Day 41
Crinone (Progesterone)
Ok, so we may have lift-off!
The week so far, most importantly my Mother arrived in Israel on Sunday morning to spend two weeks with us. So exciting! I went with the children to the airport early Sunday morning to get her, what fun. We have had an absolutely wonderful week, 5 days so far, and the clock is ticking, just not enough time. We have travelled a bit, laughed a lot and eaten a whole lot more.
So fertility update: Monday morning I had my bloods, Monday evening I had my ultrasound and miracle of miracles it actually revealed real follicles! Unfortunately it also revealed a new problem as well, I kind of glazed over half way through the Professors explanation because I am just sick of this. I blink and I have a new problem. The Professor is very NOT confident in this IVF cycle working, because of the Hydrosalpinx, now there seems to be some or other new problem with my endometrial lining and new adhesion's inside my ovaries or uterus or something. As I said, I glazed over, bottom line, either this works or it doesn't, if it doesn't I will be operated on post haste to fix it all up. So who really cares what is wrong now.
I have a Canadian friend on the Moshav who is an Acupuncturist, Chinese Medicine and Naturopath. I went to see her on Tuesday night, and she pricked and poked me in all the right places, to make me super-fertile. I am really not a friend of needles, no matter how thin, and I had forgotten how awful acupuncture in your legs and feet can be. Note to self: next time I am only agreeing to the stomach. She is going to continue treatment and hopefully it may all lead to a real-life pregnant me.
On Wednesday (yesterday) I went for the egg retrieval. It sounds so simple, I am not sure that it really is. The procedure is done under general anaesthetic, and with ultrasound direction each follicle is aspirated, hopefully aspirating an egg from each one. It only takes around a half hour to do, but I came around with a lot of pain, especially on my problematic lhs. This time around I felt really fine, no major grogginess, that only hit me later and a bit of nausea. The woman next to me was hurling her lungs out, which hardly encouraged me to eat the salad-roll they gave me. I had been fasting since the early morning, she hadn't.
The 5 eggs, were a bit of a let down, considering that I had been on a double dose of the FSH and LH and this was all I could muster. Previous attempts on half the dose I managed 7 and 9 eggs respectively. Anyway beggars can't be choosers.
I was instructed to go home with three days bed rest, and to call the Prof at 5pm today to find out my 5-egg status. Well, they ALL fertilised. What a great feeling! They did it!!! Now we just have to see where they will be in the days to follow, will their little cells carry on multiplying, or will they "not make it"? The plan for now is to call my Professor on Saturday night to find out how they are faring and hopefully we will have little embryos to replace on Sunday. Also he has decided that he will replace 3, he is very doubtful that 3 will 'make it', but if they all do and I actually fall pregnant with triplets (which really is unlikely), then he would do a foetal reduction. Not quite sure about that, but hey that is way way off. For now I have to last till Saturday evening. Step-by-step.
No more injections by the way. I am only on progesterone every day, but it is not an injectable.
Very tired still, a bit achy and sensitive, but happy that I have 5 possible little babies 'cooking' away in a laboratory in Tel Aviv.
HYDROSALPINX INFORMATION
"Q: In which cases does removal of the fallopian tubes improve the outcome?
A: In recent years, impressive evidence has shown that hydrosalpinx (swollen fallopian tubes, filled with fluid) can reduce chances of implantation. It seems that the reason for this is that the fluid in the fallopian tubes contains inflammatory products that leak into the abdominal cavity and damage the embryo trying to implant itself in the endometrium. In cases of recurrent failure of IVF therapy, the condition of the fallopian tubes should always be assessed using a hysterosalpingogram and ultrasound scan. If the state of the fallopian tubes is very poorly, and might affect the implantation of the embryos, the benefit of their removal should be considered. The removal of oneor both fallopian tubes is performed by laparoscopy, where a laparoscope (a fine telescope) is inserted through an umbilical incision."
