So, egg retrieval went well. I didn't respond well to the sedative initially so they had to give me a higher than usual dose, apparently it's because I have a high tolerance to alcohol. Not sure whether to be appalled or proud..... They managed to get 20 (twenty!) eggs out of me so no wonder I was in so much discomfort. We were discharged around midday and when we got home I slept pretty much all afternoon. Woke up about 6pm and we ordered pizza (I was under strict instructions not to cook so what else were we going to do?!) and went back to bed early. I'm was back at work the day (a Wednesday) after but still in a fair amount of pain, it didn't go away for a while (early the following week).
The clinic then phoned me the following morning with an update - of the 20 (I still can't quite believe that number....) eggs that they collected 16 of them were mature enough to be fertilised (they would expect 80% so that fits), then 9 actually fertilised (an additional two were 'over fertilised' so can't be used). They said they'd keep me posted with their progress daily but that they only expected 90% (i.e. 8) of them to continue to develop, whichever ones do continue to grow would be checked before freezing. There was of course still no guarantee how many would make it to freezing, nor how many will pass all the relevant checks. There's also, of course, no guarantee any of them will 'stick' once transferred but holy hell these were good numbers to be starting with!
This following morning's update was not so good - only seven continued to develop, two didn't produce any cells. Of those seven, four weren't doing very well and so the clinic weren't sure if they'd make it to freezing. They were hopeful that the other three would, and some of those four might still it's just that the chances are lower that they will. We'd get a better prediction in the following day's update call of how many would make it to freezing.
And the next day's update was a blow, it took the wind right out of both of us. Only one was doing what it should be doing but they didn't know if it would continue to do so. Three more made it to eight cells, but the cells were misshapen and fragmented so were unlikely to develop further. The others were still developing but doing it so slowly that they were also unlikely to make it. The next update was two days away and there was now a very real chance we'd end up with nothing
The wait was excruciating. But when the phone call finally came they said that our little fighter had made it!!! One was being checked that day and three of the others had also caught up and might be ok for checking the next day. There was still 24hrs to go on those three so of course things might change but at that moment it did look like they should make it! There were still many more hurdles to jump - they need to pass the checks and be ok for freezing for a start. And there is of course still no guarantee any will implant successfully after transfer but after the earlier phone call we got we were fully prepared for different news so, for at that moment at least, we were very happy bunnies.
The final clinic update came through and we ended up with four that had been frozen and checked, the results of the checks won't come through for a few weeks so nothing else to do in the meantime. The only thing of slight concern was that the embryologist wasn't convinced of their quality, but (as far as I'm aware....) if a fertilised egg makes it as far as being a blastocyst it's just different levels of 'good'. If it's not a viable embryo it wouldn't have made it to be a blastocyst. So, as always, there are still no guarantees but it was another hurdle cleared!
And so the wait begins.
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