Frozen Embryo Transfer.

We transfered two frozen embryos today. The quality varied a bit between the two. When blastocysts are frozen the collapse like raisins. When they are thawed and survive they reexpand like grapes. (Well, grapes don't actually reexpand, but you get the idea.)

One of the two was in the process of expanding at the time of the last check before the transfer. It had some ruptured cells, but that is expected in frozen embryos. The other one was still raisiny, but did have plenty live cells. The doctor told us that usually if they had only the one raisiny blast they wouldn't bother transferring it. Since we did have the fair one, though, we put back both.

Now we wait. The pregnancy test will be on the 17th, if I recall correctly. (It's been a long day.) We asked what our chances are, and after thinking about it a bit the doctor said we have a 20% shot. It's not that much, but a frozen transfer is a much less expensive and uncomfortable cycle, so it's a shot worth taking. If this doesn't work, I'm not sure what we'll try next. My wife may or may not feel up to doing another fresh cycle. Our contingency plan is to do IUI with donor sperm supplementing mine. Hopefully, though, we'll get pregnant this time and not have to worry about that.

Had A Filling Break

I just got back from the dentist. This is the piece that broke loose. (Much enlarged.)

It was an old metal filling, dating back at least to my teen years, if not pre-teen. I'm nearly forty so I guess my folks got their money's worth. The dentist put in a new-fangled type filling that matches the tooth. She put it in in layers with a syringe and the assistant held a UV light gun up to it to cure it. Pretty neat.

Lining Is Good

We went in for another uterine lining measurement yesterday. It was over 8 mm and the doctor declared us ready to move on to the next phase. Today I start giving my wife injections that will shift her from growing the lining to making it hospitable.

The transfer is set for this coming Thursday afternoon. If neither embryo survives the thaw - they pretty much always lose some cells, but at this stage they can usually weather that - they'll call us around mid-day and tell us not to come in. They said we can call if we don't hear anything, to make sure. I think we'll probably call when the employees go to lunch.

I hope this one works. After this the next thing to try is IUI augmented with donor sperm along with mine. If we simply can't have a child that's mine so be it - I'll take what we can get. When we were first getting to know one another I briefly suspected our nephew might actually by my wife's son, and I was okay with that. I really hope this new child will ultimately be our own, though, and as long as what we're trying involves sperm, and I have some to contribute, I will.

Lining Check and Restroom Adventure

Lining Check
We went to the doctor this morning to do a lining check in advance of our frozen transfer. It was a little thinner that he'd like, so he gave her some estrogen patches. She put one one before we left. I later joked with her that all the weight she's been losing lately has been from her deflating, but now that she's patched we can pump her up again. We talked with the doctor about the embryos and their chances, and he thinks it's unlikely both wouldn't survive the thaw. If neither does survive, the fertility center will call the dr.'s office and they'll call us before we leave. (For those just joining the blog, it's an hour drive there - a long way to go just to be disappointed.) Just in case, we'll call ourselves before we leave. We also asked if the embryos' surviving to blastocyst stage boded well for their viability. He said that while some abnormalities would prevent them from getting that far (implying they don't have those particular abnormalities at least) there was plenty enough abnormalities that would cause them to arrest later. That's the possibility every couple doing IVF has to deal with anyway,though , so there ya go.

Restroom Adventure
After we returned to Secret Headquarters I soon had to use the restroom. Long drives will do that to a person. We share a restroom with the rest of the floor, and since we're on the first floor and the restrooms are accessible from the lobby we share them with pretty much everyone in the building who can't wait to get up to their floor, or who don't want people who know them to know how much they stink up the things. It wasn't that big a surprise, then to find that the toilet hadn't been flushed. What was a surprise was that it was clogged with what if I didn't know was a turd I would have sworn was a sweet potato.

I tried flushing several times in an attempt to erode it enough to flush away, letting the water slowly drain past the monstrosity between attempts. It didn't work. So I went and got the plunger from the ladies' room, figuring I'd make short work of the thing. Nope. It disappeared from view, but apparently lodged somewhere farther in. I pumped the plunger repeatedly with no apparent effect. I pumped it harder and some of the water splashed on my hand and the leg of my jeans. Ick!

After that I slowed down a bit and eventually got things flowing. I finished my pressing business, washed up, and returning to Secret Headquarters I globbed some alcohol gel hand sanitizer on the leg of my jeans. Hopefully that was sufficient.

Valentine's Day Bear

This is what I gave my wife for Valentine's day. I came up with the design on the shirt myself, and had it printed at Cafepress. (It's also available for purchase on t-shirts and stuff.) It says "I love you howots." "Howots" is a common expression in her family, meaning "a whole lot." Exactly which kid used to say it originally is a bit murky. Her family tends to latch onto such things and work them into conversation for years and years. It's catching, so she and I do it too a bit, as in this case.

I meant to leave it on her chair at Secret Headquarters on the evening of the 13th, but things were a bit hurried as we left and I didn't really get a chance. On Valentine's day she went off to another part of SHQ for a bit and I jumped at the chance. Soon after she went back to her desk she came around to mine, looking shy but happy (she gets a bit embarrassed by such attention sometimes.) She liked it. :)

Drinking Game

We spotted this shot glass checker set in an antique shop. I guess the player who gets jumped has to drink. Would you stack glasses when you're kinged, or make that shot a double?

Local Wind Damage

We were relaxing in the local non-Starbucks coffee shop early this afternoon after a walk around town on this windy day, when a fire truck and a couple police cars went by and stopped just on the next block. We didn't see any smoke and just assumed someone had a kitchen fire or smelled gas or something. After we finished our coffee we went out to discover what the fuss was about.

The roof of one of the buildings had half blown off, and there were broken bricks on the ground. The police were blocking off access with tape when we arrived. I got some pictures. This was the best view of the roof damage. It was blowing up from time to time. I tried to get video, but never got it more than just sitting there wobbling a bit.

The building is, perhaps ironically, the Cafe New Orleans. I suppose it might end up with a blue tarp roof until repairs can be made. I asked a policeman what was upstairs, since sometimes people live above the businesses. He said it was a club. Another officer quipped that it was a sun room now.