Friday, August 22, 2003

Beta and Panda Pseudopregnancy

Evelin got the call about this morning's hCG beta: 645. It's still increasing, but not at a healthy rate. The nurse said the doctor wanted to go ahead with the MTX injection, that way, if the embryo is in a tube or somewhere else, it won't grow big enough to cause damage. But Evelin is going to talk to the doctor later today to see if he thinks we can safely let things progress for another week or so. The hope is that we might be able to figure out where things are growing. If can resolve itself, that would be better than intervening.

Anita reminded me that I haven't blogged about Mei Xiang lately. Well, the Zoo called off the pregnancy watch this morning: Mei is getting more active, looking to go outside more often, and the hormone levels have been at baseline for a few days now, so it's officially being called a pseudopregnancy and Mei and Tian should be back to their normal selves in a week or three. Out in San Diego, however, Bai Yun gave birth to a cub on Tuesday. She was/is pregnant with twins and the second cub has yet to be born, which means the second one isn't likely to be born alive. Bai Yun is caring for the first cub, however, and hopefully he or she (there's no knowledge of the sex yet) will successfully grow to adulthood. Interestingly enough, the four-year-old Hui Mei, Bai Yun's first cub, just went through her first estrus and is likely entering into pseudopregnancy.

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