Wednesday, February 5, 2014

ONE MORE BCP!!!!!! And a Research Study?

Tonight after 9:03pm, I will be all finished with BCPs :D The countdowns go as follows:

11 hours, 37 minutes until the last BCP
6 days, 20 hours, 34 minutes until baseline
7 days, 11 hours, 37 minutes until stims

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

The Lupron is still giving me joint pain, but I'm dealing with it. The heating pad is helping my back and hips. My ankles are feeling it too, but it's a very dull ache that I can distract myself from pretty easily.

My clinic contacted me about participating in a research study with our current IVF cycle. The study will compare two different culture mediums (Sequential and Monophasic). After ER, our embryos would be randomly divided. Half would be cultured in the sequential culture medium and the other half in the monophasic culture medium. The benefit to us is that we'd get CCS for free. The drawback is that they would have control over how many and which embryos to transfer (this is assuming a lot... assuming we even get a blastocyst worthy of transferring!!). If we get one of each type, then they'd transfer two embryos. If we only get one of a kind, regardless if we have more than one of that kind, then they will only transfer one. I don't know what would happen with future transfers if we were fortunate enough to have frosties.

John & I will have to discuss this possibility. I am leaning towards saying no. I don't feel that we are a good candidate for this study. Why would they want to include us even knowing our history?? While the CCS is appealing, it is something that I don't think will benefit us much. I have a feeling we will get one blastocyst... we'll know soon enough if it is chromosomally normal after transferring it (if we make it to that point).

The truth is... I haven't been thinking past ER at all, and that is my defense mechanism through all this. By considering this study, I'm being forced to think ahead... I don't wanna do that!!! So anyway, I'll discuss it with John, but think it's gonna be a short discussion.

6 comments:

  1. So exciting that you're almost ready to start stimming! Praying for you to get that beautiful blast that you deserve!

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    1. Thank you, Jessica!! It's getting close to Jab Time!!

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  2. CC We were recommended to do CGH with this IVF cycle, but ultimately decided on hindsight CGH because we knew the odds of having more than one or two blasts wasn't very good. It just didn't seem worth the money to test two blasts, we were better off transferring and hoping for the best.

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    1. Exactly, Twink. I can't justify the expense for just one (hopefully we'll get one!!) blast. But as John points out, we don't have to worry about it because it'd be free. I just don't know if I want to play by their transfer rules, you know?

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  3. I'm sorry the Lupron is being so mean to you. FX that you're feeling better fast once you stop it. I'm hoping so hard that you get at least one beautiful blast this time around (hopefully more). Good luck deciding on the study. Free is always appealing, but it's hard to know if it's really worth playing by their limitations. Big hugs!

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    1. Thanks, Becky :) The Lupron side effects have been steady and mild. It's really not that bad! I hope things are well with you!!

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