Introducing Icsi & Dicsi

As promised, here's picture of Icsi and Dicsi.  We are not sure which is which, but here they are anyways.  My first picture ever of my embryos.

They were both at 4-cell stage at day-3 transfer.  Even though we had less eggs retrieved, and only 2 fertilized, Dr. Hopeful noted that the quality of the eggs seem to be better, with no fragmentation.  Icsi seems to be slow for being only 4-cell at day-3, but Dicsi seem to be on target, so I am optimistic.

Here's a picture of the actual transfer.  The dark area in the top of the screen is my bladder.  The little white arrow (sorry it's so tiny!  Click on the picture to view a larger picture) is pointing to a white circle where the little 2 embryos were just placed into the uterus.

Please continue to pray that the embryos will continue to grow and implant successfully!

Transfer Day

I started of today with an appointment with AcuGirl at 9 am this morning.  I always enjoy my acu sessions, and pray each time she walks near my door that the session isn't over yet.   I had previously asked about doing a session after the transfer too, but she said based on their experience at her clinic, the success rate is the same as just doing it prior to.  So I won't see her again until I hear my pregnancy test result.

My transfer was at 11:30 am, but at 10:30, I had to empty my bladder, take my valium and start drinking water.  I had to make sure that I had a full bladder by 11:30.  I was worried about how much water I needed to drink because during my first IVF transfer, my bladder was SO full.  I desperately needed to pee during and after the transfer, but I had to lay there for 10 minute before I was allowed to go pee.

So this time, I was very cautious about how much water I would take in.  We checked in at 11 am, and by then, the valium had started to take effect.  I was starting to feel woozy and needed help from Babe to walk into the IVF suite.  I changed into my gown, cap and booties, and Babe changed into scrubs, cap and booties.  Amy, the nurse (the same nurse from retrieval day) gave us our discharge instructions - bed rest for 48 hours, no exercise, no showering for 48 hours (eww!), no sex still pregnancy test, etc.  She also put my ID tag on my right ankle, not my wrist.  This was different.  I guess it makes it easier for the doctor and the embryologist to confirm the tags since it is closer to them at my ankle instead of my hand.  Then I asked the nurse a question (probably a "dumb" question), I asked the nurse would I have to worry about sneezing or coughing too hard (I do tend to sneeze really hard).  She said not to worry.  She gave me an illustration:  Imagine a pea sandwiched between 2 pieces of bread.  If you sneeze or cough, it may move a bit, but it would not fall out.  That made me feel better.

Then Dr. Hopeful came in.  I was glad she was the one doing the transfer too.  As of this morning, both the embryos have grown to 4-cells.  Embryo #1 was a bit slow at 4-cell ( I think they like to see it at 8-cell by now), but Embryo #2 seemed to be on target at 4-cell, considering that was ICSI'd one day later.  It made me feel better that there was at least one embryo that was on target for growth.  She also gave us pictures of our 2 embryos and some other eggs that didn't fertilize.  I was so excited that I actually got photos of my embryos.  Proof that they exists!  I'll post those pictures later.

We then went into procedure room.  I'm pretty sure it was the same room my egg retrieval was done it, but this was the first time I noticed a large sliding window that joined to the embryology lab.  I laid on the examination table and the ultrasound tech put some gel over my belly and did and ultrasound of my uterus and bladder.  I made the comment that this was the first time I've had and external ultrasound, I'm so used to the vaginal ultrasound wand.  A new experience for me.  So, this is what if feels like to have an ultrasound done if you are pregnant!

My bladder looked good, so I did a good job drinking water.  I was glad because I felt comfortable, and not like I really had to pee.  I was also happy that I was able to look at the ultrasound screen from where I was laying.  Then Dr. Hopeful came in.  She put in a speculum (my least favorite part!), cleaned the cervix, and did a trial transfer.  I think this is done just so she knows exactly where to put the catheter.  Then she put in another catheter with the embryos in it and said 'here comes the embryos".
The ultrasound tech pointed out a little white circle indicated by an arrow on screen.  It's a little air bubble where the 2 little embryos are.  Then the catheter was pulled out, and the embryologist checked to make sure that nothing was left behind in the catheter.  And we were done!

I asked Dr. Hopeful about what "delayed ICSI" was.  I thought delayed ICSI was doing ICSI on the eggs that didn't fertilize naturally the first day.  I was wrong.  Dr. Hopeful explained that delayed ICSI meant they did ICSI on the 3 mature eggs on the first day.  Only 1 of the mature eggs ICSI'd fertilized.  Then they waited one day for the other immature eggs to mature a little more and they ICSI'd those.  Out of those immature egg, one more egg fertilized.

Dr. Hopeful said, yup, it's ICSI and DICSI (delayed ICSI).  Of course Babe, being the funny guy he is, named our embryos Icsi (embryo #1) and Dicsi (Embryo #2, from delayed ICSI).  So now we have names for our embryos!

After Dr. Hopeful left, I was left to rest for 10 minutes on the examination table before being allowed to go pee again.  Then it was off to the recovery room to rest/nap for another 30 minutes.  It was quite nice actually.  I was pretty relaxed, thanks to the va.lium.  I had Babe turn off the lights while I tried to nap, and he sat there playing on the iPad.  When the 30 minutes was up, I got dressed, Babe changed out of his scrubs, and I had to pee again before leaving.

We picked up lunch on the way home, and I have been relaxing in the recliner all day.  Spend the afternoon watching daytime TV - Rachel Ray, Dr. Oz, The Doctors, Oprah, etc.  I'm now watching "Julie and Julia".  It's nice to just bum around for a while, and letting Babe take care of me.

Though Icsi is a bit slow in growth, I'm optimistic that Dicsi is at least on target for growth size.  I'm praying that both will continue to grow inside of me and implant.  We are praying for either one or two babies!

So for now, I'm PUPO - pregnant until proven otherwise!