Our embryologist, M, greeted us with a status report of our embies and said they continued to divide in the past 24 hrs. 4 were excellent, the others were good, and 1 didn't look good anymore. She doesn't believe in freezing "crappy" embies even though the office could get more money for it, but it's not in their best interest or ours if they do that. By Wednesday, M will see which ones are blastocysts and decide on which ones will make it to the freezer.
The 2 fresh ones M chose for today were grouped with 3 others. M looked under the microscope and picked her two favorites, but they slipped away from her when she tried to pick them up and they were shuffled again. M needed to look underneath the microscope again to tell them apart again. The second time around, she told them to "stay still" and they did. :) The transfer went well. The entire procedure took about 5-10 minutes and we were able to watch our 2 embies get transferred on the screen. It was cool! The most uncomfortable part was having to get the speculum set up and the slight discomfort with inserting the catheter, but the ibuprofen really helped. M said our embies should attach within 20 mins after the transfer so I was able to empty my bladder after 20 mins with a bed pan. My bladder needed to be full in order for Dr. M to see my bladder on the ultrasound, which helped him to accurately place the embies. M shared that another office in the area doesn't have access to ultrasounds on the weekends and the doctor's go in blind for the weekend transfers. It's absurd how some offices will chance plopping embies in the dark! Dr. M is very thorough and I appreciate his attention to detail.
My doctor feels like he's on the conservative side regarding bed rest and recommends one day. Dr M. had me hang out for 2 hours until we could go home and passed the time by watching the Food Network. An hour later, we came home and I walked up the stairs to sit up in bed. I won't be going down the stairs again until our Wed blood work appointment.
M gave me my new directions for this week:
Sunday - Wednesday: Continue .5 cc progesterone in oil shots
Wednesday: Blood work
Thursday: Increase progesterone to 1 cc and begin Vivelle (estrogen) patches
Friday: Blood work
Because of my history, M wants to put some preventative measures in place by increasing my progesterone and add the estrogen patches to help balance out my hormones and try to prevent a MC. My estrogen level can't stay at 1,300 forever and it'll begin to spiral down. Instead of letting the levels plummet, the meds will balance me out. I may experience some moodiness, spotting, cramping coming on and feel like my cycle may come, but she told me to continue my regiment no matter what. She was emphatic about this because another client had decided on her own accord to stop progesterone and estrogen patches which resulted in a MC.
I asked how many of their IVF cases resulted with an ectopic and they haven't had any. Dr. M had me sit up in a recliner like position with my knees up and slightly together. The slightly upright, reclining position prevents an ectopic because the embies would have to roll up against gravity to make it into a tube. It's definitely worth the lower back pain!
Waiting will come with it's own challenges and we'll have to prepare ourselves for the news. I'm learning to completely trust God and put my confidence in him because he cares about the future generations and nothing is too hard for him. God upheld everything a 100% before Adam and Eve sinned...there was no infertility, sadness, and death. Since sin entered in, we live in a fallen world and life is messy. Praying God will redeem our suffering and "by you my sorrow is turned into dancing; you have taken away my clothing of grief, and given me robes of joy;" which only Jesus could do (Psalm 30:11 BBE). In the meantime, we're staying positive and holding onto hope. We'll know the outcome of this journey in 12 days - the day before our 6th wedding anniversary. We're praying our embies attached to the uterus and our additional embies will look good to freeze.
The black hole up top is my full bladder. I can sort of see a face...the embies are lit up in the middle (looks like a nose) and to the right of them is a horizontal light which is the catheter. J sees 2 dashes ~ the left are the embies and the right one is the catheter. Can you see it?
Holding onto hope!
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