IVF #2... Almost Beta Time...

Is this the least number of posts ever made for an IVF cycle?! I still can’t figure why I’m not writing more. This post was actually from yesterday, October 12... but I got too involved in watching the Ph.illies game last night and did not quite finish it, which is why I am posting it now. (what a game!!) Anyway, I did go ahead with egg retrieval and the embryo transfer – my beta is scheduled for Thursday, October 15. I’ll summarize what’s happened so far. I’ll be comparing this to my first IVF cycle because… we, I can’t help but compare the two!

This IVF cycle started out so much like my first one it was eerie! My follicles were a little on the slow side in the beginning, with my left ovary not producing as many as the right. This did not concern me since this is exactly what happened the first time – I remember how upset I was before with the follicles on my left side, but since everything worked out fine, I wasn’t bothered by this at all. In the end, I wound up with a few more total follicles than I did with IVF #1! I have all the sizes written down and I should post them because if I don’t, I know I will lose the pieces of paper they are written on and I won’t have a record of them. Anyway, my ER was on October 1, which meant I stimmed for one less day as opposed to IVF #1. I also went for acupuncture treatments during this cycle, just like last time.

ER went pretty much the same... I was again very lucky to have an egg-stremely (ha ha) easy retrieval. I felt ok the rest of the day and even went out to dinner that night. I wasn't nearly as bloated this time around... my pants still fit ;-) They retrieved 14 eggs, but the embryologist cold tell right away that one was a dud, so I had 13 good eggs. I had 12 eggs retrieved in IVF #1. I felt confident that I would again have a 5 day transfer... but this is where things started going a bit differently.

The next day, I found out that 7 eggs fertilized. I had ten last time. I wasn’t thrilled with the number being less than before, but certainly realized that 7 was still a good number. The next day, (Sat) the embryologist called… which was a bit awkward because I was out at a breakfast event, and had to run out when my phone vibrated. I knew people were probably thinking, “Oh… one of THOSE people who just have to answer their phone no matter where they are!” Anyway, the embryologist said that she wanted to do a 3 day transfer because while all 7 embies were still growing, they were not growing quite as fast as she would like to see, and she thought that they would definitely be able to choose the best embies by day 3. I went back to the breakfast event, trying not to show that I was upset. I tried to tell myself that it was stupid to be upset since the majority of IVF cycles are 3 day transfers!

So on Sunday, I went for my transfer. My acupuncturist came in and performed treatments before and after the transfer. My RE decided to transfer three embryos – one 8-cell with 10% fragmentation, one 8-cell with 20% fragmentation, and one 5-cell with 20% fragmentation. This was certainly different than the two grade A blasts from IVF #1! My RE is very conservative when it comes to trying to avoid triplet, and even twin, pregnancies, and he is well aware of my stance on reducing (I would not reduce) so I trusted his judgment in transferring more than two. I made sure that they would still freeze the other embryos, knowing that none would probably live long enough to freeze, since my RE freezes embies only once they are at the blast stage. (and I was correct...my other embryos didn't make it)

I went home and for about a day, started obsessively worrying about having triplets. This was completely irrational, I know… after all, I transferred two embies last time and only one made it… the chance of all three hanging on would be extremely unlikely. Here is where something went a differently than last time – because of my irrational thoughts about triplets (I know – I will be very lucky if the cycle works at all!) I decided to start POAS.

I did not POAS at all with #1 because seeing the negative tests would make me insane. However, I felt much differently this time – my beta with #1 was only 54, which means that nothing would probably show on an HPT before 12 or 13 days past egg retrieval, if implantation takes place in a similar time frame this time around. Plus, I have read many more stories now from people who had negative HPTs up until their beta. Seeing a negative HPT early on would actually make me feel better, because it would mean that I probably wasn’t having triplets!! See how insane I am? Anyway, I started testing on 4dp3dt or 7 days past ER. The test of course was stark white, which meant the HCG shot was out of my system, and I have continued to test every day since then, and each day I see a very, very negative test. As of 8dp3dt (11 days past ER), it was still negative, and I have no symptoms, other than some very mild ones that can easily be chalked up to the progesterone I'm taking. (No PIO shots this time though - horray!! No more butt shots! Just suppositories!) Usually, I would be freaking out....but I haven't because I remind myself that last time, I would not have received a positive HPT by then. Plus, I cannot be too upset if things do not work - I have been blessed with a child, and I KNOW how lucky I am, and how many people would give their right arm to be in my situation.

So that’s the summary of this cycle so far.....