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I got back from India almost a month ago.  I'm enjoying life as usual and with school back in session I'm keeping myself busy.  But it seems that no matter how busy I am, India is never far from my thoughts.  Whenever I have some down time I begin to think and hope and dream about the future.

I'm sure what everyone wants to know is what happened!  The two week wait ended some time ago.  

First, egg collection went very well.  Twenty-nine eggs were collected, twenty-four were completely mature and twenty one eggs fertilized.  On August 20th, 2012 four grade-one embryos (four and six cells) were successfully transferred into each beautiful surrogate and the two week wait began.  What were the results?    
    
After following quite a few surrogacy blogs over the past few years I had some definite expectations on what to expect at the end of my two week wait.  Basically I thought that I would get a message congratulating me because of a successful pregnancy/ beta HCG test, or consoling me because the test showed that there was no pregnancy.  Because there are two surrogates I knew there could be different variations of the e-mail.  Both surrogates could be pregnant, one could be pregnant, or the results could be a double negative with no pregnancy for either of the lovely surrogates.  

All in all I was hoping for at least one positive result.  SCI has a signature way of congratulating intended parents after they (the surrogate) first becomes pregnant.  They usually send a warm, happy and quite colorful e-mail congratulating the intended parent or parents when the beta HCG value indicates the beginning of a pregnancy. 

Well I didn't get one of those e-mails, but I didn't get a message consoling me for a negative pregnancy either.  And I am lucky to now be at the tail end of the new extended version of the two week wait:) 

Let me explain, starting with the following e-mail that I received at the end of my two week wait.

Dear Craig,

We hope you are doing fine.

We would like to inform you that as per our schedule we have done pregnancy tests for "M" & "N". 
 

Please find the attached reports for the same.

We would like to inform you that their beta HCG values are 42.61 & 41.54 respectively, which is weak positive.

In view of the same, we will repeat their beta HCG test within 48 hours.

As soon as we receive the reports, we will let you know immediately.

We wish you all the best for their repeated pregnancy test.

With Best Regards,

Lalit

SCI Healthcare
A-28, Kailash Colony
New Delhi- 110048
Ph: 91 11 41034631

      91 11 29232075


After I got that e-mail I did not feel the way I was supposed to.  I wasn't euphoric or sad.  My first thought was to get in touch with Dr. Shivani.  I decided first to surf the web and educate myself a little about repeated pregnancy tests, low beta HCG numbers and the chance of pregnancy.  I found that low numbers mean that that there may or may not be a pregnancy.  Also, one single low HCG value does not tell you much about the viability of a pregnancy.  Some normal pregnancies have low beta HCG numbers and still progress.  The most important thing, at this point, was for the low numbers to double by the time the test was repeated in 48 hours. 

After I finished reading I realized that there was no need to contact Dr. Shivani or the clinic.  The reason that they were repeating the test in 48 hours was clear.  I waited and hoped the numbers would rise.  I prepared myself for the worst, but hoped for the best.  Forty-eight hours later I got these results.


Dear Craig,

Greetings from SCI Healthcare !!!

We hope this e-mail finds you well.

We would like to inform you that as per our schedule we have repeated the pregnancy tests for "M" & "N".

Please find attached herewith the report for the same.

We would like to inform you that their Beta HCG values have raised and reached to "M"- 93.40" & "N"-115.02 ".

In view of the same, we will now do their USG scans within 10 days to check the number of pregnancy sacs.

We will get back to you soon with further updates.

With Best Regards,

Lalit

SCI Healthcare
A-28, Kailash Colony
New Delhi- 110048
Ph: 91 11 41034631

      91 11 29232075

Needless to say I was very happy when I received the updated pregnancy tests.  Even though the numbers are still low, "M's" beta HCG value more than doubled and "N's" number almost tripled!  Dr. Shivani got in touch and said that the results were good because both had doubled.  She told me not to worry.  She said both surrogates were well, with a little nausea.  There was no bleeding or any other problems and basically that we should keep our fingers crossed.  

So even though I still don't have a confirmed pregnancy I am hopeful!  I'll find out if there is a pregnancy from the USG scans any time now.  If anyone out there has had a similar experience with a positive outcome please don't hesitate to drop me a line.