Just got home from the doctor. IUI#1 went something like this:
1:30pm: Arrived at RE's office 40 minutes early, so they could thaw the specimen. This arriving-40-min-early was their request.
1:31: Nurse took me to my room, and hands me the specimen analysis sheet. "Umm wait, I thought you weren't going to thaw it until I got here? This says it was thawed 2 hours ago." Nurse: "Oh, uh, yeah, it was thawed earlier this morning."
1:32: I panic and call Becky, who is at work. WTF - why did they thaw it hours earlier, when they know frozen washed sperm only live 6-8 hours? That ate up 25% of it's life!
1:33: Nurse says I can't have IUI until my bladder is full. Since I'm freaking out on time, I drink 4 Nalgenes of water in 5 minutes.
1:34-1:40: Drink copious water, keep texting Becky. IN FULL PANIC NOW ABOUT EARLY SPERM THAWING.
1:45: Bladder is FULL, nurse has me get undressed.
1:45-2pm: waiting, angrily, losing sperm life time
2pm: RE comes in, I ask why the sperm was thawed hours ago. "Oh, we always wash sperm in the morning. Since this needed to be washed, we had to do it this morning." "Wont that affect my chances?" "NO, not at all." "Well, how long do you think sperm last?" "About 6 hours." (Thinking: so you're saying I've now lost 2.5 hours, so about 40% of the time they'll be alive)
2:15: IUI done easily. She does a tummy ultrasound, comments on how full my bladder is (no shit!), and finds my follicle. I haven't ovulated yet (unless it simply filled up with fluid causing a cyst, which I get 50% of the time)
2:15-2:30 - I call Becky, read celeb magazines, and look at my lucky token items.
2:31: Get dressed, pee a bucket's worth in the bathroom, and leave.
So thanks to their morning thaws, I lost 2.5 hours of sperm life. The good news - this donor had 22mm count!!!! holy cow, that's better than our first donor with his lousy 4mm & 5mm counts.
I go back tomorrow at 9am for IUI#2. Please cross your fingers and toes for us! :)
Monday, December 15, 2008
And they're off!
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13 comments:
We had a similar incident with "too much time between the sperm being thawed and time inseminated" on our last try. It's SO irritating that we monitor every tiny thing in our lives on a daily basis so that the timing is perfect and other folks throw caution to the wind with our swimmers. Hell, it's not THEIR sample, so who cares right? Grrr... ok, I'm done ranting. Fingers and toes crossed. Make us a new blog baby! :)
today was your day, sounds like everything was perfect! at 22 mil, even if you lost some in the thaw you should be just fine!!
Fingers and toes are crossed from all around the world :) Greetings from Germany, Jen
I HATE how these clinics treat us like schmucks, just so we fit into their schedules. Ours wanted a Monday insem for any Saturday morning surges (they were closed Sundays), and INSISTED it was fine, despite that totally NOT being their preferred timing for any other day of the week.
Mind you, at 22 mil, you could afford to lose a few!
Good luck this time round.
Seriously? SERIOUSLY? I'm pretty sure I would've punched him in the face, or demanded the $ for the vial back. GRR.
But I'm glad that it's done, and that you've got tomorrow's in the MORNING, sheeesh.
Go swimmers go!
Wait a minute? Didn't they push your IUI time to the afternoon at your request? And don't they THINK that they should have mentioned that they were going to do the thaw in the morning anyway? GRR, how irritating!
Glad that your timing at least seems to be spot on and that you've got a lot of swimmers to start with. Go swimmers go!
That's really irritating about the thaw - although I've got to think that any sperm that didn't survive until the insemination must not have been the strongest ones. You probably got the best of the very best. Even if it's not true, that's what I would tell myself.
Good luck - I really hope this is it for you guys!
I would have been SO pissed off (as I'm sure you were). Why do they do this? Get your head out and THINK doc! We need ALL of our swimmers! But, thank GOD you have 22 million and even more for the day after hopefully.
All in all, timing sounds good and I hope it's your month.
PS--never ever heard of the full bladder thing??? only with IVF have I heard that. did you ask why??
wait, i'm confused. what sperm are you using??? they WASHED it. it doesn't need to be washed. it's IUI specific sperm. it's already been washed!!!! they didn't wash mine at all.just thawed it.
Thanks for the enthusiastic "welcome back" it really made me smile. Sorry I made you worry, just couldn't face all of this until now. Therapy is a good thing. We're stronger than ever and gearing up to try again. :)
SO frustrating. We're crossing everything we can cross for you.
ugh! how frustrating! wishing you luckkkkkkkkkk
Sorry for your frustrating experience this time around. At least now you know how they operate and can call them out for IUI#2. You are the "client", tell them how you felt and maybe they will work with you to meet your expectations. Fingers are crossed!!
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