PUPO: Pregnant until proven otherwise

We had a great transfer this morning! We transferred three, and they looked good. They grade embryos on a scale of 1-5, 1 being best. Last time the embryos had crapped out by now - we had two six-cells and one 7-cell, graded 2 and 3. But today we have a 9-cell grade 1 and an 8-cell and a 6-cell, both grade 2!!!! So they look much better. (And that 9-cell is just about perfect, at grade 1 and nearly double yesterday's size.)

Because they were progressing well, we had the option of waiting for two more days. But the doctor recommended going ahead. Even though the last cycle ended in miscarriage, the fact that I got pregnant suggests that day 3 embryos find me to be a hospitable home. It was also pretty aggressive to transfer three. Given the quality of the bigger two and my age, standard practice would be to transfer two. But he asked if the worst case scenario was not getting pregnant or getting pregnant with triplets. We agreed that not getting pregnant was much worse than triplets! (And I suspect he suspects that 6-cell isn't really going anywhere anyway.)

And we still have four left that might make it to freeze. In all likelihood, we'll end up with at most two frozen, but that's something.

I am feeling much better!

Cell division

As of this morning we still have seven embryos:
1 5-cell
3 4-cell
1 3-cell
2 2-cell

It's almost exactly identical to last time:
2 5-cells
2 4-cells
1 3-cell

The goal is 2-4 cells today, so they're all fine. But because it looks about the same as last cycle, they want to do the three-day transfer again. (It sounds like they probably wanted to see six or seven at the 4-cell stage in order to keep going to day 5.) So we go in first thing in the morning. We'll want to see the four biggest at 8 to 10 cells tomorrow. Last cycle, their growth slowed and our largest was 7 cells. If we're at 8 to 10 cells tomorrow, I'll feel a whole lot better about this cycle. I'll be curious to see how many they want to transfer tomorrow; I'll probably push for three or four.

I'm sad and disappointed. I really wanted to hear, "They look great! We'll transfer Monday." I'm afraid this will end the same way as the previous cycle.

100 percent!

All seven fertilized normally. We have embryos, and "they look good." We are very happy here, and thrilled we didn't ruin everything Monday night! We'll be back with another update tomorrow.

Lucky number 7

As predicted, Dr. R got seven eggs this morning. So far, there's no indication that our misadventures Monday night hurt anything. We'll hear tomorrow how many fertilized; we'll have a better sense then if they matured properly. But the nurse told us a sad story of a patient just last week who did her trigger shot wrong and ended up with no eggs. We were praised for calling the doctor to come up with a plan; that patient didn't. I've taken a long nap and am still groggy, with some abdominal discomfort. But things went really well.

So nervous

That's a relief!

I'm pregnant! Okay ... not really. But the trigger shot is the same hormone that is produced by pregnancy. So I took a pregnancy test this morning to make sure we had actually succeeded last night. And sure enough, it came up positive. So the trigger is on board. Next up: will the eggs mature in time for retrieval tomorrow?

And everything had been going so smoothly....

Well. That was a disaster. I don't know whether we had a bad needle or I had somehow screwed it on wrong, but we ended up spilling some (half? most?) of the trigger shot when we tried to inject it. After several minutes of panic, my hero Brent paged the doc. They discussed the options, and we were fortunate to find a pharmacy not too far away that actually carries the medication. (That's a surprise, since its most common use is as a steroid, so pharmacies don't like to sell it.) The doctor called in a new prescription. And while things still did not go altogether well, we did get another half-dose injected (while looking like junkies, no doubt, in the Walgreens parking lot). Now we hope that it wasn't too late and the eggs are mature by the time of retrieval on Wednesday.

Ready, Aim, Trigger!

We have six ginormous follicles, and at least one more that might have a mature egg. We trigger tonight at 8 p.m., with retrieval Wednesday morning at 7 a.m.

Cycle 2: Follie check #4

I should start to trust the doctor. The follies grew a lot over the last 48 hours, and the largest is 15.88mm. That explains why I've been feeling uncomfortable! We'll almost certainly trigger on Monday night, with retrieval set for Wednesday morning. He expects to get between 5 and 8. It looks like I produce about 7 eggs, as he said, "no matter how hard we beat on you." Brent called me "Old Faithful." I guess that's a good thing. Back on Monday morning to confirm the plan.

Cycle 2: Follie check #3

There appeared to be six viable at yesterday's appointment, with a few more stragglers that could catch up. I'm definitely starting to feel uncomfortable, so I know things are happening. We go back again tomorrow morning. Dr. R. thinks retrieval could be as early as Wednesday. My money is on later next week.

Cycle 2: Follie check #2

We're holding steady here. The nurse counted eight follicles yesterday morning, with five ranging in size from 7-10mm. I'm bummed that it's looking like we're going to get roughly the same number of eggs as last cycle, even with the new protocol. But maybe they'll be healthier? They're growing at a good pace, so they haven't increased my meds at all. Here's hoping! We go back tomorrow.

Cycle 2: Follie check #1

Dr. R. was able to see and measure seven follicles this morning. I was definitely hoping for more on this new protocol, since seven is what we ended up with last time. But it's still early. The biggest one was 8mm, and some clinics don't even start counting them until they reach 10mm. So we have a long way to go until they reach 18mm for retrieval, which means that there may still be more to come.

Check mate!

Everything looked great this morning -- lots of tiny resting follicles but nothing active. So I started the microdose of the diluted lupron after the appointment. The idea is that in the first two-three days the lupron will kick-start stimulation. I add the regular stimulation drugs later this week, with an appointment on Sunday morning to check follicular growth.

We have crossed the first hurdle on which we stumbled last time.

Checking in

It's been a while, as the suppression phase is quiet. I took my last birth control pill last night. I had only one migraine (brought on almost certainly by dehydration rather than the BCPs), so it was definitely easier than last time. We go in to see the doctor on Tuesday, with fingers crossed that the suppression has worked. If so, we'll start the shots that day.

There's no news about the insurance. They're reviewing the contracts with the doctor to figure out whether I really need to pay the balance. It's slow, but the woman I've been talking to at the insurance company has been very responsive and has promised to keep track of this next cycle too.

Thanks to our 10 days on vacation, I'm feeling pretty relaxed. As of yesterday, I'm restricting my coffee intake. And I've stopped drinking wine as of this weekend, rather than waiting until transfer.