A post like this only comes around once every 4 years or so...

I am feeling so much better. I am done with the pills that make me sick, so I should be ready to resume my attempts at eating chicken again soon. I'm still a little sore, but I only feel it when I stretch too far or when I'm trying to get comfortable at night. So I guess I'm on the mend.

We have been getting updates from the embryologists this week. We started with 40 eggs. 30 of those were fertilized, the other 10 failed. Our package included testing on 8 of them and originally everything looked good, but it turns out that 3 of them had chromosomal abnormalities. This is unusual in someone my age and makes me wonder what the hell else is wrong with me.  But I digress.

On the bright side, of the 5 good ones there are 3 boys and 2 girls. So we'll get our shot at a boy after all. Now, of the remaining 22 that weren't tested, 8 of them made it to the blastocyst stage and were frozen with the 5 good ones. The rest failed to divide and so they were destroyed. So that gives us a total of 13 little ones in the freezer. We're hopeful that it will be enough.

One of the interesting things we've learned in this process is that the technology exists to freeze sperm and embryos, but not eggs. They don't freeze the embryos right away, though. Like I said above, they wait for them to get to the blastocyst stage, which is about 5 days of division. This is a cool video my future sister-in-law found that shows the division.

 

Credit to http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/cellmovie.htm

After the 3 attempts we paid for with this package, it's about $2,500 for each transfer plus $300 for testing. It's crazy to think, but after all we've paid already, that seems like nothing. If somehow we went through all 13 embryos then we would have to start this all over again.  Of course we're hopeful we won't need to do extra transfers beyond what we've already paid for (and definitely hopeful that we won't have to do all this again), but the option is there and one thing we've become is more aware to options and having backup plans.

So now that's all done, I'm just waiting for my period again. It's hard to estimate when that could possibly be coming, but I would imagine it won't be for at least 2 more weeks, my slow cycle and all. Don't worry, though. I've got a few filler posts planned to fill the time.