In the midst of IVF #1

As I sit here watching Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, I can't help but think of so many wonderful childhood memories watching those old Christmas classics, and wonder if next Christmas I will be watching movies like this with my little one.

I know there are lots to catch everyone up on, as I have not blogged in months, but seriously...life has just taken me one roller coaster ride after another. Let's see, we had 3 failed IUI attempts, and let me just tell you that I have beaten myself up over wondering why they didn't work. To be quite honest, it's really amazing to me now, after all that I have gone through and what I have researched, that anyone is ever able to "just get pregnant" by accident. I mean, just watching "The Great Sperm Race" proves just how much of a miracle the miracle of life really is. (see part 1 of 6 below).



Anyway, after those 3 failed attempts, we decided to move forward more aggressively to IVF, and trust me, no matter how hard I researched and thought I had prepared myself, I had no idea what I was beginning to get myself into. For example, I had researched so much into the difference between 3 day transfers versus 5 day transfers, and Ken and I had decided that we were going to push for a 5 day transfer, or 5dt.

After meeting with our RE, we soon found out that all our eggs would be frozen for a later transfer or FET (Frozen Embryo Transfer). With being a PCOS gal, the doctor was super afraid of me developing OHSS and research had shown a greater success for doing the FET, as much as increasing our chances a whole 20%.

The plan; freeze 1/2 of our embies as zygotes and let the rest grow to blast stage (5 days) and then freeze those that are viable. I took Gonal F for stimming, Low Dose HCG daily and then did an injection of 80units of Lupron for my trigger  prior to retrieval, which was November 10th at 9:30am.

The retrieval; not much to really say about this, as it was such a breeze. By this day though, I was totally uncomfortable with bloating and what felt like water retention. I began to worry about OHSS, but thankfully never developed it. Anyhow, I was given the "Michael Jackson drug" and was out like a light. When I woke up, I was in recovery. I asked the nurse how long I had been out....10 minutes. It felt like I had been sleeping for 10 hours, not 10 minutes. While I had my retrieval, Ken went to give his "sample" for our eggies to fertilize. By the time we left, we were told they got 26 eggs~~!! The nurse said she had never heard of them getting that many from a patient before...that's me, a RECORD setter. Although the day of retrieval was not feeling much pain, most in part due to the great medications given to me...however, the following several days were not too fun. I was severly bloated and every move was uncomfortable, but thankfully...NO OHSS! I was amazed, as was the doctor.

First Fert. Report; the following day we got a call from the RE. 23 of the 26 were mature, but we lost 6 due to an error on the Embryologists part. Apparently he had injected those 6 eggs with 2 sperm, which nulls those eggs. That left us with 17 fertilized eggs, so 9 were frozen as zygotes on this day, and 8 were left to grow to blasts. By the 5th day, only 2 had made it, but they were graded AA (the best possible grade). They froze those 2 giving us 11 in storage.

Fast forward 2 weeks from retrieval, November 24th. I went to see the RE for a recheck and see how my ovaries were doing. They were still large, and he noticed a fibroid, but nothing that concerned him, and gave me the ok to move forward with doing FET, which is tentatively set for Dec 30th. I was shocked though to find out that instead of transferring the blasts, he is going to thaw the zygotes, all 9 of them, 4 days prior to the transfer and let them grow to blasts, then transfer two of the best. If by chance they aren't viable by then, the blasts will be thawed and transferred instead.

So....that's the update, in a nut shell. I have one week left on BCPs, and I'm currently on Lupron (10 units daily), and then back around Dec. 12th for an ultrasound and blood work to see if we can start the Estrogen patches and the rest of this list of meds that I will be taking to prepare my "oven" for the "biscuits".