Friday morning 11am retrieval. Chris drove me to the doctor, we sat with the nurse, signed more consents and went over the procedure. She explained to Chris how to take care of me the rest of the day, getting plenty of rest, drink fluids and take my pain meds before I felt pain. We kissed in the hallway and off I went to get changed. I was so nervous, but I decided to be super brave and I didn't cry!!
I changed into this hot outfit and went into the surgical room.
The only thing I remember is the nurse talking to me about my cute socks and thats it. Next thing I know I woke up in a different room and of course began bawling.... I was crying for Chris. Then the nurse I know better came in the room, held my hand, rubbed my head and kept asking what was wrong. I told her I was scared and that Chris brought me hear because something was wrong... she continued to reassure me that I was fine in fact I did "soooo good", thats what she kept telling me until I calmed down. Then I was able to eat a few cookies and drink some juice. I still had no clue if we got any eggs or how many.... after checking my vials, I got to get up and get dressed. I saw a text from Chris saying he was so happy, proud of me and I did so good.... still no clue what this meant... the nurse walked me to the bathroom and then told me I could meet with the doctor.
The doctor then told us the greatest news, he was able to retrieve 5 eggs!!!! I just started to cry again, but happy tears!! He explained that 3 were definitely mature and the other 2 were close behind. He told us we would receive a call every day including the weekend until day 5 or 6 with an update on our eggs. We left with smiles and tears, once outside we just hugged. It felt like our miracle could actually happen.
I rested all night and got lots of sleep. I drank my fluids and took my medicine.
On Saturday we got the call that 3 eggs fertilized and a 4th one was close... the embryologist said things were looking good. He said he would continue to call with the updates.
On Sunday he called and told us we had "2 perfect Embryos" those were his exact words!!!! It absolutely stinks that were are only down to 2 chances for a baby, but he said several times they were "perfect" and Grade 1 (see chart below). So we have 2 Embabies!!!! Thats 2 miracles as of now... we just have to keep the faith that they will continue to grow and be strong like their parents!!
Here is some information about the process our little Embabies are going through and will continue to go through before they will be considered healthy enough to be transferred back inside me. It is a very complicated and overwhelming situation that requires a lot of research to understand, but this is a quick visual to help you see that so much is happening in these 5 days.
This is what "Grade 1 Embryo" means... so we are doing great so far!!
The embryo grade refers to how the cells in the embryos look. A grade one embryo, for example, is one in which all of the cells are the same size and there is no fragmentation in the embryo. The system we use to grade embryo appearance is presented in the following table.
Embryo Grade | Description |
Grade 1 | Cells are of equal size; no fragmentation seen |
Grade 2 | Cells are of equal size; minor fragmentation only |
Grade 2.5 | Cells are mostly of equal size; moderate fragmentation |
Grade 3 | Cells are of unequal size; no fragmentation to moderate fragmentation |
Grade 4 | Cells are of equal or unequal size; fragmentation is moderate to heavy |
Grade 1 through 2.5 embryos seem to have the greatest potential for developing to the blastocyst stage. However, a grade 3 embryo may also be of good quality if its appearance can be explained by asynchronous cell division rather than by poor development. We have published data showing that the number of cells in the day 3 embryo is a better indicator of potential than the grade of the embryo. Therefore, an 8 cell Grade 3 embryo would have better potential than a 4 cell grade 2 embryo on day 3.