First Retrieval:
*Retrieved 8 eggs
*6 eggs were mature
*4 eggs fertilized
*3 embryos grew out to blastocyst
*2 embryos were chromosomally normal
Second Retrieval:
We participated in a study during this cycle and took acai berry pills for 3 months with the goal being to increase the number of eggs we were able to retrieve by about 30%.
*Retrieved 11 eggs
*7 eggs were mature at retrieval, 2 more eggs matured over night (BTW....I had no idea that was even a possibility)
*5 eggs fertilized
We are still waiting to know how many embryos grow out to blastocyst. We are also going to do a third retrieval in the next couple of months and will send all of our blasts to the chromosomal testing at once, so we still have a lot of waiting to do.
So those are the stats. The acai berries seemed to fulfill expectations and produced, at least to this point, 30% more eggs and almost 30% more embryos. Apparently I should have done the math ahead of time, though, because we only have 1 more embryo at this point in the cycle than we did last time.....I was hoping for and expecting more.
Our goal is that after these two retrievals we will have a decent number (maybe 6?) of embryos that we can choose from for our transfer.
Thankfully, our trips to Colorado get to be more than ultrasounds, bloodwork and injections....although that is a lot of what goes on while we're there. We have THE BEST IVF nurse anyone could possibly ask for. She is beyond amazing. She's real with me, helps me laugh through the hard times and puts up with my crazy. That in and of itself qualifies her for some kind of medal of honor. We were so thrilled to be able to catch up with Cindy, her hubby and their two dogs while we were in Colorado. They introduced us to this awesome dog park inside of Chatfield State Park. The dog park is 69 acres with two ponds and walking trails. Bear was in doggy heaven! And if I'm honest, Michael and I had just as much fun there as he did. We actually went every day we were there!
Look at how much fun he had!
Bear spent his evenings sleeping. Chatfield wore him out!
We found another trail close by and tried to get a family picture. Bear wasn't super cooperative. We went to Chatfield after our 2 mile walk and let Bear do some more playing there.
Everyone was tired after getting up super early for our retrieval...
Side note....isn't this the cutest shirt?! A friend of mine gave it to me for my birthday. She, too, struggled with infertility. If you can identify at least 4 of the 5 acronyms....you've probably walked the infertility path. I wore it the day of my retrieval, and it was perfect!
And that was basically our trip. When Bear wasn't sleeping, he had his head on our shoulders or in between us on the console. He's such a sweet boy!
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