Day 47

Not the results we were hoping for today.

Of our 9 eggs, only 3 were mature and only 2 have fertilised.

2 little embryos.

Our embryologist was quite surprised by this, everything was looking so great and she couldn't really offer any explanation of why it's turned out like this. 

My estrogen levels at my last blood test were 5000. Apparently, a mature egg has an estrogen level of about 1000, so they were expecting around 5 mature eggs. She explained that sometimes an egg can have a higher reading which can skew the results.

I asked why the Dr yesterday didn't collect eggs from every follicle. She explained that sometimes the follicles are just too hard to get to. While I had 14 follicles at my scan on the weekend, the scan taken yesterday during the procedure showed that I only had 4 follicles each side that were a good size. You have to remember that they are very small and measured in mm. Sometimes, for example, a follicle will measure say 16 - 17 mm at a scan, but then on a different day from a different angle it might only measure 14-15 mm.

If you have 4 or more embryos, you would usually do a day 5 transfer (which would be Sunday for us). If you have 3 or less it would be a day 3 transfer (Friday). For our last 2 rounds we have had 7 and 4 embryos, so have always waited to day 5 for the transfer (and then we get a call to say they have stopped developing and we have nothing to transfer)

But the decision is up to us. We now need to decide if we do a day 3 or a day 5 transfer. If we wait to day 5, it is possible we wont have an embryo to transfer. If we do a day 3 then we may be putting ourselves through the '2 week wait' to find out if it is successful, when potentially, we could have just found out if it was going to survive if we waited till day 5.

I also asked if it would be possible to transfer both on day 3. When a cycle is public funded, there are very strict regulations that have to be followed and that includes only putting back one embryo.  They want to minimize the chance of multiple births. However, given our history, it is possible that we will be able to put them both back.

Tomorrow our embryologist will check our embryos and give us a call to let us know how they are going. She will also let us know if we are able to put back two. At this stage, Flex Thunderstache and I will have to let her know what we have decided regarding a day 3 or day 5 transfer.

Part of me wants to laugh, part of me wants to cry, part of me just wants to block it out and not think about it at all. I am ready for this to be over, but I don't want it to end until we have exhausted all our options.

Miracles happen. There is always hope. I am just struggling to hold onto that hope at the moment. It is comforting to know that our friends and family are praying for us - bridging the gap where my faith lacks today.

God is creator of all life.

He is writing our story. 

I know that it's going to be great.

Thank you for doing this journey with us. It certainly makes it easier.

Much love, Alana, flex and Frankie