Implant Completed

Hi Everyone! Hope you are having a great Labor Day. I tell you this is one Labor Day I don't think we will ever forget. So it started at 6:30 this morning. After a good nights sleep (yeah right we all know we couldn't sleep last night) we got up at 6 and left the house by 6:30. We stopped at Whataburger for a quick breakfast and to continue filling my bladder. Yes I had to arrive for the procedure with a full bladder. We got to the IVF Lab around 7:40 and they took us in right away. It was the same nurse we had for the harvest so that made it nice. Then we got some great news. As she was leaving the room she said Dr. Dunn will be here in about 5 min and he has one before you then its your turn but we will get you all setup in a few minutes so we can check that your bladder is full. I said, Dr. Dunn is here? It was suppose to be Dr. Schenk who I am sure is a wonderful Dr but she's not MY Dr! Gina smiled real big and said of the 4 transfers today, 3 of them were Dr. Dunn's patients so even though it was his day off, he told Dr. Schenk to take the day off and he would do it. This was music to my ears. I would actually have Dr. Dunn for the whole process. When your harvest or implant fall on a weekend or holiday you have no guarentee that you will have your Dr since the 3 Dr's do a weekend rotation. I was immediately at ease which was great. I changed and Chris put on his over his clothes. We signed some paperwork and Gina came back and took us to the procedure room which I call the green room because the lights in there are green. She checked my bladder with the ultrasound machine and said its not totally full yet but it is filling and it will be fine by the time its your turn. So she covered me up and I layed there while Chris sat next to me holding my hand. Before she left the room, she said I just wanted to let you know Dr. Dunn said you have some awesome looking embryos. So we were smiling from ear to ear to say the least. We both looked at eachother and said well we know we have at least enough for the transfer that survived. We waited a little bit and in walked Dr. Dunn with a huge smile on his face. He said, so are you ready for this and I laughed and said Dr. Dunn I was ready when we got started on this 3 months ago so yes lets ge this show on the road. He laughed and Chris said she's not real good with patience when it comes to this and Dr. Dunn said then Chris you have a long 10 days ahead of you. We all laughed and with that he pulled up pictures on a big TV screen of 2 perfect embryos. With that he said here are the two embryos we will be using and they are top quality embryos. And then he said, so take at look at what will hopefully be the first pictures of your baby or babies! With that I can't lie I had tears in my eyes. Emotional today is an understatement. With that he went on to say we have 2 additional embryos that he expects to be ready by this afternoon and an additional one that could be ready by tomorrow. So he expects that we will be able to freeze 2 if not 3 in addition to the 2 they are implanting. Again we were all smiles. We not only have 2 to implant but we have some to freeze. Granted it wasn't as many as we had hoped to freeze but something is much better than nothing and I have put it all in God's hands. So with that we got started and in a short time we were watching the catheter on the ultrasound machine and then we saw two bright white dots (our embryos) on the screen. And as quick as that we were all done. When I got up off the table Dr. Dunn smiled and said, you have done everything possible that you can and you have top grade embryos so now its up to the embryos to do there thing and for God to work his magic. We all smiled and I said can I please go pee now! He laughed and said go right ahead. While I was in the bathroom he reinterated to Chris how great the quality of the 2 implanted embryos were and he told him to relax. So we went back to our room and they had me lay down for about 20 min. With that the nurse came in and said, you are all done. Remeber stay calm, no strenous activity or heavy lifting but life as normal until the 15th. Yes the 15th is the day of the official blood test. So I put my clothes back on and had to go potty again and when I came out Dr. Dunn and Chris were talking. He gave me a big hug and said now go grow a baby or two and I will see you on the 15th. As we were going down in the elevator, Chris said that while I was in the bathroom Dr. Dunn said again to him you had 2 excellent embryos and I see no reason why this won't work for you both. This shocked me because Dr. Dunn is very positive about things but he is also very realistic and never fills you full of false hope. So for him to say that really put me at ease. The truth is its all in God's hands now and I am praying for a positive blood test on the 15th. So as we get to the car Chris said to me do you need help with your seat belt? I look at him and bust out laughing and say I might be pregnant but I am not an invalid for God's sake! So to say I think he is going to drive me crazy over the next 10 days is an understatement but to be honest after everything we have been through on this journey I can understand why he is being so over protective. So you are all up to date on everything and the next 10 days will be a very long ten days to say the least. So thanks again for all of your prayers and if you have time, please continue to pray for us. Until next time, Blessings to each and everyone of you!

Update......

So today was harder than I expected and my IVF guru was so right.....it was a day at home today for me. As the day went on it got better. I still feel pretty crummy at the moment but it is now manageable. The worst part is that one of my biggest means of relaxation is a nice long hot bath and good book, well I can't soak in a tub or take a bath or even go swimming until after the pregnancy test! I can take a shower but its just not the same for me. At first I didn't think this would bother me when they told me yesterday but I have today realized that I long for my tub and the peace and relaxation it brings me. So now I am on a mission to find something to take its place this weekend and/or something to keep me occupied......haven't figured it out yet but I am working on it.

So for the update from the Dr......not exactly what we expected but we are OK and we know that God is in control. So out of the 24 eggs harvested after a much more in depth look 20 were healthy eggs. That meant ICSI (this is where they take a single sperm and inject it directly into the egg taking out the chance of the sperm not permeating the egg) was done on 20 healthy eggs. This was good news, then I got the news I wasn't really expecting. It seems that Chris's sample wasn't what the Dr expected and they struggled to find enough good healthy sperm. The good news is they did find enough, however only 7 of the 20 survived fertilization coming out strong and healthy fertilized eggs. This wasn't the number we were expecting seeing as how high our numbers had been, but the Dr kept saying there may only be 7 but they are very strong and great quality. They must have told me that 4 or 5 times over the 10 min conversation. So after we talked about it we know that God is in control and we have given this up to him. He has always taken care of us and we know that he will again. So we are going with it was really good news that we have 7 very healthy and strong at this point. After all we only need one to make this work but I am confident that we will have more than one. The Dr kept saying he fully expects all 7 to survive and grow until Monday our implantation day. So here's to praying for 7 healthy embryos to choose from on Monday, but again as long as we have one or two we will be fine. And again this is in God's hands and I am doing my best to stay positive. God how I wish I could take a bath, I don't know why but it always makes me feel better. So for my prayer request, please pray that we have healthy strong embryo's on Monday and please pray for me to find something to keep my mind occupied this weekend until Monday!

Until our next update, thanks for all of your prayers and please continue to pray. I know that God hears all.

I will end with a quote from a card that a dear friend left for me yesterday that meant the world to me and really says it all...

"Dream higher than a mountain, deeper than the sea, wider than the world - for the size of our dreams tells not how big we are but how big our God is." I have this hanging on the mirror in the bathroom to keep reminding me.

God Bless

All Done!

So today went well. Out of the 35 follicles I had, 24 of them had viable eggs. This means that today they fertilized 24 of my eggs. I will get a status report tomorrow how many of them survive fertilization and I will continue to get updates daily until the day of implant. Implant is still set for Monday. Overall I am feeling yuck! Lots of pressure and cramping.....so much for thinking I was going to work tomorrow. Yes Ang I know you told me so! LOL! Also I am still loopy and not steady on my feet from the sedation. It affected me like all anesthesia does, I woke up crying and it took me a while to wake up. Things are going well and Dr Dunn is very happy with the number of good eggs so for that I feel blessed and thankful. Thanks to all of you for the prayers today. I am going to keep this short because I am ready to go back to sleep. I will update soon with more details. Thanks again for the prayers and I hope God Blesses each and everyone of you.