By our appointment time at 2pm, the doctor came in and told us we had more options. From the time they looked earlier that morning, until the moment we were sitting in the transfer room, we had 8 more develop to "primo" status - totaling 12 embryos. Huge success!! He was also very real with us. We talked about a condition called OHSS - Ovarian Hyper-Stimulation Syndrome. Women who are hugely responsive to the hormones through the IVF process and over-produce eggs, are often times at a higher risk for developing this. I am in this category. They harvested 41 eggs from my body last week - that means my ovaries grew to the size of large grapefruits. With OHSS, they continue to get bigger and in his words are "on their way to small cantelopes" (from that hyper-stimulation) and this can often times lead to debilitating bloating and pain. He said if I get pregnant with this transfer, he guarantees OHSS and if I get pregnant with twins, he guarantees misery. This syndrome only lasts about a month from the sounds of it, but because it can be so painful, he really encouraged us to just transfer 1. He said if it were honestly up to him, he probably would have us freeze all of them and wait for my body to heal and then transfer in February at their next cycle. Ultimately, it was our call. Temporary misery with potential complications, or play it safe. Since Danny was terrified of twins anyway, we compromised with 1 embryo. Danny had to promise (with Dr. Stoelk as our witness) that he would be open to another baby down the road if it meant we wouldn't have to have 2 babies at once. Ok. Fine. Deal :) The doctor was very honest with us also and said based on the amount of embryos we have left, that he nearly guaranteed (oh, say 90% sure) that we would never have to go through the whole "harvesting" process again and the success rate with FETs (frozen embryo transfers) is very high!
1 embryo it is! We have to walk our talk, and trust God has a plan for this very tiny, sweet, single embryo. Dr. Stoelk confirmed we made the right decision going with 1. He guided the catheter into my uterus via ultrasound, and we got to see the little flick of air and liquid when he deposited the embryo into my body!
See the little dot of white at the tip of the arrow...kind of the shape of a grain of rice? That's it!!!
Before I even got up from the transfer, Dr. Stoelk asked to pray over us and our embryo! It was a beautiful prayer and such a blessing to us to be under the care of a doctor who clearly believes in God's ultimate timing and will. It was a really special moment for both of us.
Baby's First Picture!! Not everyone gets a picture of their embryo at a microscopic level! Amazing!!
There SHE is! See the pink bow?! Hehe. Of course, you can't really tell the sex at this stage, but we are all routing for a girl :) The compact mass of cells in the center is the baby! The darker ring around these cells inside is what will become the placenta. See the bubble on the left side? That is the blastocyst busting through the "shell"...the baby will break through and be looking for a cushy place to burrow and implant within the next few days! If my uterus is suitable, the embryo will implant and we will have a postive pregnancy test next Wednesday morning - a week from today! More waiting!
Meanwhile, I'm bracing myself for more bloating either way. My ovaries are still currently the size of large grapefruits and I look pregnant already. Very pregnant. This may mean people think I'm a lot further along than I actually am if the pregnancy takes, but it's all part of the process! I may be buying a belly-band very soon :)
This morning we had 4 more embryos reach "primo" status. We decided to add them to the freezer with their siblings. We now have a grand total of 15 freezer babies waiting for us!
This process has been absolutely fascinating. What a blessing to have this opportunity! We are nowhere near completing this journey, but each step has been so rewarding and I believe God will grant us the desire of our hearts!
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