Transfer day

transfer is done. Bedrest for 48 hours now. They gave me some va.lium before my procedure, but I think it's wearing off now. Anxiety is back. We had two blasts transfered. I was actually disappointed with the grades - though I'm not sure I should be. We have a ccb and a dcc

So here's my question to fellow ivfers - what do my grades mean? And should I put any weight as to if I could get pregnant?

Grow Babies, Grow!

First of all, thank you all for your words of encouragement! It really means a lot to have all of you behind me on this.

Okay, so the update on Thursday was that 15 fertilized!!!! So, that's 15 possible babies. Holy moly again!

We got another update today. The embies should be 6-8 cells. They are graded on cell division, number of cells, and amount of fragmentation. I didn't get deep into the exact 'diagnosis' on all of them, but this is what I was told:

4 - Excellent

3 - Good
5 - Average

3 - Poor

So, I had told myself that I'd be happy with 7 today. Considering my report today, I think I'm quite happy. From what I've read, the chances for pregnancy greatly increase by the number of cells present. I think I have to have 8 cells to get an excellent rating, so that's good.

If you're curious, an excellent embie should look like this today:

Transfer is scheduled for Monday. So, for now, we just want those embies to continue to grow!

21 Eggs!

Wow, I didn't realize the significance of the number until writing this...for another day.

Yep, they got 21 eggs. Holy moly...21 eggs! I asked how many were mature, but the nurse didn't know. My wonderful husband found the doc, though. Doc thinks that 10-12 are of good size. So, I'll be happy with 12. Now to wait...

Night before Retrieval

Yep, everything is going well. The ER is scheduled for tomorrow. My follies were up to 19's and 20's on one side, and 17's and 18's on the other! They are thinking 12 to 20 are possible!

I haven't really thought about ithe retrieval much today. I've been pretty busy at work. Well, I finally thought about it while unloading the dryer. OMG!!! I'm going to find out how many eggs tomorrow - at least how many we start with. AND...we find out the quality. I'm now filled with this weird, excited fear. I don't know how to explain it. I'm really concerned that the egg quality will be poor, and at the same time I'm excited to get the "show on the road" so to speak. Up until now, I've been concerned with possible nausea from the anesthesia or pain from them poking at my ovaries. They've got drugs for that, so now I'm worried/excited about what we are here for. Babies...

Oh, and I'm sad that I haven't been to see the boys since last weekend. I feel this strong need to go "see" them, but by the time I get home these days it's dark. I know I'm a bit preoccupied right now, and they understand. I just keep asking them to send me their sibling (or siblings!).

IVF Update

I visited the doc again today (went on Saturday too). My ovaries are still "kissing". I'm definitely not complaining though. My DH went with me today and got to see my overwhelming ovaries. I think he has a new appreciation for my belly now!

The doc told me to go home and trigger, which would make my ER on Tuesday. But wait, then he called and said, "No, one more day." So I go in Monday...again. I don't think my E2 is climbing like they want. He was concerned about one of my ovaries slowing down. Definitely don't want to stall out, so I'll do what he says. I'm up to 17's and 18's on one side, but the other is only up to 15's.

This is exhausting!

Another IVF Update

So, my ovaries are now touching! For those of you who are wondering...yes, it is a bit uncomfortable. It didn't make my doc or the nurses freak out, though, so I guess its slightly common??? Seems weird to me, but whatever gets me a baby (or babies).

I went both yesterday and today for scans. I still have a ton of follies. The biggest one was 14 yesterday with a bunch of 13.5 and like 20 of the 11.5 (I promise this means something to my fellow infertiles). My E2 was about 2200...so, doing okay. Today I was scanned by a different person, and he only saw a couple 15 and 14s. I would have expected at least a 16 today, but we'll chalk that up to the difference between the measuring styles. I go back tomorrow - fun, fun!

I left the office this morning with the nurse instructing me to "not do anything too strenuous with those ovaries"! Meaning, no super cleaning or lifting or jogging. Yep, like I would even feel like that now :-) I'll update again tomorrow. For now I'm off to drink my gallon of gatorade (to prevent OHSS - website, b/c I know my mom will want to learn: http://stirrup-queens.blogspot.com/2006/07/ohss.html)

IVF Update #1

Today was my first doc visit for this IVF cycle...hopefully the only IVF cycle! I started the L.upron about 2.5 weeks ago, and started stims on Saturday. I was scared that I would go in today and see no response, but my body is responding. In fact, I'm responding quite well. On one side I have 13<9.5 and 29<5. The other side is 15<10 and 28<7! My E2 is up to 1150. I'd say that's an impressive response after just 4 days of stims. At least I think that's a good response. My fear that I'm now indulging is overstimulation. I'm not scared about stalling out anymore, so I had to move to the other extreme :-)

So, for my fellow infertiles, how do my numbers look? I'm a PCOSer, so I knew I'd produce a lot...we just have to keep the E2 below 6000 (that's the OHSS number, right?). My RE slightly reduced my stims, but not too much. I go back on Friday, so we will see.

Oh, and in case anyone was wondering - work still sucks!

Work sucks and I'm trying to be less stressed

Okay, I've been a bad blogger for a few weeks. The bottom line is that I'm way, way too busy. Work is completely ridiculous. I'm a project manager / engineer for an engineering firm and in my opinion, they need about 3 more of me to get my work done. Plus, I have the pleasure of dealing with irate customers since I can't get everything done. And, I got to spend the last two weeks in Mexico. No...not the beautiful sun and beaches part. I was in the industrial part with lots of smog, dust and unhappy people. Fun, fun, fun!!

I did start my L.upron last Saturday, though. It's amazing how easy it was to get my needles and liquid meds through security. Weird, because I was quite anxious about it. Now, I'm back in the USA and am trying to focus on keeping my stress level down. I'm going to try to work 8 hour days like normal people rather than my 10-12 hour days. It looks like transfer will be just before Thanksgiving. Please, please, please work.