Tuesday - Touring Mumbai
Yesterday (Tuesday) was an 'off' day for us, since we didn't need to be at the clinic for any purpose. Our agency coordinator organized a day of touring around Mumbai, and we had some incredible opportunities to experience the 'real' India - including some things that we probably never would have had the chance to do if we'd been here on our own. Here is a quick summary and some of our photos:
1) Visit to SiddhiVinayak Temple: This is one of the holiest Hindu temples in India, and was built in tribute to the Lord Ganesh. Thousands of people visit the temple each day...and Alan and I were two of those people! It took us more than an hour to get into the temple...we were lined up in a crush of worshippers, all of whom were extremely eager to get in and make their offerings. Needless to say, all preconceptions about personal space were very quickly put to rest! It was a fascinating experience all around.
2) Visit to a new mall in an up-and-coming section of Mumbai. This mall rivals any mall in the US in terms of store types and overall modernity. This visit really drove home the huge gap that exists in India between the 'haves' and the 'have nots' - not uncommon in most cultures around the world, but particularly noticeable here.
3) Walk around South Mumbai, the oldest and most historic section of the city: This is the location of the famous Taj Hotel, as well as the Gateway of India, which was built to commemorate King George V and Queen Mary's visit to the city in 1911). Here is a photo of the Taj, as well as one of us in front of the Gateway:
4) Visit to Marine Drive, which is Mumbai's beachfront promenade. Tons of people around in the evening and it has a very laid back vibde:
That was about it for yesterday, since it seems to take at least 1 - 1.5 hours to drive to and from any location in Mumbai...so after a quick dinner, we made our way back to the hotel and were in bed by around 11pm. For your viewing pleasure, here's another video of a lazy drive through the relaxed streets of Mumbai:
Wednesday - Egg Retrieval and Fertilization
Today (Wednesday) was the 'main event' - egg retrieval day at the clinic. Our egg donor arrived at the clinic at around 10am, and the actual procedure began a little after noon. When all was said and done, the embryologist was able to retrieve six healthy eggs (oocytes) from her. This is along the lines of what we expected, based on the presence of 9-10 ovarian follicles (there is a maximum of one egg per follicle, but not every follicle is guaranteed to contain an egg)...but we were obviously hoping for a few more. Our mantra has been (and continues to be) that we only need one :)
We arrived at the clinic at around 2pm, and I gave a fresh sample...the embryologist began the fertilization process shortly thereafter using a process called ICSI, which is a fairly common technique in surrogacy situations. We should know how many eggs were successfully fertilized by around 2pm tomorrow, as well as the 'grades' of each (based on the amount of cell division in the embyro 24 hours post-fertilization). The doctor called us at around 7:00pm tonight to let us know that 4 of the 6 retrieved eggs were mature, and 2 were immature, meaning that they will have some more growing to do in the petrie dishes before we can determine if they'd be viable.
So...how are we feeling? We are feeling OK - hopeful/optimistic that we'll have a high fertilization rate tomorrow (hopefully 6/6!), which means that we'll have more embryos to work with for purposes of implantation into the surrogate. We are obviously feeling anxious that we only have six eggs (four if you only count mature ones) - so definitely a mix of conflicting emotions. We're doing everything we can to not think about it, which means it's all we're thinking about! But we're trying to remain upbeat, and your positive thoughts and words of encouragement have been very helpful to this point - so since the next 72 hours are particularly important, we appreciate you sending good thoughts in the direction of the fertility center:
Yesterday (Tuesday) was an 'off' day for us, since we didn't need to be at the clinic for any purpose. Our agency coordinator organized a day of touring around Mumbai, and we had some incredible opportunities to experience the 'real' India - including some things that we probably never would have had the chance to do if we'd been here on our own. Here is a quick summary and some of our photos:
1) Visit to SiddhiVinayak Temple: This is one of the holiest Hindu temples in India, and was built in tribute to the Lord Ganesh. Thousands of people visit the temple each day...and Alan and I were two of those people! It took us more than an hour to get into the temple...we were lined up in a crush of worshippers, all of whom were extremely eager to get in and make their offerings. Needless to say, all preconceptions about personal space were very quickly put to rest! It was a fascinating experience all around.
2) Visit to a new mall in an up-and-coming section of Mumbai. This mall rivals any mall in the US in terms of store types and overall modernity. This visit really drove home the huge gap that exists in India between the 'haves' and the 'have nots' - not uncommon in most cultures around the world, but particularly noticeable here.
3) Walk around South Mumbai, the oldest and most historic section of the city: This is the location of the famous Taj Hotel, as well as the Gateway of India, which was built to commemorate King George V and Queen Mary's visit to the city in 1911). Here is a photo of the Taj, as well as one of us in front of the Gateway:
That was about it for yesterday, since it seems to take at least 1 - 1.5 hours to drive to and from any location in Mumbai...so after a quick dinner, we made our way back to the hotel and were in bed by around 11pm. For your viewing pleasure, here's another video of a lazy drive through the relaxed streets of Mumbai:
Wednesday - Egg Retrieval and Fertilization
Today (Wednesday) was the 'main event' - egg retrieval day at the clinic. Our egg donor arrived at the clinic at around 10am, and the actual procedure began a little after noon. When all was said and done, the embryologist was able to retrieve six healthy eggs (oocytes) from her. This is along the lines of what we expected, based on the presence of 9-10 ovarian follicles (there is a maximum of one egg per follicle, but not every follicle is guaranteed to contain an egg)...but we were obviously hoping for a few more. Our mantra has been (and continues to be) that we only need one :)
We arrived at the clinic at around 2pm, and I gave a fresh sample...the embryologist began the fertilization process shortly thereafter using a process called ICSI, which is a fairly common technique in surrogacy situations. We should know how many eggs were successfully fertilized by around 2pm tomorrow, as well as the 'grades' of each (based on the amount of cell division in the embyro 24 hours post-fertilization). The doctor called us at around 7:00pm tonight to let us know that 4 of the 6 retrieved eggs were mature, and 2 were immature, meaning that they will have some more growing to do in the petrie dishes before we can determine if they'd be viable.
So...how are we feeling? We are feeling OK - hopeful/optimistic that we'll have a high fertilization rate tomorrow (hopefully 6/6!), which means that we'll have more embryos to work with for purposes of implantation into the surrogate. We are obviously feeling anxious that we only have six eggs (four if you only count mature ones) - so definitely a mix of conflicting emotions. We're doing everything we can to not think about it, which means it's all we're thinking about! But we're trying to remain upbeat, and your positive thoughts and words of encouragement have been very helpful to this point - so since the next 72 hours are particularly important, we appreciate you sending good thoughts in the direction of the fertility center:
Sending good vibes!!!!
ReplyDeleteSending luv and positive thoughts xx
ReplyDeleteStaying positive. Sending you guys lots of hugs. Thank you so much for all the updates we love reading them.
ReplyDelete