Further IVF Developments

Well, we've had a couple more progress checks since my last entry, Wednesday and Thursday. Yes, we went in for a check on Thanksgiving day. The appointment was for 11:30, but we had to get blood drawn by 8:00AM. It's an hour drive away and not a heck of a lot of stores are open that early on a normal day, much less Thanksgiving, so we brought the books we are currently reading. (Mine is The Years of Rice And Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson.) Bob Evans was closed, but IHOP was open, so we had breakfast there. After that we went to the doctor's office and hung out in the lobby until they opened the door. By then, a few other patients had arrived, but since we were the first there we got to see him first.

Things are coming along. We have another check Friday at 11:00. I guess we'll do a little shopping or something between the 8:00AM blood draw and then, but frankly I'm a little afraid of the "Black Friday" crowds. We normally work or just stay in that day. I guess we'll bring the books again. The follicles look good. There are a few more follicles than last time, I believe, and their development is much more in sync so we expect to get more good eggs out of them. In reviewing and comparing the first cycle with the doctor today we learned that of the nine eggs they had attempted to fertilize then (with ICSI) only five were mature and expected to fertilize, and all of them did. The others were immature. There were more follicles than that, but the others were apparently overripe and the eggs broke during retrieval. We put back the best three, and the other two then lived on and developed further than expected. What all that tells us is that with eggs at the right development we get good hardy embryos. As long as we're not "cooking" them too long, we should get plenty this time, hopefully with enough left over to freeze for a third or further attempt or a try at another baby down the road. We expect to be triggering tomorrow for retrieval Sunday and transfer Wednesday. Then comes the hardest part: the maddening wait for that positive pregnancy test.