Meds, Shot Lessons, and Face Time with Dr. K and Mrs. A

(FYI:  Details are provided for those extra interested in embryo adoption.)

Today we drove two hours to Dr. K's office to do our first of three pre-FET check ups.  He did an ultrasound to look at my insides and show me my ovaries - don't really know why.  Then they drew blood to check my estrogen levels and I found out later today that my levels are good.  Then we met with Mrs. A (the embryologist) and Dr. K (our FET Dr.) to discuss our embryos.  He told us that all of our embryos are expanding 5-day blasts and that each of them has around 35% chance of implanting and developing into a pregnancy.  He felt that the fact that they were expanding and from a very young egg donor they had a much higher chance of implantation.  They were graded 5AB, 5BB, 5BC, 5BC.  (The grading has to do with the quality of the embryos.  If you want to know more go here.)  I really don't care so much about the grading.  I mean every EA mom wants to hear "Your embryos look great!" but I've known EA moms who had great embryos and they didn't implant and others who had "poor" embryos and they are now cute little kids.  At this point we are just praying that all of our embabies make it out of the thaw and get a chance at life.

We did find out that all of our embryos are frozen individually.  This is REALLY great news for us because we have to decide how many embryos to transfer and embryos must be thawed the way they were frozen.  This gives us the option to thaw each embryo individually until we get two that survive to implant.  We won't have to thaw too many or too few.  We will only thaw enough to transfer two. 

Lastly, we scheduled my appointments that lead up to our transfer. (We go once a week.)  Then Mrs. A gave us a run down on the first two weeks of medication.  We will both take Doxa......pills (can't read her writing) twice a day for a week.  And next Monday I start my Delestrogen injections twice a week until further notice.  (Supposedly I will take these injections until several weeks after the embryos implant.)  We will find out more about my Progesterone(PIO) shots at my Oct. 4th appointment when I have my mock transfer.  The PIO shots are the ones that have to be taken daily I believe until the second trimester of pregnancy.  Dan feels pretty confident about giving me my shots.  I guess it pays to be married to an EMT.  I am pretty excited that our meds only cost $275.  We were expecting to pay up to $500 for those.  I suppose this might not be all of our meds.  We might have to order more if we stay pregnant.  Our big bill comes next appointment when we pay for our FET - $2200.  It's a lot of money but when you have waited almost 7 years to be a mom and dad another $2200 doesn't seem like such a big deal.

After our appointment we decided to have lunch at the Farmer's Market at the Grove in LA.  That place is so fun!!!  Today we decided to have Brazilian BBQ, Little John's English Toffee, and get some Moroccan olives and French cheese (Midnight Moon).  Then we scouted out what we will have for lunch on our next Dr. appointment day.  If we have to drive two hours each way to Dr. K's we might as well add in something extra fun right?