My eggs and some detours

I haven't updated my blog in a while because admittedly, I was a little reluctant to share my progress in my IVF journey. It hasn't been an easy ride, after all. And I was terrified of failing again. Ok, let me start from my ovum pickup.

Before the ovum pickup, I was thinking that there would be around 4 mature eggs that could make it. I know, that's not much, but I thought to myself that it only takes 1 good egg to make a baby. I thought the ovum pickup would be scary. As I lay on the bed in the OR, I remember calming myself down, and just trying to relax. I didn't even realize that I had passed out already. I woke up in the recovery room around 2 hours later. They let my aunt and mom in and let me change into my clothes. I went to the IVF room on the 6th floor after and asked how many eggs were retrieved. They told me that Dr. Lee was able to retrieve 8 eggs, but that only 1 was mature. My heart sank. 1 mature egg. I tried to be optimistic but it was hard.

The following day, I called the IVF lab to check on the eggs and how many had been fertilized. I was told that there were 2 more eggs that were fertilized. I had a total of 3 eggs now. My mom was there to cheer me up. Again, I just needed 1 good egg, but God was gracious enough to give me 3 fertilized eggs, and that was enough. :)

2 days after the ovum pickup, I called the IVF lab and was told that I had to come in the following day for my embryo transfer. They were doing a 3 day transfer, which meant that the quality of the embryos were not very good. I came in at 10am the following day for my embryo transfer. They explained to me that my embryos were a little out of sync in terms of their growth and that 2 embryos divided very early and the other one had about 50% fragmentation while the other ones had 40%. 2 were Grade 5 and 1 was Grade 6 so they were transferring all 3 embryos. I asked Dr. Lee if there was still a possibility of pregnancy and he assured me that although the chance of getting pregnant is decreased, it was still possible.

The next few days, I took it easy. I watched TV all day and just walked out of the apartment to eat or buy food. The wait was nerve-wracking. I was leaving Taipei on November 27, and was asked to drop by Mackay to get a letter that Dr. Lee has prepared for my doctor in Manila before my flight. I was going to do my HCG test in Manila on November 30. I was tempted to buy a home pregnancy test before November 30 but I knew that God wanted me to wait. So wait, I did.

My second attempt

Haven't been able to update this blog for a while but I'd like to share that I'm back in Taipei and I'm officially scheduled for Ovum Pickup this coming Sunday. This particular cycle wasn't exactly a smooth ride. I hit a few bumps on the road, just like my first IVF attempt. This time though, it seems that things are looking up.:)

I was on the Lupron agonist protocol this time around, which meant I started doing my Lupron injections on myself since Day 18 or the previous cycle. I had my last injection today, which was my 29th self injection of Lupron. Yes, 29th! Isn't that crazy? Not to mention I had to have 2 other injections for this IVF cycle, which were Menopur and Puregon. 3 injections everyday for 14 days now. I leave it up to your imagination as to how my tummy currently looks like after all those injections. :))

Doing my trigger shot tonight and I'm quite nervous about Sunday. Hopefully, by God's grace, everything will be ok. :)