Fertilization

The IVF clinic nurse called this morning to say that of our 7 retrieved eggs, only 2 fertilized. They were 2 of the 3 that got the ICSI treatment; the 3rd was damaged in the process. It amazes me that the other 4 eggs, surrounded by sperm, still failed to fertilize. It's even more amazing that fertilization occurs at all in the natural world. I looked at Mini-Wheat this morning and thought, You are so improbable, and yet you are a fact. Or as The Onion put it in one of their headlines, Miracle of Birth Occurs for 83 Billionth Time. The fact that it happens so much doesn't make it any less of a miracle.

Originally they weren't going to do ICSI at all because my ER doesn't ordinarily do it on people who've successfully conceived (naturally) in the past. Also, and this is my cynical side speaking, he knows my insurance covers up to 4 cycles of IVF, so he might have just figured we'd try ICSI the next time around if non-ICSI fertilization didn't work this time. My friend Michelle is the one who urged me to ask for ICSI, and I'm so glad she did. The biologist told me that ICSI can damage eggs, so if it's not indicated they usually prefer to go the non-ICSI route -- assuming they have reason to believe fertilization can take place that way. So we split the difference, and now, thanks to ICSI, we've got two.

Please keep your fingers crossed for my two little embryos. They've got two more days to grow and develop before transfer, and there are no guarantees that they'll make it. But heck, at least I've got two, which is twice as many as one, and infinitely more than zero.