Photos and Post By: Emily Horstman
We received the embryo donor profiles on December 4th. There were maybe a total of 8 profiles for us to look at. Each profile contained information about each donor. The information included: hair & eye color, race, completion, weight & height, medical history, if the donor smoked or drank, what they did for a living, how many embryos they had up for donation, and if they have had any successful pregnancies. We got to chose our top 3 profiles. The clinic lets you pick 3 profiles for the day of transfer. That way the day of you know that you will have at least 3 shots. Say, the first embryo doesn’t survive the thawing process, you would just go to the next embryo and so on. That was such a big relief to us considering we had gone into our last transfer days wondering if we would have any. Once we had our profiles picked out we called the clinic and they placed them on hold for us.
For my transfer protocol, I started taking Estrace (Estradiol) 2 mg by mouth 2 times daily on December 7th, 2020. On the 16th I had my Endo check appointment and we signed our consent forms and made the cycle payment. I was to continue the Estradiol and begin taking Endometrin vaginally 3 times a day. My transfer was set for December 22, 2020.
Transfer day, December 22nd. This day had a lot going on for us. Ross’ pawpaw had passed away on December 19th and his funeral was that morning. We got ready and went by the funeral home early before the service to say our goodbyes before heading to Birmingham. Ross's mom's birthday is also on December 22nd.
I was told not to skip my morning dose of Endometrin. I was to empty my bladder at 10 am and begin drinking 24-32oz of non-carbonated liquid, take my optional Valium (once again, I decided to take it) at 11:15 am and arrive at the clinic at 11:30 am. Once dressed in our hospital gowns and hair nets we anxiously waited our turn. There were several others there that day for transfers. That made waiting my turn a little longer which meant the longer I waited the more my bladder filled up. I was struggling. Finally, it was my turn. Once rolled into the procedure room we were handed a picture of our donor embryo.
The transfer only took around 5 minutes. Once the embryo was placed they allowed me to use the bathroom that was connected to the procedure room. I was rolled back to the little prep area and was released to go home.
My pregnancy test was scheduled for December 31, 2020, on New Year's Eve. We decide to take that day off of work. That morning we had to be at ART at 7:00 for the blood draw that would tell us if we were pregnant. Once we got back home we just sat on our couch and waited. Finally around 9:30, the phone rang. It was one of the nurses Rene. She told me that for a test to be positive the HCG levels need to be at 25. Mine was at 27, Congratulations you are pregnant! She explained that hopefully, my levels would keep rising. We would need to come in on January 4th to check them out. When I hung up the phone Ross and I just stared at each other. We could hardly believe the news. I ran to the bathroom and took an at-home pregnancy test and within minutes I saw the word Pregnant for the first time. We were so excited.
That excitement only lasted 4 days. On January 4th, 2021 our dream of becoming that sweet donor embryo’s parents came crashing down. My blood work should have shown my HCG levels rising but instead, they had dropped all the way to 0. I had had a chemical pregnancy. That loss hurt, and it hurt bad. But the silver lining was that my body was able to get pregnant. There was hope that we could do another donor transfer and it would work.