God is GOOD

God is always good, even when shiz is "bad", but I'm feeling especially enveloped in His goodness today.  Remind me of this if things don't go how I want.  :)

So, to back things up... when I last posted, I mentioned that my progesterone was going up and my estrogen was also pretty high.  At my pre-op appointment, they did futher bloodwork and my estrogen was up to 5500 (high!) and my progesterone was 13, which is good after the hCG shot apparently.  However, I was still mildly concerned that I would either ovulate before the retrieval or the eggs would not be good due to the increase in progesterone.  I am also in the danger zone for ovarian hyperstimulation, but so far, I have been fine.  Very sore (read on and you'll understand why), but fine.

So, I go in for the retrieval yesterday, and it was a lot like the last one EXCEPT we got THIRTY-TWO - 32!!!! - eggs!  OMG.  We only got 14 last time, if you recall.  So, things seemed to be looking up at that point.  If we had the same fertilization rate as last time (23%), we would have 7-8 fertilized embryos, which is a big increase.  Well, I was THRILLED to hear that we had ELEVEN eggs fertilize!  Six were immature, so they injected sperm into 26 via ICSI, and 11 took (a 42% fertilization rate).  This is still lower than "normal" (65-70%), but it's better than last time so we will take it.  Now, we obviously have no idea what will happen with those 11, but I just pray that our baby (or babies) are in there, and that God willing we get to that stage, the embryo(s) will develop into a healthy baby(ies).

We won't know anything more until Saturday morning.  We're tentatively scheduled for a Day 3 transfer, but my hope is that we've got enough good looking embryos on Day 3 that they'll call us and tell us we look good for a blastocyst transfer on Monday.  Either way, things seem to be looking up compared to last time!  Anything can happen, but I am choosing to remain positive and hopeful.

And, since we've already determined that I have no shame, a before and after shot.  I'm proudly showing off my 32 eggs.  ;)