A 5 Day What?

I shouldn't have gone into work yesterday.  I really shouldn't have.  The recovery from this retrieval has been a lot longer than my past retrievals.  Believe me, I have no martyr complex. But I do take my job rather seriously.  Well, more like I'm such a narcissist.  I think my classroom will fall apart if I'm not there. 

 My venture into work yesterday had less to do with fears of classroom chaos and more to do with my student teacher.  She's been struggling. In fact, I worry that only 3 weeks into her practicum that she's plateaued.  Lately her planning has been shoddy. Her delivery of the lesson has been dry. Her clarity of instructing has been confusing.  I knew that her faculty advisor was coming in to give her a "notice of concern."  Essentially she needs to improve over the next week or she'll be removed from the class and have to take additional courses.  I really didn't want to go into work but I knew she would need some support after her meeting.  And I was right.  After the tears were shed, the two of us sat down and planned a lesson together. I wanted her to see my thinking when it comes to planning a lesson. How to scaffold skills. How to provide feedback in an instant.  When we were done, I *think* she got it.  Hopefully this week she'll find her stride.

For me, yesterday was uncomfortable. Walking down the halls, the stairs, I could feel every twinge.  I decided to take the rest of the week off.  While I know it's for the best, I feel so much guilt about not being in my classroom. 

This morning I received the call from the embryologist. The embryos are progressing well - "very good" were her words.  As a result, they're pushing my transfer to day 5.  What?! I've never had a day 5 transfer.  Needless to say, I'm in shock.   To be honest, I half expected a day 2 transfer and assumed it would be a day 3.  Perhaps all those supplements really did help? 

So the story goes....

I had my WTF appointment today.  Unfortunately I had to miss one of my favourite lesson plans on Stalin and the Purges today because I couldn't get a later appointment.  Argh...I hate planning for a TOC (Teacher on Call).  It's always double the work to plan for someone else.

Dr. C was rather prompt which was unusual.  He typically runs about 15 mins late.  We went over my latest failure.  I know that fertility isn't an exact science, but it's a little frustrating when your RE looks at your charts and doesn't know why you're not getting pregnant.  My follicles developed at a uniform rate which is what they want.  Of the 12 retrieved, 10 fertilized.  All but 1 of our 10 eggs were 8 cells on day 3.  The majority were either grade 1 or 2 with only one grade 4. Even Sweets's count was the highest it's ever been.  When we first started down this path a year ago, his samples were in the 1 to 5 million range.  We kept telling ourselves, "It takes only one."  This time his sample was at 48 million.  Huge difference!  Morphology appears to be the main issue now with his numbers being "borderline" as my RE put it.  This cycle, for the most part, was an excellent cycle.  The only problem was that it wasn't successful.  And my RE doesn't know why.  I suppose we can now be moved from the "Male Factor" category to the "Unexplained" category. 

He seemed a bit rushed today, so I had to slow him down so that he could answer my questions.  The main thing I wanted to know was whether an endometrial biopsy would be beneficial.  He stated that there is no conclusive evidence that it's beneficial as there have been only limited studies done on this.  However, if I wanted to get one done, he would do it.  That was easy.  So on Thursday I'm going in (missing another freaking day of work!) to get my uterus scraped.  I'm sure it's as painful as it sounds.  With all the torture I've put my body through, I hope to God that my baby when he/she is older appreciates the havoc my body has endured!

      

Consider me PUPO

The Vancouver housing market is insane.  A report that came out yesterday posited "Vancouver residents could expect to spend 92.5% of their pre-tax income on home ownership costs, including mortgage payments, utilities and property taxes."  In-freaking-sane.  That's why Sweets and I bought a townhouse in the 'burbs.  Granted, a townhouse in the 'burbs is the price of a home in Calgary.  Ugh....  

Where is this going?  Well, while housing costs are lower "across the bridge", when it comes to commuting, we suburbanites are slaves to traffic.  Our clinic is a good 40-50 mins away, almost in the heart of Vancouver.  This morning, three out of the 4 routes into the city had major accidents on them.  Not good.  Sweets is a slow mover in the morning but when he heard that we had to take the dreaded Port Mann into the city, he started moving double time.  Fortunately, while the traffic was not the best, I've seen it worse.  We actually got to the clinic only 3 minutes late.   Three minutes.  Wow.  I was expecting about 15-20 minutes late.  

After changing into my gown, the embryologist escorted us into the treatment room and got me seated on the table.  "You've got some very good embryos."  What?  Good embryos?  Us?  Is she mistaken?  She showed me the patient information sheet and said,  "Yes, you are transferring 3 8 cell embryos.  They are grade 1.  Very good."  She went on to explain, "We froze 5 of the embryos and are culturing 2 more to blastocyst stage.  They are good embryos too."  The remaining embryos are mainly grades 1 and 2.  There is one grade 4.  Sweets and I were both gobsmacked.  Wow!  What a difference a couple of months makes.

  Dr. A., who did the retrieval, performed the transfer as well.  I researched her a little online.  Apparently, she's the one of the best in Canada in the field of endometriosis and one of the early adopters in Canada of advanced laparoscopic surgical techniques  No wonder my retrieval went so well. 

As usual, Sweets has been awesome. He has insisted on me stretching out in the car on the way home.  When we got home, he asked "Do you need some help out of the car?"  LOL   What a sweetheart.

Now here I am.  Relaxing on the couch with my kitties, hoping and praying that one of those little guys takes.  

This is gonna be a long two weeks.