For those who have been following my posts, I'll like to apologize for not writing much over the last 2 months. October and November has been very trying for my wife and I, both physically and emotionally, as we prepare ourselves for the next phase of married life; having a kid, hopefully. I say hopeful because considering our medical conditions and age, we decided to seek medical assistance, a.k.a IVF. If you research into the literature of it, you'll probably discover that the chances of a successful procedure is not high statistically, and the probability drops lower if live birth is considered as success rate. For us, regardless of what statistics show, we just want to give it our best shot and have no regrets, no matter what the final outcome will be.
IVF is a procedure that demands absolutely everything from the woman. For a start, it requires her to stop any unhealthy dietary lifestyle; drinking and smoking are strictly prohibited. She is to be in a relaxed and calm state of mind for best treatment results. I mean, it maybe an excuse, but people do drink and smoke to manage the stress of work and life. Asking a smoker and/or drinker to quit smoking and/or drinking, and be relax and calm itself is contradicting, I think. And if this alone seems impossible enough, there are an array of hormonal drugs, waiting to be injected into her body at precise timing, several times a day!
After a series of tests and examination done on both my wife and I, our doctor gave us the go ahead to the process proper. Since early November, my wife was to administer a shot of 'growth' hormone into herself, every alternate day for a month; this is to 'prepare' her body for the actual IVF process. We were taught by the nurses, how to put the liquid into disposable syringes, and the proper way of injection. These drugs are expensive, it helps when we're taught the skill to extract every bit of it from the bottle without wastage, while a proper way of injecting the drug will minimize the pain and fear of the recipient.
For 3 weeks into the 'growth hormone' administration, I was around to help my wife with the injections. It wasn't easy for me to poke a loved one initially; especially with her look of anticipation, and the guilt I had whenever she exclaimed "ouch!". But as we both get more familiarized and accustomed to it, it becomes almost like a ritual; starting with finding a 'spot' that's not been poked before, and to avoid any veins. As I'll be out-of-town for business during the 4th week, we decided that she should at least try once injecting herself with me around. She stared at the needle for a good 15 minutes, could not bring herself to finish the routine; overcoming the psychology part of having to "hurt" oneself is really tough. And the time comes when I have to be away, in my absence, she managed to complete the entire routine herself for the very 1st time within a minute! I was so proud of her when she told me that over the phone.
2 weeks before the oocyte retrieval, the frequency of 'growth hormone' injections were up'ed to once everyday. Additionally, she is also to inject another hormone to mature eggs in her ovaries. This 2 shots a day routine continued for 10 days, before a 3 shots routine starts 4 days before oocyte retrieval. The 3rd shot is another hormone that prevents her body from ovulating the matured eggs; keeping them within her ovaries for artificial retrieval later. At precisely 35 hours before the retrieval procedure, she is to take a large dose of (another) hormone, to 'release' the eggs right at the time of the procedure. Due to the dosage amount and time sensitivity of this 'last' injection, we were advised to have it done by the nurse at the hospital, which we did.
Exactly 35 hours later, my wife was pushed into the operating theater for the oocyte retrieval procedure done under GA. The doctor skillfully retrieved 9 eggs from my wife which was a pleasant surprised to us, as we were told we'll be lucky if we can get 4 during 1 of the examination over the 2 weeks process. However, how many of these 9 can potentially be a baby depends on how well they grow after fertilization. Day-0, the embryologist found 7 that were good enough for fertilization. Day-1, all 7 seems to be moving well to 2/4 cells stages! Day-2, 2 of the 7 seems to be arrested at 2 cells stage, while the rest progressed to 4/8 cells stages. Day-3, 2 of the remaining 5 we 'slower' at 8 cells where the other 3 moved on to 10/12 cells stages.
Day-5, the day when we'll know how many embryos are mature and good enough to be put into the uterus; the embryologist declared only 2 were good, and non of them were good enough for freezing. The only logical option then was to put the 2 in as suggested. The entire procedure went smoothly; the doctor and nurses briefed us on the dos and don'ts over the 2WW (2 weeks wait), and wished us luck as my wife discharged from the hospital.
If you wonder if this is the end to the whole procedure, every couple who have been through it will concur that it is just the beginning of a dreadful 2 weeks LONG wait; making very sure that we do the dos and avoid the don'ts, trying to eat and live healthy. The occasional 'forgetful' misses on the dos and don'ts, or symptoms that might suggest pregnancy or early miscarriage, will send our emotion to either end of the spectrum. Going through this emotional roller coaster ride for 2 weeks without any help and information of what's going on in her body makes suffering from those injections pales way in comparison.
We're supposed to know the result today, though we're prepared for the worse, we do hope for the best. But regardless of the outcome, I want to dedicate this post to the bravest woman I've ever known, my wife Wendy Yeo; for going through these period of time so courageously. I love you Bebe! <3
