Blood # 3

Well, my blood work from today is 1695!! It went from 809 on Friday to 1695 today. So that is pretty good. I've run out of the progesterone shot that I have been doing every morning, so tomorrow I have to go to the Dr. for them to give it to me. Jason gets a day off! :) Then we will move onto the transition, so I won't have another shot until the 3rd of October of the new progesterone ( the one that stings like a motha' ) & I think I will only do that once a week until November 7th. That won't be so bad. Our first ultrasound will be on October 8th. I am excited, yet nervous. I hope that everything goes good with them & there are no problems. One day at a time, though, right?
I spent all of yesterday in Vancouver w/ my grandma. She is out of ICU & in her own private room. She didn't have any need for any more blood transfusions yesterday & so far today. So she is getting better. She has her appetite back & she was getting kind of feisty! She just needs to rest. She still has a long way to go still, but she is slowly improving, so that is all we can hope for now. They are trying to find a different blood-thinner to put her on, otherwise there might be more problems later on. She is a little fighter, so thank heavens for that!

# 2

Had blood work this morning to make sure my numbers from Wednesday went up. Was nervous about this one, because the day we found out we were pregnant, I got a call from my parents saying my grandmother was in the hospital & it didn't look good. She had a stroke last August & aside from her speech, she seemed to be doing o.k. Well, she began to bleed internally. I guess that can happen with the type of blood-thinner she was on since the stroke. She lost a lot of blood & honestly it didn't look good. I couldn't believe that the day I thought may never happen, the happiest day of my life turned into heartache. My grandmother is in Vancouver, Washington, which is about 2-2 1/2 hours away. We spent all day yesterday with her. She was alert but very weak. She has had 13 transfusions since being there. It is one of those catch-22 things. They found the source of her bleeding in her colon, but they are hoping it will heal on its own. Today she was doing a lot better, didn't bleed as much, but it will all depend what her blood work comes back as to what the next step is. This has been a crazy week to say the least. Our family also found out that Thomas Martin, the man that killed my sister, died on Sunday. Such a strange thing still to think that he is dead. He took a big part of my life away from me when I was 14 & I've had to live my life without her since then, but he has been alive & walking this earth the whole time. For me, it is something that will take some getting used too. Hopefully this will help bring some closure to my family after all this time.
Back to my blood work today. Wednesday was 401. Today it was 809!! It doubled! That is a great sign. So I started yet ANOTHER shot in the butt. I will say this, I HATE THIS ONE. It is progesterone in sesame oil. Lets just say that I am STILL feeling it in my cheek & it has been about an hour! Not fun. But all for a good cause. I will still do the same progesterone in oil like I have been doing...& in a few days I will do the other one. It was kinda cool, cause the little schedule she gave me for these shots today said "Days to begin progesterone after POSITIVE pregnancy results!" Yes!! I am still getting used to it. Will take some time to let it sink in. Thankfully my grandmother was alert & I could show her the pictures of them from the transfer & tell her she was to a great-grandma. I will never forget how big her eyes got & she cried. I hope this will give her something to keep fighting for. I am going to head off to bed, I am TIRED! And I am heading down to Vancouver again tomorrow morning to spend the day with her. I have another appointment on Sunday morning, so I will post the results then!!

The news

Today was my beta. I am PREGNANT!!! Can you freakin' believe it? My # is 401, so they said it was excellent numbers. I go in on friday morning to make sure my #'s keep going up. I am in shock still. Just got off the phone with Jason, he is at work, & they are short staffed, so I think he is in shock like me. He kept telling me congrats!! Poor thing. I really thought this was going to come back negative since I had a little bit of spotting yesterday..... I just can't believe this at all. I've gone through all of these fertility treatments for a reason, but after so many negatives, you get used to it after awhile I suppose. So when you hear something different, it puts you into shock or something. Such a weird place to be in. But a great one!!
Just called my parents, my mom is at work, but I talked to my dad. I told him that he was going to be a grandpa & his reply was "I am too young & handsome to be a grandpa". I know he said this to get me to stop weeping & get me to laugh. And it worked to some degree..... Now I can't wait for my mom to get off of work later & she finds out. You will probably hear her screaming from Montana!! :) She has waited a long time for this & I've wanted to tell her she was going to be a grandma for a long time too.....
Keep your fingers crossed that my #'s keep going up, & that they are healthy. And Christia, I know u read this so I will tell u that you've been such a wonderful friend to me. Always supportive & understanding. You truly are a wonderful person with a great big heart. You are far away, but I am sending u a little hug for always listening to me blab!!

Transfer

Yesterdays transfer went really well. The embryologist told us that the 2 we were transferring were grade A (meaning they are the best!) They will be freezing 5 others, possibly 1 more that are all grade A!! These are the pictures of our day 5 blastocyst that were transferred. :) The whole procedure itself was painless. Much easier than the those IUI's I did in the past. I would cramp up so bad during those. During an IVF transfer, your bladder has to be super full in order for them to get the best image on the ultrasound. We watched as the embryologist sucked them both in the transfer tube on a big screen, then they were brought in, & our re put them in. They had marked where my uterine lining was (which looked good still too) & you could actually see the catheter go in, then these 2 very small things come out. I lost it then. Was the most amazing thing in the world to see. Then it was all done. Just had to lay there for 20 minutes then off we went. I slept part of the day & just resting again today. In 10 days we will know if it worked. They said that there is a 50% chance of twins (Jason freaked a bit on that one) & a 70% chance at pregnancy. So we got some odds on our side, but it is still up in the air. They said I had a perfect IVF cycle, so that makes me feel good..... Now we just have to wait!!

Blastocyst Info

Here is some info about the day 5 blastocysts from our office. :)




Blastocyst and Extended Culture

The continued refinement of the lab and culture media offers greater opportunity for infertile couples. The introduction of blastocyst culture is the latest important step that helps increase implantation rates while minimizing multiple births. Recent studies confirm the fact that blastocyst transfers on day 5 or day 6 have essentially equivalent pregnancy rates if not greater than compared to embryo transfers on day 3. However, the advantage’s with blastocyst culture is the transfer of significantly fewer embryos while maintaining these pregnancy rates.

Traditionally, embryos have been transferred to the uterus on the second or third day of development after in vitro fertilization. New culture media now are designed to take into account the changing needs of the developing embryo in vitro allowing laboratories to extend culture of these embryos for up to six days.

After five to 6 days of growth, the cells of the embryo should have divided many times over, and have begun to differentiate by function. The embryos that survive to this stage of development are usually strong, healthy, and robust. They are now called blastocysts. At this point, the blastocyst contains around 100 cells that are formed into 2 distinct types, the inner cell mass that goes on to make the fetus and the surface cells called the trophectoderm that goes on to make the placenta.


What Are the Benefits of Blastocyst Transfer?

Blastocyst culture allows for better selection of an embryo for transfer as described above which leads to higher implantation / pregnancy rates and a reduction in high order multiple births. This means that various obstetrical complications that may arise from multiple pregnancies can be minimized. It is especially important in helping patients avoid having to make the difficult personal and ethical decisions regarding selective reduction. Pacific Northwest Fertility and IVF Specialists recommend transferring 1-2 blastocysts.

Is Blastocyst Culture and Transfer for Everyone?

Candidates for a blastocyst transfer typically are younger and have a large number of eggs. On average those having 8 or more embryos on day 3 are potential candidates for blastocyst culture. Other candidates may be those patients in which a multiple pregnancy would put them at an extreme risk. Unfortunately, blastocyst culture does not improve the quality of an embryo. Most poor quality embryos will not become blastocyst and even some high quality embryos will never become blastocysts. Finally there are those rare patients whose embryos develop very poorly in the blastocyst culture media and therefore need to be transferred on day 3.

7

Dr. just called, looks like my transfer will be on Sunday!! 7 of the 9 are super strong, the other 2 are a little bit slower. So, since we have so many stronger looking eggs, they want to wait to do a transfer on day 5 blastocyst stage to weed out the best ones. I am excited but a little nervous. They still have the rest of today & Saturday to keep growing, so I am hoping that we don't loose too many more. 7 is still a lot though. And we are only transferring 2. We shall see what happens. In so many ways this is better, scheduling wise. Jason is at work today & if the transfer was today, he would have to leave work to come with me since they have you take a Valium 30 minutes before the procedure. Not sure why that is exactly, so that has me a bit worried. Also, you have to drink tons of water. They say 1 liter. Yes, 1 liter!! They can better see everything with the ultrasound if you have a full bladder.
Everything is looking really good they said, so I can stop worrying now for a bit. I know if it is meant to be it will happen, if not, we will try again. This whole process really wasn't as bad as I feared. Don't get me wrong, it is not walk in the park, but really wasn't too bad. Jason has been doing a really great job with my progesterone shots in the morning. He is the lucky one that gets to give it to me since it is in the butt. The needle is frighteningly long, I will have to take it's picture & post it. Makes your cheek a bit sore the rest of the day, but nothing I can't handle. I am so freakin' proud of Jason for taking charge & having the strength to give me my shots. I am sure he takes some sick pleasure of jabbing me with that long thing in my rear, so he knows it will keep me in line. :) Depending on how I feel after Sunday, I will try to post. Keep your fingers crossed..............

9

The egg retrieval yesterday went really well. You have all this build-up cause you are not sure what to expect from it & how you will feel afterwords. Everyone was really nice & so helpful. I got dressed in my lovely gown, booties, & cap & off I went to the procedure room. Jason had to head off to his special area to do his thing. They started an IV, got me hooked up to all these monitors, then came the very nice "relaxing" drug. That was wonderful. I didn't really care at that point who came in or out of that room then. Then our Dr. came in & talked to me a bit. Not sure what I said or even if it made much sense, but next thing I knew, the oxygen mask was on me, & they knocked me out.

I woke up in the recovery room with Jason at my side. I took one look at him & I wept like a fool. Not sure the exact reasoning behind the tears. I know I kept asking him how they were & how many there were. "They" being my eggs. There were 10, with the possibility of more once they got washed. And everything went well. I wasn't in much pain at all. Just achy, kind of crampy feeling. Nothing major at all. I spent the day in bed, doing nothing.

Today I am better, little bloated, but no achy feeling. I have been cleaning up the house while clenching onto my cell phone for the update as to how the follies are doing. The nurse just called & told me they got 12, but 9 have fertilized so far. The other 3 were not quite mature enough. That is fine with me. I was terrified they wouldn't fertilize at all or something would be wrong with my eggs or something. So far they have me scheduled for day 3 transfer (Friday @ 3:30), but she said it is looking like it will be a day 5 blastocyst transfer on Sunday.

I'll see if I can add the pictures off of our clinics website so you can see what they look like. Pretty interesting stuff. We will also get a picture of them before they get transferred. So far everything is looking good. I will post later once I know more about how they are doing!

http://www.pnwfertility.com/laboratory/microscope.asp

If the pictures don't show up on my post, just click the link to our fertility clinic, & you can see the pictures. :)