First IM Injection

I had my baseline appointment on 6.23.16. It was similar to the other monitoring appointments during Stims. First, I had my blood drawn and then I had an U/S--except the U/S was to check my uterine lining instead of my follicles. My uterine lining was at 3.4mm.

I had a nurse come to give me my first Del Estrogen injection so she could show my parents how to give an intramuscular (IM) shot (in my rear). I was incredibly nervous given the size of the needles and the location (going in a muscle), but when she looked at the needle gauge and sized me up, she thought because of my BMI, I would be better using a smaller gauge (and shorter!) needle. (Thank God!) I iced the area for approximately 5 minutes while she went over the protocol of drawing up the medication and then she showed my parents how and where to give the injection. The actual injection was pretty painless (I assume because of the icing). I am really glad we hired her to come show us. She was so nice and understanding, and it turns out that not only does she work at our clinic as well, but she had two IVF babies from them that are now 8 and 12 years old! She got pregnant on the first cycle with each of them. It felt good to finally meet someone who went through what I am going through and has two actual beautiful children to show for it. It was so encouraging.

Yesterday, the nurse called to discuss the FET with me. Due to my doctor's schedule, we will be doing the FET on Thursday, 6.14.16 (instead of 6.12.16). This means that I will have my next moderating appointment (to check uterine lining) on 7.9.16. They want to do three pregnancy tests on 7.26.16, 7.28.16, and 8.1.16. Then they want to do two ultrasounds on 8.8.16 and 8.21.16. It's so hard to think that far in advance, and if we will even get to that point. 

Right now I am stressing out about plane tickets to fly back home so I can actually spend some time at home this summer before flying back here to get ready for the FET...then I have to fly back after all the pregnancy tests and ultrasounds. This entire process will have taken the majority of the summer (~15 weeks/3 months)!

PGS Results

Last Friday (6/17/16) the nurse called me with the PGS results (a week sooner than expected). The news was not great. Out of the 4 blasts biopsied, only 1 was normal. Two were abnormal (1 missing chromosome 2, 1 missing chromosome 17), and the 4th was non-concurrent (inconclusive without further biopsy/testing). To make matters worse, my doctor wasn't able to discuss things until today (5 days later), so there was a lot of anxiety and replaying different scenarios in my mind all weekend long.

I finally spoke to the doctor today and we discussed moving forward with a FET of the normal blast, and the possibility of re-testing the non-concurrent one either now or later on. He said with where we are now (with PGS testing concluding a normal blast), there is a 65% chance of pregnancy, 10% chance of miscarriage, and 58% chance of live birth. Without the PGS, the birth rate would go down to 50%. He said that my attrition rates have been pretty average so far, (although 1 normal out of 3 would be slightly below average; 2 out of 4 would be average).

Part of me is excited to move forward. I am happy that we even get to move forward, but of course my mind starts thinking that if this doesn't work, and the 4th embryo is also abnormal, I'll have to start another cycle...and if I start another cycle, when could that possibly be because I don't have another long break from work until December. I also can't help but think that not having any extra (normal) embryos means there's no chance of a second baby...which is silly because at this point, I should only be focusing on having even one baby--which I would be thrilled, overjoyed, elated, and so blessed to have!

Today will be my last day of birth control, and I have a baseline BW and U/S appointment tomorrow morning at 7:45am. I'm scheduled to start Del Estrogen injections (intramuscularly!) tomorrow evening. We have decided to hire a nurse to come to the house to teach us how to do the first intramuscular (IM) injection. I am thinking my mom will be the one to give me those! Not looking forward to that...