Once again I found myself glued to my blackberry waiting for "the call", but I was expecting good news. I got some. Out of the 25 eggs retrieved, 19 were mature and 17 fertilized with ICSI! I almost can't believe it. I say almost because I was expecting this. I depended on this to reassure me once again that I made the right decision moving forward with donor eggs. I did. I have never produced 17 eggs at a time let alone fertilized that many. I needed this. I needed some good news today.
***
I think about how I got to this place. It wasn't supposed to be like this. A. and I would start trying when we were ready, and that would be it, we would be pregnant. Not. Even. Close. At twenty seven I was already seeing a specialist and at twenty eight I had already started my IVF journey with my first retrieval on my birthday! No one thought I would be here. A massive failure at the early age of thirty. But here I am. Today I was cleaning the house to get it ready for when A. comes home from Denver when I stumbled upon my bag. It is the leftover, unused needles from each failed cycle. Not only the IVFs, but the timed intercourse, and IUIs as well. It was overwhelming to say the least.
I then looked at my sharps envelope. It contained my Lupron needles (well most of them) from this cycle. Again, I am overwhelmed.
I think about what I have put my body through over the past three years, and I am scared. I can't keep doing this, it can't be healthy. I need a sure thing already. There isn't one. If I have learned anything from this infertility disaster, it is that we have no control and nothing is a guarantee.
It is overwhelming, when we look at the totality of it all. When you look at it as one shot at a time, it doesn't seem like that much, but that big old pile of needles and sharps...well that really says something.
ReplyDeleteAnd as I'm typing this--literally--there is that stupid commercial on for "essure" and the tag line is: "do you ever worry about an unplanned pregnancy?" Ha ha ha ha ha ha.
The things we do to our bodies to try to control things....
At any rate, let's focus on the AWESOME part--17 embryos! That is such great news!!! Keep riding that wave of feeling great, you deserve it :)
The age thing has always thrown me for a loop. Especially in the context of everyone telling me that we are "young" and "have time". In some ways they were right, because even now, after 4+ years of TTC, I'm "only" 30. But on the other hand they never seemed to get the fact that there's something REALLY wrong if I can't conceive at 26!!!
ReplyDelete(I hear ya on the concerns about long term affects on the body - I just try not to think about it.)
Oh yeah. With all my ranting, I almost forgot! WOOHOO for 17 embryos - that is FANTASTIC! Huge congrats!
ReplyDelete