Wednesday, December 7, 2011

OJB Update (That's Operation Jellybean, for those who are keeping score)

Well, it has been a few days since my transfer, and the emotions are running high. On Monday, I was on cloud nine, thinking I just "knew" this had worked! Tuesday, notsomuch. Today, I am straddling the fence ... though if I'm being completely honest and dare to think this, I'm still leaning towards it working, yay!


All-in-all, the ET went very smoothly, and our luck has just been remarkable so far. When we arrived at UCSF Friday morning, I had already gone to acupunture (the first of two visits with her that day) and taken a 10mg valium, so I was feeling more than fine! I got into my sexy hospital gown yet again and slipped on my bold, stripey green socks for luck, and we waited nervously to get the show on the road. At last, a nurse says, "oh, the doctor wants to talk to you first. It's good news!" Um, ok. We like good stuff. Dr. Fujimoto (who I admittedly was not crazy about when I saw him once during the IUI days, I may have misjudged) brought us into the room with the embryologist and explained that ALL 14 of our embryos were of the highest grade, so we had a decision to make: take the best-looking 2 and transfer them that day as planned and see how many of the others make it to blastocyst stage for freezing, or grow them all out to blast and choose the best 1 or 2 on day 5 from the crop that survive. Once he explained that there is always a slim chance that they all arrest and we end up with nothing, we knew we would be transferring that day. The only thing we knew with certainty was that these two gorgeous 8 and 9-cell embies were ready and waiting, so we went for it. By day 5, 2 more were frozen and 4 more even made it to day 6!


I have moments where I second-guess not waiting to see which made it to blast and choosing from them, since they have a higher likelihood of implanting successfully. But then I remember that we didn't know for sure that we would have ANY that made it that far. The fact that we lost half of them remaining twelve might seem like a negative, but to me, that means the two they put back have a 50-50 chance each! No, that's not really how it works, but I'm going to let myself think that for now.  :)


I have been crampy off and on, and staying hydrated seems to help - though if I have to pee any more often, I might just take up residence in the bathroom! Otherwise, my only discomfort is soreness from the progesterone injections. Justin is being such a trooper with those, by the way. I can't imagine having to stab someone I love with a 1 and 1/2 inch needle on a nightly basis, sometimes leading to bloodshed and/or bruising. I SWEAR, it really doesn't hurt though!


I still have a full week before I test. Justin and I decided that we'll take a HPT on Thursday morning 12/15 and use my scheduled beta bloodwork on Friday as confirmation of the results, and to monitor my HCG levels. My goal this week is to be more distracted by all of the Christmas stuff I've been slacking on instead of the outcome of my IVF cycle. Let's see how well that works!


And without further ado, here are our potential babies. When I handed Justin this photo, he immediately got weepy and said his paternal instincts kicked in and he just wanted to make sure nothing bad happened to them.  *tear*


No comments:

Post a Comment