Round 10
This could quite possibly be the first time on my egg freezing journey where things have gone better than expected! There are times when you think if all goes really well then you may mange to get one egg from each follicle visible during the scans in the lead up to collection and if things continue to go really really well then each egg will be mature and can be frozen. Although it is difficult to avoid I have really tried not to even allow myself to think about how things ‘going well’ might look like, so scared of that soul destroying devastation that I know only too well when follicles are empty or eggs aren’t mature.
Today for the first time on my journey things have gone even better than I could ever have expected! Maybe it has something to do with me continually trying to manage my expectations throughout the process, or maybe it was just time for me to have some good news!
Collection time
Collection was this morning (14 days after stimulation had started), this was the longest period of stimulation I have had and clearly that seemed to be a good things as results were better than expected.
Throughout stimulation there has been two follicles visible one on my left ovary and one on my right then about 6 days into stimulation another follicle popped up on my right ovary but it was small and thus always playing catch up. I had a scan when I reach the UK on Friday 7 October and there seemed to be only two follicles visible one which was 18mm and one which was 16mm so going into today’s collection I had thought that the best case scenario would be to collect two mature eggs that could be frozen.
I had a scan just before the anaesthesiologist put me out (a request I always have just to make sure I have not already ovulated and thus are put out for no reason) and eventually after a look of searching Dr. Collection (my UK doctor) managed to see the two follicles, so again I was just hoping that at absolute best these two follicles might contain eggs, be mature and could be frozen.
Dream or reality?
So coming round in the recovery room to be told they had collected three eggs was a shock. After 30 minutes I actually thought that maybe I had dreamt that so asked the nurse again, ‘did you say you collected three?’ and the answer was yes.
I couldn’t be fully happy yet because the next part, the part that usually takes 4-5 hours to see if the eggs are mature and can be frozen, often leads to disappointment when you are told that the quality isn’t good or they aren’t mature and therefore they can’t be frozen.
One hour after the procedure I was allowed to leave the clinic but before I do the embryologist wanted to see me. In the past this has not been a good sign but she had a beaming smile on her face. She took me into a private room and told me that the three eggs they had collected were excellent quality and they were already mature and would all be frozen within the hour. She also told me that she was going to freeze these three eggs together because when I came to use them she recommended using all of these three in one go (not that i’ve got to the ‘using’ part yet but I believe you usually use 3 or 4 at one time hence why you really need to have quite a few frozen).
Ecstatic doesn’t describe it
If you have read my blog from start to finish then I needn’t try and explain just how happy I was and still am to hear this news. Not only do I have another three eggs frozen, but they are good quality and I have now reached my 10, no….. I have now exceeded my 10 number! I now have 12 frozen eggs! My sister picked me up from the clinic and I wanted to burst into tears. This journey has been long and it has been hard and this time last year I had been told there was no hope at all. I had had three failed rounds with no eggs and never in a million years did I think I would be a year on with 12 eggs frozen.
Am I done?
So, is that it for the freezing of the eggs for me? Many would tell me I should be done, but as I have always been an overachiever then I am going to say not quite.
Prior to this round I purchased a three round package with my UK clinic. They haven’t offered packages since they have changed ownership, but typically now they are offering packages of three rounds! Before I had my collection done I decided to sign up for the three round package, this round being the first of the three, so I have two left. Two more rounds and then that is it. However many eggs I get during the next two rounds that will be the end for me and then I will truly be able to say I did everything I could and if nothing else I will have a minimum of 12 frozen eggs which a year ago I don’t think any doctor thought was possible, it was a good job I did!
