Embryo Transfer

Yes, the title says it all. Today was embryo transfer day. We got the call at exactly 8:30am, just as I was finishing my shower. Candice came to the washroom to tell me, so I quickly got changed and hustled back to the trailer. We had to be at Genesis by 10:30am! My family had already emptied our tent and quickly cleaned it all up so we could get on the road as quickly as possible.

We were on the road by 8:35am. Our gas tank was pretty empty because we had wanted to tank up in Cultus ($1.02 rather than $1.17 a litre), so Jon did that while I bought a 1 L bottle of water. I had to go pee at 9:30am and then drink the 1 L of water before 10:30am. We left the gas station at 8:47am...and then made it home by 9:35am. I quickly did pee and then Jon had to (excuse my language) shit.

We left at 9:45am and made to to Genesis by 10:30am. I had no problem drinking the 1 L of water...but once we got to Genesis they made us wait in the waiting room. I started dying! I think we had been waiting for like 10 minutes (felt like an hour!) before the nurse came to get us. I got changed into the standard grey wrap-around skirt that they use for the retrieval as well and was brought into the procedure room. The nurse let us know that they were going to transfer 2 day three embryos (yay!), and they would leave the other 7 in culture for a few days to see how they progress, and then they would call us to know how many of those they were going to freeze. The freezing costs us $700 the first year, and then $200 each year after that. The benefit of freezing embryos is that if (when?) we have to do this again I wouldn't have to do any injections before to make me super-ovulate, we could pretty much jump right to the embryo transfer stage. The thing to keep in mind is that only about 50% of the frozen embryos survive the thawing process.

Anyways, we had to sign a few more consent forms while I was waiting in the procedure room. I don't even know what I was signing because I was in so much pain from having such a full bladder. Once the nurse had given us all of the instructions we needed she said the doctor was going to come. But she didn't. After a few minutes she went to find the doctor...meanwhile, I was dying. I have to admit, I let a few tears slip. I felt like screaming! The doctor finally came after a few more minutes. The nurse performed the ultrasound while the doctor transferred the embryos directly into my uterus. We could see the catheter on the ultrasound screen, and then we saw her inject the embryos. They aren't visible to the human eye, but they put an air bubble on either side of the embryos so that they doctor can see that they've been injected. On the screen, it looked like a grain of rice. We also got to take home a picture they had taken of the two embryos in the culture. It's neat because you can see the cells inside of them:



For today, I'm trying to take it super easy (I'm laying on the couch right now). The nurse said that so long as I'm not running and lifting heavy things I'll be fine...but also that I shouldn't do anything that would cause me to have regrets *if* this doesn't work.

During the drive home from Genesis I got really scared. Not scared of a positive outcome (although that will bring big changes to our lives!), but scared of a negative outcome and how I would be able to even handle it. I prayed to God for comfort and strength for the next two weeks and so far it's been okay, but I'm trying not to think about it too much. One of the articles Jon was reading in the waiting room today said something like "people with religious beliefs have less fertility distress". That was cool to read...cool that there might be others reading that article some time. I don't know what I would do if I didn't have the knowledge and comfort that this is not in my control at all, that it's up to "the man up there and mother nature" as the nurse said in the procedure room today.

Our blood test is going to be on July 26, so this is going to be a long 15 days!