Stims Bingo should legit be a thing.

Seriously.

Even more so - prizes should be given out to anyone who gets a Bingo. I mean, if you can check off these terrible side effects, I feel like you’ve earned a prize for being such a badass. Ha! The better the Bingo, the better the prize. Regular Bingo? Free ice cream for you. Four Corners? Here’s some chocolate. Blackout Bingo?! A paid day off from work & adulting.

You’d think since this was our 3rd retrieval I’d be used to all these side effects, but no. That was not the case. Each day was a new obstacle course for me to trudge through, trying to create as few causalities as possible from those around me. Don’t worry - Kirk has been marked safe from IVF Round 3! Whew!

One new curve ball for this round was the amount of traveling I did during my roughly two weeks of stims. There was a basketball game for work, a family Christmas celebration, and a tiny dancer’s competition. All of which totaled around 20 hours of driving and having to think on my feet on how to keep my meds cold. Thank goodness for ice packs, insulated lunch boxes, & hotel ice machines! I also had to figure out how to smuggle drugs & needles into a professional sporting event - and in a clear purse. #MissionAccomplished Thankfully, I didn’t have to administer my shots in another public bathroom, but I was ready if I needed to!

One silver lining to all these shots was the help I got from a few family members on giving me my shots. Great job y’all! If you missed my Instagram stories, I saved everything to highlight reel. Be sure to count all the familiar faces you see.

This retrieval, while it is likely our LAST retrieval, is also shaping up to be our BEST retrieval. #Hooray! Dr. Huber tweaked a few meds during the two weeks of stims & scheduled my procedure a bit sooner than he has in the past. We ended up with 13 eggs! THIRTEEN! Of those 13, TWELVE were mature eggs. Of those 12, ALL TWELVE fertilized. Of those fertilized 12, FIVE made it to the Blastocyst stage. Y’all this is HUGE!

For comparison, here are the stats from our first retrieval:
12 retrieved
10 mature
8 fertilized
5 Blastocyst
3 viable embryos (2 normal, 1 low-level mosaic)

Our second retrieval was a bust so we don’t have to even talk about that one…

The next step is genetic testing. Our 5 little embryos have officially been sent off to the lab. This process, unfortunately, takes a few weeks. Dr. Huber has promised to give me a call as soon as he gets the results. I’ll just be over here, anxiously waiting his call. #impatientlywaiting #butalso #joyfullywaiting

Will y’all join us in joyfully waiting for our results? Send us all those good vibes, too!