Retrieve and Conceive

Laura is still under the influence of sedatives and not permitted to blog.  This message is brought to you by her sperm donor.

Today's procedure went well and was quicker than expected.  We arrived at Dr D's at 8:00 and were at home with chick-fila biscuits in our stomach and the real housewives of beverly hills on the tv by 10:30.  Laura has had a little bit of cramping and is a bit drowsy but otherwise is doing well.

During the procedure Dr D. was able to reach both ovaries and managed to retrieve 10 eggs.  There were 14 follicles that appeared to be mature but 4 didn't make it.  3 things could have happened with those 4 follicles 1) they never actually had an egg inside  2) the egg escaped into Laura's body when they drained the follicular fluid away  3) The egg was destroyed during the retrieval process. 

We were a little disappointed with the number of eggs because only a third of successfully retrieved eggs are likely to make it through the fertilization process and the next 5 days to become a blastocyst and be available for transfer.  Dr D was slightly disappointed (they usually get around 80% of mature follicles which would have given us 12) but still expects we will have several blastocysts and maybe even enough to freeze 1 or 2 for later use.

We will get a call tomorrow morning letting us know how many eggs were successfully fertilized.  Dr D said the number of fertilized eggs is a better predictor of how many healthy embryos we will ultimately have so hopefully what we lost in the retrieval will be made up in the fertilization stage.  We most likely will transfer our embryo(s) Sunday morning.  Keep us and our growing embryos in your thoughts and prayers this week.