Thursday, April 7, 2011

Embryo Home?

Thankfully, we arrived to the fertility center early. I had already had a substantial amount of water, and needed to pee as soon as I walked through the door. I actually considered it, but thank goodness I didn't. They were actually running early. We arrived at about 1:40pm, to be greeted by a new girl at the desk who was pretty clueless about procedures and where we should go. Having already been through this once, I talked her through it and we found our way upstairs. I only drank a couple more sips of water since my bladder was already requesting to be relieved.

At about 2:10pm, they escorted us into the patient room. The ultrasound tech was very nice, I'm pretty sure she's done one for us previously. Then the doctor comes in. Tall, young, blond woman who caught me off guard as she entered: she's about 5-6 months pregnant. I found it a little ironic that the infertility doctor must be quite fertile. I took it as a positive sign, maybe her being pregnant will help me be pregnant. (It's silly what we tell ourselves to get through moments like that.) I must say though, I was in a great mood, and wasn't about to let anything stand in my way.

At this point, Dr. W takes a seat and goes through some minor paper work. Having wondered all day how many embryos they had defrosted, my question was finally answered. To our dismay, the first little one didn't survive the process. I can't help but feel regret that that poor little beginning-of-a-person didn't survive. Once the embryo was defrosted (for lack of a better term), the cells did not continue to divide. The second embryo upon defrosting quickly went from a blastocyst to an extreme blastocyst. This means that even having been a Day 5 embryo (it was left to grow for 5 days vs. 3), it continued to rapidly divide and surpassed the requirements for implantation. The more cells that make up the blastocyst, the better the chance of pregnancy. 


Dr. W and the lab tech did their thorough checks to be sure our embryo was the one being transferred, (they always do this to ensure everything matches up). On the ultrasound screen, you could see the catheter, and then out came the little embryo, which for some reason I could not see, but my husband did. I continued to lay there for 10 mins until the little alarm went off. Please  keep in mind that I opted out for the muscle relaxer they offer you during this procedure. It just doesn't make sense to me why I'd put yet another drug in to my body, that this time is unnecessary. So needless to say, I could feel everything. Including the impending pressure my bladder was putting on my other organs. At the sound of the alarm, hubby helped me up and I grabbed my undies and jeans, threw them on and ran to the bathroom. Ahhhhhh.

We got in our cars and he headed home. I however headed straight to the acupuncturist. Only had 3 needles this time and some less harsh methods used on my ears. I ended up falling asleep for the 15 mins, you'd think having needles in your body would keep you awake. I left feeling so relaxed, I went home and curled up on the sofa and watched "Babies". Here's to hoping!

Now we wait. Blood test is scheduled for April 18th, the day before my birthday. Hopefully I'll get everything I've wished for.  (I've already had some minor cramping. Same thing happened the first time as well. It's referred to as implantation cramping. Means the little guy or gal is digging it's way into my uterine lining, making a nice home for it's self. At least I hope that's what this cramping means.)

3 comments:

  1. April 18......must seem like a long time away for you right now! Keep those happy thoughts and try to relax....I know you can do it!

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  2. Glad things went well, hoping everything goes well! Can't wait for the 18th!!!

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