Transfer Day - Meet the Newest Shacks!

It was a beautiful day in Thousand Oaks at the fertility clinic.  Ready to meet our babies!

This was our best quality embryo.  The wall is nice and intact and the cells are not damaged and clumped together nicely.

This cell has a nice wall but as you can see there are not many cells in the middle.  The dark cells are what develops into the fetus.  There are some cells and they might multiply or the pregnancy might develop into what is called a blighted ovum where there is everything but a baby. 

This morning we went in for our third frozen embryo transfer.   The day went well but not quiet as smoothly as I had hoped.  We had to wait a long time once we got to the very busy doctor's office and once we were taken back to our procedure room we found out why.

Here we are sitting in the procedure room waiting for Dr. K to come in and talk with us.

 Our first two blasts that were thawed didn't look very good and Dr. K after looking at them told the embryologist to thaw two more blasts which took an additional 30 minutes.  Dr. K came in an explained the condition of all four embryos and told us we had important decisions to make.  I had prayed specifically to not have to make any stressful decisions today...oh well.  He told us our options:
1.  Choose which two of the four embryos to put in and discard the others.
2.  Choose which two of the four embryos to put in and let the others "grow out" and refreeze them if they do grow and survive.
3.  Thaw two more embryos so we would have more and possibly better embryos to choose from.

This is an embryo from the first two blasts that were thawed.  It has a nice wall and generous clump of cells but many of them were damaged by the ice crystals when it was frozen making this embryo less "viable".

This is an embryo from the second two blasts that were thawed.  It has a collapsed wall and many of the cells were also damaged by ice crystals when it was frozen make it less "viable". 

I immediately looked at Dan and then put my head in my hands.  Dr. K could tell I was distressed by this situation.  I told him right off that I viewed all the embryos as alive and didn't want to discard any of them.  He sat down for a longer discussion.  He went on for several minutes talking about the reproductive process and how the majority of embryos in the natural state don't make it because they are not genetically viable.  Blah, blah, blah... I was a little perturbed.  Ultimately, the talk did help me and Dan decide that we would choose option two.  We are expecting a call from the embryologist on how the two embryos we didn't transfer are doing but haven't heard anything yet.  As much as I love Dr. K it is hard to work with a doctor who has a different moral point of view on the value of an embryo's life.  I do feel at peace with our decision.  I think if I had had a say from the beginning I would have just transferred the first two blasts without thawing the other two but Dr. K did so without asking us.

This is the window in the procedure room to the embryologist's lab.  They pass the embryos to Dr. K through this window to do the transfer.

 After our decision was made I pleaded, "Can I take my valium now?"  I was a little jittery.  I changed into my gown and downed two bottles of water (which proved to be too much!)  then Dan gave me a nice head rub while I relaxed waiting for Dr. K to come back in to do the transfer.

Dan was a great husband, keeping me calm and relaxed.

Finally, Dr. K came in and in a matter of minutes he placed the cathiter in which held our two embryos and placed them inside my uterus.  The actual transfer went perfectly.  I had to lay and relax on the table for another 25 minutes before I could empty my bladder and head home.  It was hard to make it to 25 minutes because I drank too much water!  It was kind of comical.

It is hard to tell but there is a bright white line and then underneath a more faint white line/blob and that  is my embryos and the fluid they are in.  One black blob is my uterus and the other is my bladder.

 Dr. K came in to say good-bye like he always does.  He ordered me the same three things as usual:  positive thoughts only, rest, good food!  They wheeled me out in the wheelchair and we make a quick stop to pick Lena up at my parents' house on our way home.  So I've been relaxing in bed and will pray that our little embies (all four - two with me and two in the dish) make it.  Dan reminded me after Dr. K left the room before our transfer.  He said, "Dr. K says we like to think we can control everything but we can't.  We know that God is in control and he will do what is best.  So we don't need to worry."  It was a good reminder.  I have an estrogen blood test on Saturday and then our first BETA to test for pregnancy is on Thursday, November 15th.  So the waiting continues...