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Smooth Landings
A long-distance IVF experience
By Rose

June, 1996 Sitting on an airplane somewhere over the state of Texas, I started wondering whether this was the craziest thing I had ever done or the most inspired, or maybe both? There certainly was lot of my emotional and physical health riding on this "vacation". My husband and I both wanted a baby. We had a number of failed stimulation cycles and I was 39 years old, so it was time for our first attempt at IVF. Most of my coworkers and family only knew we were on vacation in California.

But, in reality, I was flying halfway across the country to Sacramento, California to have IVF done at a clinic (Pacific Fertility Center) I had never visited, with a doctor that I had never met in person (Dr Gililland). I was his "cyber-patient", communicating almost daily via e-mail and telephone over the last few months of testing and drugs with my hometown doctor, all leading up to this week when, with any luck, our IVF embryo retrieval and transfer would take place. Before I left my hometown in the midwest, I had an ultrasound done and it showed I had several large follicles. I was feeling everyone of them in my ovaries, and all I wanted at the moment was a smooth landings on this airplane, first in Dallas for a layover, then onto Sacramento.

The pre-cycle testing and treatment had gone well. It took some convincing to get the most complicated parts of the pre-IVF cycle testing done in our small town, but with the help of the PFC coordinator we got it worked out. I believe it was good to get tested for everything as it would give us the best possible chances of success by treating anything that could be treated before spending the effort on this long-distance IVF cycle.

The drug stimulation of my ovaries had gone well, with at least 11 follicles and a good uterine lining. I felt, in part, that this was from the personalized attention given to us at PFC-Sacramento. We considered traveling to some other clinics but some had seemed impersonal and we wanted the kind of individualized service given to us at PFC-Sacramento. Another reason we choose PFC was their 90% refund policy. My husband and I had limited resources to spend either on IVF or an adoption. We wanted to try IVF several times before moving on to adoption, and with the 90% refund program, we knew that even if the IVF treatments failed, we would still have enough money to proceed with an adoption.

The landing in Sacramento went smoothly after all and we had an appointment with Dr. Gililland the next morning. While in Sacramento, we stayed at a Residence Inn, which was comfortable and not far from the PFC clinic.

I was surprised at my first visit to the clinic and to finally meet Dr. Gililland in person! It is strange after talking with someone over the phone and e-mail, how different they are from what you expect! He was great as were the nurses and coordinators I had spoken to over the phone! I had an ultrasound done and Dr. Gililland told me that, no I had closer to 20 follicles and that tonight was the night for the final injection of HCG to mature the follicles. I was thrilled! That meant that I was scheduled for retrieval of the eggs and at least some of those follicles should have eggs present! I was also a little worried that the egg retrieval might hurt. I was assured by the fact that I would be under IV sedation, asleep, during the retrieval - that sounded good to me!

Before the retrieval, My husband and I did some touring around the area. We went to the Napa Valley wine country and optimistically bought a bottle. We thought that we could us it to perhaps celebrate a birth if this IVF procedure was successful. I thought that even if it wasn't successful, at least I would have a good bottle of wine with which to console myself.

As I expected, the egg retrieval wasn't painful and I got a picture of one of my 17 eggs! It looked like a little sunburst. During the retrieval, my husband went into the nice little room that is strictly for the guys and did his thing! We went back to the hotel after the egg retrieval. I was sore, and I could tell that I had been poked around in the abdomen, so I laid around most of that day, but felt OK the next day. We drove up to Lake Tahoe the day after retrieval and it was beautiful! I looked at the gambling tables and thought how much of a gamble IVF is, but I knew getting through retrieval was a major step toward success.

I was excited on the day of transfer to see how many embryos we had and the quality. We had not yet decided how many embryos to transfer, a really tough decision. More embryos means more chance of getting pregnant, but also more chance of a multiple pregnancy. We sat down with Dr. Gililland and he showed us pictures of all the embryos. Based on my age and the quality of the embryos, we decided to transfer 6 and freeze 6 for future attempts. We also decided to have a new technique, assisted hatching, done on the embryos. In this technique a small hole is etched through the outer membrane of the embryo to help it "stick". The embryologists went to prepare the embryos and I went to take 2 Valium to relax for the transfer procedure. The procedure was totally painless, but you have to stay still for 90 minutes afterwards. The Valium helped me relax enough to stay still for 90 minutes, in fact, my husband said that I fell asleep and snored!

We went back to the hotel, and I took it easy for two days, laying around and trying to think positive thoughts of sticky little "Velcro embryos"! After those two days we flew home. We were in California for a total of nine days, and what unusual vacation photos we had of our 12 embryos!

Eight days after transfer was the first blood test for pregnancy. By far, waiting is the hardest part of the whole procedure! I was sure that the IVF had not worked as I had no pregnancy symptoms whatsoever. I was totally shocked when the numbers cam back positive! I kept it to myself as it so happened that that weekend was Father's day. I got to surprise my husband with the best news ever, that he was going to be a father! We both had a good, happy, cry on that day.

We were very nervous about having a multiple pregnancy and losing this pregnancy to miscarriage, but as it turned out, we had one embryo implant and grow normally. I'm pleased to say that the rest of the pregnancy has gone well.

We are anxiously expecting our baby boy in February, 1997 and are expecting him to have a smooth landing into our arms and hearts!

Rose

Smooth Landings A long-distance IVF experience By Rose

Smooth Landings
A long-distance IVF experience
By Rose