Embryo Update

I've had a lot of people ask me about our embryos and how this whole thing works. I wanted to take a brief moment to explain what is happening. I think I have explained this before, but here it is again, in as concise a form as I can put it.

We have seven embryos. Starting this evening (Tuesday), embryologists are beginning to thaw these embryos. We do not know how God sees these embryos because, well, we aren't God. Mayo has told us that they freeze before DNA transfer occurs (thus they say that the embryos are not alive.) However, we promised ourselves that we would return for anything we froze, and we want to stay true to that promise. We can't be sure the exact moment life begins so we are going to err on the side of these embryos being already alive.

Over the next few days, the embryos will thaw and will either continue to thrive or not. We do not know how many will survive until our transfer on Saturday. We just have to wait and see. All seven could survive. Two could survive. We don't know.

They will transfer only two embryos into my uterus. (If you remember, my past transfers saw a transfer of two, two, two, and then three.) The decreased number is due to the fact that they are letting these embryos grow longer and my two pregnancies. If there are any remaining embryos, they will be refrozen for a later transfer. We do not know when we would return to do another transfer. Our infertility story has been anything but ordinary. We must try (as hard as it is) to take one treatment and one treatment day at a time.

There is a chance they could call me on Thursday and say something like, "Five of your embryos have died. Only two are left. Let's transfer them today as we aren't sure they will make it until Saturday."

There is a chance that when we get in on Saturday they could say, "We only have one left to transfer. The other six did not continue dividing and thriving."

There is a chance they could say, "We are transferring two and two more are being refrozen. The other three did not make it."

They could say they are transferring two and the other five are being frozen.

We have no idea. Please feel free to join our "who the heck knows" club.

So how can you pray?

If you can just pray the Lord's will to be done, we would greatly appreciate that.

You could also pray for my continued improvement emotionally. I have now stopped taking Lupron which is the drug that most likely was causing my anxiety and depression. I am feeling better, but I continue to have good days and bad days. Good hours and bad hours. Pray that I feel like the "old Wendi" as soon as possible. I am taking estrace and prometrium now and will eventually work my way off of those and just take progesterone -- all drugs that should not cause me to drop as low as I have been.

How wonderful it is to be here with my friend Lesley. She was there for our entire infertility journey during our time at Mayo. She prayed with me today and reminded me that I did feel like this in the past (I feel like I never felt this bad) and she reminded me that she remembers a Wendi that was happy a lot and plagued only now and then. How encouraging! Sometimes it feels like I have felt this way for seven years. I know that isn't the case but it is difficult to remember.

I will keep you posted of new information as it becomes available to me. For now, we wait for Saturday -- unless something changes.