Catching up

I had planned on updating the blog with all the details of our infertility journey.  I haven't had the time to do that, but I'll at least take a moment to write down the highlights.  After my late December surgery, we proceeded with transferring our final frozen embryo in January.  She was our last hope for getting pregnant, our little Day 6 blast.  However, it just wasn't meant to be, 14 days after our embryo transfer, in early February, we got the call once again that our beta (blood pregnancy test) was negative.  We were devastated.

We knew our insurance coverage for fertility medications had met our lifetime maximum of $5,000 already.  The medications from one IVF cycle vary depending on your individual protocol vary, but we estimated our out-of-pocket costs for medication alone would be $12,000.  Plus doctors and procedures fees upwards of $3,000.  Mike got right on our income taxes, and decided to use our refund plus borrow against Mike's 401k to cover the estimated $15,000 expense.  We got started right away with our doctor.

Well, you don't just jump right into IVF, you start with a medication to suppress your hormones.  I needed to use Lupron due to my hypertension, an injection into the abdomen daily for a month.  Then they check your ovaries, uterus, and blood work to get a baseline before you are cleared to start your cycle.

We started stimulation meds on April 3, which happened to be Good Friday.  Since I am older and a poor responder, we did most of the meds twice per day!

All of our medication when it came in the mail!

Starting protocol, only 4 injections per day.

Add a fifth injection on day 4, adding near daily trips to the doctor for an ultrasound and blood work to monitor my progress.

We did our "trigger shot" of HCG on Saturday, April 11 at 11pm, day 9 of stims, one day earlier than our previous fresh cycle.  Our egg retrieval was 36 hours later on Monday, April 13.  They retrieved 18 eggs, but only 6 were mature.  We got an updat the next day that only 5 of the 6 eggs fertilized (used ICSI).  No updates on Day 2, they let the embryos incubate.  Day 3 update and all 5 embryos were still growing and dividing appropriately!  No update until embryo transfer on Day 5, Saturday, April 18.  

We transferred one perfect hactching Grade 5AA blastocyst.  

Three more embryos were able to be frozen, the fourth stopped growing before making it to the blastocyst stage. 

Frozen embryos are graded:

5BB

3BB

3BC

Now we wait until our blood pregnancy test a edited for a tortuously long 13 days after the embryo transfer.  

But...I'm not very good at waiting, nor am I patient.  I bought 50 uber cheap ($0.35) pregnancy test strips on Amazon!

I started testing the day after the transfer.  The trigger shot contains the same hormone detected by pregnancy tests, so the early tests are too early to test for pregnancy, but allowed me to make sure all of the hormone from the trigger had left my system.

Then, a miracle!  Or was it?  It was so faint but definitely something!

Abbreviation explanation: 4dp5dt means the test was taken 4 days after my embryo transfer and that the embryo we transferred was 5 days old at the time of transfer - 4 days post 5 day transfer.  

4dp5dt is the earliest anyone on the internet reports seeing that faint positive line indicating an early pregnancy.  Some women don't see a second line until as late as 9dp5dt, with 6dp5dt being the average.

So was it real, or some kind of fluke.  I was so desperate for the day to pass so I could test again first thing the next day!

Then this the next day...the line looked lighter.  While the tests are specifically quantitative, in general, as your pregnancy progresses, you make more of the hormone HCG detected in the tests, so the line on the tests gets darker.  This line looked lighter.  Maybe a chemical pregnancy.  Ugh!

I have 45 more tests, why not test more than once a day.  This second test seemed darker, but still not darker than my 4dp5dt test.  Not looking good:(

Totally going crazy wanting to know what was going on, so I took a third test.  Oh. My. God!  It's darker than the 4dp5dt test for sure.  What does it mean?  Why were the first two lighter?  Was my urine too dilute?  Is it a chemical pregnancy?  Ahh, still not sure what is going on!  Only time will tell...

I manage to wait until the next day to test again.  This time I try a new approach.  I read online that the amount of dye in the tests can vary, so some may look lighter/darker and the color should not be used to compare to previous days tests.  

So I decided to test by dipping 4 strips into the same cup of urine.  It's hard to tell in the pic, but the three that are the same brand all were a different shade.  

BUT...they all had one thing in common...I'm pregnant!  Woo!

I had to run to the store, so I bought one of the digital pregnancy tests just to see it in black and white.

So there it is, 6dp5dt, PREGNANT!

Of course, early miscarriage rates are high in IVF pregnancies, but I was feeling super optimistic at this point!