Thanks, Octomom.

So far, things on the estrogen have been going well. I've felt stable though I can tell it makes me sleep restlessly. Last time, I had terrible insomnia from really high levels, but I don't think my estrogen level is as high this time since I'm not growing a bunch of mature eggs at once. Anyway, the patches are really starting to itch as well--one of the downsides of sensitive skin. Two more weeks . . .

Anyway, as I was looking around on the Duke Fertility Center's website for any info about the patch, I happened to stumble upon something that made me feel good and nervous. My doctor was interviewed for an article in Time Magazine on the octuplet issue. I felt so great that she was considered an expert in the field and was contacted for her thoughts. AWESOME! Here is the part of the article in which she speaks:



From Time Magazine
Octuplets Fallout: Should Fertility Doctors Set Limits?
By Bonnie Rochman Monday, Feb. 02, 2009

. . . Over the weekend at Duke Fertility Center in Durham, N.C., the extraordinary birth was on everyone's mind. Fertility clinics are round-the-clock operations, and women came and went for fertility monitoring. Susannah Copland, who oversees the IVF program at Duke University, was on call and noticed that "everyone was buzzing about the octuplets." Some were shocked, others unnerved. "I don't want eight babies," they told her.

"And we don't want you to have eight babies," she responded.

"I will continue to counsel patients that one embryo is the way to go," says Copland. "What does Mother Nature usually give us? One baby at a time."

Yet she worries that some patients may be inspired by news of the octuplets. "It's a pebble dropped in the pond," she says, "and who knows where the ripples will go?"




Now obviously, I agree with her: we do NOT want eight babies at once!!! But here is where I am slightly nervous.

• We have our six embryos stored in batches of three.


• The "best" batch of three will be thawed first.


• IF only one embryo survives the thaw, they will thaw the other batch of three.


• IF all three from that batch survive, we would be left with four embryos.


• We are not comfortable disposing of any of our embryos.

When we met with our doctor, whom I truly LOVE, she did say she would not be comfortable implanting more than three. We agreed with her and said that our vision was ONE baby, maybe two, but no more than two.

Fast forward to a conversation with our nurse--when she wrote down our "thaw plan", she said that the Duke Fertility Center has never implanted more than three. She also said it is not likely for all three in one batch to survive, but you really never know.

SO . . . I am nervous that we might end up with a battle on April 17. What are we going to do if we end up with four live embryos? While we don't want quadruplets, Chris and I personally could not ever consent to disposing of one of our live embryos. I know that fertility doctors are even more sensitive to the number of embryos they implant due to the octuplet mom, and the reality that our doctor spoke out publicly on the issue suggests we might meet some opposition if we end up with four.

I am already praying that we would not encounter this situation, as I truly have no idea how it would turn out . . .