Got the word - today's the day!

Got the word - today's the day! He's scheduled to be delivered at 1:30 this afternoon. More later if I'm coherent. :)

Ultrasound Results, Heavenly Bodies, and Off We Go A-Cruisin

Okay, I'm sorry this took so long, but we've been a bit busy.

The ultrasound, and accompanying blood tests, came out perfect. We went in with about a 1 in 100 chance of Downs and such, based on our age, and when the results were in we were at about 1 in 2000. We got some good views of the baby, though once again I was unable to be in the room. This is my fave: alien baby. I tell everybody it has my hairline.

Last night I lucked into getting some shots of the moon, Venus, and Jupiter in close proximity in the sky. I had read a few days ago about them being close, but the weather has been unfavorable. Luckily last evening it cleared up for a while and I was able to get a view around dusk. This shot was taken hand-held with a fast exposure to get some lunar surface detail and minimize halos. It came out okay, but I wish I'd had my tripod handy. If you got shots of this phenomenon too, post a comment with a link. Click it for a somewhat larger view.

Tomorrow we are leaving to go on a cruise in the Bahamas. It's a Disney cruise, perpetrated by my Disney-obsessed sister in law, so one of the ports-of-call will be their private island with its manufactured beach, scenery, and entertainments. I believe we'll be stopping at another island as well with real stuff to see. I'm not sure how the weather will be. We were signed up for snorkling and such but a bit of research has revealed an average water temperature in the mid 70s this time of year so we've canceled that. I guess we'll just do a bit of biking and lounging. In any case I'll try to take pictures, and if my phone miraculously works I may post one or two from there. We'll be back Monday.

Waiting For Nuchal Fold Ultrasound

Much bigger and fancier than the other waiting rooms we've been in.

Doin' The Ultrasound Boogie!

We went in for the second ultrasound yesterday morning at the regular OBGYN office that will be taking over now. After some parking adventure we went in and joined my sister in law in the waiting room. Then we waited. And waited. And waited.

After an hour or more they called her in. She had to have blood taken and her history so we staid in the waiting room for that. Then she came out and told us that since the exam room was so tiny they would only allow one person in there with her. Naturally my wife went, so I didn't get to see the ultrasound live - just a couple stills.

The machine was reportedly nearly a couple decades old, so the images weren't as clear as they might be, but I could still make it out. But my wife tells me she could see the arms and legs moving! It's an energetic little guy or gal in there. The doctor says you don't always see that, but when you do it's a good sign. W00t!

One Baby On The Way!

Okay, the poll is closed and of the many many guesses - okay, one guess - nobody guessed right.

We have one baby on the way. The results couldn't have been better. By every measure it's right down the center of the expected range for a healthy baby. We even counted the heartbeats together.

There were three of us in there besides my sister in law: me, my wife, and my mother-in-law. Since it was done with a vaginal ultrasound probe (the dildocam, as my wife calls it) we were huddled together towards the head of the table. We all got a good view of the screen, though. When the doctor announced he spotted the heartbeat (which was obvious when he held the probe still for us) we were all elated. It was such a relief. Here you can see one of the stills he printed out for us. The baby is over the little "X" and the yolk sac is above it to the left. Both are within the amniotic sac.

Afterward in conference with the doctor he told us we had walked in the exam room with a 15-20% chance of a miscarriage, and walked out with a 5% chance. Our next ultrasound is two weeks after this one, but with the OBGYN practice that's taking over.

First Ultrasound's Friday Morning

It's almost 2AM and we're heading out for the first ultrasound at 8AM. My mother-in-law is tagging along. My wife has mixed feelings about that, in case things go badly, but she was in the waiting room for the transfer so maybe she's good luck.

I'm nervous. I'm really scared of things not turning out right, but I've been trying not to show it, and not to think about this these past two weeks. If things go bad I'm going to have to be the strong one. I guess I'll cry on my own. Hopefully it won't come to that.

But even though I've been trying to occupy myself and not think about it, this has been the slowest damn two and a half weeks of my life. Yeesh!

I had been thinking of putting up a poll to have visitors here guess how many we had growing and whether any looked to be identicals. I've decided not to, though, unless and until we see a healthy fetus in the ultrasound. After that, I'll put up a poll for a few days before announcing the real result. Hopefully it'll be fun.

Beta Test 2

We got the levels for the second beta test today. The beta level was 335. I did some math and figured three days of doubling every 48 hours would give a level of about 322, so we're right in the groove for a single baby. My sister in law's progesterone seemed a bit low, but when we asked the doctor about it he said her levels were just fine considering she's using vaginal suppositories. The progesterone's at higher levels locally, apparently.

Next stop: first ultrasound in two and a half weeks. We should find out for sure how many we have then. We're testing right in the zone for a single, but we're still in the range seen for multiples, so it's still not 100% sure. Pretty sure, but not 100%.

My wife has been having stomach- and headaches the last couple evenings. I think it's stress and worry over all this. She's better during the day when she's occupied. Fortunately the next several days look like good weather, so we might be able to extend the day with some walks around town or along some local trails to keep busy. It'll be good for us to get back into an exercise routine. Doing IVF cycles does interfere a bit with that, what with the bloating and all.

Anyway, that's one more hurdle out of the way, and things look good so far. Stay tuned.

Beta Test 1

We got the results of the beta hCG test: 114. From what we gather the average at this point for women who have a single baby is about 100, so we seem to be in the groove. The next test, to see how it's increasing, is scheduled for Monday. The real test, though, is the ultrasound later on. That will tell us how it's developing and if we have more than one.

Testing... Testing...

We've been doing a lot of pregnancy tests the last couple days, or my sister in law has anyway. Here are the latest. If there was any doubt, having it confirmed by a third brand of test, the digital, removed it.

Friday she goes in to get blood drawn for the beta test which will tell us how much hCG she has in her, which will give us some idea of how well things are along. There will be another one later to see how things are progressing. Then it'll be officially official, but I'm going to say it now: WE'RE PREGNANT!

Further Fertility Developments

We saw the new doctor today. He was very personable and more forthcoming than our old one, or at least more talkative. He looked our case over and asked some questions. He recommended that if we did do another IVF that since my wife's sister is willing using her as a gestational carrier would be the way to go, given the number of decent embryos we've put in so far. He also said, though, that our chances with three tries at IUI with donor sperm would be about the same as one try at IVF. IVF tries are generally at least two cycles apart, so with the financial considerations the IUI seems to be our best long term shot. Also, my wife is really feeling worn down emotionally by all she's gone through in the IVF's we've done and gotten nothing.

For IUI we would also have a better shot if my sister in law did it, but we were told tonight by my mother in law that my sister in law told her that while she would be just fine with carrying our child, she wasn't sure she'd be able to give up a child that was genetically hers. I can certainly see that, and understand. I think we were a bit blinded to that possibility by our desire to have a child by whatever means are left at our disposal, and I think my wife was especially so and is having a hard time dealing with it.

So, it seems our next try or three will be an IUI with my sperm augmented by donor sperm, put into my wife. I hope it works, but my wife has other health issues that would no doubt make pregnancy difficult. If the IUI doesn't work, I hope she can find it in herself to do one more IVF with her sister as the carrier.

Wish us luck. We're going to need a lot.

Post-Transfer IVF Update

We transferred four embryos Wednesday, all graded 3+. (Yes, that's actually them in the picture.) We talked to the embryologist afterward and he told us he tends to be a little tougher in his grading than the other embryologist who graded the three we transferred last time, and she probably would have given three of this batch's embryos a 4-. Last time we had a 4-, a 3+, and a 3, so we have more and somewhat better embryos transferred this time around. As it turns out, a tenth fertilized embryo was spotted, though it was less developed than the others. A late fertilization apparently.

It was kind of rough on my wife. She was rather bloated from all the fluid built up before and after the egg retrieval, and the ultrasound nurse had a very firm hand. She feels now like she may have a bit of bruising from it. It was the good nurse at the clinic this time (she was off the day of the transfer last time) so they were able to use the ultrasound to guide the transfer and verify the placement. Last time they had to resort to dead reckoning based on the measurement taken in the mock transfer.

After a rest in the bed and an hour-long talk with the embryologist that my wife said reminded her of being in college (she was a biology major) we headed home. The next day, after doing one or two essential things at Secret Headquarters to get the rest of us started, she headed home to the recliner for the day.

I called the clinic Friday to check on the progress of the other embryos. They said one was in a pre-blastocyst stage and could be ready to freeze Saturday. The others were still in the multi-cellular stage and had a bit to go before being ready. Hopefully more than one will make it to freezing. There's always a chance an embryo won't survive the freeze and thaw cycle so you want more than one to help ensure there's something to transfer if you're working with frozen. We'll call again Saturday or Monday, I guess, and find out what happened.

Meanwhile, the embryos we transferred should be reaching blastocyst stage and hatching from their zona (the jelly-like shell human eggs have) about now. It'll be another week or two before we know if we had one or more implant. Part of me is hoping for twins, but that would most certainly make for a rough pregnancy. So I guess I'm hoping for an unusually smooth twin pregnancy. I'll readily settle for a single, though.

Wish us luck!

First Office Visit Of Our Second IVF Cycle

We went in to the doctor this morning to plumb the depths of my wife's womb and take soundings of her ovaries. That is, she had a mock transfer where they measure how deep her uterus is with a catheter to gauge how far in to place the embryo(s), and did an ultrasound of her ovaries. There were no cysts this time, so that's an improvement over the first cycle. We asked a few questions and reviewed the adjusted protocol.

Some highlights:

• Soy protein should be no problem. The estrogen in it shouldn't be enough to have any effect.
• Exercise is fine as long as she's comfortable. The main concern is jostling her enlarged ovaries during the stimulation period and twisting a blood vessel.
• Her weight loss and much better controlled blood sugar should make a difference in egg quality.
• The stimulation has been adjusted to try and get more mature eggs at once. Last time their formation was spread out a bit. Their were plenty eggs, but many we immature or overripe.

We are optimistic about the changes and their potential effect on our chances. The doctor is very low-key and very reluctant to make predictions in any circumstances, but even he seemed optimistic to us.

Next appointment is next Wednesday, I believe. The estimated date of retrieval is the 20th with the transfer back in on the 23rd. Off we go!

IVF - Take 2

My wife called in today to alert the doctor of her period, and we have our schedule set for this our second cycle of IVF.

This time around the meds have been tweaked a bit to hopefully tighten the time spread of the developing follicles. In the first cycle the development of the follicles were spread out a bit and several eggs fractured during the retrieval. On the theory that those were the older follicles which fractured because they were overripe, we're pushing for a tighter spread to hopefully come out with more eggs to fertilize. If that doesn't pan out, we'll likely still do as well as the first time which was well above average for our age. (The doctor says that's because my wife is PCI-ish and as a result responds a bit better to the stimulation.)

We're also in a better position in regards to implantation and after. It turns out my wife's blood sugar was not nearly as controlled as we had thought. After posting some pretty good A1C numbers in past testing she got a bit lax about testing herself. It was something like double what it should be. She's now on slow-acting overnight insulin to get her morning number down, and we are both exercising and eating better. The control is very good now, and we are confident it will remain so. High blood sugar can interfere with implantation or cause a higher incidence of miscarriage, so this is an important factor. As those of you who have read my precious entries know, our first cycle ended apparently with what is known as a chemical pregnancy. We got one hint of a positive urine test, then nothing. False positives are practically unheard of, so we're pretty sure at least one of the three embryos we put back in started to implant then failed. With the blood sugar in control we've removed at least that one big obstacle to a successful implantation this time around.

In our first cycle we had five embryos of varying quality, the two least of which were not put back and subsequently survived longer than expected. We have discussed it and even though there is a risk of multiples we have decided that if the number and quality of embryos were the same this time we would want to put them all back. If the quality is higher, though, we may limit the number accordingly.

We had been talking about having my younger sister in law carry for us, but my wife really wants to try this time on our own. Also my SIL is having some tight finances at the moment, and taking the necessary time off might be a bit of a stretch for her. We'll see how things go if we need to do a third cycle. I don't think we could afford any more tries beyond a third, though, so if we do a third I'm inclined to push for at least a tandem transfer to her and my wife if possible to maximize our chances for that final shot. But like I said, we're optimistic about this cycle.

So that's how things stand. The retrieval is estimated to be around Nov. 20th. Hopefully the cooler weather will help a bit with the sperm quality. If all goes well we should be having a baby next summer.

More IVF Developments

Last week my wife went for her regular gynecologist appointment and was told that because of her weight she would have a high-risk pregnancy, and they don't handle those. And when she told the doctor that her sister would be willing to carry our baby for us, the doctor said that would probably be a good idea. She says the doctor wasn't mean or anything about it, but it still comes as a cold slap of reality. She could lose some weight and easily come in under their limit, so she's already started on that. (We're going to the gym this evening, and planning to make a regular thing of it.) But it underscores the need to find a doctor who does handle high-risk pregnancies.

We went to see our fertility doctor this morning for a mock transfer and to ask a few questions. He agrees that we should have a high-risk specialist on the team and put us in touch with one. We have an appointment with him for a consult week after next. We also asked him about having my sister in law carry for us, and he described the prep she'd have to do. Depending on when her next period is supposed to start, we may be able to sync things up to have her carry this time. We've contacted her about it and she's game, though I'm not sure she's clear on it being my wife's eggs. (Right after my wife messaged her she called my mother in law who called my wife and, in the course of the conversation, asked her if it was going to involve me having sex with my sister in law.)

Anyway, the plan as I understand it now is to figure out if we have a window to start syncing her up, and if so transfer our best embryos to her, however many the doctors are willing to put in. Then if there are any halfway decent ones left, put those back in my wife. Our budget is rather limited, so if we can get more tries at once like that we'll go for it.

I may very well in a couple months have both my wife and my sister-in-law carrying my children. This is going to get interesting.

New IVF Cycle Begins - First Speedbump Encountered

My wife started the suppression phase of this our second IVF cycle a couple days ago. At this point that pretty much consists of birth control pills, but not the low dose stuff most women take. Unfortunately, they can increase blood sugar in diabetics and that's what's happening with my wife. She's called the doctor's office and they say she'll have to switch to another drug, but my wife has heard that it can conflict with another one she's supposed to take later, and the doctor is out this afternoon so she could only talk to the nurse, and it's Friday, so it's kind of a mess. The nurse is supposed to call back. We're hoping to get this resolved and the drug switched as soon as possible so she can get her blood sugar back down.

This one's going to be interesting.

Catching Up On The IVF, and This Weekend

IVF

Okay. If you've been keeping up with my blasts on my other blog you know what happened, more or less. I suppose somebody might come this way via a web search on "IVF blog" or some such, though, and wonder how the cycle ended, so here goes for the record.

My wife had ordered a bunch of El-Cheapo™ pregnancy tests, with the primary purpose of monitoring the drop-off of the trigger shot, whose presence in the body will give a false positive on a pregnancy test. Once you see that fade to nothing you can be more sure of subsequent positive tests. She has been participating in online IVF communities and more than one person there has said that those tests will drive you nuts - particularly if you get all negatives and then finally get a positive blood test.

Well, she went ahead and did the tests, and kept taking them a couple times a day after the trigger faded. They kept coming up negative, putting her into a bit of a funk, until one came up just barely positive. She was ecstatic. She did another a couple hours later. It gave an even fainter positive, but we chalked that up to dilute urine and I talked her into not doing any more until morning. We figured the urine would be more concentrated and the pregnancy further along so the result should be a darker line. She got up to pee in the middle of the night and got nothing. Then again the next morning - nothing. The same that night and the next day. Well, as you can imagine, she and I were in more of a funk than she was before the positive test. I got her to agree to not take any more tests until we got the results of the blood test. She tried, but couldn't hold out and took one the day before the blood test. Negative again.

She did a little research, and found that the positive test followed by negatives is most often indicative of a "chemical pregnancy" which is when an embryo starts to implant then fails. It was a totally unknown thing until recently when the tests began to detect pregnancies early enough to see it. We both went through a bad time then, each of us breaking down in turn over it all. By the next day, we had pretty much gotten our grieving over it done and took the news of the negative blood test calmly since we were expecting it. We had been holding out a sliver of hope, that maybe the urine tests were defective, or her chemistry odd (as mentioned above, they don't work so well for some women for some reason), or that maybe it was a second implantation that had kicked the chemistry up into detectable levels before failing while the first continued. In the end that proved as false as it was unlikely.

While on the phone with the doctor (I was on another line with a customer who called at the same time) my wife told him that if we do another cycle we'd want to do a full workup on her to see what might have gone wrong that we could correct or compensate for. He agreed, of course. We'll be calling in some time this week for an appointment to discuss our options.

The Weekend

This weekend we devoted to getting away from things - a break in the routine activities & surroundings to give us a breather before getting back to dealing with all this.

Saturday we drove to Williamsburg and Jamestown. We had lunch at a decent little deli in Williamsburg next to the William & Mary campus, near the historic district, after driving from there to Jamestown and back looking for a good restaurant. (We had found a place in the guide book that specialized in pies - meat, dessert, & pizza - and were looking for that. Turned out to be basically a shack along the road, so we decided to skip it until we could hear more from someone else who'd tried it.)

After lunch we decided it was just plain too hot to walk around town and headed back to Jamestown again to the museum there. Once there we parked and went in, to discover that what looked like a big air-conditioned museum was actually just a ticket counter, cafe, and gift shop, as far as we could see. The settlement museum and replicas of the three ships that brought the colonists were, of course, outside in the heat. We decided to skip that and take a look in the gift shop. We got some hat+t-shirt bundles. My wife plans to give her hat to her dad. We had planned on staying in a hotel that night and doing more touring the next day, but it was supposed to be even hotter so we decided to go home and try to tour some nearby caverns the next day.

Sunday I was awakened by my wife telling me the internet connection was down. I got up and checked it out. Sure enough the lights on the cable modem were fewer than normal. I reset it with no improvement. I reseated the cable - again nothing. I called their tech support and was put through some voodoo manipulations (part of which - the shutting down of the computers - I skipped since I know that makes no difference to a cable modem when you're using a router) which again had no effect. The phone tech scheduled a visit by a technician monday between 8 and 5. That done we headed out.

We had picked up pamphlets fir various interesting attractions at a rest stop the day before, and there were three caverns with tours within a day trip distance. Two - Luray Caverns and Endless Caverns - are very near each other so we figured on taking the shorter-length tour first then the other if we felt up to it.

We went to Luray first. The web site said the guided tour was about an hour. I think it may be out of date. The tour was an at-your-own-pace walk along a brick path (with the entrance down a pre-OSHA flight of stairs), with guides stationed at interesting points describing them periodically. It took us almost two hours.

Three highlights:

The Princess Collumn, near which some of the bones of a teenage native american girl were found by the man who discovered the caverns. (According to the guide there are two theories as to how the bones got there: either she wandered in and got lost and died there, or she had been buried in the ground above and her bones were gradually washed down a sinkhole and fell through cracks in the rock. Since only some of her bones were there and there wasn't enough light for scavengers large enough to take them away, the latter theory is favored as most likely true.)

A giant stalactite that fell from the ceiling about 7000 years ago. Dripstone has formed over parts of it since, indicating how long it's been lying there.

The Stalacpipe Organ. A man from nearby noticed that the stalactites each vibrated with a different pitch when struck. He went through the stalactites in one room of the caverns and found one for each note on an organ keyboard, then fitted them with electricly triggered rubber hammers connected to a keyboard. For years they had a guy who played it, but he retired several years ago. Now they have it rigged to play automatically and only have it played live for special occasions. The tones are quiet but very nice.

We took lots of pictures, many of which I'm sure were shaky in the low light, but I'll try to pick out some good ones to put in my album here.

After that we went to a local Pizza Hut for a late lunch. We decided we were too tired from Luray - and we had leftover pizza - so we decided to head home. It was still a little early, so we took a scenic route.

Now we're back home, and it's back to the old routine at work and home. I think we will try to make more of these day trips in the future, though.

Oh, and when we got back the cable modem was working again. Probably an outage that we were just the first to report. If we had cable TV too instead of DirecTV I'm sure that would have given another clue. I guess I should call and cancel that technician's visit. :)

Retrieval & Collection Recap And Transfer Day

Okay, it's been three days since the retrieval and the chosen embryos were transferred back in today. I never wrote further about the retrieval, so I'll start with that.

Retrieval.

Wow. It was only three days ago, but it seems like forever. Let's see what I remember.

We went in Friday morning. From what we had heard of other people's experiences we were expecting they would send me to collect my sperm sample while they were prepping my wife for the retrieval. As it turns out, they had me wait and didn't send me off until after she was done. I snapped the pic and wrote the previous blogget while I was waiting. When she came back after about an hour the doctor told us they had gotten nine good eggs out of twenty. The others were mostly not yet mature, but several had been fragile and had ruptured before or during the retrieval. (We think now they were most likely from the earliest appearing follicles and were just a bit "overripe".)

Well, my wife was still out of it from the anesthesia and her mind latched onto the part about some being fragile and wouldn't let go of it. I and the nurses had to tell her several several times that there were nine good ones - one nurse even wrote it on her hand - until she had recovered enough from the anesthesia to focus and remember it. She cried a lot during that time, of course, and the nurse also explained that that was common - pumped full of hormones, perceptions made strange by the anesthesia, the release of finally getting the eggs out all adds up. Finally, she calmed down and said she was okay and happy that we had gotten nine good ones.

Collection.

Then the sent me down the hall to do my "collection". The room they sent me to was a corner room, with big nearly floor-to-ceiling windows in both the "lounge" section and the bathroom section. Fortunately there were blinds, which I adjusted to block the view from the parking lot below. I could still see the bright blue sky. I could also see the various nude and semi-nude women in the art hanging on the bathroom wall. Maybe I'll post a pic later.

I had been given a scrub kit to wash up with. Based on my experience at the backup collection I stripped down completely to better facilitate the washing. (Rinse water tends to run down the legs, so no shoes or socks. Shirts will hang down and brush against the clean junk so off that comes too.) I also took off my ring for good measure. The nurse had made a point of impressing upon me the importance of thoroughly rinsing - the antibiotic soap (with betadine in it, I think) kills sperm, so gotta get it all off - so I did. The floor got a little wet, so I laid the first sterile towel on the floor after I had finished with it.

The cleaning finished, I moved into the lounge to get down to business. My wife had been joking in the days before that she was going to call out to me as I headed off for the collection: "Skip the Penthouse and go right to the Hustler!" If you recall from my earlier entry we had found that while Penthouse has lots of "socially redeeming" articles, many of them include photos not exactly conducive to the task at hand. Hustler, on the other hand, as very little such extraneous filler. Well, lo and behold, there are a few copies of Penthouse, but no Hustler. I decided to make the best of things and started thumbing through a Penthouse. Some of the girls are nice, but a bit too glamorous for my taste. Seems Penthouse has abandoned the peeing I heard they had begun to feature a few years back to return to a more Playboy-esque style. After looking through a couple I decided to take a look at the copies of the other title in the rack: Black Tail. Good move. While it didn't have the full couples sex spreads of Hustler, it did have much more explicit material than penthouse, and the black women gave it what was for me an exotic touch. I found a couple nice, uh... friendly looking girls without any tattoos showing and completed my task.

I dropped off the sample at the lab and off we went. My wife got a ride down in a wheelchair and I picked her up at the curb.

The next day the doctor called to tell us we had five fertilize, and we'd know after three days how many we'd have to put back. In the subsequent days we worried about having none to transfer, and fantasized about having them all grow well and maybe even have one or two split into possible twins. (Would we put back in both embryos from a twin pair, or go for a more diverse group to hedge against genetic problems?) In the end we decided to go in with the expectation that since they hadn't called to tell us not to bother coming in there must be at least one to transfer, but that at our age we wouldn't expect more than maybe two.

Transfer Day!

That brings us to today - Transfer Day. We worked this morning, shorthanded but catching up on lost days as well as we can, and closed early to head for the clinic. The nurse had called us to tell us that there had been a schedule change and we were to be there a half hour sooner than we had been scheduled. We had planned on closing up at 1:00, so we ate early and headed out soon after.

We got there on time, with my wife's bladder full to bursting. They had asked that it be full to reduce the angle of the uterus and make positioning the transfer catheter easier. Well, she just couldn't hold it and she had a bottle of water handy, so she went a little in the lobby restroom and started drinking while we waited in our room. The doctor was in surgery elsewhere, as it turns out, and ended up being late. In fact he was late for our original time. My wife ended up going again and drinking some more before he arrived, with the nurse's blessing. She filled up again just in time.

The doctor came in with something for us - a picture of the embryos that would be transferred. There were three, all graded average (3) or above. (5 is perfect.) We smiled ear to ear and marveled at the picture. That's it above, with the patient info removed of course.

She was prepped and the bed raised into position. While the nurse operated the ultrasound to guide the catheter positioning, I held my wife's hand. In hindsight I should have taken off my ring then too. Apparently, they had difficulty getting a satisfactory visualization of the catheter's position. First the nurse tried. Then the doctor draped a sterile drape over the ultrasound paddle and tried himself. Then they swapped on the vaginal probe and poked at her abdomen with that. Finally they used it via her vagina - right in there with the speculum and the catheter. It was during all that that my wife crushed my fingers against my ring. I didn't complain. I just took the opportunity, once it came my way, to adjust my ring a bit to a more comfortable position and let her squeeze as much as she needed. I wish she could have made some adjustments for her comfort too.

After the embryologist checked the catheter and declared that all the embryos had been transferred they removed the equipment and helped my wife into a more comfortable position. After a mandatory half-hour rest, and a talk with the embryologist about my sperm count (up a good deal again, but still low motility) we headed home, with a brief stop at Secret Headquarters to pick up a couple things we had left behind in our hasty departure. My wife spent the rest of the evening in the recliner watching an Office DVD and being waited on (and yelling to me where things were that she wanted.) She'll be taking it easy for a while - only light exercise and keeping cool.

Next stop: the pregnancy test in a week and a half or so.

Retrieval & Collection Time!

My wife is in the procedure room now. After she's done & back here in recovery it's my turn. The art is on the door of our room & is by another husband.

Today and Tomorrow

Today was almost a normal day. We went in to work at Secret Headquarters. My wife had no injections. Other than my ongoing computer problems it was all pretty much a regular day.

I spent much of the day alternating between filling in a few gaps due to a bit of understaffing to help catch up on work time lost to our appointments up to now, and working on my still-glitchy computer. Moving it to the cool side of the desk, while a good move I plan to stick with, did not solve the problem. So, after a quick consult with Answers I did a final system config backup and ran a reinstall from the Win2000 CD. I went with the less radical option of doing an upgrade install. Hopefully that will serve to repair the system. I had to run update downloads & installs for a good hour or more. After that I only had time to reinstall the Comodo firewall (which I had uninstalled as a suspect during my long period of diagnosis) and tweak its configuration a bit before we left.

Overshadowing everything today, though, was anticipation of tomorrow's egg retrieval. My wife is a little trepidatious about the procedure. She'll be sedated for it and we're told that because of the number of follicles to be aspirated it'll take about an hour. I believe they'll be sending me off to do my part while they prep her. I'm trying to keep a light and confident attitude about it all, both to ease her stress and so that I can be sure to be able to "do my part" well enough.

Back before the first progress check, she and I made a "funsies" bet on how many eggs we'd get. She said 10 to 15. I said 15 to 20. That was back before we learned that a half-dozen was good for someone her age, but also before we learned what a large number she would ultimately produce.

If you haven't read it yet, I believe I noted in a previous entry that the Dr. measured 12 good sized follicles Wednesday, and noted on the report that there were about 20 present altogether. They will be aspirating all of them and collecting everything she's got to give.

Things Are Better Than Expected

We went in for a final follicle check. The doctor measured twelve of them, and noted that there were about twenty total to be aspirated. Tonight we do the trigger shot - my big moment, and Friday we go in for the retrieval and the primary semen collection - my official big moment. I believe Sunday we'll hear about how many fertilize. Then Monday it's the implantation.

After the nurse went over the schedule with us I asked her how well we stacked up among women my wife's age as far as the follicles. She said it's one of the best they've seen at that age. Woohoo!

We were so giddy on the way out. It's a bit of an anticlimax to write such a short post about it, but there it is.

Anyway, now that my wife has done so well it's my turn to step up to the plate. My sperm count for the backup collection was significantly better than the one a month before, and the quality was a bit better too. I hope it's a trend. We'll find out Friday.

Keep wishing us luck! :)