Updated Fertilization Report (Day 3) - October 13th, 2011

Sorry for the delay in informing you of what has been going on!  These past few days have been Codeine-induced blur!  So, first the update.  As of this morning, here is the day-3 update:
1 10-cell grade 2
3 8-cell grade 1
2 8-cell grade 2
1 7-cell grade 3
1 6-cell grade 2

If you count those up, you will see that all 8 are still growing and dividing!  That is amazing!  Based on the reports yesterday and today, we have decided to do a day-5 transfer, which will be Saturday.  We still don't know how many we are going to transfer, as they certainly won't all make it to be frozen.  On day 5, the embryos become known as blastocysts and the grading scale changes.  The criteria for freezing are more rigorous than the non-blast transfer criteria.  So, right now I'm leaning toward transferring one top-quality embryo and one low-quality embryo that probably won't make it to freezing.  I'm not sure if that is what is going to happen or not, but that is how I am leaning today. We really won't be able to make the call until we are at their office on Saturday with the final report.  What a nail biter!

Another update, is that Tuesday night I woke up in a ton of pain - like a 9 on the 10-point scale.  I woke up Hubby and he called Dr RE's pager, but couldn't get in touch with him for awhile, so we decided to head to the hospital.  While we waited for my Mom to come over (it was midnight!) to be here in case RoBet woke up, Dr RE called back.  He said do NOT go to the ER, as they would take one look at my ovaries and put us through tons of very expensive and unnecessary testing.  Instead, he wanted us to come to his office at 8AM Wednesday morning.  To get through the night, he OKed the use of a heating pad (which is off limits otherwise) and to take 2 of my Tylenol-3s, which have codeine in them on top of the one I had taken at bedtime.  As it turns out, it was just the size of my ovaries causing the pain.  Normally, an ovary is the size, roughly, of a golf ball.  During stimulation, they become the size of grapefruits.  After follicle aspiration, they collapse back down to almost normal size.  Then, the follicles fill back up with fluid and actually grow larger than they were during stimulation!  I didn't know they grew even LARGER!  Well, my ovaries were bigger than the size of grapefruits - up to the size of small cantaloupes!  And because of the strange location of my left ovary, and the suddenness of the swelling, it really moved other stuff around inside causing the intense and sudden pain.  Several T-3s and much bedrest later, I am on my way to feeling better now.  Thankfully it was not OHSS or an infection, and all is getting better now.  


Tomorrow I will be getting a call from my nurse to set up the time for our transfer on Saturday and to give me the details of everything I need to know about transfer day.  My embie(s) are almost home - I cannot wait to be PUPO (pregnant until proven otherwise)!