Transfer Day!

The last 5 days of waiting between the retrieval and the transfer were difficult, but not as much as I'm anticipating the next 10 days will be...

I had to relax.  Not do anything strenuous or exerting after the egg retrieval until the day of the transfer.  I was sore, and my ovaries--especially that right side--were hurting.  In fact, they still do hurt somewhat!  My nurse assured me it's only natural they feel that way since after all, they did retrieve 21 eggs!  There were a lot of follicles to go through!

Transfer day was yesterday, 7-8-10.  Ironically two years ago was my laparoscopy at this same time.  Mike's mom drove out with us to the clinic yesterday morning and we were there in plenty of time.  I was of course nervous.  I didn't know what to expect during our consultation with the doctor, but it went rather straight forward ans smoothly.  He basically answered all our concerns before we had a chance to even voice them (you can tell he does this for a living!).  What's more, he actually informed us that we had 15 embryos instead of 13!  Apparently, 2 of them they thought hadn't fertilized actually had!  So, what he told us he would do is transfer the 2 best embryos.  No more because of my "youthful age"!  At 30, I am considered a baby in a fertility clinic, apparently!  That is okay with me!  HAHA!  Because of my age, the quality of my eggs were perfect, and the better the eggs the more likely they will implant.  So, the more likely they will implant, the less eggs you need to use for insurance policy in the IVF process.  My doctor thinks that my only problem conceiving naturally was simply that my hormones were off balance which in turn caused me not to ovulate.  Therefore, I have a very good chance that these 2 embryos he puts in me will implant.  Call me a skeptic or whatever, but even still, I have a hard time believing that.

After the consultation, we followed the doctor into the procedure room where the nurses prepared me and Mike for the transfer.  I had to have a full bladder for the procedure because they needed to use an ultrasound, so I was forced to drink a half liter of gross grape Propel (I've been drinking nothing but Propel for 8 straight days since the beginning of my fluid restriction, so that was hard since I am so sick of that stuff!)  They took my vitals and gave me a valium pill to calm me, then we changed into our procedure clothes (you know the ones--check out the pictures below).  The nurses chatted it up with us while we waited for the doctor to come in.

When he came in, he handed us a folder with an actual photograph of our two embryos and explained what we were seeing.  They were our two best about to be transferred.  We were in awe.  I mean they were two little circles with different shades and shapes of gray blobs inside them.  I don't know why I became so entranced, but to me it was so much more than blobs.  I was looking at mine and Michael's genetic children for the first time!

The actual transfer was really an awesome experience because unlike the retrieval, I was able to be awake and see what was going on and Mike was able to be with me.  There I was in the same frog-leg position on the table with the doctor between my legs.  There was an ultrasound and a tv screen in the room which they explained to us how they would be used.  First, the pathway to my uterus was sprayed out with a saline solution and then a second time with the same solution that my embryos were floating in for the last 5 days.  This is so they aren't shocked by the new environment.  After that, my stomach is prepared for ultrasound and we can see my thick and primed uterus, then the doctor called the lab and told them they were ready for the embryos.  He told us to look on the tv screen as a live video appeared.  We can see a petri dish with our name and special number written around it and inside are two incredibly small dots; our embryos.  They are so cute and I think I said that out loud!  We watch as the embryologist takes her tiny tube and gently sucks them both into it.  A moment later she enters the procedure room and exclaims "Heather Dellosa, I have 2 embryos for you!"  Their system is incredible.  They do this so they don't have any of those frightening mistakes you hear about that occur at fertility clinics.  You know the ones where they accidentally implant the wrong couples embryos into a patient.  Our clinic wants no chance of this happening.  They use your name constantly when they are talking to you and check your wrist band every time they come in the room. 

Once the embryologist entered with the catheter of our embryos, the doctor gets ready and tells her to transfer the embryos and as she does, we can see the catheter on the ultrasound enter my uterus, then we watch as a white streak slowly shoots out the end.  It's the embryos being injected there, and then the catheter is slowly pulled back out.  They take a still shot of the ultrasound and hand the picture to us.  A picture of our babies inside me.  You can't see much but a little white speck, but again it's my babies and to me it's an amazing white speck!  It is protocol for them to double check in the lab under microscope to make sure the catheter is clear and no embryos decided to hitch a ride back.  During this time, the doctor is quiet.  He sits almost frozen between my legs with his eyes closed and his hands clasped together in a meditative almost prayer state.  It's touching and when the embryologist comes back, she gives the all clear.  He removes his instruments from inside me and I'm finally free.  Mike is excited and grins.  "So does that mean she's officially pregnant?" he asks.  The doctor smiles and says "Yep, she is pregnant!" then pulls me back flat on the bed so my legs are no longer propped up froggy style, and then shakes our hands, as if all goes well, this is probably the last time we will meet.

When I'm rolled out, they tell me I can immediately empty my bladder.  I'm afraid because they just now injected my embryos into me from that very area.  I'm told not to worry.  My cervix is closed and they're not falling out!  I'm led to a recovery bed to rest for the next hour and Mike's mom came in to wait with us.  It's now just a waiting game.  I got my post-transfer discharge instructions from the nurses and they are strict.  I'm given a new medicine.  It's one no one mentioned before: progesterone suppositories to do up until the pregnancy tests for 12 days.  Of course I'm ordered on bedrest for 24 hours and nothing but laying around for 2 more days.  I cannot go shopping or walking in any fashion.  No heavy lifting, no baths, hot tubs or swimming until first OB ultrasound, no aerobics or over-exertion and no intercourse or orgasms either!  Mike's mom eyed him suspiciously as the nurse read these words aloud and teased him.  "You hear that Michael?"  We laughed.  Even if we wanted to, in the swollen, hormonal and uncomfortable state I've been in lately, there isn't a chance in the world I'd want or feel like doing anything under the sun intimately!  Ironically this is my best chance at becoming pregnant in this fashion: making certain that we do NOT have sex!  Doctor's orders!

I'm just beside myself now.  I can't believe this has just happened to me and I'm carrying 2 potential children inside my uterus at this very moment.  It's the closest I've ever been and ever felt to being pregnant and I can't believe it.  I keep thinking about everything the doctor and all the nurses told me about my chances.  My beautiful uterus, my plentiful and amazingly stimulated follicles, my gorgeous eggs and superb embryos.  I am youthful at the age of 30 in a fertility clinic, and everything is gagged by that simple fact.  It all seems too good to be true for me.  Everything was always so negative for me the last 8 years, and now suddenly it's all too perfect and all my instincts tell me that we're about to experience a huge blow.  But further orders upon leaving the fertility clinic yesterday were to think happy thoughts, talk to the babies, and just keep on remembering that until my official blood pregnancy test confirms that my embryos either survived or not, I am pregnant....