Day 2 embryos

On Monday morning we had a call from embryology again to let us know how our embryos were looking today. We expected that some of them would have died by this stage. But we had the fantastic fantastic news that ALL of the 6 embryos had survived and divided.

We were told that we had four 4-cell embryos and two 2-cell embryos and that 4 of the embryos were grade 2 quality and the other 2 were grade 1 quality, with 1 being the top grade.

Again, this seemed too good to be true. Every vibe we have is directed at these six little clusters of cells.

We were told to expect another phone call on Tuesday with a progress report and the news on how the PGD test had gone.

'How do you like your eggs?' 'Fertilised please'

On Sunday morning we got a call from embryology. Out of the 7 eggs collected, all of them were mature and 6 of them had fertilised!

We could not believe our luck - that was fantastic news and just what we needed after the trauma of the past couple of days.

The picture above is what they would have looked like at this stage. You can see the two nuclei at the centre of the cell - one of those would contain my DNA and the other H's. For the first time, we had created something that was part me, part him. It was an amazing feeling and incredibly emotional.

We were told that we would be called the next day when they would have expected any viable embryos to have divided into 2-4 cells. Cue another 24 hours of nail-biting and wishing hard.

Humpty Dumpty and egg collection

I haven't done a post for a good few days because it has really been a stressful few days and I haven't felt like blogging. But I need to post now before there is any more to say as I am getting behind with all the news.

On Friday 13th, the day before egg collection, my H had a nasty accident. He fell about 8 feet from a roof and broke his arm, smashed his cheekbone and badly bruised his ribs. I got a call at work about 3.30pm and rushed home. We spent the next 6 hours in different hospitals and didn't get home till 10pm. We were so worried that the IVF cycle would be cancelled as H may have been admitted to a ward, but thankfully, he was allowed to go home. Poor H - he was really in pain.

We managed to keep our 8.30am slot for egg collection and arrived at Nottingham at 8am. My mum kindly drove us. We were put into a little room and I had to change into a gown. After some preliminaries and forms, I was collected by the nurse and walked down into the theatre. I was quite surprised at the size of the room - it was huge. I hopped onto the bed and the anaesthetist began to try to get the IV into the back of my hand. It took two attempts as my veins are quite awkward. When he succeeded he said, 'here's a nice big gin and tonic' and I remember thinking that I felt a bit drunk, then that was it - out for the count. Although it was not a general anaesthetic, I remember nothing, felt nothing and was completely oblivious to anything going on.

The first thing I remember is waking up in the recovery room with a warm sensation on my abdomen. It was a heating pad they'd placed there. There was a nurse in the room and I asked her how many eggs they'd got. How many times must she have been asked that?! She told me '7 eggs' and I promptly started weeping. 7 was not enough! I expected more like 10 to give us a good chance of them fertilising, surviving to day 3 when they do the biopsy, then surviving to day 5 for the transfer back into me. 7 felt like a dangerous number.

They wheeled me back to our little room and H came in to see me. The consultant and the embryologist both came to explain how the procedure had gone. They were unconcerned about the 7 eggs and told me that they expected that the other 3 follicles would have yielded immature eggs which would have been useless anyway, had they managed to extract them. We were reassured a bit then. The stern nurse told me off for 'sulking about my 7 eggs' with a twinkle in her eye.

We were driven home and looked after so well by my mum. We went to bed hoping for good news in the morning.

Egg collection is scheduled

Sorry I didn't come back and update yesterday afternoon. The news was that the clinic wanted me to do another day of stims and come back this morning for another scan and blood test. I was pleased with that as I want some of the smaller follicles to catch up.

So, at the scan this morning, the womb lining was still the same, and the sonographer (different lady this morning) said it looked really good. My largest follicle is now 23mm and there are 10 follicles at good sizes. There are also 3 smaller ones at 11mm, 9mm and 9mm, which are borderline for being able to catch up in time. There are only 3 follicles on my left ovary (where that cyst is) and it's the right ovary that seems to be doing the lion's share of the work. All in all, it's the kind of response they expected from me, so that's good. It's not an amazing number of follicles, but it's not bad either. Pretty average crop!

I've had to wait a few hours for the clinic's call to tell me when they want me in for egg collection. It's Saturday morning at 8am! Bloody hell - this is actually going to happen now! Tonight at 8.30pm on the dot I have to take the 'trigger shot' which is two vials of Pregnyl, the drug that matures the eggs prior to collection. I also have to take my Buserelin at the normal time - this is to stop me from spontaneously ovulating.

I am not allowed any food after midnight on Friday night or liquid after 5.30am Saturday. Then H and I are to go to the clinic for 8am sharp, and I'll be taken to theatre for 8.30am. We should be ready to go home just before lunch.

I do feel a bit scared. I've never had any kind of anaesthetic before (well, apart from a local one in my mouth at the dentist) so I'm worrying about the unknown. I hope I don't feel anything. I hope I get a good crop of mature eggs. I hope H's sample is ok. So many things to hope for - every day brings a new worry.

If you're reading this, please keep your fingers crossed for me. I need some vibes directed at my follicles to finish ripening and grow big and healthy. Maybe one of them could become our future child.

First follicle scan - bit of a shock!

Well, back from my first follicle scan, and it's good news! They were quite surprised to see that lots of my follicles were reaching a good size, more on my right than my left ovary, but about 10 measurable ones altogether. Smallest is 9mm and the largest is 19.5mm. My womb lining is 'triple-lined' which I think is good, and is 8.5mm. They said I am very close and that the trigger would either be tonight or tomorrow night. Much much sooner than we were expecting as this is only day 8 of stims!! I just hope that these 10 will be mature enough, and maybe that a few more will join them, so I'd like to stim for one more day. But we'll see how my bloods come back later. So, egg collection either Friday or Saturday!! This is happening so quickly - I'm a tad scared now.

The clinic are going to call me later to let me know what to do (whether I need to do the injections for one more night or whether I'm ready to take the 'trigger shot' now). The trigger shot is the one that's stored in the fridge, and its job is to give the follicles a final ripening surge, so that they're mature when they're collected. I'm 'working from home' till about 11.30 then got to go in for a few meetings, so I bet I'll miss the clinic's call. I'm sitting here with a hot water bottle on my tummy in a bid to get the follicles even bigger!

So, all in all, I'm pleased but a bit scared! I just can't believe that we're nearly ready to go! I got a 'well done' from the nurse, who said 'you're very close' so I feel quite proud that my body is doing what it's been told to do! I would have preferred the number of follicles to be closer to 15, as the more there are, the more chance that we are left with some that are decent quality and CF-free, but maybe some more will develop between now and egg collection.

Will update later when I get the call from the clinic.

Day 7 of Stims - feeling some stirrings

Well we've made it to day 7 of the stimulating injections. Injection 6 is over and it's onto number 7 tonight - the last one before the follicle scan tomorrow.

I don't know whether it's my pain threshold lowering as we go on, but the injections do seem to be getting a bit more stingy. Maybe it's because I'm running out of places to jab now on my tummy. Still - could be worse, I guess.

I'm definitely feeling something going on in my womb/ovary area now. I feel kind of heavy in my womb, with a few dull twinges of pain from time to time. I actually feel bloated, butI don't look bloated, if you know what I mean?

Tomorrow morning is something that is making me anxious. What if they find only a few small follicles and think I'm not responding very well? As 25% of our embryos will statistically be affected with Cystic Fibrosis, we really need a good crop of eggs so that if some do fall by the wayside, we still have a decent number. Please, please let my body be behaving itself and producing lots of great quality eggs.

Maybe tomorrow they'll be able to give us an idea of when egg collection may be. We can then start counting down towards that. I'm guessing that it will be Monday or Tuesday next week, based on average cycles.

In the meantime, plenty of water, plenty of milk, and plenty of protein to get the eggs growing. Also hot water bottles on my tummy as often as I can to encourage egg development.

Hopefully my next post will bring some good news about the scan. . . .

Day 3 of stimming

So we've done three injections of the Menopur now and onto the 4th one tonight. H is getting the hang of mixing all the drugs up but I seem to have had a couple of duff needles, which won't pierce my skin. Either that or I'm developing a rhino hide. Maybe it's finally happened after all these months of well meaning acquaintances asking about when the stork will be paying us a visit!

Still a bit worried about this nagging left ovary. Sometimes the ache spreads round to my lower back. I wish it wasn't there in the first place, and then it would be easier to tell when I start to get the twinges from the follicles developing. I think I do feel a touch bloated though, a bit heavier in the lower abdomen. But it's so hard to know whether I'm imagining that. I need to keep drinking lots of water today. It's easy when I'm at work as the bottle is on my desk all day and I can get through 2 litres by the end of the day, but today is Saturday, and I need to make sure I don't forget.

4 more injections until first follicle scan. I'm still feeling positive but getting a bit more nervous now that we're getting close to the real action of IVF.