The Two Week Wait

In IVF world, they call it the "two week wait", even though it is really only 10 days. Online IVF forums are filled with people asking IVF veterans tons of questions about what happened during their 2WW. This has made me feel a whole heck of a lot less crazy over the past 4-5 days. I have joined the club of women in their 2WW who want answers to every little thing they feel or think they might feel.

It's a strange feeling knowing that something so incredible could be going on inside my body and I could feel absolutely nothing! A baby could literally be beginning to grow and I wouldn't be able to tell at all. I keep saying "I should feel something, right?" That was until yesterday. I thought I might have felt something strange and my mindset switched to "no, there's no way I could feel that this soon!"

Friday afternoon, I started feeling these little twinge-y pains in what felt like my ovaries. The same feeling I had when I was on the stims medication. I looked it up online (always a reliable source) and found story after story of how other women have felt these same things during their 2WW. Some say it is implantation pain, others say it is my ovaries starting to produce more hormones...I must be pregnant, right?!? I also woke up early this morning with my calf muscles cramping up like never before. Online it says that this can be an early sign of pregnancy, but I am not totally convinced on this one yet.

I know it is absolutely insane for me to be analyzing every little feeling I get at this moment, but I can't help it. I just have to wait around and believe I am pregnant, while also knowing that I might not be pregnant...It would drive anyone batty. Until the pregnancy test on Thursday, life goes on. We are still dealing with the progesterone shots at this point, which have proved to be a major stressor for both Brian and myself. The shots themselves really aren't that bad, but we have both had horrible dreams about these shots.

I dreamt that I tried to give myself the shot and when I checked for blood in the syringe, blood started pouring out like a lame horror movie. Brian's dream was even weirder. He dreamt that it was time to move on to the next stage of shots, where he would have to inject a live baby eel into my muscle. He said the weirdest part was that in his dream, I was totally fine with this and thought it was no big deal. While I have gotten used to the shots themselves, my backside has turned into one big, lumpy bruise. I have lumps on both sides about the size of a tennis ball. You can't really see them, but I keep making Brian "feel how big the lumps are now!" He hasn't been amused so far.

Next Thursday will be a big day for us. On top of the Pregnancy test, my good friend, Brandon, will be in town for the day from Seattle. We are going to grab lunch on his way through town to visit his brother. When Brian realized this was on the same day as the test he said "he better not know before I do!" As if I would ever do that! The nurse at The Fertility Center said if we want to know the same day as the test, I should go in the morning. Of course, I found a lab that is open at 7AM, so I can find out ASAP. Hopefully they call after I leave work for the day so I don't have to hide my excitement from my co-workers. I realize that this could be sadness, but for now I am thinking positive!

- Emily

Embryo Biopsy Results

Brian and I are camping in Pentwater this weekend for Oktoberfest. What was supposed to be a relaxing weekend with family to keep our minds occupied while we wait for results turned into a much better weekend! I woke up this morning to a voicemail from The Fertility Center asking me to call them. I called right away and they gave us the results. Out of the 11 embryos that were tested, 7 of them tested positive for the Epidermolysis Bullosa gene mutation. That means we have 4 healthy unefected embryos that can be transferred back into my uterus. Not all at once of course!

I will stay on my Lupron injections for a few more days. I am currently injecting 20 units every evening. On Monday I will decrease that to 10 units every evening. On Wednesday I will start to take estrogen pills every morning and evening. In the following weeks I will increase that to 3 times daily. The estrogen will help build up the lining of my uterus to allow embryo implantation. I'll have an ultrasound somewhere in the next month to make sure the lining is healthy enough for an embryo transfer.

My embryo transfer is tentatively scheduled for November 1. On that date, they will transfer an embryo back into my uterus and I will officially be pregnant until proven otherwise!! After a little more than a week, I will have a blood test to tell if the embryo implanted and I am truly pregnant. If that test is positive, they will do another blood test the following day to see how my hormones are increasing. During the weeks following the embryo transfer I will be on progesterone injections to help with implantation and embryo growth.

While we were hoping for more embryos, we are thrilled that we have 4! That's 4 opportunities for an embryo transfer and possible pregnancy! We appreciate everyone's love and support while we continue this journey. Prayers for continued success are appreciated!

-Emily

Embryo Biopsy and Freezing

I got a call from Ashley today with the final tally on frozen embryos. The final number is 11. Two out of the fourteen embryos that had grown stopped growing before the biopsy. One of the 12 embryos that were biopsied did not make it through the freezing process. We are of course, thrilled to have 11 embryos left but we are still kinda bummed about the 3 that didn't make it.

In an effort to not bore you by spewing out a bunch of terms and numbers, here are some examples of what our embryos have been doing over the past 5 days! Be sure to read the captions next to the pictures or the rest of this blog will get very confusing...

Most of the Embryos have grown into Early Blastocysts.
Only one of them is still compacting to turn into an Early Blastocyst.

3 of them are Hatching Blastocysts

3 of the embryos were mature enough to biopsy on Tuesday
1 young Blast - Grade 1
1 Young Blast - Grade 1 Plus (we got a show-off over here!)
1 Young Blast - Grade 3

The others were biopsied and frozen this morning
1 Young Blast - Grade 2 Plus
1 Hatching Blast - Grade 2 Plus
1 Young Blast - Grade 2
2 Hatching Blasts - Grade 2
1 Compacting embryo - Grade 2
1 Young Blast - Grade 3
1 Hatching Blast - Grade 3

I went over the grading scale a little bit in my last post. Obviously a Grade 1 is preferred over a Grade 3, however all of our embryos have a good chance of creating a healthy pregnancy. I don't really understand the grading scale so I'm not even going to try explaining it any more.


I will start nightly Lupron injections on Friday. I'll be on the Lupron at least until we have the results of the embryo biopsies which will be 2-3 weeks. Once we have the results, we will schedule my embryo transfer and I'll have to be on estrogen for 21 days before the scheduled transfer date. There will be more blood tests, ultrasounds and all that full stuff along the way, but we are getting closer!!

- Emily