Shooting Star

Wow, what an amazing week last week was!

Tuesday the 22nd I had the egg retreival. From my 30 developing follicles 10 mature eggs were removed.

Wednesday I returned to work, and we were told that 6 of the eggs fertilized. The egg removal left me feeling like I was kicked right in the gut. I spent the day walking very slowly and sitting as much as possible. I should have taken the day off, but never could have predicted how uncomfortable i'd be.

Thursday I started Progesterone in Oil Intra-Muscular injections. I had been torturing myself by watching videos of people getting the injection and some of women giving it to themselves. I was so anxious from all of my self inflicted torture I passed out right after the injection was over. I woke up on the kitchen floor with Christopher holding up my legs and grabbing a cold compress for my head. It was a little scary at first, but i've had a few laughs and a handful trouble free injections since. A little tip is remember to BREATHE!!! To make this easier for me, we now do the injections lying down. This way I can focus on deep breathing without having to worry about anything else.

Sunday we learned that 5 of the embryos made it to early day 5 transfer which were evaluated with PGD.
Embryo's 1 and 2: not recommended for transfer. They arrested/stopped developing before we arrived and genetics predicted them to have an issue with chromosome 11.
Embryo 3: recommended for transfer, is not a carrier of SLOS
Embryo 4: recommended for transfer, is a carrier of SLOS, specifically my mutation c.964
Embryo 5: not recommended for transfer, affected with SLOS

We decided to transfer the 2 embryo's which were recommended for transfer, leaving no embryo's left to freeze. Embryo 3 was considered to be a compacted morula, a little behind in development for a day 5 transfer and embryo 4 was considered to be an early blastocyst. A full blastocyst is expected on a Day 5 transfer, but morula's and early blastocysts are also common. While our embryos were a little behind in growth, the Dr. assured us we transferred early in the day on day 5, so they haven't had the full day to develop. From what i've read even though they are developing a little slower it is likely that they are perfectly healthy! Our odds of pregnancy are a little less than with a full blastocyst, but still good.

The transfer process was absolutly beautiful. The medium the embryo's were in showed up bright white on the ultrasound, so when they were placed in my uterus it looked like a shooting star. We have a picture of them being placed, which I remain hopful is the first picture of our rainbow baby or babies...

I have been thinking alot about embryo 5. I feel sad and a slight sense of guilt for not even giving this beautiful embryo a chance. With this technology comes many sacrifices of which I will be forever greatful.