Life ..Continued

We tried 2 fresh IVFs in 2008.  My health insurance paid for a few of the medications on the first one, but otherwise, we paid everything out of pocket.  Actually, we're still paying. 2 payments. Every month. These things aren't cheap. Think new car. Retirement.  College education. You get it.

The first IVF early 2008 they were able to fertilize 4 - using ICSI (Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection). This is where they take my husbands sperm and inject it straight into the egg.  Since my husband's dudes weren't in the best shape, this ensured some eggs fertilized. So, we had 4 happy embryos and decided to transfer 3.  I believe they were transferred day 3, but can't be for certain.  They transferred without problems, but no baby. 

We then were left with a sticky delima...1 single, lonely embryo. Frozen, in a tube, all by itself.  We decided to leave that little ray of hope in the freezer for a bit, and try for IVF #2.  I had some medication left over (that stuff ain't cheap, either) so we decided to try a second IVF later in 2008.  We increased the Bravelle, because this was it for us. No more. We wanted to try to get as many good embryos as we could.

October 2008, they were able to retrieve many eggs and after ICSI, we had 10ish embryos.  I say 10ish, because I can't remember for sure, and want to think maybe we had 12, but can't swear to it.  Anyway, they called us every now and then to give us updates.  We had a 5 day transfer, I believe. We transferred 3, I think. Or maybe 2. Again, I can't remember for sure.

Then, we waited. We all know about the waiting. It's brutal. There's no way to explain it to people who haven't experienced it. The Thanksgiving holiday was there, making it harder, since offices and clinics close. Stupid holidays!

We never really got a call from the lab on the final status of our embryos. Last we had heard they were all doing wonderfully and everything looked good. I assumed it was due to the holiday and figured everything was ok.   I can't exactly remember the exact course of everything, but I believe stupid aunt flo had arrived over Thanksgiving weekend.  Prior to this fertility stuff, I had gone 10 years without a period.  So you can imagine my disgust.

Then, I went in to get the order for a blood pregnancy test. (this is another brutal formality they make us go through) I had to pick the order up from the clinic, and then go downstairs to the lab for the blood to be drawn. My husband sat in the car, because I told him I would only be about 10 mins. I was just going in to have a vial of blood taken, not a big deal.  While in the clinic, I saw the lab tech in the hall and just quickly, in passing, asked her how our little embryos are doing and how many we were able to freeze.  She pulled me aside and then proceeded to tell me she called.  I had got nothing from her. No message. No call. No nothing. I suspect she didn't call.

Anyway, standing there in the hall, I was alone. People were walking around working as usual. She told me they were not able to freeze ANY of the embryos. I was speechless. Could not wait to get out of the office and into my husbands arms.

...to be continued...again