bouts of good and bad, but generally more good

I went back to work on Monday and it was a little overwhelming at first, since I had to combat jet lag which hit me really hard in the morning, and then the rolling bouts of nausea, followed by the random headaches and lastly the quiet throbbing pain. I managed to get through the day and went to Dr C's clinic at 6:30pm - she said I looked great and there was no need for a scan.

I gave her an update of how many eggs T has - the ARGC actually retrieved 19 eggs from me but only 15 were mature. Out of that, 11 fertilized. Dr C was happy for T and me. I gave her a quarter of a rind of Fortnum & Mason's award-winning Stilton cheese to thank her for her help, and left with a promise for dinner in January.

Tuesday and Wednesday went by fairly quickly and as the jet lag got more manageable, so did the nausea. It's early Friday morning now and I hardly have any nausea left, although on Wednesday night I was pretty miserable and had to take paracetamol to quell the pain. I hope by this weekend I'll be back to 100% so I can start hiking and running again. Gosh, I sure miss my running sessions, pounding on the asphalt with nothing but myself and my thoughts and my heart beating so fast.

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T's embryo transfer happened on Wednesday. They had 4 beautiful blastocysts but of course the ARGC could only put 2 inside her. The other eggs are still developing and of course will be frozen for later use. The transfer went well and now all she has to do is to rest. I have been sending good thoughts to her and telling the embryos to STICK to her womb, although I am a skeptic of Reiki. Still, there's no harm with all that positive energy, so why not?

There is one scene in the anime movie "My Neighbour Totoro" where the kids and Totoro do a dance at the garden for the seedlings to grow faster - I wish there is an equivalent dance for me to perform for the embryo to grow!

more logistical hurdles to clear

I certainly didn't expect the second donation to be this laborious to manage. First of all, because T is based in London I have to set up a phone call for both Dr C and her to speak. They managed to connect on Thursday evening and discussed the options for the procedure such as doing the entire treatment in Hong Kong or in the UK, or splitting it (injections/ultrasounds done in HK and egg retrieval done in the UK).

To complicate things, there is a law in Hong Kong which states that only three "live birth events" are allowed from one donor. A "live birth event" is defined as an event of birth in Hong Kong of one or more than one live child from a single pregnancy (so twins and multiples are still considered as one live birth). But according to Dr C, if the embryo transfer is done in Hong Kong it will be considered a "live birth event" regardless of where the baby is eventually born! So if T chooses to do the embryo transfer in Hong Kong, it will add to the number of "live birth events" that is allowed for my donated eggs. I suppose the implications of this isn't of any significant importance - yet. It will only affect my decision to donate for the third time but it's not looking likely at the moment, just because I want my body to have a break from the drugs.

Now, if the transfer happens in the UK I will be required by UK IVF law to have an assessment which means I will have to take a flight to London. It's not a biggie for me especially since I truly enjoy being in England but I doubt I have many leave days left this year to be off from work.

T managed to speak to the egg donation specialist at her clinic yesterday and established that to send the embryos from Hong Kong to the UK will not be the best idea when the alternative is a live transfer in either country. Also, T has certain issues that need to be addressed, e.g. she has high level of cytokines that make her womb hostile to embryos so she needs to be treated before the start of the IVF treatment.

Phew! That's the whole lot to digest for now. I'm just taking this one step at a time and besides, it's really up to T to decide what she wants - whether to do the transfer in Hong Kong or the UK. This is a critical decision as it will mean either one of us will have to spend a considerable time away from home. Like I said, I am definitely not closed to going to London (I was very prepared for it anyway!) but it may get difficult if I have to spend more than a week there.


I have updated on Twitter earlier that T declined to share the donated eggs with H. It was a difficult decision but one that I fully understood - with all these complex issues to clear, there really is no need for another hurdle to be thrown into the mix. T mentioned that Dr C will try to retrieve only 10-15 eggs this time which means there will only be a handful (if at all) which make it to the blastocyst stage. I was actually quite surprised as I thought 20+ eggs is a more decent number; after all, I really don't want to go through all the injections and proddings and blood tests to have no blastocyst at the end!

It has been pissing down with rain in Hong Kong all of Saturday and while it's all pretty glorious to me (I just love the shades of grey in this city), I think it's going to be an awful day for H to realize that she's back to square one with her search for donated eggs. If only there is a way to remove half of all my available eggs in my body all at once and give it to anyone who wants it.