While taking my shots and other meds I had regular check-ups to have my blood drawn and to have internal ultrasounds to count and measure my follicles. At first these visits were about every two to three days but by the second week I was going to the doctor every single day. IVF definitely began to consume our lives because of the amount of time spent at the doctor’s office and because of the set schedule we had to maintain in order to take my medication at the same time every night. David and I basically gave up any form of social life we had to be able to stick to our medication schedule.
Once my follicles had reached an appropriate size for retrieval, David gave me a shot of ovidrel to begin my ovulation and two days later we headed down to Charlotte for my egg retrieval surgery. Because extracting the eggs from the ovaries is a painful process, patients are put completely under for the surgery. The procedure was rather short, maybe 30-45 minutes, and then I was wheeled back to my room to rest for a while before going home. Once home I was instructed to stay in bed for the remainder of the day.
There are two variations on what can happen after the egg retrieval. Either the eggs and sperm can be placed in a dish together and allowed to fertilize naturally and/or the embryologist can manually fertilize the eggs with the sperm (this second procedure is known as intracytoplasmic sperm injection or ICSI). In our case, all of the eggs retrieved were manually fertilized using ICSI.
After fertilization the fertilized eggs are kept in a dish to grow outside of the body for about five days. During this time our nurse or embryologist called every couple of days to tell us how many eggs remained alive and healthy since not all retrieved eggs will survive. Overall, we had ten eggs removed and nine of those fertilized. Two days later seven of our eggs were still alive and growing. Two days after that, on our last call before the egg transfer, we were told that all seven were still alive but that only four had continued to grow as expected.
David and I felt good about having four (and possibly seven) good eggs. That left us for sure with two to put in during this transfer and two that could be frozen for next time. However, as we arrived for the transfer procedure we received some bad news. All except two of our eggs had died and of those two only one was really good. I had to work hard not to break down in front of our doctor. It was discouraging news, less so because our eggs had died and more due to the realization that if/when we did IVF again I would have to go through all the shots and doctor’s appointments again because we would have no eggs in storage.
Our doctor explained to us that having so many of our eggs die after fertilization gave her some indication as to perhaps why we were having trouble getting pregnant. She said that it was very possible my eggs were getting fertilized and I was becoming “pregnant.” However, it would appear that once fertilized my eggs died for an unknown reason. Our doctor reminded us that this didn’t mean we couldn’t get pregnant on our own but that, for David and I, it was probably a numbers game and we would simply have a much smaller chance of getting pregnant than a regular couple would have.
Thankfully the IVF clinic was slow the day I had my transfer so David was allowed to be in the room while it took place. It was amazing to watch. There was a monitor showing the embryologist sucking our eggs into the catheter needle and another monitor showing an ultrasound view of my uterus as the fertilized eggs were placed inside me. It was a faith-promoting experience to see the miracles God has provided through modern medicine.
After the transfer you have to be on complete bed rest for at least 48 hours. Complete bed rest means you ONLY get up to use the restroom. David was so good to take care of me during this time. Every morning he set water and food next to my bed so I would have something to eat during the day while he was gone and every night he would bring me dinner and sit with me as we ate together. Ironically, we grew much closer during this time due to the fact that I was completely reliant on him and because we were both working towards the same goal, having a baby.
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