TWO BABIES To Be Thankful For!

We got our results a day early! We have TWO HEALTHY EMBRYOS! TWO!

We followed statistics for my mutation transmission almost exactly. We had a 50/50 shot of the embryos being healthy and we sent in 6 embryos. 3 of the 6 tested were mutation free, but unfortunately one of those 3 had a tiny chromosomal deletion. I asked if there was any way this frostie might still be viable but Dr. D said that with deletions like this, there are usually other segments or things missing as well. This makes me so grateful we decided to add on the PGS, without it we wouldn't have found out that this frostie is sick and would have had a heartbreaking miscarriage or worse, might have had to terminate for defects incompatible with life.

I'm so relieved, I feel like I'm going to cry and possibly be sick at the same time. We still have a long way to go, these babies need to stick! but we're so much closer to actually holding a healthy baby. After seeing so many of these cycles yield nothing to transfer, I'm so, so happy we have healthy babies to transfer.

We are all made of stars

Dr. D needs to confirm it, but it looks like one embryo came from our first batch and one from the second. They're both hatching blasts and although Dr. D told us the genders, we've decided to keep it a surprise. We'd really like at least one thing to be normal about our pregnancy process and since nothing else has been, this is going to be it.

After getting the good news, I asked Dr. D whether he thought we should proceed with our frozen transfer or whether he thought we needed to cycle again and try to get more embryos. They usually say (without PGS) that you need 2-3 embryos per child you'd like to have, and since E and I would love 2-3, but would be happy with any at this point, I knew with only 2/6 that we might need to cycle again. As I've said before, we don't know how quickly my fertility is going downhill but we definitely know it is going. I was ready to hear that we'd need to do this whole process again but Dr. D feels that with my age, if we need IVF again in the near future I should still be young enough to produce some good eggs. I'm not sure if I agree because FXPOI complicates things in ways not reflected by age but I'm going with it.

We have so much to be thankful for this year that I'm overwhelmed thinking about it all. I'm thankful for E and our friendship and marriage, going through this is incredibly difficult and I think it's amazing that we've been able to stay strong and united. I'm thankful for all our friends and family members, who have been incredibly supportive and have helped us stay sane thus far, especially through all the mind numbing waiting. I'm thankful for Dr. D and SCRC for helping us get these two embryos, who with any luck will both be coming home with us as two healthy babies. I'm thankful for IVF and especially for PGD, I'm so grateful that we live in a time where we have the tools and technology to create and screen embryos for so many horrible diseases. And I'm so, so thankful for the two healthy embryos, our two little fighters, who for the first time have given us a real shot at a healthy family.

With a whole lot of hope, wishing, crossed fingers, science and love, we will have a healthy baby in our arms this time next year.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope you have a wonderful holiday with all of your loved ones.

SEVEN

I am in so much shock after my appointment this morning that I feel like I might cry. I can’t believe it, but we have SEVEN, SEVEN!!! follicles! At the beginning of this cycle, we were told not to get our hopes up for more than 1 or 2 and BAM! SEVEN beautiful, perfect follicles! I have 5 on the right, and 2 on the left and there might even have been another hiding on the left since it’s tough to get a good picture because your colon gets in the way. They looked like little bunches of dark grapes on the screen, I couldn't believe it when I saw them.


This is more than I ever thought my body would make. With FXPOI, 7 follicles might as well be a million and you’re lucky if you get even 1. After tons of Menopur injections yielding only 1 follicle last month, we figured this cycle would be, the nuclear option, would be a hail mary to see if I was even capable of making multiple eggs. I hoped that maybe 3, or secretly even 4 out of the original 5 small follicles would continue to grow, but I never dreamed it would work this well. I'm over the moon, completely overwhelmed and so, so hopeful.

They’re all growing at the same rate, between 10-14mm, and my E2 was 537 so all this Menopur is paying off! This is fabulous growth after only 2 more days of stimms and she didn't bother putting in another order for more Menopur, I might not need it! This makes the 2 daily injections, the bruises, the stomach pain,  the crazy bloat, the blood draws and early mornings all worth it. We could really have a shot this month to get a baby.


I am waiting on my call back now to see if I’m going in tomorrow or Friday morning and E and I need to discuss our options. He’s leaning towards doing IUI and hoping for multiples, with the hope that if we got pregnant with twins or triplets at least one might be healthy and unaffected.  I do agree it would be a pretty good shot, but I’m hesitant to lose the chance to potentially harvest 7 eggs. We could always follow the same protocol next month if we’re unsuccessful this month and harvest then, but it almost seems like too good an opportunity to pass up!

Either way, I’m so hopeful that this will be it!!