Egg Retrieval Update

After 11 straight days of shots- mostly 3-4 A DAY, we finally had our egg retrieval on July 5! Although it felt so high stakes because our last retrieval went so poorly, I was SO calm about the actual retrieval part the entire time. I just knew it was all completely out of our hands. Besides making sure the amount of meds were correct there was nothing else we could do to ensure that we got any eggs.

But the process itself is always VERY stressful. There are days when you have to rearrange your plans and work schedule last minute to make sure you can make it to appointments on time. The fact that Mackenzie just started camp didn't help. Usually we can drop her off at school at 7 but camp didn't start until 8 so that just made everything else more complicated. Thank God I have such an understanding boss! And then add on top of the every other day ultrasounds and blood work the daily shots. There were 2 shots starting on June 24th and then I added in a shot on the 27th. Once any follicle reaches 14mm you start the morning shot so that you don't ovulate. The 2 shots at night were sometimes 3 shots because of the dose of the one shot. It came in a vial of 300 iu but my dose was 225 iu. So the first vial I just did one injection but the next day I would have to use the rest of the first vial (one shot) and then reset another vial and do a second shot. Plus the other medication. And then wake up in the morning to other other injection. It is A LOT. So thankful that my husband give me the injections. I cannot do the injections myself!



We took the trigger shot on July 3. You have to inject it exactly 36 hours before egg retrieval. It has a MUCH larger needle and goes into the muscle, not the stomach like the others.

Our egg retrieval was on July 5. It was a good day to have it because there was NO traffic going to Rockville or coming back. It was a smooth process. They check you in, get your vitals, you meet with the anesthesiologist who starts your iv, and then the doctor who is performing the retrieval. Then when its time you go back you walk back to the OR and talk to the embryologist and you get strapped into this awful table with stirrups (I mean literally strapped in) and you fall asleep. When you wake up you're back in your room. 

I wore my "This is my lucky shirt" tshirt and my "I am lucky" socks to the retrieval!

The good news is- we got EIGHT eggs! My doctor called later that night and said 7 were mature which is AMAZING!! We are so excited with that result! 

We are doing ICSI and assisted hatching to try to get better results and the assisted hatching also because we are going to genetically test our embryos.



Our tradition of going to Krispy Kreme after visiting the Rockville office continues! At least this time we were happy eating the donuts!

July 6th- my nurse called and said that of our 7 mature eggs, 6 had become embryos! I was so excited! I feel so emotional about these little tiny babies! 

July 7th my nurse called to say that our 6 embryos were still growing! I was completely shocked by this news! But very excited! She said they wouldn't check on them on days 3 and 4 so she would call Monday.

July 10 my nurse called to say we had 4 day 5 embryos. This was SUCH great news!

Today my nurse called to say that our 4 embryos had been biopsied and frozen! We have FOUR frozen embryos! Honestly- I was really hoping they'd get 3 eggs. That was the big number for me. Obviously we hoped for much more but at the end of the day it takes ONE egg to make a baby. But I just thought if we could have 3 plus our other egg that was frozen maybe we would have 1 or 2 embryos make it to freeze. We have FOUR!! And they are going to thaw our original egg this week and go through the process to make it an embryo so we will see how that goes!

Now a sample of our embryos is being sent to the lab to have PGD testing done. We all ready know from our previous genetic tests that George and I are not carriers for the same diseases. That's great news! However embryos can have a number of abnormalities that would make a pregnancy unsuccessful and that is what we are looking for. We are not looking to do this testing to pick a certain sex. We really just want the best possible chance at a successful pregnancy we would get.

We are really excited that we have 4 little embryos sitting on ice waiting to become babies. After so many ups and downs over the past 5 years this is just such incredible news. I cannot believe we have FOUR embryos!

On another note. Now that I have once again sat in the fertility doctor waiting room for 2 weeks I am overwhelmed with sadness and compassion for the families that have to go through all of this for years. I cannot imagine women having to do all of these injections and medications and appointments month after month after month after month. 2 weeks was exhausting enough for me. And we didn't have add into it trying to get pregnant. Plus we weren't keeping anything a secret. I just can't imagine month after month of trying to get pregnant and not really having support because you "aren't supposed to tell anyone you're trying to get pregnant". There is such a sadness and loneliness you feel when you are going through this. Even if people know. I was getting so depressed having to take the shots everyday and go to the doctor and more blood drawn. Its exhausting. And that doesn't even mention the financial burden that comes with fertility treatments. The fact that my insurance "excludes" fertility treatment from being covered is absurd. Sure having a child isn't a right in life but having coverage to a medical problem should be. This shouldn't be a womens issue. This is a family issue. 1 in 8 couples are effected by infertility. That includes men.

Genetics

After much debate George and I decided to have a genetic test done to see if we were carrier for any diseases. It's a weird thing to be able to do because it could potentially change a lot. And sometimes ignorance is bliss. But I'm really glad we did it. It is good information for our families to have as well, especially Mackenzie and our future child/ren.

It only took 2 weeks but we got the results back last Thursday. The great news is that we are carriers of different things so there is almost no chance of having a child with any of these disease. Of course they will never say 100% chance but we will take the odds we have! 

George is a carrier of Biotinidase deficiency & Mucolipidosis IV. Biotinidase deficiency is just a vitamin deficiency that is really treatable with medication so that's good news. Mucolipidosis IV is a break down of fatty acids that causes a metabolic disorder. Although most people with this disorder can live to their 40's they never learn to walk and their mental capacity stays around age 12-18 months (per Counsyl's website). 

I am a carrier of Spinal Muscular Atrophy. This was kind of scary for me because my grandmother died of ALS before my brother and I were born so I was worried that this might mean I have the gene for ALS as well. But per the lady from Counsyl during my phone consultation there are different genes for SMA and ALS so my risk of ALS is not greater than anyone else. 

It's weird because I follow a woman on instagram whose daughter was born with SMA and that's how I first learned about it. It is such a nasty disease so when I found out that I was a carrier for it it was shocking. I am just so glad that George isn't a carrier for it as well. Of course there are no guarantees but the chances of us having a child with SMA are pretty small. But we do know that I am the queen of slim chances! 

We are also going to have the embryos tested for chromosomal abnormalities. We are just trying to get the best possible odds possible for our future transfer. 

Speaking of embryos- we don't have a date yet to do egg retrieval. I have my reconstruction surgery on November 2nd. This is the surgery I was supposed to have like 1.5 years ago but have been pushing off. So I finally scheduled it. This takes priority over egg retrieval and I want to make sure I'm recovered before we start scheduling egg retrieval. 

Truthfully I'm not really looking forward to either. But I am excited to see how many eggs we get this time and how many healthy embryos we can make. It's so interesting that some people get a ton of eggs during retrieval but then only end up with 1 or 2 good embryos or some people get like 7 eggs and almost all become good embryos. We are optimistic that this time we will get a lot more eggs and then end up with good quality embryos!