Day 6 Transfer! We made it!

Here I am after the transfer!

Couldn't wait to empty my bladder!  haha

Our two little blastocysts that we transferred!  

Aren't they adorable?!

Well today was THE day!  We got the phone call around 10:00 this morning and they told us to come in at 1:30.  So on the way in, I had to drink 16 oz of water so that my bladder was full and then I listened to my IVF hypnotherapy CD.  By the time we got there, my bladder was ready to burst!  It was so bad that as they were talking to me, it was hard to focus.  After I got changed, I was just pacing around the room.  From past experiences, I already knew that I was not going to handle this whole "full bladder" thing very well.  So I actually snuck out of the room to pee a little bit for some relief.  Well it helped but only marginally.  When Dr. Peters came in the room to say "Hello", he instantly knew that there was something wrong.  So I told him that I really had to go to the bathroom and he told me to go let a little bit more out because we had about another 20-25 mins.  That helped a bit more.

We also mentioned the bruising and swelling from the progesterone shots.  When they looked at it, they said that it was pretty bad.  So at least I now know that I wasn't being a big baby about it.... it actually was THAT abnormally painful.  So they said that Dr. Peters would take a look at it and possibly prescribe something else, which was like music to my ears.  I would have been happy with a shot every other night.  But they decided to switch me over to Crinone Progesterone Gel instead, which means NO MORE PROGESTERONE SHOTS!  Awesome news!  So I do the Crinone suppository in the morning and the another progesterone suppository in the evening, starting tomorrow.  I still have to do the E2V shots every Tuesday and Friday, but those were never that bad to begin with.  It was the progesterone shots that made me anxious every night.

Anyway, so then they took me back to a separate room.  And when they checked my bladder, they commented on how full it was!  AND that was after I had let a little bit out TWICE.  So you can imagine how full it was before I did that.  Then Dr. Peters came over to chat with us about the embryos.  He said that all 5 made it to blastocyst stage, but the quality varied.  Two of them were graded as "3", two of them were graded as "2", and one of them were graded as "1".  As Andrea explained "1s" are the best and "4s" are the worst.  Dr. Peters said that the "3s" probably would not be good to freeze since they are probably growing slow because something abnormal is going on.  Which left us with 3 great blastocysts.  So their recommendation was to transfer only one, but he said that we have a say in this too.  We expressed our concerns about putting in only one and he said he was fine with us transferring two.  So we transferred a "1" and a "2", and then froze the other "2".

The worst part of the transfer was the pressing on the bladder with the abdominal ultrasound.  Everything they did on the inside was fine.  But every time they pressed down more on my bladder, I wanted to scream.  Once it was over, they moved me over to the other bed and wheeled me back into the other room to rest for about 20 mins or so.  Then I was finally able to pee!  I peed for like a good 2 minutes straight. no lie!  It went on forever!  Then we got changed and that was that!  They told me to not do anything else today, so I'm doing a whole lot of nothing.  And then to still take it easy tomorrow. I'm going into work tomorrow, which they were fine with, but they just said to make sure I take it easy overall.  The good thing is that I only have to go to work for 1 day and then it's the weekend, so i have 2 more days to rest and relax before I have to work a full week.

Tomorrow I go back to Ming Ming for another round of acupuncture.  I call this my marathon acupuncture week, since I went Tuesday, Wednesday, AND Friday this week.  I had been going every Friday since the end of January, but this is the first time I went multiple times in a single week.  I'll probably still go once a week, even after the pregnancy test to prevent miscarriage.

So our next step is to wait patiently until March 12th for the official blood pregnancy test.  BUT I think we might end up cheating and doing a home pregnancy test a little early.  I don't know, we'll have to see!  =P

What an exciting positive day it has been!  We are so grateful that we were able to do this, and so hopeful for the future!

"Be thankful for it all.  And beyond your many blessings, will be many many more."

Day 5 Update

Looks like we won't be getting rissy pregnant today, but it's not a bad thing. We got a call from the doctor this morning saying that 5 of our embryos made it to the blastocyst stage (yay!). Dr. P said that they were early blastocysts so he wasn't able to make a determination on which ones were the best ones to use at this point. He said that he would be more comfortable waiting until tomorrow to make sure that he transfers the best blastocysts. We will be getting a call early tomorrow telling us when to come in. Overall, its still good news.. we just need to be patient :)

Day 3 Update

Today is actually Day 5, but I thought I should mention our day 3 update. Dr. P called me on Monday saying that all 6 of the eggs are moving along great. Five of them have split into 6-8 cells, and one is at 5 cells. Most are grade 1 eggs. 

What does all of this mean? Well, the eggs are currently embryos and we are trying to get them to be blastocysts. In a "typical conception" the embryo does not reach the uterus until the blastocyst stage, so by transferring a blastocyst you have a higher rate of pregnancy. The splitting of the cells indicates that the embryo is on it's way to that blastocyst stage. At day three, 6-8 cells is right where they need to be, the one that is at 5 isn't bad either, if they were 2-4 they would be bad. So far so good. Now on to the grading system, 1 is a "perfect" and 4 is the poorest. While you can transfer eggs at any grade from 1-4, it's best if they are either 1's or 2's. 

So right now we are both sitting here waiting on a call from the Dr. to see if we can come in today for the transfer (and to get rissy pregnant!). We'll probably post later today once we hear from the doctor. 

Retrieval!

                                         Messing around before the retrieval!
                                         Don't you love the hair net!?  haha!

                                        Andrea even had booties!!
                                        I have to say that I was a little bit jealous !


Yesterday, Friday February 24th, was our retrieval day!!  Still can't believe that we've come this far!  We got there around 10:00 for an 11:00 retrieval.  (They wanted us to be there 45 mins early).  They took us back in this separate room that we had never been in before and gave Andrea the adorable outfit that you see above.  They checked all of Andrea's vitals.  Then the anesthesiologist came back to talk to her about her health history and what he would be doing today.

After a bit of waiting, they took her back into the room to do the retrieval.  There was one semi-scary moment when I could hear the doctors loudly asking Andrea to take a deep breath over and over again. I wanted to go in there and smack her saying "cut it out and take a deep breath damn it!"  They must have gotten her to take a deep breath because she came out shortly thereafter.  The whole procedure took about 20-25 mins.  She was a little groggy when she came out, but she was awake.  We found out right away that they were able to retrieve 11 eggs from the 12 follicles that she had.  At that point they said that transfer will most likely be a day-5 transfer, which means it will be on Wednesday February 29th.  :)  :)  :)

Initially after the retrieval, she was fine... little to no pain.  Once we got home, then she started to have some cramping.  I read online that gatorade helps with cramping, so I got her some gatorade and she was allowed to take advil.  This helped a lot.  Today, she's much better.  Still a little tired, but much better.

In the meantime, I started taking the progesterone shots 2 days ago and OMG they are so painful.  I could handle the Lupron and E2V shots, no problem.  But the progesterone shots make it feel like i have a giant deep bruise on my bottom.  And now that I've had two shots, I had to do one on each side and so both sides now hurt.  We used an ice pack last night to numb the area and then a warm compress for immediately after the shot (two internet tips).  While the ice pack helped for giving the shot, it did nothing for the pain afterwards.  The pain this morning, and all day today was awful.  I get a little anxious before getting the shots because it already hurts so much and then to think about a huge needle going into a bruise... ugh!  not fun!  It's not an actual bruise, but it feels like a bruise.  I have to just keep reminding myself how lucky we are to be able to do this in the first place!  And that it will all be worth it when we hear our baby's heartbeat!  :)

This morning we got a phone call from Dr. Peters.  He said that out of the 11 eggs, only 6 of them were "good eggs", BUT they were able to fertilize all 6!  So at this point, we wait for a phone call on Monday with another update to see how they are doing.  He mentioned again today that our transfer could be on Wednesday OR Thursday.  EXCITED!!!!  :)

my ovaries are on fire

 

I haven't really posted since I've been on meds, so here's the synopsis broken down by shot. Lupron - these are the shots I've been taking every morning in the stomach. They are given with a tiny insulin needle, so they are pretty painless. The side effects were that I've become pretty much, well, stupid. I can't focus on minor tasks, such as for instance writing out a check.. I paid the mortgage and wrote two different amounts on the check. Stupid. Follistim- this is another shot in the stomach, and given with a pen. The needle is pretty small, so again, pretty painless. This medication makes me overly tired and I've had a lot of hot flashes. Also, in week 2 of taking this (as my follicles are growing) my ovaries feel like they are on fire. A lot of pressure in my abdomen to the point where it's been waking me up at night. Menopur - This is another stomach shot that we actually have to mix a vial of liquid and a vial of powder together first before giving it. The needle is a little bit bigger, but still not too bad. I can't say that I've specifically had any side effects from this medication. I had read a few places that Menopur stings when being injected, but honestly it was nothing like the next shot. Lovenox - This one is a blood thinner that I had to be on because of the pulmonary embolism I previously had. Another stomach shot, this was a pre-filled syringe, not a huge needle, but the whole thing really burned when going in. In fact, it burned about 15 minutes after the shot was given and made me feel really lightheaded. 

As you can tell, there have been a lot of shots, some days more than others. The picture on this post was from my valentine that Marisa got me... a little bit of shot humor for you!

So that brings me to today, I had another ultrasound and they decided that I was ready to go. My right ovary follicles were 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 15, 17, 18 and my left were 12, 13, 18, 19. I also had a bunch of smaller follicles that he said wouldn't be able to be used. So tonight we have to set an alarm for 1 AM and Marisa gets to give me the HCG shot in the butt. Awesome. The purpose of the HCG shot is to make me ovulate and have the follicles release the eggs. My procedure is on Friday at 11, but we have to be there by 10:15. I'm so nervous and excited all at the same time! The next post on here will probably be from Marisa (because I will be coming off of anesthesia) on Friday letting you all know how many eggs they retrieve from me. We're almost there!!!

cycle day 9

Today was cd 9 in our cycle, which meant another trip back to new jersey for bloodwork and ultrasounds.    We had an early appointment, which was nice because everyone going through IVF this cycle had to come in for the same tests today.  We were the first ones there and were in and out in no time!

First we had bloodwork done which showed that everything was fine, we just need to continue with the same shots for the next few days until we hear otherwise.  My ultrasound showed that my uterine lining was looking good, so I am just in a holding pattern until we hear that Andrea's eggs are ready.

Andrea's ultrasound showed about 9 follicles on the right side... 5 of the follicles were 10 mm and the others were between 11-13 mm.  On her left side, there were about 5 or 6 more, 1 of them was 15 mm and the others were 10-11 mm.  So there are roughly 15 follicles, which is a pretty good number.  However, they are all small.  So Andrea has to go back on Wednesday for another ultrasound to check on her progress.  The good news is that follicles grow kinda fast.  With NO meds, a follicle can grow 2-3 mm per day.  WITH meds, it obviously grows even more.  So I'm thinking that those follicles that were 10 mm will probably make it to about 20 mm, while the others could be 23 mm or higher!  Once the follicles grow a bit more, we'll be ready for the hcg shot and retrieval.

the latest!

Here's the latest...  We had some bloodwork done on the 16th.  As a result, Andrea's Follistim doses were increased drastically.  She initially had 2 days at 225 units and then the next 5 days or so she was supposed to be down to either 75 units or 150 units.  Well after the bloodwork, she was back up to 300 units or 225 units.  My E2V shots were increased slightly from .2 to .25 .  Also, Andrea's thyroid was tested again, and it was fine this time.

The shots are painful every now and then and the side effects are annoying, but we know it's totally going to be worth it!  And I keep reminding myself of how lucky we are to be able to go through this process.  So many couples can't for many reasons, and they would love to be in this process right now no matter how painful or annoying it is.  So we are beyond grateful for this whole process!

We go in tomorrow for our ultrasounds and more bloodwork.  We like to call them "couple's ultrasounds"!  lol  it's like couple's massage, only not as fun!  If everything goes well, we'll be going to our retrieval appointment by the end of the week!