ivf - day 48 - dividing

I'll be quick with today's update since it's late.




Most parents have empty-nest syndrome when their kids go off to school, but my separation comes much earlier, like before I even know if they are my kids.

It is a strange feeling to turn your future child over to the hands of a lab for 5 days.

During my first IVF cycle in June/July 2009 my favorite part of the cycle was when my embryos were outside my body. I thought that as long as they weren't with me, I couldn't mess anything up.

But this cycle is much different. I miss my embryos. Maybe it's the hormones that are pulsing through my veins, but I miss them.

Day 2 of the embryos being in the lab (egg retrieval day is counted as day 0), I get my last report before transfer on day 5. The embryologist leaves me a voice message letting me know whether I'll be a day 3 or day 5 transfer. I'll talk more about transfer days later. If we don't have any embryos at the 4-cell stage, I would be scheduled for a day 3 transfer. The lab really wants to see at least a few at the 4-cell stage and all of them need to cleave by then.

Normally, my lab doesn't give the exact number of embryos that are at each stage, but I wanted to know. I've found that if you want something, it's best to ask for it. So, today our report came in and it was very good news. All of the embryos had cleaved, 5 were at the 4-cell stage and all of those were graded very high.

For the next two days, I won't get a report and anything could happen. It's up to the embryo to grow from there and if there's any genetic mishap, they will "arrest" or stop growing. This happens quite frequently, so we need even more division.

Today my meds were:

• 1cc PIO (injection)
  
• 1 Medrol (oral)
  
• 4 Tetracycline (oral)