Embryo transfer and status of remaining embryos...

It's been a challenging few days. We arrived early for our embryo transfer on Friday morning (day 2) and after a short wait I was in stirrups ready for the doctor to arrive. The embryologist came in and explained the situation with our embryos. Basically they expected us to have 4-cell embryos at day 2 but we only had 1 x 3-cell and 3 x 2-cell embryos. They gave the 3-cell embryo a "7 out of 10" score and said that this was the one they would put back in. The procedure happened quite quickly- less than 2 minutes- and while I was lying there afterwards my husband and I spoke with the embryologist about the other embryos; including the non-ICSI ones that did not fertilise normally. The embryologist explained that the abnormally fertilised non-ICSI eggs contained one or three pro-nuclei rather than the normal two. He also said that he was unsure if the slower developing 2-cell embryos would catch up. I was told to continue with normal daily activity and that they would call me the following day to update me on the progress of the remaining embryos. I had to be in another city the next day for a pre-planned event and so got a lift with a friend for the 3 hour drive the same evening as my embyro transfer. I had terrible cramps during the drive and immediately regretted my decision. I was also worried about injecting the clexane without removing the air bubble but after much google searching I gave myself the injection. That night I woke in a frantic state at about 1:30am. I was extremely hot due to the fact that I had worn way too much to bed and could not get back to sleep after fearing that I had raised by core body temperature way too high and had consequently jeapordised the viability of our embryo. I stripped off my clothes and drank lots of water but remained awake for ages thinking that I had ruined everything. I tried to tell myself that it would be OK but felt terribly low all day Saturday. This wasn't helped by the fact that the embryologist called to say that it didn't look good for the three embryos in the lab who were still developing slowly (4 cell on day 3) and showed a lot of fragmentation. He guessed that they wouldn't make it to blastocyst stage but said he would call me back on Tuesday (day 6) to let me know how they had gone. So here I am on Monday night feeling pretty crappy. I'm trying to focus on what I have (an embryo inside) but can't help feeling dejected. My mind keeps jumping to the future and thinking that there must be something wrong with us to have 13 eggs and good looking sperm with only one semi-reasonable embryo and the rest abnormal. I thought I was prepared for bad results but I obviously wasn't and I am trying to process everything as best as I can without letting myself slip too far into 'pity party' mode. I wrote some positive affirmations down to keep me going and I am just hoping against hope that this little embie inside is ok...

Egg retrieval and embryologist report

Well we made it to egg retrieval yesterday. We went in with 15 follicles and were hoping for more than 10 eggs. I went into day surgery early in the morning and I didn't have to wait long to go through to theatre. The nurses were lovely but unfortunately the anaesthetist could not get a good vein and made numerous attempts at my inner elbow before trying the back of my hand. He whacked it really hard for about 30 seconds or so before finally getting success. I went under fairly quickly and before I knew it I was in the recovery ward. I was groggy for a while but with some oxygen soon perked up enough to get up and get dressed. I had to wear a pad for any bleeding but only had a little. The nurse took me through to another room where they gave me something to eat and drink. I was glad to see my husband (who had done his important job while I was in surgery). We waited for the embryologist who came through to say that my husband's sperm looked really good and that 13 eggs had been collected. He said that he would use the ICSI procedure on some of eggs as a 'back-up' and the rest would be allowed to try and fertilise naturally. He estimated that 9 or 10 eggs would fertilise based on statistics. We were both feeling positive when we left and drove the hour trip home to have a relaxing day at home. I have to say I find it difficult to sit still and so while I watched a bit of TV I also got up and did a few things around the house to keep me sane. I had minimal spotting and a little cramping but otherwise felt pretty good. This morning (the day after egg retrieval) I eagerly anticipated the embryologists call to see how many embryos fertilised. My heart dropped when he said that none of the regular IVF eggs had fertilised normally but that 4 out of the 6 ICSI eggs had fertilised. He could not give an indication of why this had happened and despite my disappointment I tried to feel grateful that we had 4 embryos. In line with the clinics policy he told me that they would do a 2-day single embryo transfer tomorrow if we had a good embryo to use. I rang my husband who was also disappointed but we both agreed that we were glad that the embryologist had used the ICSI procedure otherwise we may have had no embryos to use at all. I hope in our case it is a quality rather than quantity situation and am trying to think of people who would love to be in our position. It is confusing and worrying that none of the natural IVF eggs fertilised and my husband questioned if this is why we haven't fallen pregnant yet. We are just hoping that we have an excellent 2 day embryo to put back tomorrow and it would be even better if the other three can be frozen. I started on prednisolone yesterday and will begin the progesterone vaginal gel and clexane tomorrow. I have an acupuncture appointment before and after the embryo transfer. All we can do is hope that this cycle is successful and if not at least we have more information that will hopefully bring us our baby in the future :)

Stimming: the good and the bad

Well I am on stimulation day 7 for my IVF cycle. I have been super cranky and have started to feel a bit bloated and sore but otherwise I'm feeling pretty good. For some reason I seem to have lost all my brain cells lately and made a mistake with my gonal-f injections when I started last Wednesday.  The nurse showed me how to inject 100 units using the pre-filled pen and I had to demonstrate that I could do it during the appointment. The crucial bit I obviously missed was that I did this ONCE a day (not twice like my Synarel) and so I went home that night and gave myself another shot. I did the same the next morning and it was only when I went to inject again the second night that the gonal-f pen ran out. Knowing that I only had four pens and over ten days of stimming I worked out that I wouldn't have enough medication. I went back through my paper work and read the highlighted section which clearly showed it was 100u once a day! I was so angry with myself and was also worried that I may have jeaporidised the IVF cycle. The nurse on call did not seem overly concerned when I rang her and just told me to return to the correct dosage the next day. I was supposed to go up to 150u per day that Sunday but I was told to stay with 100u until I could be checked at an ultrasound on Monday. The scan went well (despite my full bladder making it a tad uncomfortable) and I was told that I had 9 follicles on my right ovary, 4 follicles on my left ovary and an endometrial lining of 9.6mm. The follicles ranged in size from 4 to 12mm. I was told I could increase my gonal-f dose to 150u that night (last night).  have another scan on Friday so fingers crossed for a good follicle count and size :)