Better late than never!

I am over a week late posting but hey, better late than never right?!  I wanted to explain the process of am embryo transfer so anyone who hasn't been through it understands it and when I wrote my first post, I had never been through one yet so I didn't know how to explain it either!

So I made the drive to Virginia and it was quite cold but I had tunes blasting and it was sunny.  The ride was over before I knew it.  Once I got up there, M met me at her house and we took the boys to Chick Fil A for lunch to play and for her and I to chat.  This is when I started with the drinking for the full bladder for the transfer.  One sweet tea, coming right up! 

Me driving to Virginia

We ran back to the house to wait for the babysitter and went to the clinic.  I drank another 24 ounces at the house plus refilled my camelbak bottle and continued to drink water.  

We got to the clinic and I pulled a little gift out for M -- It was a Pandora style bracelet with a little horseshoe as our lucky charm.  She put it on immediately.  My IF came at this time as well to be there for support through the transfer.  

 

Me and IM Waiting for transfer!

We went to the back and I got undressed from the waist down and sat on the table... in pain.  My bladder was so full, it was hurting.  I grinned and bared it for just a few minutes.  The doctor would be in the room any minute-- right?  Wrong!  He was running behind.  The nurse came in and did a quick scan and said I could fill up one urine sample cup and dump it.  That would certainly make me feel better.  Wrong again.  I still hurt.  After waiting for about 10 minutes, I had to relieve myself just a little bit more.  So they let me empty one more cup worth.  I still hurt-- I did my homework with drinking fluids, I did extra credit but this time it didn't pay out!

Finally Dr. Steingold came in the room and we were ready to get this show on the road.  He came in and chatted with us making sure I didn't have any questions.  Then he had me lay back to get the transfer started.  He placed the speculum and cleaned off my cervix to get the progesterone suppositories off of the cervix so everything was clean for the catheter with the embryo in it to pass through the cervical opening.  My IM stood beside me and held my hand and stroked my hair so nicely!  She's the best.  

Then the Dr said "Sorry, I wasn't expecting it to take this long for the embryos to come in or I would have waited to put the speculum in!"  Then within seconds, we heard the beeping of the incubator.  They seriously bring the embryo down in an incubator to keep it warm!  I never knew that before this transfer.  Our baby doctor (AKA Embryologist) came down with the embryo.  He presented the parents to be with a photo of their embryo.  They have 19 on ice but only thawed one.  It was rated only a 'Fair' but he remarked that if it had been left to grow for another 2 hours, it could have grown to be marked 'Good' but if it was 'Poor' they would have thawed another.  

The dad to be checking out his little em-baby before transfer

Dr. Steingold and Daniel the embryologist holding the catheter with the embryo

Now came the big moment.  The embryo was placed and I was fortunate enough to be laying there with a swollen, filled, painful bladder and had a brand new on the job nurse doing the scan.  The transfer took far longer than anticipated because she was not visualizing my uterus very good for the doctor to see the catheter going in.  Instead of being down by the pelvic bone, she was shoving the u/s probe into my bladder.  It was murder...simply awful.  She was moving it around rather than holding it still for the doctor to see the whole uterus in the viewing field.... Then.... It was done.  He was able to see what he needed and we even got a ultrasound image of the embryo in its air bubble after the transfer was done and even a video of the whole transfer.  How amazing is that?

After the transfer was done, I had to lay on the exam table for another 30 minutes.  I had to resort to using a bedpan for the first time in my life.  I had to pee so bad but the idea of peeing while you are horizontal is much harder than anticipated.  It is fundamentally wrong!  It took me a few to relax to do it and then I was waiting for a nurse to come in and remove it... with my butt sitting in pee.... literally my butt was sitting in the pee... I guess you lose modesty when you go through this process-- can't be anymore embarrassing than having a baby and having so many people in the room it feels like the marching band is marching through with the tuba, trumpets, percussion, flutes and everything else wailing! After I got my clothes back on... I RANNNNNN to the bathroom.  Seriously I had to pee so bad that this toilet looked so much like a throne!

On the way from the clinic, M & I stopped at Outback to have dinner before I hit the road.  We were supposed to have a slumber party and just hang out while I was on bedrest for the next day but bad weather was rolling in and with the threat of snow, we decided it was best for me to drive home that night.  Once we got back after dinner, we went back to their house and I hopped in the car and made the 4 hour trip home.  

It was a long but exciting day.  Beta day is Thursday but thus far, we haven't had a positive pregnancy test yet... Pray for a miracle.  If this cycle didn't work, we already have plans to hop right back in the saddle in a few weeks.  After ceasing medications, my period should start within a few days and I restart the estrogen on cycle day 2 (CD2) and then we will transfer around 2.5 weeks from then....

To be continued... My next post will be about the Diaries of a Crazed Surrogate Woman!!  Pee sticks GALORE!!  ....