Transfer scheduled

The transfer will happen tomorrow at 11:30am. I am very happy that we've made it to five days, but I have no idea how the embryos are doing at this point. Truthfully, I don't even think they'll bother them until right before doing the transfer tomorrow. I guess we'll have to wait until then to find out the quality and if they made it to blastocyst stage.

Either way, Jonathan and I are going to take ourselves out to a much-deserved sushi lunch afterward.

I'll give everyone an update (and hopefully a picture of the "kids") as soon as I know.

Thank you for the continued prayers, comments, and support. You have no idea how much easier this process is being able to share with friends and family who love us. Sweet Aunt Marcy, you better hope for at least one girl if you have any hope of a child being named after you! :)

Five-Day transfer!

Nancy call me this morning and told me that we would not be transferring the embryos today! Yahoo! That means that we will be doing a five-day transfer on Thursday. This is really great news. It means our embryos look healthy enough to keep on growing in that petri dish. The process will weed out some of the weaker embryos in the next two days, and allow a great success rate for us!

If you're interested in the details of why this is the case, here is an article for you. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2700692/

Nancy will call tomorrow with a transfer time for Thursday. I'll keep you posted on our appointment time.

Recovery/waiting for transfer

I'm back! I appreciate everyone's prayers during the entire weekend. 15 embryos is great: it's a 50% increase over last time!

Some of you have heard, but my egg retrieval was not as fantastic and easy as last cycle. In August, when I woke up after retrieval, I felt fantastic, better than I did before going under. Saturday was not so easy. I woke up during the retrieval, which the doctor doing the procedure confirmed. He said I "got a little uncomfortable on the left side." Well, obviously if I managed to wake up during my drug-induced stupor and remembered it. Thankfully, the anesthesiologist knocked me back out in a hurry and next thing I knew I was in the recovery room. I was in a good deal of pain but Jonathan got that under control quickly enough and I was able to sleep for pretty much the next two days. I'm not sure what was different this time. My guess is that the follicles were just harder to aspirate.

Despite all of that, if it means we get pregnant, it will be completely worth it! I've got a tentative appointment tomorrow at 11am for transfer but we're hoping that the embryos can hold off until Thursday for a 5-day transfer. That will mean they're bigger and happier and better chances for a baby!

So please continue to pray for the 15 tiny Strunks in the petri dish. We need them to hang on just a few more days!

15 embryos!

Good morning!
Melissa just gave me the report, and they have good news!
They have 25 mature eggs and 15 embryos. This is very good news from the Strunks!
Have a happy Sunday!

Jamie

And the total is...

OK - Johnathan just texted again....and the total is (drum roll, please) ....

25 mature eggs!
Melissa is doing fine; she's a little sore, but nothing too bad.
Stay tuned!

And...she's out!

Hi Everyone!
Jonathan texted me and they've just finished the retrieval. Now, we just wait for the count! Say some prayers, people!

Jamie

All set for a Happy Halloween!

I met with my doctor today who informed me that things looks fantastic as far as the number and size of the follicles and estrogen level. I just need to make sure that I drink lots of water to prevent OHSS. I had a small amount of fluid in my endometrium so I was instructed to take Mucinex D until transfer as a precaution. Apparently it dries up things other than just your sinuses. The fluid isn't a huge deal, but it can make my uterine lining "spongey" for transfer. I don't really understand it, but "spongey" doesn't sound like anyplace I'd like to hang for nine months.

Egg retrieval will be on Halloween at 9am. I know not many of you will be up at 9am on a Saturday, but please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as always! I'll have Jamie give an update as soon as we know the number of eggs retrieved and then fertilized.

Transfer will be either Tuesday or Thursday, depending on egg development and quality.

Thanks everyone for reading. I really do appreciate all of your kind words, so comments are encouraged!