Watch 'Em(bryos) Grow!

Day 1 after retrieval- 28 eggs retrieved yesterday, 22 were mature, 18 fertilized normally, 1 fertilized abnormally
"Awesome" as described by our nurse, very promising news, hopeful to be able to make it to a day 5 transfer!

Day 2 after retrieval- "Fantastic"-from my RE who called me personally this morning

Looks like any ivf from the get-go, 18 embryos still developing! Very hopeful for a Monday transfer of one embryo and more to freeze :)

Day 3 after retrieval- Still have 18!! Remarkable.

Day 4 after retrieval- They do not look at the embryos this day.

 Day 5 after retrieval-Implantation of one day 5 embryo, freezing at least six viable embryos (we will know exact count later) I'm pregnant! Hoping and praying that our embaby will implant and grow!

Leggo My Eggos, Egg Retrieval

When I went in for monitoring on Monday, my ovaries were so swollen full of follicles that they were touching each other rather than being on both sides of my body.  My husband gave me the hcg trigger shot and ouch, it was a painful 1.25 inch sticker that night. It hurt worse the next day (Tuesday) as it felt very bruised and sore. Also the next morning, I was dry heaving and throwing up stomach bile. I was able to muster the strength to go to work through the nausea and made it through the day successfully.

Wednesday, today, my husband and I went very early (6am appointment!) to the fertility clinic to have the surgery. They started me on a saline iv drip right away and had me sign a bunch of consent forms. Before I knew it, I was walking myself into the operation room.

Before I had a chance to get nervous, the anesthesiologist gave me some sedative and I couldn't keep my eyes open. I was out in seconds. The whole procedure took about 20 minutes and I was the first to go in that day, lucky me! :) They put me under anesthesia so I didn't feel a thing and I don't know how I got back in my bed but when I woke up they had harvested 28 eggs (a new record for my egg retrieval doctor for those who were trying to do iui/timed intercourse, usually people have 7 to 12, how fun to set the record!).

I was in pain, so they gave me some painkillers and then some morphine. They told me to go home, eat and take vicodin, which I gladly did. I also used my heat pad. I wish I was good at writing odes because if I was, I'd write an ode to my heating pad, how I love it so!


My 28 eggs were all fertilized immediately after retrieval and Thursday (tomorrow) I will get more news on how they are doing. A few days later, they will implant the best looking embryo and freeze the rest if there are any viable embryos left.They are not sure yet if they will do a 3 day or 5/6 day transfer. Based on the information I've read, we are hoping for a 5 day transfer because it gives the eggs the best chance to show who is the strongest and gets them into the blastocyst stage.

I was drinking a lot of water before the operation and continued to drink a lot of water all day afterwards. My recovery room nurse insisted that I drink a lot of water and gatorade and eat double the amount of my usual protein for the next 2-3 weeks. This is to prevent hyper-overstimulation disorders that need to be corrected via surgery. She said she didn't want to see me back there for that as well. I've been keeping up the fluids and have discovered that Strawberry Lemonade Powerade tastes just like the pink Starbursts! Yum! I dilute the powerade at about a 1:3 or 1:4 ratio since the sugary powerade is too much for me (especially after not having anything but water and sparkling water for several months!)



I took the day off of work after the retrieval and went in for a half day the following day. I wish that I had just stayed home because the bumps on the road were killer and I didn't really need to put my body through the stress of working/walking around a lot/etc again just yet. But I just get so stir crazy and have a hard time letting go of work!

To end, I thought I'd share my groggy wake-up letter that I insisted on having my husband type post-op:

Dearest (Fertility Clinic),

Full of pizzazz. Excited. Overjoyed. That's how I feel post egg retrieval. Every step of the way, (fertility clinic) has made me feel like an important patient, not just a number. I'm eternally grateful for your patience, knowledge, and care as you lead me through this unpredictable journey towards motherhood. Your explanations are thorough and your expertise is evident.
( ... Then we got interrupted by "FREE!" crackers that I absolutely loved. They were really given just to see if I could withstand the nausea from the anesthesia but I couldn't get over how great they tasted and how they were free!)
  Thank you all for your support, kind words and prayers. :)

Quick Prep for IVF

Since we were not planning to do IVF this cycle, I had to do some quick mental preparations for all that it entails and I thought it'd be helpful to others to share what I found most useful.

First of all, the hcg shot is hard to actually follow all of the steps. You have to administer it at the exact time they direct you to take it. My nurse said to make sure I hit the target time within five minutes. My husband was walking in the door moments before he had to give it to me, so I was glad I already did the research about how to combine the medication and draw it up or we would have been late. (It's different than the preloaded needles.)

How to draw up/mix the medicine (hcg trigger shot): (We watched it all the way through and then my husband watched while preparing my meds the second time.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii7kLJTvGs4

How/where to give the shot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-EY_4P67Hs

(We tried this and it was not too painful. I iced the spot before and after the injection for about 10 minutes which I think helped a ton. Just think carefully about what side you want to do the shot on because it does hurt badly the next day or so like a bad bruise. I thought about which side I like to sleep on and how I would want to lay on the couch to make my decision.)

More about IVF:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J6C_9umMTg

What does the procedure actually look like? Thank you to this woman who allowed it to be filmed! It really eased my mind and helped me to understand the process so much better.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xugCKraWzRM

Oh and from all that I read, I drastically tried to up my water intake!! No eating after midnight!

Oops and IVF

After my second miscarriage (chemical pregnancy), we spoke with my doctor and he recommended trying timed intercourse along with the injections one more time. He said that after that, we should move on to ivf because my chances at achieving a full-term pregnancy would drop significantly after 3 or 4 tries on injections alone. The clinic sent over the ivf protocol so that we could get an idea of what it would look like and whoa- that was very freaky to look at all at once!

SO. MANY. MEDICATIONS. So. Many. Needles!
 

We were happy to have another shot at injections on our own and went in over the weekend for monitoring. When the nurse called back, she told us to take 150 of the follistim for three days and then come back. 150? I repeated back and forth with her twice. We usually started with 50. She said that was what was in my notes so told me to get started that night. So we did.

I thought maybe this was due to the fact that they found 2 large cysts that day that formed on my left and right ovaries after the miscarriage. 

Oye, 150 was quite the shock to my body. I could only take 2 days of it when on the third day, I only took 112 because I knew something must be wrong with the information and the shots were making me so so bloated. The next morning when I went in for monitoring, I confessed that I decreased my medicine and the doctor confirmed that my intuition was right. Several follicles were growing large, very quickly- not a good thing when you have about 50 follicles in there! (You only want 1-3 winners or the cycle is cancelled!)


The next day, when I had to get monitoring again, my doctor was there and he apologized for the mistake. The 150 was for if I was doing IVF, which I was not doing this round. I was so thankful for his honesty.

We tried to drop the dose of follistim to allow only a few follicles to take off to no avail. It was looking like we would have to cancel the cycle which would likely be painful since I had so many large follicles already. We asked our doctor about transferring the cycle to ivf instead and he agreed, saying that my follicles look beautiful for ivf and then he upped my follistim to 181 for a few days, along with more monitoring. (I went in for blood work and ultrasound almost daily for about a week and a half.)

I had to run from work to a specialty pharmacy before the closed for the weekend to get a bunch more medications more specific to my ivf protocol. Insurance, thankfully, covered most of the cost but I still walked out paying over $200 for the shots.

My follicles responded nicely to the increased medication and by the time they were deemed "ready" my left and right ovaries were so full that they were touching each other. So many follicles which means so many chances for mature eggs!

Is this finally the right procedure for us?