Monday, April 23, 2012

All A'board... again

Oh, and happy ICLW! I'm only two days late on that one... oops. Seriously, hi to all of you stopping by through ICLW. In a nutshell, I have PCOS, and ovaries who value quantity over quality. After failing the clo clo challenge, we moved strait to injectables, and had a hard time getting my oves to respond with much of anything there. After two BFN's, we did our first IVF cycle in Nov/Dec. That ended in a BFN, and our FET in Feb ended up in a crappy chemical. You've caught us right at the precipice of our second FET... and had our transfer today!

Dr Boy and I had a pretty fabulous weekend, though it was ridiculously hot and humid here, completely uncharacteristic of the area. Our alma mater had a huge parade/open house/festival type thing and we saw a ton of old friends from undergrad, then on Sunday we took an impromptu trip to Napa. Much needed R&R to relax pre-transfer!

Today didn't really go as well as either of us would have liked. It started off well- finished up some laundry, changed the sheets, cut my pineapple, threw dinner in the crockpot, and headed to pre-transfer acupuncture. I left super relaxed and went to the clinic. Just before we got there, Dr Boy got a call from our RE. The thaw was not going well. 

Our plan was to thaw each embryo individually until we ended up with two high quality ones to transfer. We had three day 6 embies left, 1 day seven frozen alone, and 2 day sevens frozen together. After going through the three day 6's and the 1 day 7, we had one that survived at 80%, two at 60%, and one at 50%. We were going for two 80's. The RE wanted permission to thaw the last two we had, which we agreed to. As that was going on, one of the 60%ers fragmented more and we were down to an 80, a 60, and two 50s. We had, in one transfer, blasted through all six of our remaining embryos from December's IVF. We've got nothing left. If this doesn't work, it's back to the drawing board (and bank account, and ER).

At this point, thoughts of transferring more than two were floating around, risks were being evaluated, tears were flowing, and my adrenaline pretty much killed any buzz I would have gotten from the valium. We hung out for another hour waiting for the last two to thaw, then headed back to the transfer room. 
PDLAMBLATI- Complements of Her Royal Fabulousness
Finally, we got the good news that one of those last two thawed at 80% (and the other at 65%) so were able to transfer that and the other (which had started hatching while we waited, apparently- sweet!). After transfer, the embryologist checked the catheter to make sure all babies were on board, and low and behold, we had a holdout! 

"I've still got one here!" So, in goes the catheter again, another swoosh and flash shows up on the u/s monitor, and we finally got the all clear that the ute party had started. 

Post-transfer acupuncture helped me calm down, but it was not quite the zen-like magical moment I had hoped for. AND my car** hit 66,666 miles as we drove home. I take this to mean I am carrying Dr Boy's devil spawn. Of course. 
Spawn 1 and Spawn 2 (lefty is the sticky, day 7 embie
and righty is the more easy going hatching day 6-er)
(dark spots are the parts which didn't survive thaw, called fragmentation)
So now we wait... and rest... and bribe these embies with cookies and pineapple and other delights while we pray that someone decides to stick around for the long haul this time. We are super lucky at least... our clinic does the first beta at 13dpo, which for us will be 7dp6dt. Only a one. week. wait.


Beta in 7 days...

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**The car we bought four years ago when we decided to start trying. It was brand new. And had 1,000 miles on it. Yeah. That car. Piece of advice, guys? Don't buy the car until you're effing pregnant and damn near bursting your waters. </end public service announcement/bitter infertile rant>

28 comments:

  1. Praying for you dear friend!!! Come onnnnnnnnn embies. Let's make Meier a MAMA!

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  2. Well that was a fiasco! At least you got your two embies. I am in the same position. No more frozen, may have to start fresh if it fails. That sucks, but it is what it is. We should find out results at the same time!

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  3. From all this craziness, I sincerely hope that in 7 or 8 days you can get the best news of your life! Now the challenge will be to keep yourself occupied for the next week... hmmm what to do?? Best of luck!

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  4. I can't believe you have to go through so many to get good ones. I have high hopes for that hatching embryo! Good luck, I'll be thinking of you.

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  5. Wowza, how nerve racking to go through all those embryos! I would have been beside myself. The next week will be LONG, I'm sure, but you've got lots of people from the blog world rooting for you and your little embies!

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  6. Sorry to hear about all the stress with thawing and everything, but I'm so glad to hear that your transfer was successful! I'll be crossing all my fingers and toes that this is your cycle. (And good call on going to Napa - I hear it was beautiful there this weekend!)

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  7. Lots of prayers and good thoughts coming your way! I can't imagine the stress of that phone call. I'm so, so, SO glad you ended up with two solid candidates.

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  8. Here from ICLW- your whole ordeal sounded very stressful! Good luck with your beta!

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  9. Super good luck!! I'm sure the 80% were the right ones! : )

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  10. Argh! Talk about major stress!

    I'm cheering on your 80%-ers. Come on, guys! Stick!

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  11. Best of luck!! We had one stick in the catheter once. My RE took that as a good thing, "see how sticky it is! there's no way it won't implant!"

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  12. I'm thinking about you, lady. I know you could have done without the stress, but hopefully you'll be laughing about it in a week or so. Good luck!

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  13. Hello! I'm here from ICLW, but I've been following your story for a while. Sending positive thoughts!

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  14. Hi from ICLW and Positive thoughts for your transfer!


    Ps LOVE the ying yang kitties!

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  15. Sorry for the initial drama you faced.. but maybe its better to get the drama out of the way first and now it can be smooth sailing??? Good luck this week!

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  16. Glad the best of the bunch are on board! I know it sounds crazy but visualization of then breaking out and attaching helped calmed me. Glad it's a short wait. Good luck!

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  17. Thinking of you and hoping this is it for you! Hopefully the drama is behind you and everything from here on out is perfection :)

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  18. KMFX for you! Happy, sticky baby dust to you!

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  19. We bought our "new to us" car in 2009, just a month before we went off birth control. I remember talking to neighbors once and telling her (when you see a new car in our driveway, you'll know we're trying). That was over 2 1/2 years ago. Sigh. It's a 2006 and we're now considering a TDI so we can run biodiesel - so there is a chance that the baby mobile we bought (Subaru Forester) won't ever actually hold a baby!

    I'm sorry yesterday was tough on you. I am so glad to hear they transfered two back in. I will keep my fingers crossed that things go smoothly (and positively!) for you from now on.

    xoxoxoxo

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  20. I have my fingers crossed for you. Stick, stick, stick!

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  21. Sorry to hear about the pre-transfer drama bit I'm glad you got two good ones in! Hope your week flies by (well, at least goes as quickly as possible). I'm a big believer in frozen embies!

    By the way, are you in the Bay Area? It was scorcher this past weekend, wasn't it?

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  22. Wishing you the best - GOOD LUCK!

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  23. Hi there--Reading your latest post takes me back to my own infertile days which, I admit, still can make me shudder. 7 IVFs, three miscarriages, one surgery and the renting of another woman's womb is all it took for my dream to come true. But that is the hidden beauty of this journey--when you DO finally get to the other side, all the hoops, stirrups, doctors, needles and crazy-making hormones seem absolutely worth it. Don't give up. Good luck. Pulling for you.
    Suzanne

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  24. Crossing fingers, toes, and eyes that you don't have to think about another IVF for a very very long time.
    *hugs*

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  25. Hi I'm tracey stopping by from ICLW 92. I have a good feeling about that sticky one!!
    I blog for my IVF docs at Long Island IVF so I can share my stories. I’m hoping ICLW and NIAW can help me find new blogs and spread the word about LIIVF’s free Micro-IVF cycle contest kicking off this week. Details for those interested are on the blog or Long Island IVF’s FB page

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  26. Keeping everything crossed for you that at least one of these embies decides to stick around for a long, long time!

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  27. Wishing your two embies lots and lots of stickiness!! Thanks for your comment on my blog! I love your blog--your writing is great.

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