OMG I'm dying!

OK, so I'm being a little dramatic...I had my check up today to make sure that I don't have OHSS.  (Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome).  As I mentioned earlier I'm crazy bloated (I know TMI) - but it's gross to me...I literally look 3 months pregnant and I'm obviously not.  Blech!

Anyway, that is a common symptom of OHSS so Dr. Katz wanted me to come in to meet with Dr. Teaff for a check up.  I started off with a vitals check with the nurses and the nurse took my Blood Pressure and as she was reading it, she looked confused.  I convinced myself not to be alarmed.  So she said she wanted to try it again.  Still not good, she says, "I want to get another cuff I don't think this one has been calibrated".  So she goes to get another one and tries again, finally I ask, "Is everything ok?".  She said that my bp is reading very low 80/60 and she wanted to check with one of the other nurses.  So she brings the other nurse in and she reads it (TWICE).  Then she puts the stethoscope down to read it with her fingers twice and she says, "Well, it's 84 over 60, she's obviously still alive so we're not going to worry about it."  (That's reassuring).  Now my blood pressure is normally pretty low, but despite how hard I try I cannot for the life of me remember what the numbers normally are!!!!  The nurses before have always commented about how good it is that my BP is low, I've never had anyone seem concerned so this must be lower than usual (ironic that my mom and I were JUST talking about how we both have low BP yesterday...random).   

Then they let me know that they're a little behind schedule and Dr. Teaff needs to run downstairs to perform a retrieval and then she'll be back up to check on me.  So I'm left alone in the exam room to worry about my low blood pressure.  Suddenly I remember that I have my blackberry with me.  Now blackberries are not known for being great for internet, but it will do.  I begin googling low blood pressure, low blood pressure and ivf, etc. and I stumble across several reports that that is a symptom of internal bleeding following the egg retrieval!  OH MY GOSH, I am internally bleeding and they've left me alone in this exam room to die with no pants on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Now I'm not normally so paranoid, but I have been very nauseous, lightheaded and dizzy for the past few days so all of the symptoms do line up.  I frantically try calling the Italian but he had taken our pooch Chance for a walk and didn't have his phone with him.  So I tried to calm myself down but I couldn't stay off of that stupid phone!!!!  It seemed to take 5 minutes to pull up each new page (well, it is a blackberry, so it very well may have taken 5 minutes for each page).  After about 45 minutes Dr. T knocks on the door and enters the room.  She performs an ultrasound and notices that there is a small amount of fluid in the uterus.  I asked her if that was normal and she said, "well...not really, but it will be ok".  I asked her about the low blood pressure and she told me not to worry about it, it's not internal bleeding.  Ok, super relieved that I'm not internally bleeding but now a little concerned about this "fluid" issue.  I'm proud of myself that 10 hours later, I still have not google diagnosed that issue.  I'm trusting the docs that they know what they're doing. 

Then she lets me know that we STILL have 10 growing embryos.  There are two that are progressing rather well and one that is lagging behind and may stop growing sometime today.  The others are a little behind so she said that they MAY want to push my transfer to Tuesday and do a day 6 transfer.  I have to call between 8 and 9 tomorrow to find out for sure.  So now more waiting and more praying that our 10 embryos keep growing.  We want as many as possible to reach the Blastocyst phase so that hopefully we can transfer two and have some to freeze (that sounds so weird to say).  I don't know much about day 6 transfers have mostly read about day 3 and day 5...again this is their area of expertise.  I'm sure they don't need an event planner trying to tell them how to do their jobs.

So lots to be thankful for!  No internal bleeding, 10 growing embryos, a Carolina Panthers WIN and a wonderful day off with plenty of time to cook, clean and prepare for this week!  I may or may not post tomorrow depending on how I'm feeling...thank you again for the prayers and well wishes!!!  Praying for "sticky embryos"!!!!  :)  Want those little suckers to latch on!   

WE STILL HAVE 10!!!!!

Short post - we stil have 10 developing embryos so we're definitely set for Day 5 Blastocyst transfer = Monday.  They'll call back today to let us know what time on Monday.  Fingers crossed that these little babies keep developing!!!!!  (and fingers crossed that my check up goes well tomorrow morning - they're still worried about hyperstimulation symptoms so want to see me at 9am tomorrow). 

Weekend is off to a wonderful start! (even though I have to work) 

Definitely makes up for having to miss Homecoming weekend up in Boone!  :)  Cheers to all the APhis causing a raucous this weekend! 

And then there were 10

So we got the call from the embryologist this morning ( his name is Luis) and found out that out of our 17 mature eggs, 10 of them fertilized and made it through the night. Music to our ears (I'm not gonna lie though, it's tempting to feel greedy and want MORE), but we'll celebrate these 10 :)

So now we wait until Saturday. They'll check the little babies and give us an update. If most of them are making it and they look good then they'll plan for the transfer on Monday. If by some chance they are not looking great then we'll rush to REACH for the transfer on Saturday. Now there are people who are able to get pregnant and have beautiful babies but we're hoping for a day 5 transfer (Monday). It's likely that only 25-60% of the embryos remaining on Saturday will make it to Monday. But day 5 blastocyst transfers have a much higher chance of implanting so we're praying that most of these little guys (or girls) can hang on til Monday.

Dr. K put me on another prescription today to try to control any hyper stimulation effects I might have. I felt ok earlier today but this afternoon not so much. So now I'm hanging out in bed with a heating pad on my little tummy (well, it's not as little as it used to be...I'm crazy bloated and look like I'm pregnant already.). Looking pregnant while you're pregnant=good. Looking pregnant while you're not pregnant=torture.

And now I'm freaking out about another thing....we had a scavenger hunt at work tonight which had us running all over the place...I didn't even give it a second thought...I was more worried about tripping in my 4 inch heels than anything else, but now I'm hoping I didn't screw anything up. It was only 4 minutes and 38 seconds....hopefully that wasn't enough to do any damage...