Ten Out of Ten

Top marks for us, I really can't believe it, we had our fertilisation report today -

DAY 1 UPDATE

• 11 eggs collected
• 10 mature and suitable for ICSI
• 10 embryos!

After a sleepless night, I feel a tad silly now for worrying that this cycle had produced the least number of eggs as we now have the most number of embryos at Day 1 from all our cycles and 100% fertilisation. Our last two cycles have been around the 60% fertilisation mark, so this feels like a bit of a miracle.  The embryologist also mentioned that Mr Moon's sample was borderline normal, yay, another first. So we're happy for today :-)

It's really early days, and I remain cautious as we're still not sure what will happen at Day 3, will our embryo's deteriorate like our past two cycles, or could we be third time lucky?

Egg collection yesterday was uneventful, I was super nervous beforehand like usual but all went fine with the stabbing of the ovaries! I didn't have the anaesthetist Mr Smooth this time, instead we had Mr Smiles . . . what is it with these anaesthetists, are they all on happy drugs?  I'm still a little tender today but taking it easy, hopefully this will have passed by tomorrow.

So we wait, worry and wait some more. 

Six

Phew, we got the call this morning and the numbers are in, so far so good  -

DAY 1 UPDATE

• 13 eggs collected
• 10 mature and suitable for ICSI
• 6 embryos

So we have 6 ickle embies growing in a petri dish . . . a 60% fertilisation rate, the same rate as cycle 1, but we're hoping this time our embies are stronger.
As of last night I'm taking a progesterone supplement, last time I was on crinone, the new clinic has given my cyclogest this time, twice a day. I'm also due to start taking an antibiotic, doxycycline, prophylactically from today for one week to prevent any urinary tract infections.

Providing we get to transfer we can apparently take a CD with us to listen to music of our choice! Would be interested to hear if any of you have done this and what song you chose, help! :-)
 
And so we wait . . .

Egg Hunt

Well what can I say, I love sedation, especially after my egg collection experience in my last cycle :-)

The numbers are in, 13 eggs . . . hopefully 13 is lucky for us.

It's hard not to compare cycles but I guess natural to do so . . . this cycle has been easier overall, I'm a dab hand at injecting, the side effects much less and I responded quicker. Last time I had 15 eggs, 13 of these were mature, and of those 8 became embryos. So my number of eggs is slightly less than last time but I'm going for quality not quantity this time.  In other good news, the embryologist gave us a run down of OH's sample stats, and it's much improved, we both breathed a big sigh of relief.

All the staff at the clinic were so lovely to us throughout and very calming, especially Tina (OH calls her Nurse Sparrow). We also saw the consultant too which was nice and he gave me a little pat on the shoulder, bless. Oh and then we met Mr Smooth, the anaesthetist, omg he was super smoooooth! The only thing that hurt this time around was putting the cannula in and so I told Mr Smooth off about this, as you do! :-) before I knew it I was asleep and then back in the waiting area.

Fingers crossed my little eggies are getting down and dirty in the petri dish, lol.

All Systems Go

Woah, it's all systems go in the world of Moon.

I rocked up at the clinic this morning for my first monitoring scan for IVF 2.0, if my first cycle was anything to go by I'm usually a slow starter on the old follicle front (see cycle 1 posts - Wakey Wakey and Grow Follies Grow) and so even though it's Day 8 of my stimulation injections, which was later than my first scan last time, I did still feel a tad bit nervous this morning. I went in to the scan room, had my hand slapped as I took my Gonal and Suprecur that morning, oops! (I could swear Nurse Chillax didn't mention about not taking my drugs until after Mr Wandy but anyhoo it's all a bit of a blur, she probably did and I have a case of selective memory loss).  All worked out ok though and my dose has not changed. BUT egg collection has moved from the scheduled dates, instead of next Monday it will now be THIS FRIDAY!!! yikes!

I don't have an exact follicle count this time, and I kinda like it, she went over it all fairly quickly and I decided it was probably better for me not to over analyse everything this time round, as long as Nurse Chillax was pleased then I should just chillax myself! Saying that, some of it did stick in my head . . . my lining is looking good at about 8.6mm, my left ovary already has one follicle at 18mm, she said there are a few good sized ones on this side and some smaller ones too. Over on the right (remember the sleepy right ovary?) she said there are a few on this side too so it's good that my ovaries are responding more evenly this time. She said we're looking at about 10 follicles maybe and some others may grow in time but she would like to move egg collection early as I am responding well (never thought I would hear such words in relation to little Moonie).

So I'm feeling a whole roller coaster of emotions . . . scared . . . excited . . . nervous . . . dreamy . . . bloated (nice) . . . excited

Cluck Cluck

So I survived! Egg collection, done.

I worked my self up so much in the last couple of days with nerves so I'm really pleased we've passed another hurdle. Luckily for me, we were assigned the super nice fertility nurse from the other day, she is so caring and understanding that she really makes you feel at ease.

On arrival we were shown to my bed for the morning and I was give a window view, bonus (the clinic is in a beautiful setting, in the the middle of nowhere). The nurse went through the drugs I would be taking and I also had a chance to have a minute with the doctor who would be performing my egg collection. She offered that I could switch to a general anaesthetic if I wanted to but as she reassured me that it should be fine I stuck with the local anaesthetic option. My OH was given his instructions for his "specimen" and he went off to the deed, sounds like it was a bit of a military operation with specific instructions to be followed to ensure the sterility of the sample. My vital signs were taken and I was given the pain killer suppository to take (my first ever one, an odd experience!) . . . not long after I was given the two injections in my rear (pethidine and an anti-sickness jab), by 'eck they stung!  I'm sure to have a lovely bruise waiting for me there.

It wasn't that long before the drugs took effect and I felt much more relaxed, a welcome feeling for a change. I was expecting to only wait another half an hour before it was my turn but the lady before me was in theatre for much longer than expected. I'm not sure exactly what her complications were but from our eavesdropping (had to be done!) it seems that she didn't have her light breakfast and so her BP dropped in theatre, she came back eventually and sounded fine.

Finally, it was my turn and off I went into theatre. I was so scared but the staff were very friendly making polite chit-chat conversation. They put the cannula in and hooked me up to the monitoring machines. The first part of the procedure was by far the worst, felt like the speculum they used was some super sized one so they could put the local anaesthetic in. They offered me gas and air as all the machines were bleeping like mad as I found it pretty painful, but when they said it would make me feel dizzy I declined, another minute or so later she removed the speculum and I breathed a great sigh of relief. The next part was not as bad (hard to beat the first part) as they just used the usual ultrasound wand which I'm quite used to now to guide them and I could watch on the screen which was bizarre! The doctor explained everything she was doing, she drained each follicle and placed liquid into test tubes (really is like test tube babies!), it was a little uncomfortable but this part was over in about 15 minutes. During all this, they gave me several antibiotics through the cannula and once the follicles were drained she put the flaming speculum back to check everything over and a antibiotic suppository for good measure, but thankfully that was it!

So, the numbers are in:

 

Left Ovary

11 follicles gave 11 eggs (the cyst ended up being a follicle I think)

Right Ovary

4 follicles gave 4 eggs (the rest were too teeny)

15 eggs in total, woo hoo! I hadn't expected this many as my right ovary had not been responding very well so I'm pleased and hope most of them survive (grow embies grow).
After a cuppa and and a biccie I was discharged . . . I'm to call tomorrow afternoon for an update on how our embies are doing, hopefully there is a party going on in a petri dish.