Some Early Good News

I got the call today from FINO on the cryopreservation. They froze
12!! That is fantastic! It means all 14 that were looking perfect at
day 3 made it to the blastocysts stage - and actually a day past to
make it to the preservation stage. And even better news - I'll
probably never have to do the first phase of this again. You know, the
massive pain part of it. So even if t works, when we want more
children we just do thaw and do another transfer.

Such a blessing!

Torture!

I am only on day 2 of a 10 day wait! I am not going to be able to
STAND this for 8 more days!! Any suggestions for ways to take my mind
off this?!

Now the Wait Begins

Today went very well.  I wasn't near as nervous of course, because the transfer procedure is a much simpler procedure.  Everything almost went smoothly - our doctor's car overheated on the way to Metarie.  We were going to wait, but when it was too long, they asked if we would mind another doctor doing the procedure, and we were ok with that.  I'm reposting the picture so I can describe it a little more.  FINO did a day 5 blastocyst transfer for us.  This isn't always recommended, but it is recommended for younger patients with a high number of healthy embryos.  Less may make it to day 5, but they are stronger and healthier when they do.  So clinics can implant 2 blastocysts versus 3-4 day 3 embryos and still have high or higher pregnancy rates while eliminating the risk of triplets or higher.  At day 5, you can tell the health of an embryo because at this point, it is now using it's own genes to create energy for division instead of the parents.  I'm such an engineer, but I found this fascinating.  Here is a link with a lot of blastocyst information.  Our embryos were very high grade - this is seen due to the 2 distinct masses.  You can see the outer edge of cells that become a placenta and the inner mass (surrounded by a fluid cavity) that will become the baby.  If you look close to the one of the left, you can see the white circumference - this is the shell it should hatch out of today before it implants.  There were 4 perfect embryos, and should be more that completely develop.  So we'll have some frozen embryos.  The neatest part of this is that if it works, this is our first baby photos! :)  How often do you get to have a photo of your child 5 days after conception?  Great thing to pull out one day to the future boyfriends/girlfriends!

Two Beautiful Embryos

Day 3 Results - Looking Great!

So far so good!  On our day 3 embryo evaluation, we had the following results:
9 - 8 cell grade 4 embryos
5 - 8 cell grade 3 embryos
3 - 6 cell and 5 cell embryos
Looking results up online, it sounds like FINO's grading is reversed.  The nurse told me that grade 3 and 4 are the embryos that "make the babies".  So we have 14 high quality embryos as of day 3.  We will transfer on day 5 when they are in the blastocyst state.  This helps give an even better assessment of embryo quality - and in the end results in a higher rate of pregnancy.  We are able to do this because had so many high quality embryos.  It also puts the embryo where it should be on day 5, as opposed to a day 3 transfer where the embryo in a natural pregnancy hasn't traveled that far yet!  So tomorrow morning at 8 is our embryo transfer, and things look good so far.  Just continue to pray for good development and for everything to go perfectly tomorrow!  Let's hope tomorrow is finally our day!

Yay!

Good news!! 17/20 fertilized! All may not make it (stop dividing due
to DNA problems) but 17 to start with is fantastic! Hopefully we'll
get plenty of grade A embryos and not ever have to do this first part
again. It's not pleasant at all. Keep praying!

We've Topped the Hill

I am going to have to say the worst is over. I was really nervous about today, but I think it was more the IV was the worry.  I am NOT a fan of needles.  But the IV went ok, I only almost passed out, I didn't completely!  I know that warm tingly pre black out feeling so well now that I know when to lay down!  But once that was done and we were ready to go back, I remember the Anesthesiologist telling me he was putting in the medicine to put me to sleep, then he was waking me up.  Not bad at all!  And the doctor came into my room while I was still groggy, so Randy had to refresh me of this later - but he was expecting 16 mature eggs, and he got 20, and most of them were grade 3, some grade 2.  Grade 3 is the good grade that you want.  So they have plenty of good eggs to work with, which is good!  So the nurse will call us in the morning to let us know how fertilization is going.  Usually around 70% fertilize, so let's just hope we get some great grade A embryos!  Dr. Dunaway also said he expects me to come back for the transfer Tuesday (a 5 day transfer, I would have thought Monday). The bad thing, is if the transfer Tuesday, that's 3 days of bed rest I'll be out of work.  Oh wait, did I say bad thing?... My mistake!