Snowbabies, etc...

Snowbabies, Grandsickles, Neice and Nephbrios...whatever you want to call them...we have 11 of 'em!! Our official count is in. 11 embryos have been biopsied and vitrified. Vitrified is a new thing they are doing to freeze the embryos. Typically, when freezing embryos in the U.S., they will take the embryo down in stages until it is frozen. My doctor went to China to research this new technology in freezing. I believe the lab at CCRM is the only one in the states that uses vitrification at this time. The embryos are basically "flash frozen" (think of your frozen veggies..."flash frozen for freshness") rather than taken down in stages. The "old" way usually has about a 70% survival rate when they thaw the embryos. With vitrification, there is greater than 90% survival rate with many couples not losing a single embryo. And after they are thawed, they look just as good as embryos from a fresh cycle! The biopsies have been sent to a lab in New Jersey. Currently, they are the only lab doing Micro-Array, the genetic testing we are having done. The results should take about 5 weeks. I will start depot-lupron tomorrow or the next day. So we're cookin' (as Uncle Neal would have said!).