Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Day 1 update

I'm not going to lie...today was rougher than I was expecting. Yesterday, I was surprised at how good I felt; today, I thought I should have been further along. I still have lower abdomen cramping and bloating. If yesterday was at a 4 max, I would say today was a consistent 4 on the pain scale. Plus, this morning, I was extremely nauseous. However, I am not sure if that is because I took my antibiotic on a nearly empty stomach, or because of after-effects from the retrieval. I am keeping a close eye on it and if I am still in pain/ nauseous tomorrow, I think I will give the doctor a call.

I was told the Dr. would call with the maturation/fertilization results today, so I was on bated breathe (and high cell phone alert) all day. As the hours ticked by, I tried to read into the silence. Were they not calling because my eggs were taking so long to fertilize? Because none fertilized and they leave bad news for the end of the day? When school let out at 3:30, I still hadn't heard anything. But instead of being able to call, I had to go immediately to a faculty meeting. It was torture.

But at 4:15 when I had a break in my faculty meeting I saw the blessed miss call signal. Of course, what was left was probably the pretty much the most long winded message EVER. It started by s.l.o.w.l.y telling me that I am scheduled for a 3 day transfer (everyone is at my clinic. Only if they are "perfect" will they go to a day 5) at 11am. Then the message went over all the prep I need to do. The whole time I was mentally hurrying her along, wanting to get the "goods" - namely, how many were mature, and, out of those, how many fertilized.

Finally, she reported the results:
17 eggs retrieved.
14 eggs matured.
8 eggs fertilized.
 
So good news! Of course, I would have preferred double digits fertilized (heck, in my perfect world, all 14 would have) but 8 is still a decent amount to work with. And it is so cool to think D and I created life yesterday and one of those eight (or more) could be our future child(ren).

Grow, embabies, grow!

13 comments:

  1. You are back to work the day after retrieval? My RE told me to take a week off! Take it easy girl, you don't want to over-do it! Fantastic news about the 8 embryos! So happy for you!

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    1. Thanks! It was rougher than expected, but led credence to my "relapse" story for why I had to take off today!

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  2. That's a great report. Glad the wait all day long was worth it!

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    1. Thank you! I feel they should have to make these calls in the AM though!

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  3. As much as IVF is a means to an end, it is also an amazing diagnostic tool. And you made it over a big hurdle today! You grew embabies (<-- such a cute term btw)! You did it! That in itself is a huge accomplishment and something else to check off the list. Now you move forward. I'm so every optimistic for you. I want this so, so, so badly for you. Thinking of you constantly.

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    1. Thank you so much for the support! It always means the world. I keep telling myself that, worse case, hopefully we will learn something from this experience. But of course I am hoping that we don't need to learn anything!

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  4. What a great report. SO happy for you. Sending lots and lots of vibes to those babies of yours. Grow, grow, grow!!!

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    1. Thanks for the chant!! Now I am onto "implant, implant, implant!"

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  5. congrats on getting 8 fertilized. Sending you sticking baby vibes
    .....fellow ICLW

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  6. I hope you're feeling better by now. Sorry to hear you were in so much pain after your retrieval. I don't remember having any pain after my retrieval (besides when I first woke up from the anesthesia). And congrats on the great fertilization report! Those are fantastic numbers! Can't wait to hear about your transfer.

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