The Much Anticipated FET Consult

We had our FET consult this afternoon, and although I went in tired from a busy work day and still feeling under the weather from a cold, I left with a huge smile on my face and feeling awfully blessed! Here are some of the "highlights" of our talk with Dr T:

-The date has been moved up from September 20th or 21st to the 13th or 14th---a whole week early!!  This is due to the number of women undergoing "fresh" cycles (not frozen, like ours) and the clinic trying to ensure the 20th and 21st aren't packed full of transfers.  Since our embryos are frozen and we're not waiting on eggs to mature, be retrieved and then fertilized, we can go ahead with an earlier date.  Needless to say, this makes me a VERY happy girl!

-The cost was even less than we have anticipated--woohoo!  This is due to a few factors: the credited cost of the transfer we didn't do in the fresh cycle, the "mock transfer" doesn't need to be done again (Dr T will use his same "road map" to place the embies back in my uterus), and my medications hopefully will be covered by my insurance, since they're technically not considered "infertility drugs" this go round (this may cut the medication cost down as much as two-thirds!).  Infertility treatment is certainly not cheap, and none of it has been covered by our insurance, so we're praising the Lord for any deductions, no matter how small!

-Dr T is still very adamant that our embryos look "fantastic".  We got to see pictures of a few of them (taken before they went into the freezer, of course), and we will get to see them one more time once they're thawed the day of the transfer.  My husband and I really weren't sure what we were looking at, but since they're technically our babies, I couldn't help but "oooooh" and "ahhhhhh" over them a little. What can I say, I'm a proud mommy already! ;)

-The embies were frozen in groups of two in something called "straws".  The night before the transfer, the embryologist will set out one straw and we'll see if both embryos survive the thaw.  If by some chance they both don't make it, they will thaw out another straw of two the morning of the transfer.  If both of those survive, and we have three embies to choose from, Dr T says we can either a) use all three and have a very high risk of triplets (eek!), or b) use the best two embryos and refreeze the third, which, per Dr T, isn't hard to do and shouldn't harm the embryo in any way.  Of course, my husband's face turned ashen at the mention of multiples, lol.  So I think it's safe to say we'd choose to refreeze the extra and just stick to transferring two at a time.

-Speaking of multiples...while one of the nurses was going through our paperwork at the end of the consult, she stopped on one of the pictures of our phenomenal (sorry, I'm biased, lol) embies.  She pointed to one (that, frankly, looked like the others to us) and said, "Did Dr T show this one to you?" We told her he had, but he hadn't gone into any great detail of what he saw.  She smiled at us and said, "This embryo is already splitting into two...as in, identical twins!"  Say whaaaaaat??!!  I thought I was going to have to carry my FBD (future baby-daddy) out of there in a wheelchair after that!  It was certainly a surprise, since twins don't run in my family, but we'll take whatever God gives us!  She said the embryologist had commented on it when the picture was taken because it's not common to see the split happen so early in the development of the embryo.  I guess ours are just determined little stinkers! lol  Now, this may not result in a delivery of twins, and we know this.  They could stop splitting (or stop growing altogether), or one of the gestational sacs could form like normal and the other be reabsorbed by my body (sometimes called a "vanishing twin").  But I definitely saw what amazing things God can do when I looked at that circle with two little bubbles side by side in it!  God is good!

(Of course, this poses a few more important questions: What would we do if they thaw out the straw with the splitting embryo and a single one?  Will they transfer what could potentially be triplets, or will they only transfer the one that is splitting in hopes that it will become twins?  What if it doesn't continue to split, or even stops growing altogether in my uterus, and we're left with no embies to implant?  These are all good questions, and to be honest, we're not quite sure right this moment!  But we're going to pray about it, and I'll let you know what we decide if that scenario presents itself! ;) )

Ok, so how magnificent is our God??  He never ceases to amaze me!  Just when you think things can't get any better...God shows up and shows out!  At the end of the day, after all the excitement of the consult, all of the planning and preparation to make our dreams come true, the only thing my overflowing heart and awestruck mind can say is Thank you, Father.  Thank you for the blessings that have already been given and for those yet to come.  Thank you for choosing this path for me.  And thank you for walking beside me every step of the way.