Good Morning! I Have Tiny Arms!

We had another ultrasound this morning and everything looks wonderful. The embryo, who I am told will graduate to "fetus" on Thursday when we hit 10 weeks, is 28mm long and was waving around tiny, hilarious T. Rex arms. I do have a picture, but because it's so grainy (and frankly it looks like every other 9 week ultrasound that you might care to google) I have attached this helpful graphic highlighting our unborn child's dominant physical characteristics:

We did hear a heartbeat but stupidly forgot to ask exactly what it was... oh well. My RE said that everything looked perfect for this stage of development. We are so, so grateful for this news. From here on out, I won't be seeing him but will go to my regular Ob-Gyn for obstetric care as well as visiting the high-risk Maternal-Fetal Medicine specialist occasionally to follow up on this whole DVT issue.

Because this was my last meeting with my RE for what we hope is quite a while, it was also my big chance to talk about my experience with egg retrieval. The conversation went pretty well, all things considered (definitely better than when I brought up my concerns with him initially, and way better than the time I told my Ob-Gyn that I wouldn't take the birth control pill because "this is America, dammit!" Note to self: if you are using the phrase "this is America" to bolster your argument, you have already lost.) Anyway. I said that while we were so thankful for such a positive outcome, the hardest part of this pregnancy has been trying to reconcile my joy at becoming a parent with my horrible memories of how our child was conceived. I was a bit surprised that he immediately agreed with me that more pain relief should be offered, and he even gave some examples of other gyn procedures totally unrelated to IVF that are only performed under anesthesia even though they're considered less invasive than egg retrieval. But... it's not within his power to change their policy, and without going into too much detail, he summarized some of the reasons why the senior doctors in the clinic set it up this way. I reiterated that I didn't feel at all as though he personally had given me substandard care - in fact I think he has done a great job and I intend to go back to him in the future if and when we try for a sibling with our three frozen embryos - but I offered to write a letter to the head of their practice describing my experience in case this issue ever comes up in the future. He said that might be a good idea, and now I'm trying to decide how much of a squeaky wheel I want to be. On the one hand, everybody got what they wanted out of this cycle, clearly the majority of their patients find the service they provide to be acceptable since they're not exactly going out of business, and I'm not often inclined to rock the boat. On the other hand, I do think their policy to go with minimal anesthesia for egg retrievals puts women through unnecessary pain and suffering during what is already an incredibly difficult process. So, I'll be thinking about this one.

For today, I want to focus on our good news. In fact, this is my new policy overall - I found this (unattributed?) quote online and I pinned it up by my desk so I'm looking at it every day. Good things are happening, and I hope and pray that they continue.