Spoke to the Embryologist today.  All three embryos are level pegging and all are at text book 4 cell stage.  We are scheduled for a Blastocyst transfer on Tuesday. Of corse I know that this is really hoping for a lot and chances are they won't make it.   If they do I will go into battle with Dr M over the number to transfer.  I want to transfer 2 as if my eggs are so great then it's reigniting my lining issue and this is the only way I see of actually increasing an implantation chance.  A lot will depend on the quality on the day. Nearly everything I have read has said that it is standard practice to put at least two back for over 38 - I'm closer to 42!!!!

Singleton children conceived through IVF have lower birthweights, on average, than their naturally conceived counterparts, and it has been hypothesized that ovarian stimulation could be a cause.

To find out, Georg Griesinger (University Clinic of Schleswig-Holstein) and colleagues analyzed data from a national IVF registry with 65-70 percent coverage. They retrieved information for all IVF cycles in women aged 25-35 years who underwent ovarian stimulation and had a live, singleton birth (n = 32,416).

On multivariate regression, the baby's birthweight was significantly and independently predicted by each of maternal height, maternal weight, duration of infertility, and the number of embryos transferred.

However, none of the parameters of ovarian stimulation studied-including duration of stimulation, use of gonadotrophins, and the number of oocytes retrieved-significantly predicted birthweight.

"The present study provides robust evidence from a large sample of IVF singletons that ovarian stimulation and birthweight have no apparent quantitative (eg, dose-response) association," say the researchers.

However, they caution: "Although this is reassuring to the clinician, it does not invalidate the need for studying the effect of ovarian stimulation on outcomes other than birthweight, such as epigenetic alterations, and associated health disorders."

Source: Human Reproduction 2008; Advance online publication

as illogical as it sounds, this new information gives me hope for the two embryos (hopefully blastocysts by now) in my uterus at the moment.. if the two not-so-great embryos made it to blastocyst stage today, then the two in me must be doing better since they started out much better.. right? right? right? ... well, that's what i'm going to think today.. ... i'm going in later today to meet with dr. b. for my "exit interview" for the clinical trial since i'm done with the ring..

***

still having residual pains from the horrid ring, but feeling much much better.. the abdominal swelling is slowing going down. i am still feeling like crap though from the horrible sinus infection i got the day before retrieval and now because of that i have an ear infection, so i'm half deaf.. fun stuff. steve has been awesome.. taking good care of me. i'm very lucky.. as will be the "twins" having him for a dad.

***

and just because i haven't mentioned darby in a while does not mean that i'm over her or now still mourning.. this morning i looked for her as i put on everyone else's leashes.. i was fully expecting to put her leash on too. the quiet is still too much. i think about her every day.. and hope beyond hope that her spirit is in my uterus as a blastocyst preparing to implant.

... on the animal subject, george is doing better, done with all his medications.. and he's not peeing on everything anymore, although i'll never trust him. cats are assholes. he's always been a pee-monster.

**

8 days till beta.. and i *may* have tested yesterday, just to see if the trigger shot was still present.. and it was, the test showed a very light positive.. not that i needed to test, i know the HCG is still in my system as my nipples are huge and very painful. i'm going to try to stay away from the pee-sticks.. but i'm not making any promises. i read somewhere, IVF connections i think, someone's explanation as to why they use pee-sticks even though they are notoriously unreliable.. she said she used them because she needed to be let down slowly.. and i think i agree with that. but we'll see as we get closer to beta day how weak i get...

**

hi there. i'm still having lots of pain from the "treatment". i've been trying my hardest to deal with it.. but it's just awful. seriously i'd gladly take injections over this.. it's that bad. i'm usually pretty tough.. i handle pain really well, but this is really bad. it's constant pressure.. starts off not intolerable in the morning, but then by late afternoon it's consuming. i can't walk normally without pain, i can't bend over without pain.. i have to lay flat or almost flat to be even slightly comfortable. the more i move the worse it gets. i specifically didn't do anything yesterday to see if that would help.. i literally laid on the couch all day.. but by 4pm it was very very painful. my stomach is even swollen from it. it's literally a constant pain. it's like my body is constantly rejecting it. i've really been trying to deal with it.. but i don't think i can handle 9 more days, let alone 12 weeks! so far this is the worst pain of IVF! i feel really guilty about dropping the "treatment".. but i don't think i can do it anymore. if i do switch treatments, what will happen if i'm pregnant? will we still having the same exams? i don't want to miss out on anything. sorry about all this.. i feel horrible about it!

so i'll most likely be switching to progesterone cream tomorrow morning.. if not today. the nurse already gave me some just in case i couldn't stand the ring. i feel bad that the drug company, who paid for my entire IVF cycle, will not get a full trial from me.. but their product is making me miserable. they should know that.

***

trying to be hopeful about the embryos.. thinking positively about their growth today.. but still being realistic that it could very well not work. .. and i still have my sinus infection, it's getting better, but i generally feel like crap between the pain in my vagina and the pain in my head. i hope this doesn't scare away the embryos.. i don't always feel like crap.

**

so overall, i am still very upset that we have so few.. but i'm very grateful for the 3 we do have. right now, for however short a time, i am the mom to "triplets".. and i already love them.

**

This surgery was very different to my endometriosis surgery… today, I sat in the waiting room until 20 mins before my operation. I was taken into a small room with a comfortable armchair, asked to undress and put on a theatre gown and a dressing gown over the top (and keep my undies in my pocket!). Everything else got locked in a locker, and I sat for a while until my Anaesthetist came in to go through my pre-operative questions. After another 10 mins, I was walked into the theatre, where I saw my Doctor, Anaesthetist, a nurse and also a lady who introduced herself from the Laboratory who told me that she would call me this afternoon about my eggs.

My Doctor asked me if I’ve given any thoughts to the number of embryos I wanted implanted, and I asked her opinion. She basically said it was my choice, so I told her that I couldn’t handle the result of 3 babies, but I was prepared to take the chance of 2, to increase my chances of a viable pregnancy. She smiled, touched my arm and told me that she agreed and that she had already written a preliminary “2” on my documentation.

After that, it was lights out and off to sleep I was.

I woke up in the recovery room – which was basically an area for 2 beds at one end and another on the side at the other end, and a row of comfy chairs down the left side. I was told that they had collected 4 eggs – and also had the number 4 in a circle written on my right hand. I asked the nurse about the 5th follicle and was told that sometimes follicles are filled with liquid and may not be an egg at all.

On the way home, I called the lab for any results on my eggs but they didn’t have any news for me yet and told me that they would call me later.

Later in the afternoon, I received a call from the Lab who told me that they took 5 eggs from me (different information, but she could have been counting the one that was basically liquid) and that 3 were not mature enough to be fertilised. She said that she had waited so long to contact me because she had given them an extra hour and a half after injection, but they hadn’t improved at all. She said the other 2 eggs looked good, and that they would call me tomorrow with an update on them.

Fingers crossed!

Both embryologists I spoke to were kind, very competent, and answered all my questions with just the right amount of humor and compassion.

I started writing this post earlier this afternoon but it felt very technical and jumbled.
So I got rid of it.  Here is the distillation:

We have four embryos.
I am elated that four have made it to today.
A little sad that they are now just frozen in time.
Today they feel like babies somewhere I can't reach.

We are eleven days away from knowing if we have a pregnancy.
I really want a baby.
You know?

I looked up freeze frame and I found two descriptions:
* An optical printing effect in which a single frame image is repeated so as to appear stationary when projected.

* The image on the screen stops, freezes and becomes a still shot.

The two are related with a nuanced difference-- one appears stationary but is actually moving (like a possible pregnancy in a tww) the other is a snapshot of a held moment  (like a cryopreserved embryo).

c  -  h  -  i  -  ll  -  i  -  n  -  g

we got our updated report from the embryologists and we have 4 great looking embryos that we froze today where they will stay till we get approved to put them where they belong... in my waiting uterus!

meanwhile we wait await the 28th to see if we have a baby brewing from the IUI, which would occupy my uterus for awhile ;) but, as you know, we are good with that!

"Japanese scientists said Friday they had derived stem cells from wisdom teeth, opening another way to study deadly diseases without the ethical controversy of using embryos."

First, millions of stem cells can be produced from a single embryo. These millions are converted to billions in labs for specific purpose. That means one sacrifice can actually save hundreds of lives. A similar thing has been done by researchers of Advance Cell Technology, read the article in my blog.

Secondly, if we stop research like this it hurts the scientific development. That is a compromise with how we live and what better can be done for the community. Research brings valuable knowledge to the society and stopping it now, will actually mean delaying it because even if America bans it others may not and eventually it will occupy its place in scientific arena.

Lastly, when we object research on animals and stem cells, multinational companies do them on humans living in poor countries, which is not acceptable. You will be surprised to know may drugs banned in developed countries and marketed in poor and developing countries.

Here is a link to an interesting article about better results of healthier babies being born, coming from embryos that are frozen and thawed.    This was in the The Times in the UK today.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article4294441.ece

Let me know your thoughts!

results focussed,

 Coach Louise

Warm wishes,

Coach Louise Crooks

PS  If any of you would like to share your story on my Radio Show, to reach out to  other women in similar situations to yours, please get in touch, through the Contact page in the right hand column.

So now I am doing the herbs, the juicing (going to get better at doing that every day), taking cell food in my water, checking my ph balance every morning, and drinking my Body Balance everyday (amazing stuff! - haven't been sick for a year and a half!).   Once I get back from Spain at the end of the month, I will start my gentle exercise regime of walking 4 times a week, and swimming a couple of times a week.   Keep me accountable folks!   I lost 30lbs since last July, and so it should give me a better chance at success with the IVF I will probably undertake in October or November.    We will also see a specialist in NY, who has a slightly different approach, so I will be curious to hear what he has to say.  Been highly recommended so I will keep you informed.    Our previous endocrinologist feels he has done all he can for us, so now we are looking at doing things slightly differently.  Its ok to try someone else, they might have a different approach or perspective to your previous doctor, and now its our turn to go down that road.   We are open!

I am embracing 40!    and just keeping on track!          

warming up those embies!     

Coach Louise Crooks ~ The KeystoClarity! Coach

I woke up in recovery in alot of pain and a little nauseous. Apparently I had already been told that they got 18 eggs, but when the nurse told me the second time, it was news to me! I was in alot of pain yesterday after coming home - even after the extra strength tylenol. With my regular period I have pretty bad menstrual cramps, and these were about five times stronger. The tylenol quited them down a bit, but it still hurt!! So that a-hole male doctor who said the procedure is painless can really kiss my ass now!!

Today we got the call that 17 of the 18 eggs were usable.   They ICSId 12, and of those 12, 8 "took."  The other 5 they tried to fertilize naturally, and none of them took!!  Which is hard news to take, but does explain why we haven't been getting preggers on our own.

Now...more waiting.  We are tentatively scheduled for a 3 day transfer on Monday, so I am hoping that we have 2 to put back.  It would be too much to ask to have some to freeze, but I really hope we do.  This has been an ordeal for me mentally and physically, and I don't know that if I get a negative result that I would go through again.  I guess I won't worry about that until I have to, though, right?  One worry at a time...so lets go little embryos, eat your Wheaties and get strong!!

Alan and Magalí are "something like" or "almost" twins...with nearly ten years of difference between one and the other!

The story told by the parents:

Years ago, the parents of the kids today, went to find help to get pregnant, because they were not able to achieve it naturally.. Using the technique of embryo implants, the mother of the children was implanted several embryos, resulting in the pregnancy of Alan.

Other not implanted embryos were frozen to implant on a later time. After ten years, the couple paid attention to Alan, who wanted a little brother, and decided to undergo a new procedure to have one other of those embryos implanted. The result was Magalí's birth.

Led by Kevin Eggan at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and Christopher Henderson at Columbia University, the 13-person team reported online today in Science Express that they had generated motor neurons from the skin cells of two elderly patients with a rare form of ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, a progressive neurodegenerative condition. The new study marks an important first step on the road toward real stem-cell-based therapies, and also answers several plaguing questions about the pioneering stem-cell technique known as induced pluripotent stem cell, or iPS, generation.

IPS was first described by Japanese biologist Shinya Yamanaka, who, in 2007, showed that the introduction of four genes into an adult human skin cell could reprogram it back to an embryonic state (Yamanaka had reported the same achievement in mice the previous year). Like embryonic stem cells, these reprogrammed adult cells could be coaxed into becoming any other type of cell — from skin to nerve to muscle. But researchers questioned whether the new stem cells would behave as predictably or as safely as embryonic stem cells, or whether iPS would consistently yield usable cells. "Our work shows that the original method developed by Yamanaka works great," says Eggan.

Researchers also questioned whether iPS would work with delicate cells from older people or with cells taken from patients with disease (Yamanaka used skin cells from healthy middle-aged people in his study). Eggan and Henderson tackled both issues at once, by working with cells from two siblings, ages 82 and 89, who both had ALS. It turned out that generating iPS cells from older patients proved no more difficult than growing them from younger ones, says Eggan. "This study puts those issues definitively to rest," he says. "It opens the door to being able to make patient-specific stem-cell lines [to treat] diseases that affect people very late in life, like Parkinson's or Alzheimer's disease."

In the lab, Eggan's group has successfully turned stem cells into motor neurons, the cells that connect the spinal cord to the body's muscles and which degenerate in ALS. But researchers have not been able to prove that these cells will be clinically useful — that is, whether the new nerve cells will work as well as healthy ones in the spinal cord of a patient. Testing the viability of cells made from iPS stem cells is still a long way off, mostly because iPS requires the use of viruses to deliver the time-reversing genes into adult cells — that works in the lab, but it is not yet safe for patients. To use iPS cells in patients, researchers would have to find a way to reprogram adult cells using chemicals, rather than genes.

There are other, more immediate payoffs of the new study. For one thing, it gives researchers a better understanding of how ALS progresses. Because the new nerve cells have the same genetic makeup as the patients' own diseased cells, Henderson says, they may very well develop signs of the disease in culture, allowing researchers to watch ALS unfold before they eyes. "Our lack of understanding of the disease process is preventing us from developing more efficient cures," says Henderson. "Because the disease is happening in the spinal cord, we don't have access to living samples of neurons undergoing the disease process. But now we have in the culture dish the very cells affected by the disease."

One theory about the cause of ALS is that motor nerves die after exposure to a toxic compound released by other nerve cells in the spinal cord. The Harvard and Columbia groups are hoping to test that idea in the lab: if the cells in culture release the same agent, then finding drug compounds that block the damaging effects of the toxin could preserve neurons and hold off the paralyzing effects of the disease.

The answers to those questions, says Eggan, may come in a matter of "months, not years." It's still unclear whether the new iPS nerve cells can live up to the gold standard of cells created from human embryonic stem cells, but Eggan, Henderson and their colleagues are confident that their current achievement brings stem-cell science one step closer to the original and ultimate goal: cures for diseases such as ALS, Alzheimer's and diabetes.
***
This just made my heart skip a beat!  This is way too fascinating!

Retrieval Day:

You got part of that blog.  Having imbibed myself with gallons of liquid the day before, the nurse had no trouble finding my vain for the IV this time.  So I sit in pre-op waiting, reading a magazine, fawning over washers and dryers.  (This is how yo know you're old. lol)  The doctor who looks like she belongs on Grey's Anatomy, we'll call her Dr. O, comes over asks the usual questions, we chit chat a few seconds.  I told her I wrote about her in my blog.

Dr. O: Uh-oh

Me:     No, I said you looked like you belong on the cast of Grey's Anatomy

Dr. O:  Oh, thank you!

Disembodied Nurse Head From Behind Curtain:  I know doesn't she?!!  (head disappears)

We all laugh.

Me:  Now we just need to find Dr. McDreamy!

Dr. O:  I know!! Where's my McDreamy?!!!

Me: I don't know, but if you find McSteamy let me know!!

A few words with the very nice anaesthesiologist, then a bit later I walk into the OR.  They strap me down and put the mask on me.  If I have a choice, next time, no mask.  Give me the little nasal tubie thingie.  To claustrophobic for me.  Next thing I know, I'm out.  Now, it's only a general so there's no tube down the throat or anything and you are actually partially awake, but remember nothing. *shakes head* you'll see the humor in that later.

I wake up and they move me to a gurney and take me back to recovery.  They check me, make sure there is no excess bleeding.  There is some but they are not worried.  The expect it.  I get cleaned up and they leave me there to sort of come around.  The more I come around the more I hurt.

Nurse: You're frowning.

Me: Yeah.  I hurt.

Nurse:  Scale?

Me: About a 6

Nurse: That bad?  - she comes over pushes on my stomach

Me:  OUUUUCH!

Nurse: Well it's soft, so that's good.  Why don't I get you some pain killers.

Me:  OK.  (inside, NOW YOU'RE TALKING)

She gives me 25 whatevers of Phentenol (sp).  It takes the edge off for a little.  She comes back a while later.

Nurse:  How is it now?

Me: It was ok but now it's back.

Nurse:  Well you have had nearly a whole IV bag, your bladder is probably full, why don't we take you to empty it.

My bladder doesn't feel full but maybe the drugs are confusing me.  She walks me to the bathroom and I do my business. Which isn't a lot.  Glad I'm not that off.

Nurse:  Is there any bleeding?

Me: (happily) Nope.

We walk back to recovery.  She is hanging my IV again, and straightening the bed for me to get back in when I feel something on my leg.  I move my gown, look and I am dripping blood.  FUCK!

Me:  (FREAKING THE FUCK OUT!  But stating calmly) Um, I seem to be bleeding.

She looks over and goes into serious nurse mode gets me into bed and starts checking me out.  Goes to get Dr. O.  I hear them conferring and whispering, ad they come back.  Evidently, they also drained two endometriomas, and fluid and mucoid from my uterus.  They expected there to be bleeding.  What they are seeing is old blood so they're not that worried.  I'm so glad someone's not!  So they clean me up...again...and gave me more Phentenol and tried to make me more comfortable.  As before, it takes the edge off but that's about it.

Nurse:  I have a new plan.  I don't want to give you any more Phentenol because your respiratory signs are dropping.  I want to get you comfortable, get you in the car, and get you home where you can take vicodin.

Me: I love and support that plan.

After monitoring me for another half hour,  I get up and dressed and out.  I have vague recollections of getting home and having a conversation with my mother about sleeping on the couch.  The man fills my prescription and I spend the next couple of days drugged up.

Transfer Day:

I get up and go downstairs to make breakfast.  Take out bowl.  Get Cocoa Puffs off top of fridge.  Pour in bowl.  Get glass for orange juice.  Get milk and juice out of fridge.  Pour Cocoa Puffs into glass.  Look at glass.  Realize something is wrong, but can't quite figure it out.  Shit.  Pour Puffs into bowl.  Pick up glass, pick up juice in other hand.  Look at glass, look at juice.  Look at glass, look at juice.  Pour juice in glass.  Good.  Pour milk in cereal.  Put milk away on top of fridge...

Distracted much?

To do the transfer, you have to have a full bladder, helps push the uterus into the right position.  So I drink over a liter of water so by the time I get there, I have to pee so bad I might die and we are a half hour early.  So I cheat and pee.  Go up to the office continue to drink.  They call me in.  take an ultrasound of my bladder.

Another Nurse:  It's full.

Me:  I told you that already.

AN: I'm just gonna take a picture and show the doc.

She does and disappears forever.  Now, I am really uncomfortable and in pain.

Me:  I can't wait much longer.  I'm in pain.  I'm just gonna go empty it half way.

The Man:  Can you do that?

Me:  I don't have a choice.

We debate over this for another 5 minutes.

That's it!  I can't takes it no more!  I get up get dressed peek out the door. Coast is clear.  SNEAKY RUN down to the bathroom, pee like the wind, and empty half my bladder.  Get to the bathroom door, peek outside, coast still clear, RUUUUUUUUN back to the exam room!  TM and I laugh hysterically.

TM: You gonna tell the doc?

Me: Not if he doesn't ask.  I don't want to get in trouble.

A while later the doc comes in.

Doc:  Hello!  So your bladder is too full.

Me to my self (not anymore)

Doc: So we need you to empty it.  I want everything to go smoothly.  Did you empty it partially already.

BUSTED!  Me:  Yeah.

Doc:  That's good.  Now, go back, do a slow count to 12 and then stop.  That should leave plenty.

Me: Really?  Ok...

The doc leaves to go attend to something probably the Assisted Hatching with the embryologist.

Me:  I'm pretty sure there will be nothing left if I count to 12.

TM:  Good luck!

So I go to the bathroom.  Do my business, count to 12 and amazingly, bladder not empty!  Guess that's why they call him doc!  I go back to the room and wait.  Doc and AN come back do some ultrasounds, make sure the mucus is gone, things are cleaned up.  They are.  He goes in and does a little bit more house cleaning.

While he is doing that, I ask some questions, and he laughs.  Apparently, I was asking the same questions while I was "out".  He says, your not really unconscious, and you talk and stuff.  So it looks like I was telling Dr. O how pretty and smart she was and joking about Dr. McDreamy and then invited everyone over for a bar-b-que and cookies.  Gawd I'm such a dork.

Doc: (Laughing) No, no.  You don't tell any secrets or anything.

Ain't that a relief!

Doc:  All it says is your a very nice person.

I could die right now.

TM: That sounds like her.  Always wanting to feed people.

GAAAAWWWWDDDD!!!  I guess I am who I am...

Then, just like that, he's ready.  They bring in the embies.  With out any fan fare, transfer them into my uterus and he shows me the air bubble on the ultrasound.

Doc: There they are.  That is just an air bubble, they are too small to see but there they are.

And here they are...hopefully...my future:

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Yay!!!

I am SO relieved, I cannot explain it... I was so worried that none of them would make it... so will be at the clinic tomorrow morning for the transfer and then smack bang into the 2ww... I thank God for taking care of our little ones to this stage and am praying hard for them to stick around for oh, 9 months or so...

Stayed tuned for the next popsicle episode tomorrow :)

Now I am not one who condones putting pressure on one's kids to excel (ok maybe just a little but only if it is something they like doing and show a natural affinity for), but in this case I find that I am wanting our little popsicles to excel... I want them to win gold in the thawing race and I want them to grow well throughout the day and night so that when I make that all important call tomorrow morning at 11h00, I'll have some good news to share...

I'm hoping for a cracking domino effect.... Good thaw - bump - good divide - bump - good blasts - bump - good transfer - bump - good 2ww (hahahahahahahaha) - bump - good blood test - bump - good heartbeat - bump - good development and so on and so forth... Can one really expect a good thaw to result in a good baby?  I sure do...but at the end of the day I know that I need to trust my God.  I know that He has it all under control and what ever will be will be in His time, according to His perfect plan...I'm just hoping that the plan is now ;)

Last night I had a weird dream (maybe it was helped along by the cyclogest I started taking yesterday and the comment made by Super Mabout ice cream trucks, but it was kinda strange...).  I dreamt that our popsicles were stored in an ice cream truck and that they were ensconsed by yummy vanilla ice cream, but the ice cream was melting and the ice cream man (dressed in his swanky lab coat) was turning out cone after cone in an effort to not make an all consuming mess of his ice cream truck... I was worried that our popsicles would end up in someones tummy as part of their delicious cone when all of a sudden stars started shooting out of the melting pot and then started dividing - stars, stars everywhere... I ran into the middle of the stars and they stuck to my body turning me into a human glitterball... then I woke up to the sound of my alarm so alas, I cannot tell you how this dream ended (ie: did I have a star baby or not) but I am really really really hoping for one....

Can you tell that my obsessed mind is losing it? Heh...

Till tomorrow - here's to my dividing stars!

By my calculations I would have been just about half way through my 2ww today and would most likely be symptom obsessing even though I would furiously be reminding myself of the futility of that - Yeah right! Ha!  If my plans had worked out, I would already know if my popsicles survived the thaw, I would already know how many made it to transfer day, and I would be half way closer to knowing if the FET was my dream catcher....

As it happens my plans were a leetle out of kilter and I am only now moving towards the big thaw... I don't really know why I'm obsessing over it as much as I am, except to say that I am champion obsessor... aaarrgghhh who'm I kidding?  I'm worried that the four popsicles won't make it... I mean, in my heart of hearts I'm sure at least ONE of them will make it but I'm greedy, I want all four to make it and I want all four to grow and I want all four to transfer... that way I'll stand more of a chance of at least one of them hanging around right?

I'm trying hard to keep level headed about this FET, but I'm really really really hoping it works for us.

Went for a endo check scan this morning and it is currently sitting at over 11mm (did not get actual measurement but my FS was super pleased).... Thaw is set for Wednesday so I am putting all my energy into praying that our four little popsicles make it and all start dividing so that we have some hatching blasts to put back on Friday...

If you pray, I would appreciate one for our popsicles if you would... If you don't any good vibes, thawing vibes, cell dividing vibes, stick around for the good times vibes would be much appreciated... ;)

Suddenly this FET just became real - crikey!  But in a good way :)

Using a controversial screening technique called pre-implantation diagnosis (PGD), doctors rejected five embryos which tested positive for the so-called gay gene in favor of two others that lack the gene, ensuring the child would be heterosexual.

The 47-year-old mother, who wishes to remain anonymous, is now 16 weeks pregnant with her first child after being implanted with two of the cleared embryos.

According to doctors, the woman does not wish to have a gay son or daughter. "Not that there's anything wrong with that," said Dr. Tim Thorne, one of the researchers who performed the procedure.  "But she just prefers traditional gender-specific behaviors in her offspring."

The woman chose to go through the procedure because her husband had tested positive for the gay gene and had a tendency to dress fashionably and download show tunes from the online music stores. 

The “designer baby” practice emerged 20 years ago when a British woman conceived the first child guaranteed to be free from hereditary breast cancer.  Critics claim the practice is unethical because it means viable embryos are destroyed.  There are also fears that prenatal engineering of sexual orientation could eventually wipe out the gay population, destroying such institutions as men’s figure skating, the LPGA tour, Las Vegas drag shows, and Bravo.

Historical source:  Joanna Corrigan, Telegraph Media

While I really enjoyed using all the snazzy equipment and watching the embryos develop, one of the best parts of the week was being captivated by the presenter.  There were actually many presenters but the one who guided us through the zebra fish labs, DS, was AMAZING.  It didn't matter what she was telling us, her energy, sense of humor, and enthusiasm made you want to listen.  "We're going to pippette fish poop!"  "YAYHOO DS, I wanna go first!"  And, unlike many inservices/trainings/seminars/classes I've attended, I did not once hypothesize as to how many times it would take dragging the Bic pen cap across my wrists to slit them.  In fact, I walked away from this week a little slower than I usually do.  I'll miss you DS.  Hope our paths cross again.

I also got to work with an amazing lab partner which rarely happens.  Last year I had to partner with a woman (for two looong agonizing weeks) who made it perfectly clear that she resented me because I worked at the Academy (translated by her into "they get everything and take all the smart kids and I teach with crap").  Yep, she actually said it.  On the first day.  Comfy fortnight that was!  Or I get stuck with the teacher who either does nothing, has no sense of humor, and whines or the one who hogs everything and won't shut up during the final presentation because no one has anything more important to say than she does.  Yes, I'm scarred.  Playing nice with other grown-ups is a skill I'm still working on!  But back to the cool lab partner.....she just got hired to teach at my school, in my grade level, the same subjects I teach!  She's fun and competent and creative (sigh)!  What a great hiring decision Madam Principal!

But back to the fish..........We have a great document camera in the science lab I teach in and I learned how to line it up with the microscope eyepiece so I could display the image from a slide onto the large screen or tv.  Remembering that, I showed my lab partner how we could use the digital cameras to focus through the eyepieces and take pictures and video of what we were seeing.  So for your viewing pleasure, here are some of the pictures taken this week.  (I tried to upload the video of a twitching embryo but I haven't figured out how to save it in an acceptable format yet.)

On the first day, we selected our cross of fish to breed.  Here are Fred and Ethel:

After lowering the lights and playing some romantic mood music..........nothing happened.  I don't believe Ehtel (albino female) was terribly interested in the ever-so-eager Fred (hetero wild....aren't they all).  But in the morning, low and behold............fertilized eggs.  It's my firm belief that Ethel gave in just to shut him up.

 I won't bore you with pictures of us sucking fish poop or bad eggs (I'll just let your minds run with that one!).  

The cool thing about zebra fish is that they develop quickly.  The students can use them to learn everything from embryonic stages to genetics in a very short amount of time by studying them.   So by day three, some of our 138 eggs (Ethel seems to have pelted Fred with eggs when he wouldn't take no for an answer) were twitching with life.

Both of these embryos are Albino and the size of a straight pin head.  The large circle in the middle is the yolk and that will get smaller as the embryos develop.  By day four, a few had hatched.  See, WAY COOL!

I can't wait to spend a week doing this with my students!  If you are interested in learning more about the BioEyes program, they have a great website:  http://www.jefferson.edu/bioeyes/  It takes a minute to do its thing but there is no special password or login.  Once it loads, you can click on "teacher entry" then scroll down to curriculum.  Clicking on the grade levels you're interested in will take you to links to pdf's of the curriculum!  Anyone with a microscope, medicine dropper, and a local pet store can conduct many of these activities. 

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