Triticum Turgidum

Lying Dormant and Waiting to Bloom Since 2005

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Location: The Prairie, Illinois, United States

I am a beauty-loving ambidextrous higher-order primate who learned transcendental meditation at 7, statistical analysis at 23, tap dancing at 30, and piano at 35. I tolerate gluten, lactose, and differences of opinion, but not abuse. Or beets.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

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.

6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

(((big hugs to all of the Wheats))) grow little embryos, grow.

-delsfan1

2:12 PM, June 29, 2008  
Blogger KrashtieC said...

You've been through so much. Nothing would make me happier than to see another successful *miracle* added to the Wheat Family Tree!

XXX Keeping fingers crossed XXX and

+++ saying many prayers on your behalf +++

Love, KC

8:35 AM, June 30, 2008  
Blogger violetnoir said...

Ooh, you are so right, K! Two is twice as many as one and infinitely more than zero!

Keeping my fingers crossed for you.

Hugs and much love!

10:55 AM, June 30, 2008  
Blogger mireille said...

I'm sending white light to them, K. And to you. xoxo

12:59 PM, June 30, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Praying fervently for the additional Mini-Wheats.

xoxo

7:42 PM, June 30, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

W-H-E-A-T! I've been away from the perfume scene due to work but I just wanted to stop in and cheer for MW#2.

10:38 PM, June 30, 2008  

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