Day 2 Update

Things have been a rolller coaster of emotion here. We were devastated at retrieval when we only got 9 eggs out of 22 follicles. The next day of the 9 we had 6 fertilize. Today I got the report that we still have 6 growing. Five are at 4 cells grade 3 and One is at 5 cells grade 3. Grade 4 is the highest, but the clinic says no one ever gets grade 4 because no one has perfect eggs. So, now we wait until tomorrow morning. If we have atleast 4 at 8 cells we will push our transfer to a day 5 transfer. The embryos should be at a blast stage by then, which is the last stage before implanting into the wall fo the uterus. So the nerve racking wait continues...

Update

Just a quick update. Things are going relatively well. My estrogen is very high, which is some what worrisome for complications due to ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome. They are watching me very closely at this point. I am getting pretty uncomfortable. Right now we have about 26ish follicles. Most likely they will not all be mature at harvest time, which will be on Sunday. I am just praying that we have a few make it to the blast stage. It will be a day by day process. Hopefully we will then transfer on the following Friday. I will have to scan in a picture of my ovaries! They are huge! Please pray that we make it through these few days/weeks without any complications.

We are all clear for take off!

Sorry again for the long lapse in updates! We got the all clear to start our next fresh cycle. I start Lupron on Jan 14th and stims on the 16th. I go for my next appointment on Monday, January 21sth to check for follicle growth. Then I will go daily for blood work & ultrasound. I imagine I will trigger sometime the week of the 21st and retrieve 48hrs later; probably sometime between Friday 25th and Sunday the 27th. This time, we hope to do a 5 day transfer instead of a 3 day transfer. If we make it that far, we will be transferring more mature embryos. They will be should be at the blastocyst stage by then and the last thing they will need to do is snuggle in for a 9 month ride. I will post again once I have a my appointment on the 21st. Today is my first day of stims and I can already feel my ovaries keek'in in gear. I hope (as always) this will be our successful cycle! We do appreciate all of your thoughts & prayers! Keep them coming, we are going to need them.

You Are Not a Winner, Please Play Again....

So, most of you know that our last transfer wasn't successful. We do greatly appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers; please keep'em coming!!! We will do another fresh cycle in January. After our last cycle, my doctor discussed our case with the other docs in the practice and they decided we should try again with my own eggs. We will do the same protocol as we did last January, which we harvested a lot of eggs. In case, some of you don't remember; I wasn't supposed to be a good responder. However, we proved that theory wrong. I am really nervous that our next Fresh cycle will not result in the same amount of eggs. Plus, we have to decided whether to do a 3 or 5 day transfer. Oh, the Joys of IVF... I will keep you all posted as we get involved with our next cycle. Right now we are really enjoying not doing any treatment. I know some of you have seen my new hobby, but if you haven't check out my other blog at:
www.justaddwaterbycynthia.blogspot.com

Smile for the Camera!!!

Just a quick post (for our adoring fans) of our latest bunch! We decided at the last minute to add a "limper" to the mix! The first picture is of the best 3 from the brood. After some discussion we decided to throw in one more for good measure. We did have to thaw all 8 embryos and now have none left. If this cycle is a bust we will have to do another fresh cycle to get more embryos. So these little burgers better decide to stick around. We put all the chips on the table for this transfer. My beta test will be around the 20th. Thanks for all the well wishes and prayers!

One for the money, two for the show, three to get ready.........

Well the new progesterone protocol seems to have worked and my last biopsy came back good!!!!! So, baring no unforeseen illnesses or surgeries we will do another transfer around Friday, September 7th. And as we always say "We hope this is the last one!!!!" (throwing salt over left shoulder, crossing fingers, avoiding black cats, etc)

Biopsy Results

Well unfortunately my biopsy results came back "off". So, I am lucky enough to repeat the procedure again!!! I can hardly wait (insert a large dose of sarcasm here)!!! By "off" they are saying that my lining did not match up to the post ovulatory day it should have. It should have read 7 days post ovulatory and instead it came back as 3 days. Now to stop you from looking in your bedside medical encyclopedia, I will tell you what all this great news means! I am telling you it is amazing that anyone can get pregnant because so many things have to line up just right for life to form. If we would have gone ahead with the transfer it would have failed b/c my lining would not have been ready to accept the embryo. So, the next plan in this great experiment is to get me knocked up is to change the medication protocol and redo the biopsy. My next biopsy will be August 15th. It takes a week for the results to come back. I am not sure what we will do if the results are "off" again, but that is what we pay our doctor the big bucks for!!!