"So, you can chose to transfer or we can freeze them and we'll wait until your next cycle." said Dr. Alternate (Dr. Wonderful was out that day).
This was Tuesday, November 3.
I've been suffering from heavy bloating, nausea, shortness of breath since BEFORE egg retrieval and Monday it had been so bad that I called up the clinic in tears.
"I'm so miserable! Help!"
Dr. Wonderful called me back. "I think you are have mild to medium overian hyper stimulation. There's nothing we can do. Keep drinking Gator.ade and eating salty foods - 110 g of sodium or more. Let's keep monitoring you and see if we need to freeze the embryos tomorrow or transfer."
Uh, okay.
So, here I was on Tuesday, with a choice to make: Transfer these two beautiful blasts or not.
What to do?
After grilling Dr. Alternative about how I compare to other patients who are overstimulated, she said, "I think you'll be fine. If the OHSS continues, we can treat it and it won't interfere with you getting or staying pregnant."
Well, that settled it! ONWARD WITH THE TRANSFER!!
Dr. Alternative had a bit of trouble getting the catheter in place, which was a bit painful to match, but once it was in position, the rest was easy.
Oh, and I did acupuncture before and after transfer, as it's supposed to help with the overall success rate.
I've spent the last two days away from the computer, not checking email, not reading other people's blogs, just concentrating on relaxing. Total bed rest.
My goodness, you can't say that Mr. Jem and I haven't done everything possible to make this happen. From decided to do IVF, genetic testing, the acupuncture, changes in diet, meditation, yoga, all the damn shots, all the tears, the testicular biopsy to mine for sperm, treating the OHSS symptoms (I HATE Gator.ade and V8), then bed rest and tons of positive thoughts sent to the region just north of my pelvic bone.
All for those two little blobs of potential life.
Update:
Dr. Wonderful called yesterday to tell us that they froze two embryos: 5 BB and 4 BB. When I pushed to know the classification of those transfered the day before: 3 AA and 2 BB. He said all four were excellent. But what does that mean?
Can someone point me to a good source of info on classifation of embryos?
16 comments:
YAY! That pic is so cool! I hope that those little guys decide to stick around!
I don't like gatorade either, I've been drinking Smart Water... it's water plus electrolytes! I hope the OHSS doesn't get any worse!
I like Smart Water, too, but the clinic said it had to have sodium.
Love the pics! Seriously, what kind of question is that from Dr. Alternate? Glad you went ahead and tranferred and got embies to freeze to boot! Hope the OHSS calms down soon...sorry about the Gatorade and V8! :-( (Question: why the sodium?)
As far as I know, many clinics have their own classification system. You would need to know what their "good" grade was to be able to understand those grades he gave you. Also, I have heard that OHSS gets worse and/or sticks around for longer than usual if your bean(s) implants...so I for one, hope that it doesn't go away for you any time soon. Best of luck to those beautiful embies!
I agree with TeeJay, I think all clinics have their own system for grading and classifying embryos. Thinking of you as those beautiful blasts settle in.
Lin,
Why the sodium? As far as I can figure, if I take in a lot of sodium, it will draw out the fluid from the follicles. Kinda like brining a turkey at Thanksgiving.
As someone who has spent days scouring the internets for blastocyst pictures, may I say yours are GORGEOUS. ;-)
As for reading about blastocysts, I scoured these.
http://infertilityblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/meet-blastocyst.html
Then go here and click on "An Atlas of human blastocysts"...http://books.google.com/books?q=an+atlas+of+the+human+blastocyst
This explains the usual grading system--though many clinics have their 'own'. I think this is a fairly standard explanation as I read a few articles about it (don't remember where I saved them though). http://www.advancedfertility.com/blastocystimages.htm
Hope that helps...and I'm cheering you on all the way. Again, those are beautiful blasties. :-)
Those are really nice looking blasts! Well done Mr & Mrs Jem! And it is true about OHSS, when they implant, the OHSS sticks around awhile longer. So hopefully, while unpleasant now, I hope you are drinking Gatorade a bit longer!!
WOW, those are some good looking embryos!! I'm so happy to hear you got two for you and two for the freezer. Now, stick little embies, stick!
i was wondering where you have been with your transfer news!
glad to hear you were taking care of yourself and away from all this madness online.
you little blasts look just adorable :) may they snuggle in for the long haul.
Wow... good for you!!
I wouldn't worry about classifying your embies. My RE told me she's transferred many poor embies that have grown to become beautiful babies, and many perfect embies that never resulted in a + beta. It's anyone's guess sometimes.
Sending you sticky vibes....
Thinking positive thoughts! Congrats on 2 beautiful blasts!
Congratulations on the transfer the embryos look fabulous. Sending lots of positive vibes your way. Hope you feel much better and don't have too much trouble with OHSS.
Congrats! Very excited for you!!! They are great looking blasts
Congrats!
For sodium + fluids, why not try SOUP. There is a TON of sodium in almost any broth.
Best of luck as you & Mr. Jem continue on this journey!
Jem,
Ah, that makes sense! I'm so used to hearing about watching sodium intake, that I was having trouble picturing how the increase would work. Hope you're feeling a bit better has those blasts get comfy!
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