Last year...

Was my embryo transfer. I was so nervous because of the eight eggs they retrieved, only four had fertilized and then only two of them continued to grow and develop. I was heartbroken. I felt for sure that there was no way my two surviving embryos were going to turn into anything. I cried like a baby when the nurse called and said I only had two remaining (and I was at work at the time). B"H I was totally wrong. :-) Then, last year today, my two embryos were lovingly transferred back into me where they would have a chance at life (which they so gratefully took). I decided not to take the valium, but the pain of having a ridiculously full bladder was totally worth it. And the embryos didn't even fall out when I went to the bathroom! (As the nurse said they wouldn't.) And, to quote myself, "we transferred 1 real winner embryo and 1 not so good embryo that still has a chance (and we love them both the same)." Looks like my "not so good embryo" really did have a chance, and I believe that's the little girl sitting next to me...who is actually bigger than her little brother (who started out as an embryo just about twice her size).

Transfer

So, we had the transfer today! As it turns out, 4 of the 8 eggs did not fertilize and 2 of the eggs that did fertilize did not continue to divide. This isn't so bad...if we do need to try again, with ICSI we can get the fertilization rate up and hope for the best. As for the two embryos that made it to transfer....one of them is 5 cells, grade C, with fair symmetry and the other is 10 cells, grade B, also with fair symmetry.


Aren't they cute? I have no idea which is which--they both look similar to me, which is why I'm not an Embryologist. :-) I dunno what the black splotch is, but it has nothing to do with my babies.

For those of you who don't know about embryo grading, I will give you a crash course.

Number of cells: At a day 3 transfer, the embryo should have between 6 and 8 cells...less than this isn't so good, but more is great!

Letter grade: This refers to the amount of fragmentation present in the embryo. As the cells divide, cellular material may break off and end up between the newly formed cells. An A grade means that there's less than 5% fragmentation, B means that there's between 5 and 25%, C means there's 25-50% and D means that there's more than 50% fragmentation. Obviously, you want less fragmentation--A and B grades are normal.

Symmetry: Cell symmetry describes the evenness of size and distribution of cells in the embryo. This is graded as either good, fair or poor--with good and fair being normal.

Basically, this means we transferred 1 real winner embryo and 1 not so good embryo that still has a chance (and we love them both the same).