The day finally came for us begin IVF Cycle #4. The protocol was similar to the ones I have done in the past, but instead of priming with birth control, I used estrogen patches.
June 10th – I have to go to the clinic for baseline bloodwork and ultrasound. Leave the house at 7:05, arrive at the clinic for 7:30 open, blood finally drawn at 8:03. I barely made it to work on time.
The clinic called me later to tell me that they found another cyst on my only remaining ovary, and before we can proceed, I need to go for a pelvic ultrasound that night at the hospital. This seemed all too familiar as our first go around, and I was terrified they would postpone this cycle and send me back to an oncologist.
Fortunately, this cyst was small enough to proceed and just something I will have to monitor over time.
On June 11th, we began high follistim and low menopur (which I was skeptical about in the beginning and did question, but ultimately decided to put faith in the new clinic – which was difficult to do).
June 12th-14th – continue medication
June 15th – bloodwork and ultrasound, continue medication and add in Ganirelix
June 16th – continue medication
June 17th – bloodwork and ultrasound, continue medication
June 18th – continue medication
June 19th- bloodwork and ultrasound, continue medication
June 20th – bloodwork and ultrasound, continue medication
June 21st – bloodwork and ultrasound – I have 9 follicles between 19 and 24.6, and my estradiol is 1962 – I take my trigger shot that night and egg retrieval is scheduled for Sunday the 23rd!
Since we barely made it last time due to the crazy early morning traffic, we decided to head to Boston the night before, have a nice Italian dinner in the North End, and then stay over at a hotel in close proximity to the surgery center.
We had to arrive early because we each had to have our blood drawn (FDA virals), in order to make sure our embryos are cleared to use in a gestational carrier – in the event that we need to go down that path.
When I layed down on the table, the last thing I remembered was a kind nurse holding my hand and saying, “Good luck.” I woke up in recovery, and was suffering in a bit of pain. I received pain meds, crackers, and juice; the post procedure meal of infertiles. Jeff came in and we are eager to find out how many eggs we retrieved because our follicle numbers seemed to be the best ones yet!
Nine eggs retrieved. I can’t help but feel slightly disappointed because in the past we have had ten or fourteen. We just have to wait and get the call the next day to find out how many eggs were mature and how many fertilized.
I made another visual to keep track of how my eggs progress into embryos.
Eight mature.
Eight fertilized.
This clinic does not inform you of daily updates, rather you have to wait the full five/six days to find out if any make it to the blastocyst stage. Normally, I have not had any 5 day blastocysts, only day 6 (which is still okay, but day 5 is better and stronger).
On the 5th day, Jeff and I were driving in the car and the clinic called unexpectedly. We had four day 5 blastocysts, and they were waiting on two more that could possibly make it the next day! This was incredible! The next day we had two more!
Six embryos will be sent out for genetic testing! This is amazing!
Two week passed by, and we received the call that four embryos came back normal! We were absolutely thrilled!! Going through IVF is such a long, painful, emotional, tedious, journey, and the fact that we were able to give ourselves four chances of bringing a baby home in one cycle was truly a dream!
(At our previous clinic, we had 2, 1, 3 so 4 was incredible!)
“Some dreams stay with you forever,
Drag you around but bring you back to where you were
Some dreams keep on gettin’ better,
Gotta keep believin’ if you wanna know for sure
Oh, I can hear em playin’
I can hear the ringin of a beat up ol’ guitar
Oh, I can hear em singin’,
“Keep on dreamin’, even if it breaks your heart”
Even if It Breaks Your Heart by Eli Young Band
breakdown and rally 