2 for 2 on Tests

Ahh..I can breathe a little sigh of temporary relief as my 2nd blood test FINALLY got completed by the lab and sent off to Team Stork in Cincinnati. And the results were very good. I'll start by saying that right off the bat in stark contrast to the waiting I had to do to get my results. No need to leave this journal in day-long suspense like the silly lab did to me.

I went in at 7:15a to have my blood taken. My clinic noted that they wanted the results STAT, so I thought the lab up here would get right on them. I started to get a bit concerned when it was 2:30 and I still hadn't heard anything. So, I did what any courious, partially rational person waiting for test results would do: I called the lab and asked them what was going on and asked why my doctor hadn't received results yet. Turns out they were slammed, but did fax the results to my clinic who called me within 5 minutes.

I'm not much of an expert, but apparently, in early healthy pregnancies, doctors want to see your hCG count double every 48 to 72 hours. The test your blood 2 days apart to see what your doubling time is. This is very important for IVF patients b/c sometimes the embryo doesn't latch on in they way you'd hope it would-- so you wouldn't see fast-paced doubling. This can happen in any pregnancy, but from what I've read, is more prevalent in IVF pregnanceis.

My 1st hCG level on Tuesday was 150, and that was a strong #. Team Stork wanted to see my hCG count on this 2nd test at 300-320 or higher. Mine cam back at 544! Holy Crap! Its really good news, as a quickly rising hCG level is a sign of a very healthy pregnancy. The test showed that my hCG level appears to be doubling every 26 hours (as opposed to every 48-72 hours). Some people think that a fast-rising hCG level could indicate that there's more than one Little B in there making the levels so high, but doctors don't neccessarily agree with this logic...as every pregnancy is different and the "normal range" for hCG levels in pregnant woman is very wide.

We're just happy to pass this milestone.

Day 3 Report Card

Just got a call from our Embryologist. Looks like we may have a couple over-acheivers in the pack. The grading scale is 1-4:
"1.0" is the best
"1.5" is very good
"2" is good
"3s" & "4s" are not so good-- and our clinic usually won't use these unless they have to.

Here's how our Day 3 Report Card turned out:

• 3 Embryos have 8 cells and are at a 1.0 grade (that's the best you can get)
• 2 Embryos have 9 cells, are showing "early signs of compaction" (which is really good as they want the cell growth to be as compacted as possible) and are a grade of 1.5
• 1 Embryo has 12 cells already and has a 1.5 grade
• 2 Embryos have 8 cells, a grade of 1.5 and are also showing early signs of compaction
• 2 Embryos have 9 cells and a 1.5 grade
• 2 Embryos have 8 cells with a grade of 1.5
• 1 Embryo has 7 cells with a 1.5 grade

So what does all the above mean? Its doctor's-speak for "A+". Things are looking good and they feel we have good chances of being able to wait until the 6th day, which is ideal, to do the IVF Transfer. As of now, our procedure is scheduled for 9:15 on Monday morning. We'll get a nother call on Sunday with an update. But for now, the word of the day is "YIPPIE!"