Pookie Alert

By Dr. Avanthi Vellala

She was 27. Primary infertility.Marital life of 3 years. Trying for six months. On his side teratozoospermia. On her side adenomyosis, anovulation, thin endometrium. Initial HSG showed bilateral tubal spasm. Repeat tubal patency test showed patent tubes. She did one IUI cycle.

After that, she started tracking ovulation on her own. Follicular study showed anovulation. She panicked and came back to me.

I told her take a break. Forget about ovulation tracking. Just keep trying.

We did one OI cycle with timed intercourse. And then she decided she wanted to go ahead with IVF.

She responded well. 14 eggs retrieved, 11 mature, 9 fertilised, 6 frozen.

But let me tell you about this girl. Sensitive. Scared of every injection. She took every single one until one day during stimulation she walked into my cabin crying. The injection pain had been unbearable that day.

I was talking her through it, ice pack, which nurse she was most comfortable with when she spotted something on my bag.

A Labubu.

She stopped mid cry and asked me about it. I told her my husband had got it for me. She looked at her husband sitting beside her. I jumped in and said “you should get her one too.”

He smiled and said she holds all authority over the cards. She can buy anything she wants.

Right there, in that moment, I decided if she turns positive, I’m giving her a Labubu. And I waited.

They have one of those relationships that makes you feel something. A husband who doesn’t tell you what you’re feeling. He just sees it.

And I thought to myself, I’m lucky to have found someone like that too.

We did a hysteroscopy, then a single embryo transfer. It failed.

They accepted it without a single question. They’re young and in my counselling session after the negative, I told them let’s not add extra tests. Let’s try one more cycle. Natural cycle FET, double embryo transfer.

They took a break for a month. Came back. I gave her on GnRH agonist for down regulation of the adenomyosis before we began the second transfer cycle.

During that break, I kept coming across her Instagram. She is free spirited. Both of them are. Every post with kids, every happy reel something in me would quietly remind I need to get her there. I need to deliver this.

The second transfer cycle was a stimulated FET. Her thin endometrium meant multiple tablets, repeated uterine flushes, prolonged monitoring, more scans than usual. She went through all of it.

They had come to me through word of mouth from neighbours in their apartment a couple who had conceived twins with me and delivered preterm, spent days in the NICU. So this couple was firm on only a singleton. The husband especially he didn’t want her to go through what their neighbours had.

But this being the second transfer, they agreed to double embryo. Because reaching a positive pregnancy matters. We placed back two good embryos.

The day before the transfer, she called me. Could we transfer three instead?

I could hear it in her voice the exhaustion, the desperation. I gently said no.

On the transfer day, I noticed something in their billing. During the cycle, they had been charged separately for consultations and scans on top of the FET package they paid for. My team had missed it.

I was furious. I called my team in, sat them down, and made sure the amount was adjusted and refunded to their account.

Next day I told husband that we shal refund the balance credit amount

Her husband looked at me and said let’s wait for the result. We can sort it then.

I understood what he meant. But I was scared about the result I am not sure about though I tried my best

She turned positive.

Not one. Two. Twin pregnancy.

On the day of confirmation scan she said thank you. She said she was grateful I had given her the break in between

I thought to myself GIRL, you needed that time and I respect that. Always.

She is currently 8 weeks and 6 days. Both heartbeats strong.

And then I gave her the Labubu. The one my daughter had kept in a box for months, waiting for exactly this moment.