What does that mean? It means we are 1 day past a 5 day (old embryo) transfer. While I’m stuck in bed until tomorrow morning I thought I would hop on and do a post about transfer day since last time I didn’t sit down and write one until 16 months later LOL
It was nice that the transfer was in the early afternoon as it gave us time to go to breakfast and get in a walk before I was confined to the hotel room. My arrival time at the clinic was 12:15pm. So, per my instructions I emptied my bladder an hour before then and started drinking a liter of water. Now, last time I panicked when I arrived at the clinic and my bladder didn’t feel full so I chugged another water bottle and ended up having a traumatizing time during the transfer with a full bladder. I was determined not to have that happen so I only drank the amount they told me too and didn’t worry that my bladder didn’t feel full when we arrived at the clinic.
The clinic is across the street from the hotel we’re staying at so that was really nice to just walk over there. When we arrived we were told to go to the second floor and the girls at the desk would have a paper for me to sign. The paper I needed to sign was just saying that I had someone to escort me back to the hotel and stay with me for an hour and a half after (this is because they administer valium).
I was taken to the prep/recovery room and the very nice nurse went over instructions and gave me the valium to take. I got into the hospital gown, the awesome shower cap type thing, and booties. The transfer room is a sterile environment. The nurse scanned my bladder and said it didn’t look very full, but that we were waiting for the valium to kick in so we had time anyway.
I laid down to relax for a bit. The embyrologist came it and verified that we were only transferring one embryo and checked the names on my bracelet to make sure they were transferring the correct embryo. She said they had thawed the embryo about 20 minutes earlier and it looked great. It had picked up it’s cell reproduction and was ready to be transferred.
I relaxed a little while longer and then the doctor came in with the nurse to go over the procedure while the nurse rescanned my bladder. It was more full, but still not very. Funny, I thought that last time I had too much water and this time my bladder wouldn’t fill up. Even more funny that pretty much every day I’m going pee every hour or so because I drink so much water. (Thinking about it later I realized that the day before I had hardly drank anything because I was running around in the morning getting things ready to leave and then with travelling and getting to the hotel I just didn’t drink much water. This all led to me being dehydrated so my body was absorbing more of the water I had drank…oops).
The doctor said to give it a few more minutes and we’d be good to go. A minute later another nurse came in and said we were fine to go. They wheeled me into the procedure room. The embryologist was there with a picture of the embryo up on a screen. She checked the names on my bracelet again then went back to the lab to check the names on the embryo’s dish. The doctor came in and started the procedure.
It’s a really simple procedure. All I had to do was just lay still. He placed a speculum, cleaned my cervix, then, using the ultrasound to see where he was going, passed a small catheter through the cervix and into my uterus. Once he had the placement right he gave a signal to the embryologist who loaded the embryo in a catheter which she brought in and it was placed in my uterus. Easy peasy! Much much easier when your bladder isn’t overfull and the ultrasound tech isn’t putting muscle into the wand (last time she was leaning on me with it, this time, she just placed in on my abdomen like a normal person LOL)
I was wheeled back to the other room where I had to hang out for 30 minutes. After that I was allowed to go to the bathroom. I got dressed and had to ride in a wheelchair across the street to the hotel door. Then bed rest began. I’m allowed to have 2 pillows under my head/neck and get up to go to the bathroom….that’s it. I’m not going to lie, I’m so bored and when I woke up this morning my back was killing me (it still is). I’m struggling to find any position that’s comfortable and am really looking forward to being able to get back to normal tomorrow. Staying in bed for 36ish hours has been the hardest part of this journey so far. Not the meds, not learning to give myself injections, not the sore spots on my hips from the IM injections, this is by far the hardest. Which, honestly, if that’s my hardest thing then it’s been pretty dang easy LOL
So now we’re counting down to the beta test (pregnancy blood test) which I believe is next Thursday the 3rd. My last clinic did a test 5 days after transfer. They are the only clinic that I’m aware of (or that I’ve seen anybody else hear of) that does one that early. So waiting 9 days will be a new experience. Now is the time we all start over analyzing every twinge, cramp, or feeling. The trouble it that we’re on hormones that mimic pregnancy so there’s no way to know if it’s a pregnancy symptom or a med symptom.
For now I’m just ready to get outta bed, get home, and eat some home cooked food (my stomach/GI tract is NOT loving all the restaurant food even though I’ve been trying to have salads and “healthier” stuff). My husband got lucky and there’s a MLS soccer game for our favorite team tonight (we’re like 5 blocks from the stadium) so he and his cousin are at the game right now. It’s his reward for being stuck in a hotel room the last day and a half and playing servant to me. I’ll be watching the game on TV looking for them 🙂
I may take some home pregnancy tests this weekend, but IFs have said they don’t want to know about any results I might get and would prefer to wait for the official test. I won’t be posting anything about it here out of respect for their preference. I was thinking I might write some posts, but not post them and then I can post them retroactively if I want to. We’ll see how it goes.
Keep your fingers crossed for all of us that this little one continues to grow and decides to snuggle in for the next 9 months!
I'm Just The Stork 