Fert Report

Source: reasonstobreathe.tumblr.com via Kimberly on Pinterest

Twelve retrieved, ten were able to be injected via ICSI. Of the 10, four were good, two were fair and two were poor. As of my fert report, six had fertilized and possibly another two, but there was something about the way the pronucleus was situated that made it hard to tell if those two were fertilized or if they were crapping out. This is probably my worst retrieval to date. Or at least my worst fert report.



With IVF #1 I had 13 retrieved, 6 mature, 5 fertilized. That cycle I transferred two on day 3 (a grade 4, 8-cell and a grade 3, 8-cell) and I conceived a singleton. I had nothing left to freeze.



With IVF #2 I had 14 retrieved, 13 mature, 12 fertilized. That cycle I transferred three on day 5 (two 2AA's and one 1AB) and have two frosties.



The worst is going through my head. What if none of them make it to day 5? What if we transfer the wrong one? What if my last attempt to conceive ends in a miscarriage again and I have no frosties?



How is it that in both of my fresh cycles I had essentially an 85% fertilization rate, but this cycle almost half of my eggs didn't fertilize? I'm beside myself. And as much as I want to stay positive, it is hard to.



I get my day 3 report on Wednesday. I am refusing a 3DT since we are doing an sET and our clinic's FET rates are so, so low. I figure a 5DT will give me my best chance to pick the best embryo. I know if this doesn't work out that we are already so unbelievably blessed. But I will be sad if this ends badly. I already feel guilty for taking money out of our savings to continue growing our family. And this cycle was hard, hard, hard. To go through all of this for nothing would devastate me.

a dar~ing, clue~ing, hint~ing kind of day...

today i have donned my businessy nitty gritty cap 

so i may tackle my businessy nitty gritty stuff with authority. 

i thought my cap rather bedraggled 

leaving me no choice but to perk it up 

by wearing a bright green floral frock & cardi avec elbow fabric patches. 

so far i have dibbled and dabbled upon Colin the computer for near on two hours, 

all the time dingly dangling the carrot of a 'gold sticky star' so i may stay focused. 

do you like clues?

 hints?

 possible snippets of something interesting? 

i have no idea if monday is such a day for such things, 

but whilst wearing my businessy nitty gritty cap

 i am overcome with throwing caution to the wind, 

gathering up my authority on such matters as 'hints and clues' 

and saying

 "why yes it is Tif, it is the only day of the week worthy of such matters"...

how daring, how clue~ing, and yes, how hint~ing can one get?

Tif 

scuppered by a snow storm...

yes indeedy, 

we have been scuppered by a snow storm

 but the grand news is, 

we have power and heat again, 

hurrah hooray!

here's just a smidgen of pics 

showing the wintery views from Mossy Shed

these past few days...

i will be back on monday, all thawed out and ready to go 

(not that i'm going anywhere in particular, but as in a 'hey ho lets go' sort of way) 

wishing you a spiffy and warm weekend

(unless you are in exotic climes such as Australia, then perhaps it is a little too warm and you maybe wishing for a cooler weekend, if so, then i do wish you a spiffy and cooler weekend)

Tif

Another IVF Comes to a Close

With the kids birthday and the holidays it was (almost) easy to forget that I was cycling. I'm triggering for IVF #3 tonight. I'm kind of disappointed because with my first IVF I stimmed for 9 days, with my second (the most perfect cycle ever) I stimmed for 8 and this time I only made it 7 days.



I knew within an hour of taking my shots last night that they would be my last set of stims. I felt full and crampy. It was hard to go to the bathroom and I was an EWCM machine (too much info? Sorry!). The PA was surprised to see so many mature follicles already and my bloodwork showed that my e2 was climbing. Trigger time.



Maybe this is a godsend? I had 12 measurable follicles at today's scan. My AFC was 19 for this cycle, which terrified me. We've decided that when we are done having children we will donate our remaining embryos to research through Stanford's Renew Biobank. While I am (almost 100%) comfortable with that decision, filling out the paperwork last week really killed me. The paperwork refers to Joe and I as a sperm donor and an egg donor. Gosh, we're so much more than that.



It is my hope that this cycle turns out similar to our last cycle - 14 eggs retrieved, 13 mature, 12 fertilized and 2 crapped out by day three. By day five we had 10 embryos -- 4 were crapping out, 3 were transferred and 2 were frozen.



As of October 2011 all 5 of our "viable" embryos had been transferred back to me and only two implanted and became children (obviously, Reese and Ryan).



So if all works out in real time as it has in my head. We'll have a similar cycle and end up with baby #3 and maybe baby #4 and be done with nothing left to give to research. Maybe it's a good thing that all 19 of my available follicles didn't rise to the occasion? But it doesn't feel so good knowing that I'm at least a day ahead of where I should be for this cycle.



Retrieval is Sunday and my 5DT will be Friday. We're sticking to an sET. The remaining embryos will be frozen on day 5 or day 6 depending on their state. I know I should be relieved that this is almost over, but my cage is really rattled.