Randy and I have been debating about whether or not we want to post stuff on our blog about our IVF treatment. But since many of you already know that we have started the IVF process, we figured you all would appreciate our latest update. In the last few weeks, I’ve been doing a lot of injections (both in the stomach & buttock, ouch!) in preparation for the egg retrieval procedure & embryo transfer. There was absolutely no way I could do the injections myself, so Randy did the injections for me. Personally, I don’t mind needles but the thought of sticking a needle into me didn’t sound too good to me. Randy did and still is doing such a great job!!! I so appreciate him being my “doctor”.
After several injections, it was time to go in for an ultrasound check up to see how my follicles were progressing in my ovaries, as well as a blood draw to check my hormone levels. This happened on Monday 6/30. The doctors counted over 18 follicles in my right ovary and only counted very few in the left ovary. I was ecstatic!!! I was so thrilled to find that I had many HUGE follicles between 15-18mm showing on the screen. (Usually, they like to see follicle sizes at 18mm) Before IVF, most of my follicles have been well under 5mm, and the biggest I have ever gotten was a 10mm. Pretty lame, I know, so you can imagined how thrilled I was to see such wonderful images on the screen! The doctor thought I was progressing fairly well and suggested that I take one more day of stimulation shot, and come back again the next morning for another ultrasound & blood work. Well, about 4pm on that same day, we got a call from the doctor that he just reviewed my blood work and said that my blood levels were so perfect, that it was time to prepare for the egg retrieval procedure.
The egg retrieval procedure happened two days later, Wednesday 7/2/08 at 6am in the morning. It went extremely well, they were able to retrieve 25 eggs!!! I don’t remember much of what went on in the procedure room because I was sedated, though I was awake during the whole procedure. Randy was there the whole time and basically said that I really didn’t like the procedure and that he tried to comfort me by taking my hand, but I pushed his hand away, so he just ended up massaging my neck & arm. Poor guy, he’s such a trooper to have to deal with me!! I took the day off and took it real easy at home. I slept the majority of the day, and after a while, I was pretty sore and was having a hard time getting into comfortable positions for several days. I also started my shots in my bottom that same day too and that didn’t help with the comfort factor, either. But all in all, it went extremely well and I felt no pain from the procedure, just discomfort.
Two days later on Friday 7/4, we received a call from the embryologist about the status of our eggs. We were told that of the 25 eggs retrieved, only 12 eggs were matured enough to be fertilized. The remaining 13 were just immature for fertilization. We were thrilled to hear this news, thinking wow, 12 eggs will be fertilized!! Now you must be thinking, why so many eggs to be fertilized….during the egg retrieval procedure, because of the great number of eggs that were taken out of me as well as the uneasiness I felt during the procedure, the doctor suggested that we freeze the remaining embryos for the next time, in case this IVF did not succeed to a positive pregnancy or the next time we wanted to do IVF again for our 2nd child. This way, we can skip the egg retrieval procedure (the uncomfortable part) and go right to transfer (the "happy pills" part). Sounds easy, huh? We thought it was a good idea.
Anyway, our next step: the embryos transfer. When the embryologist called us on Friday to give us the status, he told us that the transfer will happen sometime on Monday 7/7, and that he will call us later with a specific time. He did call us two days later and gave an appointment time of 8am. That day, Monday, the procedure was such a breeze, I loved every minute of it! I was awake during the whole time. I even saw our precious little two embryos on TV screen before it was implanted inside me. The doctor said that’s a boy and a girl embryo. We totally believed him but he was totally joking. Ahh, we couldn’t believe we felt for that, it was pretty hilarious. The transfer went so well, I didn’t feel a thing. They only gave me happy pills: Valium to relax me, and boy, I was definitely relaxed. It was a great experience. I was advised to be a slug for several days, and to take it easy for several days after that. I was not allowed to do a whole lot really, not even vacuuming.
A couple of days after the transfer, we got a call from the embryologist about our remaining embryos. Sadly, none of the embryos made it so they were not able to get them into cryopreservation. I was pretty bummed about that, but I guess we were not meant to keep those. So we're just hoping & praying that the two embryos inside me will take. We're just now playing the waiting game....…this is definitely the hardest part of the whole deal!! :o) Anyways, please continue to think of us in your prayers, we have felt the love and support from you all and appreciate all that you’ve done for us, especially those who brought us dinner every night I was on bedrest! Thank you, thank you!! Here is an image of our 2 precious embryos for your enjoyment.
