Fertilization Report {Part III}

Saturday, 1-23-10 (Day 25)

Dexamethasone (.75mg, oral pill):I know we've established that this pill probably isn't the sole reason for my infertility weight gain, but since we are down at my in-laws house I took advantage of the scale in one of their guest bathrooms.

The digital number I saw flash on the screen knocked the air out of me.

I'm aware that I'm fresh out of a surgery that left my insides swollen and full of fluid, but what I saw on that scale was beyond water weight. I've officially gone ten pounds beyond my I-will-never-weigh-that-much-again-weight, and although I knew I was feeling a little heavier than normal, I had no idea the extent to which I'd, well, blossomed.

Not good.

Ciprofloxacin (500mg, oral pill): Still making me nauseous, but obviously not enough to affect my appetite.

Dostinex (.5mg, oral pill): As I examined the label today, I saw a tiny yellow sticker in the upper right hand corner warning that this medication may cause drowsiness. I have been feeling extra drained lately, so I'm going to start taking it at night with my second Ciprofloxacin instead of in the morning with my Dexamethasone and hope that my energy picks back up.

PIO (1ml, IM injection): This time, I made sure my husband switched to the smaller needle before shooting.

So much better.

Fertilization Report: For some reason I wasn't as anxious as I remember being last cycle, waiting for the call to let us know how many of our eggs had fertilized and now become embryos. And since our retrieval wasn't until later in the afternoon yesterday, I thought it would be safe to jump in the shower this morning, unconcerned about missing a call I wasn't expecting until after twelve.

I enjoyed a long, hot shower and tried to relax my throbbing, swollen ovaries with steam and organic bath products. And when I was done, I took my time with my usual lotion and hair product routine, wanting to look good for the long awaited phone call about my babies. And then, as I stepped out of the bathroom and over to the bed to get dressed, I glanced at my cell phone sitting on the dresser and caught sight of the missed call from SIRM.

And my heart stopped beating.

My fingers felt thick and clumsy as I typed in my pass code to listen to the voicemail, and it took three times to get it right. As soon as I hear the nurse's voice on the line, I immediately analyzed her tone in anticipation of what was to come.

Nurse: Good morning Tabitha, I was just calling with your fertilization report...

Me: Oh, I'm going to throw up.

Nurse: I don't normally like to leave this news in a voicemail, but...

Me: That doesn't sound good, here we go.

Nurse: From what Dirk saw this morning, it looks like we have nine m2's...

Me: Wait, what does that mean? WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

Nurse: And three M1's...

Me: (Freaking out)

Nurse: With five GV's and one abnormal one...

Me: What is a GV? And why is one retarded?

Nurse: And out of the nine mature eggs...

Me: Nine mature? Not twelve, but better than five...and how many fertilized? HOW MANY FERTILIZED?!?

Nurse: Seven have fertilized normally

Me: Okay, seven is good.

Nurse: And the other two are still being watched for fertilization, they just may need a little more time in culture.

Me: Wait, maybe NINE?!?

Nurse: So we have a potential fertilization rate of 100%, which we are very pleased with...

I erased the voicemail and breathed a sigh of relief before realized I was pacing around the room naked after dropping my towel during the climax of the call, so I quickly got dressed and headed to the computer to activate a google search on M2's, M1's, and GV's.

It turns out that M2's are indeed fully mature eggs that have reached the meiotic competence stage (which we have nine of), M1's are not quite mature enough to fertilize (we have three) and GV's are at the germinal vesicle stage and are immature (five), and I later found out that our one abnormal egg had actually split, so it was useless.

So out of eighteen eggs, half were mature, and that beats our previous rates in our past two cycles (thirteen retrieved with three mature for the first cycle, and twenty-two retrieved with seven mature for our second cycle). And while our fertilization rates have always been impressive (two out of three for the first cycle, and six out of seven for the second cycle), the possibility of 100% fertilization is absolute perfection.

And I'm feeling really good.

Thank you all so much for your prayers. I feel the peace and calm they have smothered me in, and I see them being answered in the results attained thus far. We still have a long ways to go, and our patience will once again be tested as our clinic won't disturb the embryos again until day three, so we will continue to hope and pray for some rockstar, high grade, multiple celled embryos to emerge for Monday's update.

Until then, we're praising God for our seven-possibly nine-miracle embryos growing in culture.

And thinking (+) positive.

“For myself, I am an optimist - it does not seem to be much use being anything else”

-Winston Churchill