Wednesday 22 May 2013

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 :)

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