Transfer

I'm on bed rest now so perhaps when boredom over takes me (thank you two hour Elizabeth Taylor Biography for warding that off a little longer) I'll write a longer post...but for now a quick recap.....

Last cycle only 1 blast made it (a grade C).

This time there were 6. Two A's are resting comfortably inside of me as we speak. We'll hear if any froze tomorrow.

I am extremely optimistic. Even if this one doesn't work, we can make quality embryos.

The very sweet nurse told me this is twins and that at the clinic everyone with A Blasts gets pregnant. I don't know if the odds are quite a 100% but I'll take it.

I'll leave with a quick tip.... Drink you 48ounces at least an hour before transfer so your doctor doesn't have to reschedule other patients while she waits for your bladder to fill.

Day 3 Fertility Report

I went back to work on Tuesday. On the drive there I started feeling sick. I assumed it was becaue I'd been so lazy the last few days and my body wasn't used to being out and about.

But things got worse. By lunch time I couldn't stand up without feeling like I was going to pass out. I drove home..almost having to pull over to throw up...fell in to bed and stayed there til my husband came home from work.

I had a fever. I was so week I couldn't stand long enough to fill my PIO needle. I called my doctor fearful of an infection (not OHSS my bloating had actually gone down) or something that would keep me from transfer on Friday. She told me to go to the ER. I decided to wait til the morning to see if I felt better (the ER being the last place I'd want to go).

The next morning I woke up covered in sweat. The fever had broken. By the end of the day I was doing a little jig (you'll hear why soon). Crazy sick. Crazy fast. Then Crazy better. Just a flu nothing to do with the surgery and nothing to ruin the transfer.

So why the jig? Got my day 3 fertility report! At 6pm...which gave me plenty of time to worry that she was avoiding me cause it was bad news. She wasn't.

Last time at day 3 I had: "2 at 7, 1 at 6 and 2 a 5 cells" (isn't it nice to have a blog to look back on?)

This time I have 9 left! 3 at 7, 4 at 8 1 at 9 cells and a morula! -- I told my Ivf veteran friend at work and she started tearing up. Holy crow me might have more than one crappy blast on Friday!

I know this doesn't guareentee anything, but even if this cycle doesn't work doesn't it feel like they found the right mix of cocktails for me?

Last time I had a problem with egg quality. If you remember they were cloudy and looked older than they should (I'm 31). I asked my doctor about the quality of these eggs. She said she won't know for 2 weeks when she gets the full report, but that the embryologist told her based on the goo the eggs were surrounded by at retrivels (goo being the scientific term) the eggs looked great and healthy.

So to recap....embabies doing well. Way better than last time. Egg quality good no more talk of donor eggs. Sperm quality great. Transfer on Friday. And even if this isn't my cycle I have so much more hope for future ones! (but this will be my cycle!)

Update: IVF #2 Day after Egg Retrivel

I'm in the middle of IVF #2. I've been reading a ton of IVF blogs and I know what a help they are while you're in limbo so I figured I should continue this one in hopes of giving insight/comfort/knowledge/your not alone feelings to others like me.

It's been a while since IVF #1. How long you ask? Well I just dipped my toe back in the infertility chat sites I used to frequent and I noticed the woman who had her retrivel the same day as mine's daughter is due NEXT WEEK.

A long time right? When I first saw that it took my breath away a little.

What else has happened in that time? Well friend who announced her pregnancy to me shortly after failed IVF just gave birth.

Two of the men at work have announced their wives are pregnant -- both first month trying.

Okay, on with the good. Cause there is good. (and this is just fertility wise cause not fertility wise my life is TONS of good....but who cares about new furniture or a trip to hawaii if they're reading this blog?)

Yesterday was my second Egg Retrivel. This cycle was a different protocol than the last. No Lupron. No Follistim. From BCP I went right in to 11 days of Gonal f (300-375), menupur (one vial) Lupenex (1 vial) 2 days of Human growth hormone, and toward the end a shot a night that was supposed to supress my ovulation.

Last time 18 follicles 13 eggs
This time 14 follicles 14 eggs! No empties....a good sign!

Last time 13 eggs 7 fertilized (all with ICSI)

This time 14 eggs 13 fertilized! (8 with ICSI 5 au natural!) another good sign!

Looks like we'll have transfer this Friday (day 5). I'm feeling extremely positive about this round. I don't know why...it just feels different. I'm excited. I wasn't this excited last time.

I'll let you know what happens.

When You Wish...

When we got Grace she was a very scared kitty.  In fact it took us about a year before she'd let me pet her.   During that year my husband and I would lie on our couch and watch TV.  Sometimes Newman joined us.  I always talked about the day when our entire family...DH, me, and BOTH cats would all be relaxing on the couch at the same time.

It took a while, but it did happen.  And it kept happening.  I remember the first time I had that feeling of "this is exactly what I wished for".   It was very meaningful to me.

Last night Jeremy and I sat in our backyard watching for meteors.  I saw a giant one and a couple of small ones.  It was pretty awesome.  I told him that someday we'll be waking our kids up and dragging their little butts outside to join us.  It will be our "thing".  I can't wait.

It might take as long as it took Grace to jump on the couch.  It might take a whole lot longer.  But it is going to happen and when it does it is going to be that much more special.

You Did It. You Finally Did It.

I met someone.  One of my co-workers has a 10 year old daughter...through IVF.  

I'm a sitcom writer.  It's a job where hundreds of people fight for dozens of jobs.  The hours are  long.  You work weekend.  You don't take time off.  Not a good place for a pregnant woman.

I'm not pregnant.  But I don't want to announce to the writing gods that I am working hard to get pregnant.    So for the past two years I have kept this HUGE part of my life a secret.

It's still a secret except for one person.  That co-worker.  I told her.  She stopped her plans and took me to lunch.  We talked for an hour.  SHE UNDERSTANDS.  

She was my age when she started.  Her first IVF failed, too.  She has been to the mountain top.  

I cannot tell you have life-changing this is.  I have never met one of us.  I've heard their were others.  I've read their blogs.  But there is something about seeing one face to face.  She knows exactly what I'm going through.  She has advice.  She has warnings.  She has comfort.

I am on the Planet of the Fertiles.   I woke up in a world where what is the "norm" is not my norm.   Where I don't belong.  But fortunately I found one more of my species.

Tick Tock TIck Tock

I love my husband's best man's wife.     

She's funny and creative.  A great "mate" at all those functions where I'm surrounded by people our husbands went to college with and I could care less about.

Before they were married a year they got pregnant with their son.  Who is unbelievably cute.  He's three now.

It was inevitable they were going to go for number two.  

She told me they were going to start in May.  They are 12 weeks pregnant.   You do the math.

At my FIL's funeral they must have known, but she didn't tell me.  I'm sure she had her reasons.  Maybe they weren't telling anyone yet.  Maybe it was the fact that my IVF just failed and we were mourning the loss of a father AND a child.  The point is she said nothing.  

I respect her for that.

When she sent me the email saying she was pregnant, it was caring and sensitive.  

I respect that too.

Though I am happy for her, I broke out into "sad for me" tears.  But I sent her an email full of the good.  None of the bad feelings.  

Perhaps I should have added some of the bad.  Because this paragraphed was included in her response....

Thanks for being happy for us, I knew you would be, but it's okay to
wish me another week or two of morning (afternoon/evening) sickness.
;)

WTF?!  Like the last two years of my life....the suffering, the tears, the shots, the surgery, the hormones, the blood draws, the MONEY...did I mention the tears?  Is equal to another week (or two) of morning sickness.  Morning sickness I would give my right arm (or stab myself repeatedly in the stomach) for.

This is not a bad person.  This is just a person that has NO IDEA what our side is like.  She didn't mean to be insensitive.  I wish her no ill will.  I am still happy(ish) for her.  But Dang.  If this is one of my friends who know about our IF what are the ones that don't going to say?

Do you know what's crazy?  I wonder if I would be in such a rush to get pregnant if there weren't all of these timebombs surrounding me.  A lot of that feeling of rush is because I want to prevent this pain from happening again and again.  

Don't get me wrong...I want a child DESPERATELY.  But each BFN isn't just a loss of that child, it's another month that I have to hold my breath whenever a friend calls to "talk".  Another month of avoiding facebook.  You get the drift.

Enough lonelyness - tomorrow I talk about actually talking face to face with someone who has done IVF.  And she's my workmate!  

I'm Back

I didn't expect to be gone so long.  

So much has happened in the time since my last post. 

I am going to spread out talking about it so I actually get my butt back into the blogging every day gear.

But the first awesome event was the arrival of our "IVF twins"...a.k.a. the two kittens we adopted in immediate response to not getting knocked up after our actual IVF.

So may I present.....Milo

And Lizzie (after getting into our sooty fireplace)....

So for those of you counting that is FOUR cats.  I keep feeling like I need to also mention that I have a husband whenever I bring up the fact that I now have FOUR cats.  Like that somehow makes it better.   FOUR!

Speaking of the other two .... Newman and Grace are not happy.  It's only been a month so here's hoping they learn to love the kittens.  It's so weird seeing teeny tiny little Liz all brave near big FAT Grace and it's Grace that is scared.    

Tomorrow's post - The first pregnancy announcement since my failed IVF or What not to say to an infertile friend when presenting the news of your easy conception.