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.

This is *almost* it

Had yet another ultrasound today and Dr. Lee asked me to have a blood test to check my Estradiol level. Upon googling, I found out that the Estradiol blood test is a way to find out if a woman is responding to fertility treatment.

I had to take the blood test before 8:30am because the result doesn't come out until 3 hours later. This means that Dr. Lee can still check the result before giving me the medications I would need for the next few days. Dr. Lee told me that the fertility treatment was working well and that my body was responding to the treatment. I breathe a huge sigh of relief upon hearing this. :) Dr. Lee also told me that since my follicles were growing steadily, I would need to take another shot that prevents my follicles/eggs from bursting, or at least that's what I understood out of the explanation.

Check out how my follicles grew from Day 3. This is a form that is given to you when you start having your IVF treatment. Every time you have a consultation with Dr. Lee and an ultrasound, you have to make sure that you bring this form.

Dr. Lee also told me that my ovum pickup will probably be on Wednesday or Thursday, depending on my ultrasound result when I see him again on Monday, August 4. This is it. I am both excited and really, really nervous. I hope I grow many beautiful eggs. :)