Transfer Day!

The last thing I reported here was that I had 21 eggs retrieved. This was great news! Then the next day, more great news, 15 eggs were fertilized! I felt like it was Christmas in August. I was scheduled for a 5 day transfer (Yay! My favorite nurse is there on Mondays).

Then on Friday, I got the less exciting call. My 15 beautiful eggs were not “responding well to the lab” and they were moving my transfer up to day 3 (which was a Saturday...with Bitchy Nurse) since we only had 2 good quality eggs left. I suppose I was getting a bit greedy with the 15, but honestly, this news crushed me. So, I suffered through the evening even getting kind of emotional letting a few tears trickle down unexpectedly in the middle of a restaurant(the progesterone, not my normal style).

The morning on Saturday was great, I went to starbucks and enjoyed a small decaf coffee with a croissant on the way into the center . When we arrived, we learned that 5 of the slower responding embryos had improved greatly and we now had a total of 7 embryos with 8 cells! I’m happy again, of course, it’s still sad to see so many die off, but we knew my eggs weren’t perfect or I wouldn’t be in the IVF clinic in the first place. We decided to transfer the 2 best quality embryos and try to get as many of the other to blasts as possible so we could freeze them.

The transfer was ok. I was hoping for a little more “drunkenness” from the valium, but it was weak. In fact, I didn’t really feel it at all. I had been drinking water on the way in, so I had to pee pretty bad, which is what they want. I undressed from the waist down and put on the little robe and waited for the big moment. We were taken into the transfer room and the lights were lowered. The embryologist brought in my babies, and we were able to see them both in the microscope. It was amazing. The earliest form of human life with TW and my genetic make up. Crazy!

I got back onto my little bed and my legs were once again strapped into the stirrups. They began the sonogram to make sure my bladder was full (I could have told them that, but go ahead and push that thing down on there hard). I was really not relaxed at all. I expected to be practically slobbering from the valium and that just wasn’t the case. I found the speculum to be more uncomfortable than usual and the catheter leading into my uterus to also be uncomfortable. Neither was a big deal, but just unexpected. Once everything was in place the embryologist handed my day 3 babies to the doctor in a syringe with a bubble of air preceding them and another bubble behind them to indicate their position.

At this point the bitch nurse really started pushing on my bladder. I was really in some actual pain from this bladder issue. I still hadn’t totally recovered from the urinary catheter on retrieval day, so that may have exacerbated the situation. I was clinging to TW’s hand for some comfort and not really looking at the screen, but he was able to see the whole thing and was amazed by the process. We tucked those little embies into their uterus bed and then they wheeled me out of the room. The bitch nurse left me for maybe 10 minutes where I was nearly trembling from the need to relieve myself. Once she returned, she sent me into the porn restroom, which I found to be hilarious, but also slightly revolting. The videos in there were laughable; I seriously wish I could remember some of the ridiculous names. Note to on site sperm producing men...bring your own porn. I walked back to my little room and stayed for another 45 minutes or so. I was finally feeling a little tired from the valium, so the time went by quickly. Then they released us.