Transfer Day Details

We traveled up to Knoxville Tuesday night. We ate dinner at Zaxby's, one of our favorites, and headed over to the hotel to check in. We stayed the same place as when we came up to Knoxville in January for our consultation appointment, so everything was familiar. I had easy and pleasant sleep, surely the result of so many prayers on our behalf.

Transfer day started with, what else but an ever exciting PIO shot. We had breakfast at the hotel and headed out to keep ourselves busy until T-time. Turkey Creek is a nice area with lots of shopping and food options. Naturally, we made a trip to Super Target and then browsed other stores. We had a great time at Petsmart watching all the animals. Our favorite was a corn snake that was very active and cute. I had a light lunch of Panera soup and salad, and at noon took my procedure medication (valium and albuterol for relaxation and ibprofen since my insides were being pried apart). During this time, I drank the recommended 40 oz of fluids, along with probably another 10 oz with my lunch.

When we got to the clinic, the front desk staff was getting ready to go to lunch. We waited in the lobby, and waited, and waited for probably a little over an hour. Which is fine... they were running behind due to others' procedures and by no means do we think we are the only ones there... but it's torturous and borderline inhumane to have such a full bladder for so long!

When we went back, we went to a recovery room which is a small curtained area with a hospital bed and a chair. I changed into my gown and waited some more. By this point, I peeked out to ask a nurse if I could use the restroom just a little bit. She is new and said no. I had alligator tears in my eyes and beads of sweat rolling down my face. Another nurse saw my pain and said it would be fine to go just a little bit. Ahhhh.... relief!

Finally, it was time to talk to Carol and Dr. Keenan. They came to our curtained room and handed us a picture of our two babies who survived. Carol thawed 3 2PNs, and only one made it. So, she thawed a multicell as well. She said both who survived looked good. The multicell was already over 8 cells and compounding, which is positive. It is rated at a 2 of 5 with 1 being best and 5 being worst. The 2PN was lagging behind at only two cells but had perfect formation and was rated a 1.

The next step was... you guessed it, more waiting. Eventually, it was time to go back for the transfer. I walked to the procedure room and when Dr. Keenan ultrasounded me, he said my bladder was still way full and to go empty it more. Just like my mock, I emptied some, was re-ultrasounded, and told to empty even more. So with 3 emptyings, I was finally ready for my transfer.

The procedure itself is pretty quick. The doctor cleans you with a solution that stings like the dickens. The nurse angles the ultrasound so he can see the catheter going in. The embryologists' lab is attached, and there is a little window between the two rooms. She leans out and hands the catheter with the embryos inside, they quickly slip in there, and then that's that. She takes the catheter back to her lab to check to make sure they both came out... luckily they did. Then, I whaleishly slid from the procedure table to the recovery bed (no standing yet) and was wheeled back to recovery room where D was waiting.

The medication made me calm and not too emotional, but I was still coherent enough to know everything that was happening. I felt a mixture of sadness that two little guys passed away and excitement that the two who made it are looking good. I also felt tired and my limbs were growing heavy.

After laying 30 minutes at an inverted angle, it was time to empty my bladder ALL THE WAY (sweet relief!). I was excited to pop in and wave to one of my online friends who was in a recovery room a few curtains down and was just ready to go back and transfer her three little babies.

From there, we were given some instructions by a gentle and kind nurse named Sandy. She checked my PIO spots and said it looked like I was doing everything just like I should. (In fact, she said I had the steps down perfectly... credit for that goes to my online support group who have the entire routine down to a less painful and more smooth science!).

Then, it was time to head "home" to the hotel, all four of us. The valium was definitely still in full force because I was giving D directions and we missed our turn twice. He made me turn on the GPS from there... The recovery nurse said to act like a slug the rest of the day, which is fine by us. We ordered D's favorite, a pizza, to the room and within an hour, I was in a deep slumber. I slept for 3-4 hours and woke up only because my alarm went off. Time for more PIO! Then, back to resting. I had a full night's sleep and didn't wake up at all until about five minutes before my morning PIO alarm.

So, that was our transfer experience. I felt uncharacteristically calm during the whole thing, and I know that is mostly in part to so many prayers and so much support from our friends and family. Please keep the prayers coming, because we now face the "two week wait" to find out if our embryos will keep multiplying and implant or if they will pass away like their two siblings.

Here are the two embryos who were transferred:

And here is a picture of them inside me (dark area is my bladder!), white line just below the plus sign is the catheter I think, and the plus sign is where they were "dropped off":