I requested to telework for the rest of the week following my embryo transfer, however, my fertility doctor said I shouldn’t be working at all and need to be on bedrest to not stress. The wait is already stressful and not being prepared to be out from school added more stress! *facepalm*
Luckily, I didn’t actually have to wait the full 14 days to find out if the embryo transfer was successful. My IVF clinic usually does the beta test (blood pregnancy test to read the hormone Human Chorionic Gonadotropin hCG) on Day 10 and then again on Day 12 to confirm. Day 10 fell on Thanksgiving for me, so I got to test on Day 9 and Day 11 due to the holiday closure!
I decided that I didn’t want to do a pee-on-a-stick home pregnancy test because it’s not as accurate. I called my IVF clinic to ask some questions because I was over-googling and making myself nervous and crazy. I told the nurse that all blood work results get posted in my lab app on my phone and that I didn’t want to look at it. She said, “Then don’t look.” But I knew I wouldn’t be able to not look, so I needed to know what number I’m looking for. I told her that I read online that at least 100 is a ‘good’ number. She said that even if it’s 60, the first number doesn’t matter because what they look for is the rate of change in the hCG level. The number is how many units of hCG per ml is in the blood. They want to at least see the first beta double by the second.
I tried to do my best to chill. Aside from continuing the daily butt shots of progesterone. This was the start of John doing literally everything for me. He does all the cleaning, cooking, and laundry. I stayed busy by taking naps, binging Netflix, and finally finishing my knitting project – a tank top. I tried fertility meditation to calm my nerves and visualize being pregnant. I kept falling asleep while listening to the guided meditation, so I guess it was a success? We also planned to attend a drive-in Hawai’i International Film Festival movie from New Zealand called Baby Done as a fun, safe activity to look forward to. And we had my Grandma’s 86th Zoom Birthday Party. We made a Yanwarriors Got Talent video for her birthday!
I used this diagram to envision what was hopefully happening every day.
Here were my symptoms that I had during the wait:
Day 1 – None
Day 2 – Discharge
Day 3 – Discharge and I felt a “squeeze” in my uterus!
Day 4 – Cramping and a big, sticky discharge glob
Day 5 – Cramping
Day 6 – Cramping, tender boobs
Day 7 – Cramping, tender boobs
Day 8 – Tender boobs
Day 9 – BETA TEST #1
Day 10 – Cramping, tender boobs
Day 11 – BETA TEST #2, discharge