Retrieval And Transfer

We have had quite a few ups and downs over the past week or so.

Retrieval was this past Thursday, which went smoothly. They got 18 eggs!

Then, on Friday, I got a call from Farrah telling me that only 8 of the eggs that were retrieved were mature, and of the 8, only 7 had fertilized.

So, we had the Gang of Seven. I was expecting a three day transfer.

On Saturday, Geoff got the call for the appointment, and they also told him the Seven were doing so well that a five day transfer was likely. Yay!

Early Sunday morning, we got the call that it the transfer was going to be a five day, on Tuesday (Oct 30th).

So, we got there yesterday a little early. Only had to wait for about 15 -20 mins before they brought us back. The RE was the same as the one who did the FET. While he had me sign the transfer paperwork, he explained that the embyros had not made it to blast yet. The embryologist came in and explained that the embyos were close to blast. The RE asked for a grade for the embryos and the embryologist gave them a FOUR ...out of FIVE. Which seems good at first, but the high end of the scale is ONE not FIVE. So, the quality wasn't great.

They performed assisted hatching on the embryos to get them as close to blast as possible/make the shell easy for the dudes to break out of.

So, I have been on bedrest for the past 24 hours and about to get up and head into the office. Geoff is going to ask Farrah to explain the embryo grading thing. We are a bit dissapointed about the whole thing.

I am banking on the fact that ICSI and AH gave these embryos a head start, and the best possible two are in me (Eurpopeans do a 2 day transfer with the belief that the womb grows embryos better than a dish). So, we shall see.

Another Check

Went back today, and not knowing what time they would actually see me...I brought a book. I got to the clinic at 8:45. They did the blood draw at 9:15 and saw me for the ultrasound at about 9:30.

Interesting thing was there were at least 4 kids in the waiting room. My clinic has a pretty strict rule about not bringing in your kids, you know-- to be sensitive to others?

Anyway, my E2 is around 820. Dr B was in to do my u/s and she said things look really good. I am still pretty nervous about the whole thing.

So, trigger will most likely be tomorrow night and retrieval on Thursday.

Status Quo, For Now

I was still en route back home from bookclub when Shady Grove called. We are still in "stim land" for tonight and I go back tomorrow. Unfortunately, I got the message so late that I could not make an appointment. I guess I will just head in first thing in the morning and they will see me when they can.

So, it looks like I may trigger on Tuesday, just like my initial schedule says. I am not quite sure how many visable follicles I have, the tech was "pinging" what seemed like every 2 seconds to measure one. Maybe 14? I will certainly ask tommorow.

Geoff had a long day at faire. All of our friends got to see H, and one of them who met him for like 2 seconds last year got to spend much quality time with him today. Apparently H really liked a Pipe and Drum show. He got many compliments on how cute/handsome he is.

I had a great time at bookclub. It is so nice just to hang out with the other ladies sometimes.

Whoa, That was fast

Gayle just came home from her monitoring appointment. Apparently she's made some new friends there...one of them, a lesbian couple, wants to get together.

Anyway, the doctor said her 12-14 eggs look like they are almost ready. Right now, retrieval looks like it might be WEDNESDAY! they'll call tonight to let us know. damn that went by fast, maybe cause I wasn't as involved this time (I was usually taking care of H).

Gayle is a little sad that she doesn't have as many eggs this time as last time. I still think that might be because I was a little late on the follistim, and gave her the saline solution. Though maybe not. All we need is two good eggs anyway....

so the trigger shot (that does the final maturation of her eggs) will likely be tonight or tomorrow! then she'll ovulate 36 hours later. Holy cow. we're almost there. I hope we get some good eggs.

Gayle reminded me about *my* problem...Its not that my sperm COUNT is low, its that I have low motility -- poor swimmers. They go bonk....Ah well. She says I am still manly, though. hooray.

As soon as the little boy wakes up from his nap, we're going to the renaissance faire -- Gayle has book club. Then we should be getting the call tonihgt for the shot! Eek!

dr update

Farah just called. Estrogen is 328. we are to continue dosages of 150 menopure and 300 follistim.

I have another call into farah as well....Insurance problems. I spent almost an hour on the phone doing three ways with insurance company and labcorp. Got that almost straightened out, and now we have one last thing to straighten out. stupid labcorp.

more follicles

So, Gayle went in this morning. Two new follicles. one of the other ones is a superhero, and WAAAY bigger than the rest, so they will likely let the big one die off, since its so far ahead. the rest are all small, but growing. Dr brown said she was extremely happy with gayle's response to all the drugs. In fact, gayle's had to give HERSELF a few injections already. i was out of town.

I was a bit nervous because I thought I might have been injecting gayle with some of the practice medications...I seem to remember that last time one of the drugs, the follistim pen came with a practice medicine that was just saline solution. I didn't remember which one I'd used...but as long as Gayle's numbers keep coming up roses, I'm not going to stress. Though It did cost me a night of sleep.

Gayle and I had a nice chat last night about what our lives would be like with TWO kids. I think we're pretty lucky that we can do this twice, as hard as it is on the girl....some people can't even do it once. Luckily she isn't all that broken -- just bad tubes. the rest of her plumbing works fine. Don't believe we're doing it again though.

I did find out that *I* am broken too. My sperm count should be around 20 million, but its at about 16 million. not terrible, but they've recommended we do ICSI. thats where they grab the sperm by the tail and inject it into the egg. Kinda cool. but I don't like being broken...:( Ah well.

Cycle Day 7

Blogging about Lupron is boring, so lets skip over that. I am currently on day 5 of stims. I am doing 150 Menopur and 300 Follistim. I went in for my Lupron evaluation this past Sunday and my first stim monitoring yesterday. As of yesterday, they saw nine lovely follicles and my estrogen is at 152. So, off to a good start. I go back tomorrow.