Doc did a preliminary routine checks on me and the ultrasound showed fluid clear. Good to go.
After drinking two cups of water and was instructed to hold urine until procedure, the nurse guided me to the IVF department. While i was crossing to the changing room, i caught sight of a monitor screen depicting a very typical almost-black-and-white image of three cells. Excitement spiked and i froze on my steps. The petite embryologist saw me captivated by the screen and probably decided that she could help to make my this-historic day more significant. Within the quiet lab, she spoken "These are your good embryos. The healthiest ones." Yay, i sang in my heart and my face beamed like i'd just won a hundred thousand lottery. She continued, "The one on top left is the biggest and most active - today it reaches seven cells. The two at the bottom here reached four cells and still dividing." For one instant moment my mind already pictured a bigger child...haha...silly me.
She continued to repeat what doc mentioned just now at the clinic, "It was a good sign you managed to produced as many as fifteen eggs. Most women over age 36 would be lucky if we could harvest as many as four in each hyperstimulation. But, many of your eggs were not healthy enough to survive the fertilization process. We managed to observed four good quality embryos and we have picked the best three for you today." Immediately floods of raw information started flashing through my minds; could this be the reason why i haven't been able to conceive naturally, because my eggs were simply bad eggs - bad eggs that would eventually die off through natural gene processing and flushed out through the monthly periods. I even started pointing fingers to the hypothyrodism relapse that could very well contributed directed to bad manufacturing of eggs.
Before i wanted to suggest freezing the fourth guy (my sole surviving embryo) - so i could chance upon retrieving him if this round fails - the embryologist proceeded to parrot doc's earlier words, "we wouldn't recommend freezing because it does not have as strong quality as the top three." I felt a pang of guilt to having waste this fourth guy and not giving him a chance. I wanted to dwell longer on this issue but the nurses were hurrying me to change for the procedure - doc is arriving soon.
After changing into the white bare-backside robe, i walked into the cold operating theatre and was guided to the bed. Very quickly, the nurses worked to tilt, spread my legs - so wide i could die from embarrassment - and propped strapped to the leg holders. Now i was having my vaginal on display - urgghhhhhhh......... Its not that i haven't done it before but i was on local anesthetized during the oocytes-pickup procedure - at least, i was totally knocked out and have no recollection of how they could have tasked on my lower body. But today, i am all wide awake and...damn anxious. Worst of all, the UFO-liked disc surgical lights was spotlighting into my open legs while other lights were turned off.
Doc came in and the clock showed 3.15pm. Doc signaled for starting procedure. Doc was guided by ultrasound images displayed on a huge something like a fifty-foot flat screen LCD next to my bed. My heart was thumping violently all the while anticipating the hideous tool that would jagged open my vaginal entry. But the procedure was quick. It felt like only seconds when the doc finally pulled out the jag and directed me to witness my history-in-making - the ultrasound showed doc's sured action in releasing one...two...and three tiny little white dots into an area named endometrium. I was so elated. The profound experience of witnessing three living embryos being put into that black and white pocket - which i was told its my womb - was simply ......wow! I wished Dino dad was in there too. The doc, sensing my silence, he raised his head over my leg cover and lean closer to see my face to check on my expression. He for one was beaming.
Then lights came back on. Progesterone suppository was inserted into my vaginal and i was wheeled back to the ward for two hours bed rest. Doc said images cannot be saved or emailed out of the lab. Under Dino dad's assertive persistency, doc reluctant allowed photo-taking with my Nokia E66. Surprising the images came out perfect.
At the ward, within the curtain, i finally gave in - i cried with Dino dad. Relating to him the wonderful ultrasound images and feeling the miracle of science firsthand. We hugged each other quietly, living in the moment, that we are now officially proud parents of three. It was a very very very long wait - close to two and a half years. The moment was euphoric. No words could describe my heartfelt contents at that moment.
Sleep didn't invade me. Probably overjoyed. We spent the next two hours talking softly brainstorming names. By 5.30pm, i was given the green light to go home and whamp....baby luck did manifested - we unbelievably beat the usual Friday home-rush jam and reached home through a newly discovered shortcut, of which the journey would otherwise consume one and a half hour.
I spend the rest of the whole Saturday acting like a worm - laying either on bed or the sofa curling up with Twilight Saga in my hand. Left all house chores to Dino dad - he took them all happily.
Then attended Joey Yap's talk on Sunday learning more about all-things-tiger luck.
No comments:
Post a Comment