Blastocyst Report

It was 8 days ago today that I had my egg retrieval, and time just feels like it is dragging on at the most excruciating pace! Luckily, we did get a call Saturday with our final Blastocyst counts. 

We officially have 5 Blastocysts frozen and waiting for us.  We ended up with 4 day 5s, and 1 day 6.

The ratings are:
Day 5s-
2@ 3AB & 2@2/3
Day 6-
4BB.

Now I really have no idea what the ratings mean specifically. I have a general idea, but it is all a little fuzzy to me still. Our nurse is off today, so I spoke to someone else, but she wasn't able to help me too much. In fact, she confused me even further...She told me that our 4BB is the best one, but I have always been told that day 5 is better than day 6. Maybe she was mixed up, maybe I am mixed up? We are going to just schedule a regroup with Dr. Surrey at this point to just sit down and get all of our questions answered, and to figure out what the plan will be.

It is a gamble to wait until day 5 & 6 with embryos because you will lose so many between day 3 and 5/6. They took the gamble with me because of my age, and because I have a lot of eggs to begin with. This gamble stressed me out, and to be perfectly honest, I wish that our final number would have been a little higher.  I understand that by day 5/6 they know so much more about the Blastocyst, and that is a good thing. It will hopefully lead to a successful transfer, and they may only need to put 1 really good embryo in, so you're less likely for multiple births this way. They can know which ones stand the best chance to be a success, and some of the weaker ones that might not have survived have been eliminated. I was told that we would lose 30%-40%, between day 3 and day 5/6, so we were anticipating hearing a number around 8. But, we went from 14 day 3 embryos to 5 Blastocysts, which ended up being over 60%, almost double from what I was originally told. We were not really prepared for that, so when we got that final number, we were shocked and a little disappointed. I know that 5 is GREAT, and I really am so thankful for those, I still consider this to be an absolute blessing!! It's all such a gamble, it makes my stomach hurt just thinking about it. I trust that everything happens for a reason, I just need to keep the faith that everything will turn out exactly how it is meant to.

I think being able to see an early embryo vs a day 5 Blastocyst really shows how just a few days can make all the difference. CCRM wants a day 3 embryo to have between 6-10 cells, which is pictured below. You can compare that with a day 5 Blastocyst to see just how much change has occurred in 2 days, it's quite remarkable actually.

I think once we can have our regroup with our Dr. I will feel a lot better, and more confident that we are right where we need to be.

I will be starting my first Lupron Depot month tomorrow, which is scary because of all the side effects, but also exciting because we will be one step closer. I sure hope that time starts to go by a little faster now that all of the stressful stuff is out of the way for a few months.

In the meantime, I am working on keeping the faith, and only allowing myself to think happy, positive, helpful thoughts. My goal for this week is to eliminate all of the worry, all the disappointment, all of the doubt. Just let go, and trust that it will all work out!

XOXO