Correction

I received a phone call from the nurse today telling me that (1) I need to come in for blood work tomorrow to check progesterone level and (2) our transfer is scheduled for Wednesday, not Tuesday. Apparently the nurse forgot to tell me about the progesterone check last night, as it should have been today, but she's human and allowed to make mistakes once in awhile. And apparently someone counted wrong when figuring the correct day for our 5 day transfer. I know that these two things in isolation shouldn't mean anything, but the fact that they both happened at the same time gave me a bit of an uneasy feeling. Like the clinic is disorganized and we could have just as easily missed something or transferred on the wrong day. I don't know that it would even make that big of a difference, but you never know. There is a reason they try to time this just so, right?

In case you are wondering, I'll explain how the days work with a frozen transfer when they are trying to grow the embryos to blast for a day 5 transfer. I had to have the nurse explain it to me because I was a bit fuzzy on how it compares to a fresh cycle. Normally with a fresh cycle, the day of the retrieval is considered Day 0 and they try to grow the embryos to blasts and do a 5 day transfer, meaning a transfer 5 days after the retrieval (Day 5). They check the embryos 3 days after the retrieval and if they aren't doing as well as you would hope, they would call you in and do a Day 3 transfer based on the theory that the embryos might do better in their natural environment (the uterus)-(have I explained this before? it feels like I have). If they are doing well, they keep growing them until Day 5 and do the transfer then. By this time the embryos should be at the blastocyst stage and may even be starting to hatch out of their outer shell.

In a frozen transfer where the embryos were frozen the day after retrieval (Day 1 or at the 2pn stage), standard protocol at our clinic is to thaw and transfer the next day, which is the equivalent of a Day 2 transfer. I'm not sure why this is their standard protocol. To get to a 5 day transfer in an FET like I am doing, Day 0 is the day of ovulation (which corresponds to the day of retrieval in a fresh cycle), which should be tomorrow. The trigger shot was given yesterday evening and it triggers ovulation in 36 hours which means I should ovulate tomorrow morning. So, if tomorrow is Day 0, counting 5 days with Saturday being Day 1, Day 5 is Wednesday. Make sense?

So after I told my boss I was going to be out Tuesday through Thursday next week (or maybe Monday and Tuesday if the transfer ended up being Sunday) I had to go back and revise that to Wednesday through Friday (or Monday through Wednesday). I'm sure I thoroughly confused him. Oh well. And B, my mom and my friend Rhonda have all been rearranging their schedules to make sure I'm not alone on bed rest days. Shucks, I feel so special!

Today's photo is one of my favorites from our trip to Great Britain in May 2005. It was taken at Sterling castle in Scotland while I was walking behind B with the camera. Again, shadow contrasting with light. I think I must be obsessed.



















Today's song is "Gronlandic Edit" by Of Montreal. For some reason I love the line "physics makes us all its bitches."