel, perhaps? Hee hee. He had to straighten it out and it hurt like a mother! But, at least it was done.

Then, we head upstairs. The nurse said that we should have sex last night and then Mark would have to abstain until the morning of retrieval. At this point, it was already 1am, we were tired, annoyed with each other, and not all that excited about spending quality time. While we were upstairs getting ready for bed in the dark, the dog decides that he is going to stand on the bed, pee into his bed and onto the comforter! I guess the snow had gotten to him. So, in the dark, again, we had to strip the bed, find a new comforter in the house and drag all the gross peed on stuff down into the laundry room. The good news is that then the power went back on. Mark and I laughed, had quality time and went to bed.

Last night was literally a pain in my ASS!

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Triggering Tomorrow!

Well, I went back this morning for another monitoring appointment. I had a total of 13 measurable follicles, but 5 were in the 18-22 range. And, my lining was a 10! The doctor decided to let me stim for another night in the hopes that some of the smaller follicles will get a chance to catch up. At this point, I'd be thrilled with anything over 7 retrieved. I think this is because all of my full stim cycles at Cooper resulted in 7 eggs, and I didn't get pregnant.

Anyway, I trigger tomorrow night (Thursday) morning, at 12:30am. Mark will be in the ER that night, and it's supposed to snow all day tomorrow...which means that I'll trigger myself. That just sounds weird. We have to be at SIRM at 9:45 on Friday morning, and retrieval will be at 10:30. If all goes well, my transfer will be on Wednesday of next week.

Oh, here I go again...

Monday, February 8, 2010

Day 7 of Stims, First Follie Check

Well, I left the house super early as I wasn't sure what the roads would be like after our 30 inches of snow this weekend! My appointment was for 10am, and I walked into the office at 9am. Thankfully, they saw me right away.

Well, my lining is 8mm....which means that my POM juice concoction and pomegranate extract pills are doing the trick. I have 6 follicles measuring between 13-15, 4 measuring around 10mm, and a few smaller than 10mm. I'm trying not to be disappointed...after all, my last few IVFs at Cooper all produced around 7 follicles. Guess I was just wishing for a completely different experience.

Mark tells me that it's still early, but it's been 7 full days of stims. I'm going to guestimate that they will retrieve 7 eggs, 6 will be mature, and 5 will fertilize with icsi. Seems like I've been here a million times before : ( For now, I continue with my 225 of follistim, and go back tomorrow for another check.

I was relieved when they told me to come back tomorrow, as the area is supposed to get hit with another foot of snow on Wednesday. I was freaking all weekend about how I was going to drive 1.5 hours up to North Jersey in the snow!

Anyway, I'm home now and waiting for my home healthcare nurse to come over this afternoon to administer my intralipid infusion. I'm a little nervous as she thinks it will take about 4 hours!!! The last time I had it done, it took 1 hour. Ugh, today is going to be a long day. Am I going to have to entertain the stranger in my house for 4 hours?? Ugh, I hope not.

Ok, I'll check in again tomorrow with an update...but I'm guessing that I will trigger Thursday night and have a Saturday retrieval. Wish me luck!