On Friday, September 16, I went in for one of my routine blood draws. A couple hours later I got a call that my levels were all where they needed to be for the trigger shot! I wasn't expecting the trigger shot until the following Monday and retrieval on Wednesday. However, we needed to listen to my body and get those eggs out at the perfect timing.
That night I received a call with all the plans and instructions leading up to the retrieval on Sunday, September 18. The timing of everything is crucial at this point.
At 10:00 PM on Friday I needed to give myself the HCG trigger shot. That was the huge scary needle...then I learned that the huge needle wasn't going into my body, it was used to draw up the liquid, then we switched over to a regular needed like I'd been using.
Saturday, September 17, I was to take a pregnancy test. This would let us know if the HCG trigger shot worked. The test was positive, so that means everything worked the way it was supposed to and we were going in Sunday for the egg retrieval.
Sunday, September 18, Scott, Olivia (my sister) and I all headed to the Clinic to be there at 9:30 AM. I checked in and soon after the anesthesiologist called my back to get things going for the egg retrieval.
The procedure was about 30 minutes. After I woke up I remember the anesthesiologist walking me to the recovery room, and on the way we walked past the lab where they were starting to look at all 15 eggs they were able to harvest! I was pretty out of it, so I don't remember too much beyond that.
This past week I've been getting updates as to how things are going with the embryos. On Monday, September 19, the Clinic called and said that they did a rescue ICSI, which means that they had to inject each egg with sperm to get it fertilized to begin the process of growing an embryo. We weren't expecting that, but we are so grateful that they did it for us. When they checked the embryos that day, 12 of them were maturing (of the other three, two stopped maturing and one did not have a "shell" - that means the fluid was all there, but not contained). By Wednesday there were 10 embryos maturing, and then on Friday we got the shocking news that only 3 embryos were maturing, but possibly 4. They explained to us that days 3-5 are the biggest "growth spurt" they go through. The embryo is at about 8 cells on day 3 and by day 5 to be maturing correctly it should be split into 150 cells! That was so fascinating to learn that they grow and split that much in just those few days.
Yesterday, Friday, I got another update saying that 3 of the embryos were frozen and they were watching the last embryo over night and checking it this morning to see how it was looking.
We went to a boutique show last night in Pleasant Grove and happened to drive past the clinic on our way home. We cheered our little embryo on to keep growing and we have been saying many prayers that the last embryo would mature enough to freeze with the other 3, to give us a total of 4. Not too long ago, today, we got a call from the Clinic that the 4th embryo had matured and was going to be frozen with the other 3. YAYY!!! We have 4 embryos being frozen and will be ready to implant next month.
That's a change in the timeline, that we knew could potentially happen. Dr. Foulk called me on Wednesday and explained to me why he wanted us to wait until next month. He said that because my ovary reacted so quickly to all the medication, he suspects that not much of he medication was able to prepare the uterus to accept implantation. He put it into terms that I could understand and said that my uterus wasn't ready this month, and we needed to "till the soil" in my uterus to get it ready for implantation next month.
As of now, I am not taking any medications and will begin preparing for implantation with more medication in a few weeks. The date we have planned for now is to implant on October 20th or 21st. Then two weeks after that we'll know how many of the embryos took (we're planning on implanting two of the four embryos).
It's hard to believe that everything is happening, and now we're being reminded that our Heavenly Father has a hand in everything. When Scott and I were trying to plan everything originally, we were hoping to go through IVF in October. As we told the clinic that's what we wanted to do, they informed us that Dr. Foulk wouldn't be in the office that month, because he'd be visit his other clinics in various states. Surprisingly, the timeline we were hoping for is going to work out. The days that we have set to implant are the exact dates that Dr. Foulk will be attending a conference here, in Salt Lake. So, he said he would absolutely be here on the day we chose to implant.
We know that things are working out in perfect timing and we know that prayers are answered. Through this whole experience, Scott and I lean on one another, but most importantly our Heavenly Father. He is the one that is there to strengthen us and guide us in these big decisions we are making in our life. We have longed to be parents for a few years now, and it is finally going to happen.
Thank you to those who continue to love and support us through this journey. We know we are not alone, and feel your love each and every day.
