Tuesday, April 1, 2008

FET Rollercoaster

I had my FET (frozen embryo transfer) yesterday. 2 blasts were thawed and both made it!!!! Yea!!!! I was so happy, I was just so scared the phone would ring with bad news not to come in from my RE's office.

The day started out bumpy because my acupuncture appt was at 10am and when we got close to the place all the traffic lights weren't working. I told DH, 'I bet the power is out at acupuncture'. Sure enough, it was. :( Well, we walk in and it is really dark in there as most of their rooms don't have windows. So they decided to look for candles. I would have cancelled, but they told me previously that the reports show acupuncture before and after ET has a higher success rates. So on top of that, my acupuncturist (he owns the whole practice) tells me and my DH if we have had chicken pox before. He brought his son into the office with chicken pox. We thought that was unprofessional. My DH was pissed as he thinks even though I had chicken pox before that I shouldn't be in that environment. He can't remember if he had chicken pox. My DH decides to wait in the car. I told him to come get me at 1045am as we have to be at the clinic at 11am.

I had acupuncture by candlelight - but shortly after my needles were in - the lights came back on. I was so worried they wouldn't wake me in time, that I decided not to fall asleep. Their office is usually closed on Mondays, but they were having a meeting there with their accountant. Because he was meeting with people, I hoped he didn't forget about me. He did come back in time, thank goodness. Good thing, because DH was working on his computer in the car and not paying attention to time.

We rushed to the office and made it just in time. We got there and there was some waiting before they brought us back. I felt more relaxed than last time. They gave me a valium and I was even more relaxed. One of the embryologists came in to tell me that both blasts survived the thaw and they were doing great. One was even hatching already!!! They gave us a picture like last time, but last time each blast was on one picture. This time, both were on one picture.

The transfer was supposed to be at 12pm, but of course my RE was late. He is always late. I was worried about the blasts surviving that long, but they seemed ok. He finally came in at 1pm and by then I was super relaxed with my valium. I felt last time it hadn't kicked in when I had my transfer and I had some cramping. This time I didn't have any cramping. For those who haven't done this, it is like an IUI, slightly more uncomfortable than a pap smear. The reason they do the valium is to relax the uterus. I think my blast that was hatching has a great chance of implanting. It was hatching even more by 1pm. We could see it on the screen as they sucked up the blasts into the catheder.

The transfer was about 15 minutes and then I rested for 45 minutes. We left a little after 2pm. They wheelchaired me to my car as they don't want us doing stairs or walking too much on the first day.

We were supposed to meet the acupuncturist at 2pm- a new one I hadn't seen before as he was the on call person. We had to delay to meet him until 3pm - as we hadn't eaten lunch yet. I was getting hungry. So we grabbed lunch near the acupuncture place...This new guy was pretty good and he told me to do visualization techniques and deep breathing. I did some last night and will do more later.

After acupuncture, we went home, but by now it is 330pm almost 4pm. I took a nap until about 530pm. DH went to get me dinner.

I ate some pineapple and plan to for the next few days. (as I did last time - started one day before transfer). I'll also drink some pomegranate juice each day (started about 3 days before transfer). I forgot to drink pomegranate yesterday though. Pomegranate helps the lining and pineapple helps implantation. You should only take them a few days though, not your entire cycle.

I really hope acupuncture ups my odds of 35%. I'm praying for at least one blast to stick. I think acupuncture helps a lot.

On the work front, I called in sick for yesterday and told them that I would work from home today. We have some meetings where I need to be in the office, but I'm glad I decided to stay home as I didn't get too much rest yesterday as we got home so late. I also really had to be there to work with some vendors coming in today, but my boss was so great to get someone else to do that. I went for a walk on saturday and decided that I should at least rest both days. They recommend bedrest on the first day - with only getting up for bathroom breaks. On the 2nd day, just to take it easy at home. They recommend not going to work today. I think it is ok if I work from home. Right now, I'm not working, but posting on my blog. I better get to work.

3 comments:

Ariella said...

Ya for both embies making it and having one hatching! That is wonderful and it sounds like you are doing everything possable to help this work.


I am sorry about the accupuncture drama. It seems unprofesional to bring your child to a place like that.

Your in my thoughts and prayers.

J said...

Thanks, Ariella.
I think it was positive sign that one was hatching.
Thanks for your prayers!

Yes, that acupuncture guy is unprofessional. Who knows how many have gone into his office this week and exposed themselves to the chicken pox virus without knowing it. His kid was jumping around everywhere. DH was livid.

Busted said...

I have a good feeling about your FET. I am thinking of you. If it makes you feel better, we had some blips and stress related to my acupuncture at my first IVF and it was successful (not counting the abruption/loss obviously, but that was wholly unrelated to the success of the pregnancy via IVF).