A transfer you say?

So this cycle has been different than any of my previous cycles. On saturday morning, 3 days after my egg retrieval I got the call that they were canceling my transfer and pushing us out to a day 5!
What this means - the longer the embryos can continue growing in the lab, the better chance we have at picking the strongest one. 5 days is the max amount of "lab time".

This is what embryos look like as they grow. Colin was an 8 cell, and Josh & Zoe were 7 and 9 cells.

The embryologist called me today to tell me about my transfer for tomorrow. I asked her about how many we had and their grades. We still have 7 (SEVEN!!!) 

This is how we (we meaning I have no part in this at all...) grade embryos
So the top ABC - this tells about the symmetry of the cells
The next row says 1234, in my practice they use GFP- good fair poor. This talks about the fragmentation or space and "extra" stuff in the embryo.
And of course the higher the cell count, the better.
Got it? Easy Peasy right?? HA
Anyways, lets keep this in mind - Josh and Zoe were 7BF and 9BF, Colin was an 8BF(one of the 8BFs in this cycle didnt make it).
We currently have 2 10BGs (AHHH) and 5 8/9CFs. One of the BGs will be transferred tomorrow at 12:15!
Say a little prayer for us that transfer goes smoothly!!
Tomorrow I will show you our little "embie" and I will explain the transfer procedure. I feel I have bombarded you with enough info for one post!

Oh and because some people have been asking, we will being doing a SET (Single Embryo Transfer). The doctor is too worried for me to carry twins again (even tho the TAC can handle it) but really the end all be all is the fact that insurance will only approve the transfer of one embryo graded better than an 8bf in patients under 35. So unless I want to pay for IVF (which I don't) then one it is.

Fert report!

I always want to sing "creature report, creature report cre-ture re-port!" but with "fert"

ANNNNYwayyyys
Out of the 15 eggs they retrieved 14 of them were mature and 8 of them fertilized.
So to break that down even further, ICSI (intra cytoplasmic sperm injection) is done to fertilize our eggs. The embryologist took a single sperm and injected it into a single egg 8 of them managed to successfully fertilize and begin to grow.

On transfer day they will pick the embryo with the most cells and the best letter grade. If it's below an 8BF then they will allow us to transfer two. 

So we will watch and wait, the embryologist will call me tomorrow and tell me how many cells each egg is and we will probably transfer on Saturday.

end of super short post!

Buck buck buckkkkk

Today was egg laying day!!!
Or retrieval if you want to be all technical

We left bright an early so we could beat the traffic! When we got there they of course took my vitals. My BP was so outrageous number like 146/96 or something (needless to say I was petrified). The nurse was amazing, as they usually are, and she promised we would take our time and do the IV right.
She wrapped my arms in warm blankets and then took about 15 minutes to feel all possible places to put the IV. I appreciate her taking the time and not just jumping on what she "thought" might work. She decided to try for my hand but promised to not force the plastic cath if it wouldn't go. She got it!!! She got it on the first try and the least painful IV I have ever had!

Yes, I took a picture! Its a big deal!!! We waited a little while until the person ahead of my was out of the OR. It was finally my turn, I walked in and sat on the OR table, scooted down and they strapped my legs in the stirrups. They strapped my arms in and started to administer the meds to make me go to sleep.

I came into the recovery room with O2 still on, first time for that. Bill was there, I didnt talk to him so I didn't say silly things. First thing I did say when I finally felt more coherent : "How many did we get?"
My good nurse laughed at me and said we got (drumrollllll)

15 eggs!!! WOOOO
Tomorrow they will call and give me the "fert report" and then I will have a transfer friday, saturday, or monday (it will probably be saturday) Until then, we wait!

Thanks for all the prayers!!

Pulling the trigger

Today was another day of monitoring. So here we see my two ovaries almost touching each other (they aren't really suppose to do that in real life) and in the middle, the shadowy ball is my uterus. Fun huh? The ultrasound tech said she wasn't sure what they were going to do with me since I had a batch of follies in the 18ish mm range and then a bunch in the 15-16mm range (we need 19-22mm). I finally got the call today at 4pm, as I was beginning to freak out about being forgotten about...
Turns out they wanted me to trigger!!! WOOOOO!!! So what a trigger shot does, is it tells the body to release the eggs, basically I take HCG to make me ovulate. I HAD to take it at 8:30 on the dot, 36 hours later (wednesday 8:30am) I need to be in the OR to have my retrieval  

Here is my trigger shot!

I have to draw up 1cc of diluent and mix it with the powdered HCG with that giantass needle you see there. Then I get to unscrew said godzilla needle and put on the little subq one. Way easier! However this time the needle caps wouldn't come off and I was afraid of yanking them and stabbing my finger so I ended up bending one of the little subq needles, good thing they send 2!

So if you happen to take a moment on wednesday morning, just send a little prayer my way for an easy surgery. Also that they can get the IV set on the first shot, without blowing out multiple veins and me having a crying hysterical moment when they cant do it but keep trying. Honestly, getting an IV is the worst part of this whole entire process. Needles in my belly all day erry day is no big deal its blood work and stupid IVs that are the big problem.

Until next time!

Do you want to see my follies??

If you sang that title to the tune of "Do you want to build a snowman", then you win.

So here they are so far!





It appears that I have around 18 follies all in the 12-14mm range (goal is 19-22mm). We are trucking right along! I'm def starting to really feel the fact that my ovaries have literally 17x the amount of things in them on any normal month.

This med I am taking - Ganarelix

See that large yellow sicker on it? If you cant read it, it says "May cause headache". Yeah, as in perpetual headache that sleeping wont touch. Caffeine is a no go, and I am suppose to stay away from pain killers as much as I can.
The nurse said I might be ready for a trigger on Monday, which would make my retrieval on Wednesday morning. Monday morning I have more BW and US, that will tell me our next course of action.

On the docket for tonight

Some Ganarelix and of course my Follistim! Both injected subcutaneously into my abdomen by yours truly! I'm starting to feel more like a pin cushion, and my poor belly is bruising up.


So lets back up a tad, on Tuesday I went in for bw and an u/s. As we can see to the left, while 2 is better than 3 pokes, its still one to many! I had 4ish small follicles all measuring about 9-10mm (we need to get to 19-20ish mm).













Bill and I went to the Museum of Science in Boston to see the Pixar exhibit, so that was fun. And of course the 1 minute I was in a tunnel is when the Dr called. BOO. So more bw today, but no u/s, only one hand poke today! I said 'lets just cut to the chase, stab my hand' so she did. We have to watch my LH hormone to be sure it doesn't make me "lay my eggs" too early. Because it was at a 5.4 today they decided to have me introduce the Ganarelix. This will allow the Follistim to do its job but hold back the LH (oooOOooo science-y).
I head back in Friday for an u/s and more bw. Hopefully I have MY u/s tech that I love, and I can snap a few pics of my large ovaries starting to fill up!

It's like Christmas, for infertiles

 This will be quite the picture heavy post! I like pictures! I'm sure you do too

Look what came today!!!!!

WOOOOOOO!!!! A BOX OF NEEDLES!!

So here are my meds, the boxes on the left are patches and suppositories, all the boxes on the right are injections :( womp. (And bananas, because they are the only thing Colin eats, every time)

First is follistim - this is the "fresh" med that had me in a panic the other day about prior approval. This med wil make my ovaries hyper stimulate, it will make me make lots and lots of eggs as opposed to a natural womans cycle which is usually one or two eggs. This is a vile that I insert into a "pen", draw up the meds and use a new needle cap every day.



This is Ganarelix, it's "nice" because the syringes are already filled!

This med makes sure that my body doesn't release LH. If that hormone is released then I will ovulate too soon, this holds off that hormone until we tell it to do its job.

Menopur is another stimulation medication, however this med helps to make eggs a better quality and also make more of the follicles mature. you draw up the med using a "q cap" then switch the end of the syringe to a needle. This med is my least favorite. It burns going in and gives some resistance when injecting. blek.
(If youre following, thats 3 injections a night so far...)

This here is Novarel and Lupron - one of these will be my trigger shot, the shot I will use that makes my body release eggs at a certain time. This is all very timed out. I take it 36 hours before my retrieval, and I need to be in the OR ready to go exactly at that time, or we could lose all the eggs. Talk about stressfullness!

Last we have Crinone and Estadiol. This comes after the retrieval. progesterone and estrogen help the pregnancy to "stick" and keeps all my hormone levels in check.

Now wasn't that fun!?!

Its so weird to be excited to give yourself a shot. I just want to get a move on!

Thanks for reading! xoxo