I’m growing a human! Blob stuck!
After so long with disappointment after disappointment,
constant negative tests and then all the results of the investigations done
earlier in the year, this was a sight I honestly never thought I’d see!
I know that once you begin IVF, everything changes because
the circumstances are different but there was still a big part of me that
believed we were unlikely to ever be that lucky.
Confession time: I was a tad naughty and did a home
pregnancy test the day before my official test at the clinic.
I know, I know.
It may sound like excuses but here was my reasoning.
A home pregnancy test measures the level of hCG (human
chorionic gonadotropin) in your urine, as this is one of the hormones produced
by your body when you become pregnant, and the levels increase each day. The
main reason they ask you not to take a test early during IVF treatment is that
the ‘trigger shot’ you take to release the eggs before egg collection is
actually an injection of hCG, and can stay in your system for up to 14 days!
The official test done at the clinic takes place 18 days
after that trigger shot, meaning any hCG detected must be from a pregnancy, not
left over from the trigger. Consequently, were you to take a test at home a few
days early, there is a chance of getting a false positive, with the pregnancy
test detecting the remains of the trigger. There is, of course, also the
possibility that you could get a false negative!
I reasoned that the day before the official test was still,
at 17 days after the trigger, outside that danger window of a false positive,
and that if the test was negative (which to be honest, is what I was
expecting), I would be able to prepare myself before facing the nurses and
other staff at the clinic.
I used the test that the clinic had given me in case I
decided to test at home on the Wednesday morning. The waiting time was 3
minutes, and before even a minute had elapsed, I could see the shadow of a
second line forming.
Immediately, I started shaking and forced myself to look
away because I didn’t want to believe it was real.
I have NEVER experienced a slower 2 minutes and 15 seconds.
Sure enough, both the control and results line were still
there when I looked back at the 3 minute mark.
When I went back into the bedroom to wake my husband and
tell him, I couldn’t actually speak so I just waved the test around, gave him a
massive grin and a thumbs up.
He agreed (after searching for his glasses and reminding me
that without switching on a light, he had no hope of seeing the test) that
there were definitely two lines, though the result line was considerably
fainter.
Yay! It had worked! I was pregnant!
Except… that’s when the doubts started to creep in. What if
it was still the trigger shot? What
if it was the fact it was a blue-dye test, which I had read about on forums
giving false positives? What if we were both simple wanting to see a line where
there wasn’t one?
I think deep down, I knew the test was right, but there was
still that disbelieving part of me that was trying to find any excuse I could
for it to be wrong, because I refused to let myself believe that we could have
been that lucky.
I did spend Tuesday alternating between relief and doubt, so
on Tuesday evening I popped to the shop and bought a First Response test, with
the idea of taking it on Wednesday morning before the official test at the
clinic later that day.
The result was immediate. Both lines appeared instantly and
the results line was showing much darker just that one day later.
Felt faaairly sure that it was an accurate result!
 |
| The blue test at the top was the one I took on Tuesday, the one below was on Wednesday - you can see 2 lines on the first one but it's obvious how much clearer the result was just one day later! |
Still, we went to the clinic, they did yet another test and
suddenly it became official. Our first round of IVF had worked and I was
pregnant!
We had many hugs from the nurses, some of whom cried. I
suppose this is why they’re in that job – for times like that, when someone
gets a positive result.
Looking back on the last few weeks, there were definitely
signs that it had worked, but I was so determined not to read anything into
symptoms, because so many of them could have been caused by the progesterone I’m
taking, or even could have been PMS!
The dog has become very clingy and protective of me, my breasts
have been so tender that I’ve cried, and I’ve continued being emotional at the
slightest thing. None of it conclusive, but looking back, it all makes sense.
We’re booked in for a scan at the clinic in 2 ½ weeks, to
check that the pregnancy is progressing well, the baby is implanted in a safe
place, and whether it is a single or multiple pregnancy. As they only
transferred one embryo, I’d imagine it’s a single, but there is always a chance
of twins so they do have to check.
If all seems well at the scan, we’ll be discharged from the
clinic and will enter the main maternity system.
I do plan to carry this blog on, even though it will (hopefully)
now be about my pregnancy rather than specifically IVF. Hope you stick with me!
So there you have it – it’s early days but Blob stuck!
