Yesterday I woke up so excited for my transfer at 2:30pm. Sean gave me my morning progesterone shot, and went on his way to work. At 9:30am, I received a call from the embryologist stating that our first embryo didn't make it through the thawing process. He let me know that there's only a 5% chance that happens and it's usually embryo specific. At that time, he also let me know that the sex of that embryo was a girl. For some reason, knowing the sex made it that much more difficult. We've never known the sex of any baby that we lost, so it was just a bit of a different experience.
The embryologist asked for consent to retrieve another egg for transfer and I continued on with my morning. He let me know that no news would be good news.
I then received a call at 10:57am, and I knew what they were calling for. Once again, we lost another embryo, and once again, it was a girl.
The embryologist stated that the loss of two consecutive embryos (during the thawing process,) hasn't happened in over two years. He let me know that their facility will now be doing a full-scale investigation on what happened the day that they froze my embryos. This would include the doctors working that day, the cryo stuff that is used to freeze them, and anything else involved.
Unfortunately, none of that takes away from the loss of those embryos.
As a reader, I know you may be thinking, "But Megan, you still have four embryos left." I told myself that the rest of the day, however I still struggled immensely yesterday morning. I was nervously waiting for a third call about a failed embryo. Not to mention, the thought that I lost two girls. Maybe, my only girls.
Additionally, the retrieval process was so strenuous on both my mind and body, that the thought of losing our hard work and future little ones, was just too much.
At this time, the embryologist told me that instead of pulling from our fully "hatched" embryos (grade 6,) he would actually be taking the grade 5 embryo. His reasoning had to do with the fact that the grade 6 embryos had already emerged from their protective casing and he believed they may be "too sticky." His thought was that if he pulled from the grade 5 embryo (still partially protected by the outer shell,) that it would not stick to the elements that froze the embryo. Therefore, it would survive the thawing process.
Sure enough, he was correct and we were on our way for the transfer.
I don't know if you recall from a previous post, but during the transfer one has to drink 32-40oz of water in a 15 minute span. So, we arrived at the facility at 1pm for blood draw. At 1:15, I had to empty my bladder and begin drinking my water. I drank 38 ounces of water from 1:15 to 1:30pm.
At 2:30, the team took me back to use a sonogram and see how full my bladder was. (One has to have a full bladder for the transfer.) Unlike the Trial Embryo Transfer, my bladder was "too full" and I had to release a cup- and no more than that!!
The doctor entered the room, and we began the Transfer. She had to fish a specific catheter through my uterus, and push the embryo into the uterus. Sean and I could NOT believe just how small the embryo was.
It is truly such an amazing process.
And just like that, we were done!
This picture shows a picture of our magnified embryo, followed by a picture of our tiny embryo successfully transferred! The doctor told us that the embryo is in the PERFECT spot.
So what's next? We wait! There is a two-week waiting period until we can go in for a blood draw to confirm if the embryo stuck (basically, if I'm officially pregnant.)
Please pray that this baby is our real Rainbow baby!! I'm thinking 4th time's a charm ;)
PS. No, the embryo is not showing twins. It is partially protected from that outer shell that I mentioned above. (Nice try, everyone!)
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