Today was transfer day -- doc transferred 3 8-cell embies. Seeing as I'm on bed rest and already bored, this is going to be a detailed post. If you want the reader's digest version, well... the first sentence which you already read sums it all up.
I showed up at 9 a.m., and it was very quiet, nobody around that I could see, so I first went to do my blood draw. Then thank goodness on my way out, I ran into my acupuncturist who was there to meet me. She took me in a back room where I chugged my 32 ounces of water and lay down on the table for my 25-minute pre-transfer session. There was no music, and I forgot my iPod, so I sat there in silence and tried to think positive.
It wasn't easy because yesterday I had gotten the "day 2" call from the embroyolgist who gave his report: 1 more fertilized, which brought the total up to 7 of 8. Of the 6 that were fertilized by Thursday, 1 was "acceptable", 1 was "almost acceptable", and the other four were "behind." I didn't want to blog it because I felt embarassed at the not-so-impressive results. When I called my acupuncturist with the transfer time, it felt pointless to even ask her to show up with me -- what if that one "acceptable" didn't even make it to day 3??? I was bummed out most of the day. Almost to the point of being a cranky ass bitch but not quite. I did a little internet research on donors. I found a donor site where you don't have to register in order to search a database with photos, and I picked out a woman who kind of sort of looked like me. Well OK she was prettier than me. And taller. I looked into the cost of it ($20 - 30K min, out of pocket). That helped me feel a little better, even though we don't have cash for it yet. But it kept me from feeling totally helpless and hopeless.
After the pre-transfer acupuncture, the embryologist met with me. He showed me pictures. I'd scan the emby pics for your viewing enjoyment, but for some reason, can't get the scanner to work, so maybe later. He had two embryo pics. The first one showed three 8-cell blobs, one of which had 10% fragmentation, the other two which had 15%. Not perfect, but compared to my very low expectations, it sounded perfect enough to me! And, compared to last time, when I had one 8-cell, 2 7-cells, and 1 6-cell, all of which were about 25% fragmented, this was good news. His next picture showed the four other embies -- of those, 3 were 6- to 8-celled with a lot of fragmentation, and one (the one that fertilized a day late) was a 5-cell with no visible fragmentation.
He recommended transferring 2 or 3 of the 8-cells, and none of the others. I asked if transfering the 5-cell would increase the chances, and he said no, but he's hoping it'll make it to freeze. He gave me pregnancy rates for transferring 1, 2, or 3 (I think it was like 25%, 48%, and 60% -- which I'm sure wasn't taking into account fragmentation or past IVF failures, but it's not like I expect him to be a walking Google). It was hard for me to just leave the 4 he didn't recommend putting back, especially at this juncture where I truly think this will be my last IVF ever with my own eggs. I was tempted to say "just throw them all in for the hell of it" because it seems like it wouldn't hurt anything (I mean, really, who actually has seven take, especially a 37-yo with multiple failures and DOR!!). But in the end I took his advice and asked to have the 3 8-cells transferred.
There was no Valium this time. Probably for the best since I'd be driving myself home. DH was (still is) rock climbing. Which is fine, he's ADHD and probably would have driven me nuts, especially as I was trying to relax during the needle portions of the mornng.
Nurse asked me to undress and sit on the table so she could check my bladder to make sure it was full enough. She said I could empty it a bit (thank god, I was scared I was going to leak during the procedure). She gave me a Dixie cup and said I could pee out two cups worth, but I only peed out 1.5 cups worth just to be safe.
Back on the table, the nurse gave me a blankie since I complained it was cold, which I would have normally kept my mouth shut about in an effort to be polite, however my acupuncturist made a big point of telling me to keep warm at all times. I was even wearing a long-sleeved fleece top. Doc came in (not the doc I was expecting, but that's OK) and had no problem whatsoever with the transfer. Good hands?? My other two transfers were both problematic, requiring reloads and a bit of finagling. I saw the catheter on the U/S screen.
After loading the embies into my uterus, he passed the empty catheter back to the embryologist, who took it back in the lab to reload it, this time with semen. This particular clinic saves semen from DH and puts it in after the embies to mimic the environment of real sex. There's a possibility that the semen triggers the uterus to get ready to accept embryos, and although nothing is proven, the clinic figures it can't hurt. I like these guys, they seem to be doing as much as they can.
After that, they leaned be back at about 30 degrees and had me stay in that position, alone in the room, for 10 minutes. Good idea...no clinic had ever done that before, yet I had done it many times after bms.
My acupuncturist re-punctured me and for a second time I sat needled in silence. Before leaving the room, she told me to breath deeply and open my heart. I spent time in my head thinking of any negativity I felt toward any person and tried to heal it with love and forgiveness. I also told my little embabies "welcome to my belly", and I envisioned what my body would look like in Sept, Oct, Nov, etc, all the way up until birth-day, when I pictured having a little baby on my chest in a hospital.
Normally I wouldn't do this because it feels like a form of torment to want something that I can't have. But for the sake of positive thinking and sending good vibrations from my mind to all my other body cells and to my little embabies, it seemed like the right thing to do.
Conceptions recommends five days -- FIVE!! -- of bed rest. I'm already wanting to escape from the couch!
