And so this time we were doing IVF for real. I went in on the 3rd day of my cycle, so he could count the follicles. In a normal cycle, one follicle grows and pop, out comes the egg that hopefully fertilizes. With IVF, they were going to make every follicle grow and then they would put me under and go in to take the eggs out.
I remember signing the paperwork with Dr A and being genuinely worried that we would end up with too many good embryos. What would we do with all the extra embryos? But then I thought, maybe those extra embryos will go to a family who really needs them and that’s why God has me in this position.
The first shot was the hardest. Luckily my husband isn’t afraid of shots and was happy taking on the responsibility of measuring out and administering my drugs. I was relieved to have that additional pressure taken off of me because, it’s a lot to keep track of.
I started acupuncture and adjusted my diet. After the retrieval, Dr A reported we had 5 eggs. I didn’t realized that there may not be eggs in every follicle. 4 of the embryos made it to testing. I was already getting nervous that the numbers were shrinking so quickly. When I started my next cycle I went in for an ultrasound and blood test to make sure I was ready for transfer. I started on drugs again and then I got a call. My heart was racing waiting to hear the results. None of them tested normal. NONE?? I was in complete shock. I left my office in tears and called my husband. NONE?? We were devastated.
So we decided to try again. Surely, if all those embryos tested bad, we would have at least 1 normal one in the next cycle, but we didn’t. 7 eggs retrieved, 5 fertilized, 4 made it to day 5, NONE of them were normal.
We decided to switch doctors because (1) I would receive more insurance coverage (2) This doctor, Dr F, had successfully gotten a couple of my friends pregnant and (3) I wasn’t having any success with Dr A so why not?
I'll go first 