I had a super freaky dream last night.... I dreamt I had a huge baby bump and everyone was shocked because I was so early in pregnancy but I got to break the news that i was huge because I was carrying twins! I didn't tell J about it.... It seemed irrelevant and unimportant as we woke up at buttcrack a.m. and scrambled out the door this morning. Apparently I had the same dream during anesthesia because he said I woke up mumbling to him about the same exact thing! I don't remember telling J about my dream in the surgery center but hopefully this is a good omen!! I remember walking to the OR, hopping on the table, the oxygen mask and monitors while reciting my mantra ... next thing I know I'm waking up behind the preop curtain. I asked for my surgical cap off, my socks on, and then sleepily slurred to the nurse to make sure they were going to do ICSI on the eggs! I can't wait to hear the fertilization report tomorrow. Since we had only 4, I'm willing to bet the odds are pretty high we will do a 3 day transfer on Wednesday.
Showing posts with label follicle retrieval. Show all posts
Showing posts with label follicle retrieval. Show all posts
05 August, 2012
Quality over quantity, right?
Retrieval went fairly well! Minus being a little sleepy I don't feel any worse than I have the past couple days with cramping & bloating. I still had 7 follies but 2 were too small to have mature eggs ( we anticipated that). For whatever reason one of the other big follies was empty so we ended up with 4 eggs retrieved. Of course I was hoping for more, but I am certainly happy with 4! Everyone continues to tell me quality over quantity is the best chance for success. Easier to say than actually believe. Our future family rests on these 4 lil eggs getting fertilized. I'm trying to suppress my thoughts of "maybe they missed one? Did they drop any on the floor?" I am focusing on relaxing and trying to find comfort in the fact that the rest of this process is out if my hands. J and I have done everything possible, now it's up to doctors, embryologists, nurses, and mehbe the man upstairs!
I had a super freaky dream last night.... I dreamt I had a huge baby bump and everyone was shocked because I was so early in pregnancy but I got to break the news that i was huge because I was carrying twins! I didn't tell J about it.... It seemed irrelevant and unimportant as we woke up at buttcrack a.m. and scrambled out the door this morning. Apparently I had the same dream during anesthesia because he said I woke up mumbling to him about the same exact thing! I don't remember telling J about my dream in the surgery center but hopefully this is a good omen!! I remember walking to the OR, hopping on the table, the oxygen mask and monitors while reciting my mantra ... next thing I know I'm waking up behind the preop curtain. I asked for my surgical cap off, my socks on, and then sleepily slurred to the nurse to make sure they were going to do ICSI on the eggs! I can't wait to hear the fertilization report tomorrow. Since we had only 4, I'm willing to bet the odds are pretty high we will do a 3 day transfer on Wednesday.
I'm really trying to take one day at a time.... However, I am entranced by the POAS (pee on a stick) phenomenon! I have consulted my calendar to figure out when I will be able to start testing. I triggered with 10,000 HCG. The body metabolizes 1,000 units every 24-28 hours. Of course some bodies are more or less efficient than this. According to the rule of thumb, a BFP on Monday Aug 13 could be fo rizzle. My other option is to take a test every morning until I get a negative showing the trigger is out of my system. A positive after that would be due to bebe! At the same time, I'm super scared to test early, as in before a blood quantitative HCG by my RE.... What if all my poas's are negative??? Decisions, decisions. One day at a time... Let's get some eggs fertilized first.
I had a super freaky dream last night.... I dreamt I had a huge baby bump and everyone was shocked because I was so early in pregnancy but I got to break the news that i was huge because I was carrying twins! I didn't tell J about it.... It seemed irrelevant and unimportant as we woke up at buttcrack a.m. and scrambled out the door this morning. Apparently I had the same dream during anesthesia because he said I woke up mumbling to him about the same exact thing! I don't remember telling J about my dream in the surgery center but hopefully this is a good omen!! I remember walking to the OR, hopping on the table, the oxygen mask and monitors while reciting my mantra ... next thing I know I'm waking up behind the preop curtain. I asked for my surgical cap off, my socks on, and then sleepily slurred to the nurse to make sure they were going to do ICSI on the eggs! I can't wait to hear the fertilization report tomorrow. Since we had only 4, I'm willing to bet the odds are pretty high we will do a 3 day transfer on Wednesday.
03 August, 2012
Day 8
Yaaaaaaaaaay! Today's check was fab! I haven't received my E2 results yet but had some big fatty follies growing! Two are a nice 19mm, two are at 17mm, one is at 15mm and two at 13mm. Today before leaving the office we got our instructions for trigger and retrieval. The practitioner said it looks promising for trigger tonite or tomorrow! We will know this afternoon after Dr K makes the decision and when nurse Katie calls. This would put retrieval at either Sunday or Monday. Yikes!
This part of the process is why we pay the $big bucks$. To be successful it is imperative they follow a strict timeline. If the follicles aren't big enough or mature enough and are aspirated early, they might not contain mature eggs and/or the eggs won't fertilize properly. If they wait too long, I will ovulate all these eggs on my own and we lose the chance to retrieve them. I've had heard they want follicles between 16-20mm for the best chance to find nice, juicy ripe eggs. The other balancing act is the HCG trigger shot (aka "money shot"). The HCG acts as the LH surge in a natural cycle and puts the follicles through their final maturation process. Without HCG (or LH) the follicles and eggs they contain are useless and won't fertilize. The trigger MUST be given precisely 36 hours before retrieval.
Why do I say yikes! when I refer to retrieval? It is a complicated and delicate process. First, it involves me undergoing anesthesia. Though I could administer it to myself thanks to my CNOR certification, it scares me to be the receiver and not the giver. Second, I will be up in stirrups with coot for all to see. Third, in order to get those lovely eggs, via ultrasound guidance they stick a giant needle through the vaginal wall to aspirate the follicles. This might also involve pushing/pulling my already bloated tummy or a hole through the uterus if they can't get them via vag. Oh by the way, please don't put a hole in my ureters or bowel, thanks! Finally, I work in the operating room, I KNOW what goes on.... Sometimes it's fun. Most times it's good, but when it's bad, it's b.a.d. The reassuring angle is I know what to expect and really, this is a fairly minor (though nerve-wracking) procedure. I also plan on wearing my own cute scrub hat instead of the ugly, itchy blue bouffant most patients are subjected to. After retrieval, I'm hopped up on propofol (the Michael Jackson drug) and Vicodin and the rest of the work is up to the embryologist and his gang of pros. They do some fancy work that involves isolation, incubation, and fertilization. Most times they just mix up sperm and eggs in a dish and they fertilize. Because of J's lazy ass sperms we will be doing ICSI or intracytoplasmic sperm injection. After he gives it up in a cup, they'll pick out the bestest looking ones "going for gold" and inject one single sperm into each egg via a seriously tiny needle. Like microscopic. The next day we find out how many actually fertilized- usually 80% do. This is where they turn from eggs to embryos. Then, we wait! After fertilization, they start to divide. Some will arrest after fertilization due to chromosome issues and whatnot. The transfer (when embryo goes from petri dish to warm, comfy ut) takes places either 3 or 5 days after retrieval. 5 days is preferred as this is the point when the embryos have reached blastocyst stage. A 3 day transfer is still o.k. And sometimes is done if waiting until day 5 has no advantage; say if you only had 1 or 2 embryos to transfer anyhow. If more embryos than what we will transfer are still viable and growing at day 6, they can be cryopreserved or made into embie-cubes! Even if we have eggs that fertilize and embryos that make it to blastocyst stage, our chances of making it to implantation and a screaming kid 36 weeks later are 65%. In the IVF world, this is actually pretty darn good.
So, as you can see we have only managed to jump one of several hurdles. I've made it past what i think is our biggest one, egg growing! As J said, you can't make it past the other hurdles until you make it over the first one. Man, he's awfully philosophical at 9am. We are hoping and praying and crossing all possible appendages that retrieval, fertilization, blastocyst, and implantation will leave us with the biggest, fattest, BFP there ever was!!!
UPDATE: Retrieval will be Sunday at 0830! E2 was 2603 today. Wowza! Once again J rocked out the money shot. We ended up triggering with 10,000 units which means it'll take me ~10 days to flush it out of my system... Delays my POAS accuracy a lil more but i'm prepared. I believe I have 10 pregnancy tests along with like 12 strips to pee on. I'm going to be a POAS freak!
Since trigger is done, NO MORE NEEDLES!! Hallelujah!
This part of the process is why we pay the $big bucks$. To be successful it is imperative they follow a strict timeline. If the follicles aren't big enough or mature enough and are aspirated early, they might not contain mature eggs and/or the eggs won't fertilize properly. If they wait too long, I will ovulate all these eggs on my own and we lose the chance to retrieve them. I've had heard they want follicles between 16-20mm for the best chance to find nice, juicy ripe eggs. The other balancing act is the HCG trigger shot (aka "money shot"). The HCG acts as the LH surge in a natural cycle and puts the follicles through their final maturation process. Without HCG (or LH) the follicles and eggs they contain are useless and won't fertilize. The trigger MUST be given precisely 36 hours before retrieval.
Why do I say yikes! when I refer to retrieval? It is a complicated and delicate process. First, it involves me undergoing anesthesia. Though I could administer it to myself thanks to my CNOR certification, it scares me to be the receiver and not the giver. Second, I will be up in stirrups with coot for all to see. Third, in order to get those lovely eggs, via ultrasound guidance they stick a giant needle through the vaginal wall to aspirate the follicles. This might also involve pushing/pulling my already bloated tummy or a hole through the uterus if they can't get them via vag. Oh by the way, please don't put a hole in my ureters or bowel, thanks! Finally, I work in the operating room, I KNOW what goes on.... Sometimes it's fun. Most times it's good, but when it's bad, it's b.a.d. The reassuring angle is I know what to expect and really, this is a fairly minor (though nerve-wracking) procedure. I also plan on wearing my own cute scrub hat instead of the ugly, itchy blue bouffant most patients are subjected to. After retrieval, I'm hopped up on propofol (the Michael Jackson drug) and Vicodin and the rest of the work is up to the embryologist and his gang of pros. They do some fancy work that involves isolation, incubation, and fertilization. Most times they just mix up sperm and eggs in a dish and they fertilize. Because of J's lazy ass sperms we will be doing ICSI or intracytoplasmic sperm injection. After he gives it up in a cup, they'll pick out the bestest looking ones "going for gold" and inject one single sperm into each egg via a seriously tiny needle. Like microscopic. The next day we find out how many actually fertilized- usually 80% do. This is where they turn from eggs to embryos. Then, we wait! After fertilization, they start to divide. Some will arrest after fertilization due to chromosome issues and whatnot. The transfer (when embryo goes from petri dish to warm, comfy ut) takes places either 3 or 5 days after retrieval. 5 days is preferred as this is the point when the embryos have reached blastocyst stage. A 3 day transfer is still o.k. And sometimes is done if waiting until day 5 has no advantage; say if you only had 1 or 2 embryos to transfer anyhow. If more embryos than what we will transfer are still viable and growing at day 6, they can be cryopreserved or made into embie-cubes! Even if we have eggs that fertilize and embryos that make it to blastocyst stage, our chances of making it to implantation and a screaming kid 36 weeks later are 65%. In the IVF world, this is actually pretty darn good.
So, as you can see we have only managed to jump one of several hurdles. I've made it past what i think is our biggest one, egg growing! As J said, you can't make it past the other hurdles until you make it over the first one. Man, he's awfully philosophical at 9am. We are hoping and praying and crossing all possible appendages that retrieval, fertilization, blastocyst, and implantation will leave us with the biggest, fattest, BFP there ever was!!!
UPDATE: Retrieval will be Sunday at 0830! E2 was 2603 today. Wowza! Once again J rocked out the money shot. We ended up triggering with 10,000 units which means it'll take me ~10 days to flush it out of my system... Delays my POAS accuracy a lil more but i'm prepared. I believe I have 10 pregnancy tests along with like 12 strips to pee on. I'm going to be a POAS freak!
Since trigger is done, NO MORE NEEDLES!! Hallelujah!
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