Hi everyone, As I mentioned in our previous blog, the infertility world refers to the appointment after a failed cycle as the “WTF” appointment. You discuss what happened in the cycle, how you would like to proceed, what your options are, how you are feeling etc. Let’s go in order, shall we? What happened this cycle?: We implanted our best 6AA blastocyst, my lining was 11mm, and everything looked textbook perfect. How would you like to proceed?: We are going to start another FET cycle with my next period, which should be towards the end of September or early October. My...
The title speaks for itself. There really is no concrete explanation of why this happened, other than what we all already know – IVF is never a sure thing. I began testing around 7 days after our transfer, and each home test was starkly negative. For a 6 day blast transfer, I should have received a positive around that time, or before. I generally prefer testing at home instead of waiting two weeks and going in for the beta and having my hopes come crashing down all at once. This way, when I test at home I prepare myself for the negative tests of...
We had our FET this morning and everything went great! Our highest quality blastocyst made it through the thaw and looked great, so that is what we transferred today. We opted to do the transfer at our IVF clinic itself instead of their surgical center in Redondo Beach, purely out of convenience. One of the things that I loved about this was that the nurses who prepped me were nurses that I see all the time. Patti (who taught us how to do our injections and has assisted on several ultrasounds) assisted Dr. Yee via ultrasound during the transfer. You know, there...
Hi everyone, Sorry for the radio silence, but I haven’t actually had much to update you on until now. And WHY is that, you ask? Well, I’ll tell you. Ever since we began treatment – my cycle has decided to be ENTIRELY uncooperative. Go figure, right? Many years of tracking and constant reliability and as soon as we start treatment, my body goes, “Haha, NOPE.” This past cycle, my period was 13 days late. THIRTEEN. That’s almost a fortnight. I kept waiting and waiting for it to show up, and finally after about a week I broke down and took...
I keep playing this particular scene from Hamilton over and over in my head. It’s in “Stay Alive (Reprise)”. [Philip] I did exactly as you said, Pa I held my head up high [Hamilton] I know, I know. Shh I know, I know, shh I know you did everything just right. The brutal reality of infertility is that you can do exactly as you are told, do everything just right – and still not succeed. There is no magic wand that you can wave, and no amount of positive energy or hope can bring you the outcome that you desire....
I’m sorry for the delay in this post, things have been a little insane! So, I heard from the clinic on Sunday where they gave us our Day 6 Blastocyst report. Remember that we still had 5 in play, as of the day of my embryo transfer (which was Day 3). Of the five embryos, two did not make it to the blastocyst stage. One arrested in its development and thus was not viable to be frozen. The other was of low quality (there was no center mass of cells to indicate that it was a healthy blastocyst). So we...
I needed some space before I posted this update. I’m sure everyone understands. As I mentioned we were waiting and hoping for a Day 5 Blastocyst, and we were waiting to hear from the Embryologist. Well, I heard from them at 9AM on Thursday morning, and the embryologist told me that based on the results they were seeing, that they wanted me to come in that afternoon for a Day 3 Transfer, at 2:30PM. This meant our embryos were not on track to be considered good enough quality to be frozen as blastocysts. Of course, my heart just sank. Of the...
As promised, here is my new set of protocol that I need to follow. Look at all the pretty colors! Somebody used every color in the highlighter pack…Anyway. It’s 5/29, so I began taking the Doxycycline which is an antibiotic that I will remain on until my egg transfer. The purpose for this is obvious, after any procedure they will prescribe antibiotics in order to ward off any possible infection. Tomorrow, I will take two tylenol with a small sip of water (this was stressed several times) at 7AM, and we will arrive for the appointment at 8:15AM, actual procedure will...
We had our final appointment before having the egg retrieval. Dr. Cass is very excited for us, and was happy with the growth on both ovaries. My Estrogen level yesterday was 1763, and today it is 1890. Doctors estimate that a mature follicle produces ~200 pg/ml of Estrogen. Meaning, that as of today I have about 9 follicles that would be considered mature. Personally, I was hoping for a higher number than that, but as I understand things, even after the trigger shot my follicles will continue to grow 1-3mm per day. Here’s to hoping that some of these smaller ones turn...
So here we are, on day 10 of stims, and HAPPILY – tomorrow morning is my last day of injections! They told me to take my Gonal-F tonight as normal, and then tomorrow to only take the Ganirelix and Menopur in the morning. Dr. Cass came in and very happily and said we are ‘on our way’! She then told me how her arm gets tired after doing my ultrasound because I have so many follicles on the right hand side. “I cant rest my arm while performing the ultrasound, and there’s so many!” She is now affectionately referring to my...
