28 January 2010
Had to be to the clinic early this morning for another scan and blood test. I got in quite quickly for the scan but had a long wait for the nurse and ended up being 30 minutes late for work! It now looks like I have four lead follies which basically means they are growing faster than the others. I must admit, I'm a bit disappointed. The others are still there, they are just smaller. I'm really hoping & praying they start to grow and catch up to the others. If we don't get a good number we probably won't do the PGD portion of the IVF as they need a a good number of embryos for it. The nurse also told me my estrogen level at my last appointment was 885 which is good. My next appointment is scheduled for Saturday (at 8:30am- ouch!) and it looks like egg collection may be on Monday.
30 January 2010
Was at the clinic so early that when I walked to the station it was virtually dark. Luckily, it wasn't that busy so it was a quick visit. My estrogen has risen to over 2200 which is a good sign and my 4 lead follies are still growing strong. Some of the smaller ones have grown a bit, so I am praying some catch up enough to be mature. At this point I am willing to try every old wives tale possible and am regularly resting a hot water bottle on my ovaries. My egg collection will definitely happen on Monday which means that tonight is my last injection of Menopur and I get the lovely added benefit of setting my alarm for 1am to take my special Ovitrelle injection. The last one is supposed to allow your eggs to mature and be ready to taken out. After that no more drugs- Sunday will be my first day in over a month I have not had to take anything!
31 January 2010
The nurse ended up calling yesterday afternoon to push back my trigger shot to 1:30am. I made sure to read the pamphlet that came with the shot before I went to bed so I would know what to do. I felt quite groggy when the alarm went off but made the trek downstairs and got it out of the fridge. It was hard to open (in a sealed tray) and when I took the lid off the needle some large drops fell out! I'm really hoping they put a little extra in there otherwise I lost some valuable medicine. I'm also now terrified I am going to ovulate early. I now get to look forward to the joy of getting a train at 6:30am to make it to the clinic for admission in the morning. Hope I can sleep well tonight, but I seriously doubt it!
1 February 2010
We woke up at 5am to some snow on the ground. We got ready, packed a bag and made our way to the station by flashlight. One of our trains was delayed but luckily we were only about 5 minutes late to the hospital. Once we checked in we were brought up to our room and got settled in. They brought the husband up some breakfast which was really unfair- I made him move away from me because I could smell it. The anesthesiologist was the first one to see me and she asked me some general questions and wanted to know if I would mind her doing acupuncture while I was out to help with the pain. I said no problems and later wished I would of asked of her where she put the needles just so I would have known. The doctor was next in the room and he said even though I wasn't supposed to go down until 1pm, he was fast and I would probably be down around 11am. He was right and about 11:30am they had me go down. They gave me one of the most unique hospital gowns I had ever seen- if you had major surgery or were cold they could hook it up to a machine and it would warm you!
They let me walk to the lift, but then made me get on the bed once inside. That is when I started to get nervous! I kept repeating Joshua 1:9 in my head to try and calm myself. I was quickly wheeled into a room and given my anesthesia. It took forever to find a vein and a minute for the anesthesia to actually start working. All I remember is saying, "okay, I'm finally starting to feel woozy now." Next thing I knew it was just past 12pm and I was waking up in recovery. The one thing that shocked me was I had a tube down my throat! I was not expecting that at all and my throat has been sore ever since. I was brought up to my room to finish recovery and they brought in tea, coffee and biscuits. I actually kept making the husband put sugar in mine which I never do. I guess I was having sugar withdraw! Then all the sudden the fire alarm started sounding. We though it was just a test, but they actually came and made the husband leave! The nurse said to me not to worry because I was behind fire doors and had about 4 hours of safe time. I started to get worried and all I could think was that I was going to need to watch the news to find out what was going on and the remote was way across the room and I couldn't get it since I was still hooked up to machines. Luckily, after another 30 minutes, the husband was allowed back up. Shortly after they brought us both lunch and I was starving so I ended up eating part of the husbands too! Desert was carrot cake which I took as a good sign since that is my father's favourite. I was told if I walked a bit and went to the bathroom they would let me leave shortly. Well, when I stood up there was a minor complication so they made me stay another hour to be monitored. It wasn't serious, they just really wanted to make sure I felt okay before leaving.
2 February 2010
Got the call that out of 5 mature eggs collected, all 5 fertilised! 100% fertilisation is the best news possible (normal is 60-70%), now they just have to grow & divide. Throat is still really sore...
4 February 2010
As the nurse promised, she called right at 8am. At this point we have:
- 1- 8 cell, grade 2
- 1- 7 cell, grade 2
- 1- 5 cell, grade 2
- 1- 5 cell, grade 2-3
- 1- 2 cell, grade 2
Since the 2 cell is now out of the picture and hasn't grown since day one, that leaves us four embryos. If we decide to do PGD at this point we would more than likely cause damage to the 5 cell embryos since they would be left with 3 cells. The husband and I always said if we did PGD we would do it to all of them and since that isn't possible, we decided not to do it. The nurse kept making sure that I knew that any affected embryos would most likely miscarry and I know that is a risk we have to take. We are now scheduled from embryo transfer on Saturday and praying we have at least two to transfer.