waiting for results

The results of all of the testing should be in in another 2 weeks. Once everything has been looked at, we'll have another phone consult with Dr Surrey to discuss how to proceed. At minimum it'd be another IVF/ICSI/AH. We might be looking at donor eggs or gestational surrogacy also. Everything is on the table at this point.

not your usual test

I think the SAT was easier. (definitely easier emotionally!!!)

It was a LONG day. It took us an hour and forty minutes to get to the clinic this morning. It was stop and go traffic for about an hour of that. That wasn't the best way to start off the morning.

Also, the blood draw didn't happen until later in the morning... D's mind festered, worrying about it a bit too long. The nurses were really good with him, tho. He only passed out twice. I was a bit surprised, but I guess we should have done that part first thing, to put him out of the misery rather than dwelling on it for a couple of hours.

Other than that, it seemed to go pretty well. We did a LOT. The only telling result was an ultrasound on me that showed that I had very constricted blood flow to the uterus. That could be a Problem. Other tests included cystic fibrosis, genetic karyotyping (on me), antibody testing on both of us, and a hysteroscopy (camera) to check for fibroids or endometriosis. That came out normal, everything looked fine inside.

Moving forward, the dr suggested doing a new kind of testing on the embryos, but the results take 6 weeks to come back. That would mean doing a retrieval and a transfer on two different cycles, 2 months apart. I think that testing is called CGH (or something like that, you might want to try a google search on that).

One of the other checks they did was for the # of follicles they could possibly get on a medicated cycle. I only had 7-9, which is low, but he said that might still work if they come back w/ normal chromosomes. With the testing done above, they'd know the gender of each embryo before it was even put back in. Interesting, no?

When they do that testing, they freeze everything, do the test, then thaw them when the results come back. Their thaw rate is 98%, which is amazing. ORM's thaw rate was around 50%.

I think that's it. I'm exhausted.

on a jet plane

This is just a quick check in post to let everyone know we're officially in Colorado. Oh, and it's officially FIVE degrees here. I don't think I was expecting that.

Testing begins bright and early at 8am. I'm not sure when we get any results, maybe some tomorrow, some might take days or weeks to come back.

wish us luck!

on holidays...

Not much has been going on around here. Really! D has been out of town for business a lot, which means a lot of things get put on hold.

Some other things have changed this year, too... I had to cancel both of my holiday parties which would traditionally take place next weekend. Why? Because we're going to Denver for the Testing. Ahhh, yet another event marred by infertility.

This time of year is also bittersweet for us. It was this time 2 years ago that I had my first miscarriage. Oh, the innocence! Way back then I thought a BFP actually meant I'd have a baby 8 months later. We had wrapped gifts for all of the grandparents-to-be and everything. Taking those gifts out from under the tree was one of the hardest things I've done in a long time.

Christmas is another one of those child-centric holidays (Easter, 4th of July, Halloween) that just leaves me at a loss. So many of the 'traditional' events are geared towards kids. By not having any in our family, we just don't have a lot to 'do' around the holiday. Yes, we go to Church, but no Christmas pagents, easter egg hunts, and you can just forget about the pictures w/ Santa or the easter bunny.

Everything can be summed up in our Christmas card this year. It is going to feature a picture of the dogs.
*sigh*
The Dogs...