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The other day I saw a question from someone asking about ferning tests, but now I can't find the thread to reply. Sorry I didn't have time to write back the day I saw it. Hopefully whoever wrote that will see this!! But even if you didn't write it, this might give you some tips on using Fern Testers.
I'm using an ovulation microscope too and I think I have an answer to a couple of your questions. You mentioned testing "yesterday evening" and you had a strong ferning pattern. It's really important that you don't eat, drink, smoke, brush your teeth, or chew gum within 3-4 hours of testing, so testing in the evening makes me wonder if you did any of these too close to test time. Any of these activities can affect the saliva sample and give a false positive. It's best to test first thing in the morning, or if you need to test some other time of the day, just make sure you don't put anything in your mouth for 3-4 hours beforehand. The negative patterns you mentioned make me wonder if the sample got smeared. It's true that your pattern will start to go away after the day you ovulate, but you should still see it for a day or two while it tapers off. I found that if I touch the glass with my finger when applying a sample, I'll get a reading that looks like a negative, even when I know I'm fertile. The best way I found to apply the sample is to roll a lot of saliva onto the tip of my tongue from the saliva glands beneath my tongue. Next, I take my finger and wipe this off, then dangle my finger to form a "hanging drop" of saliva. I take a good look to check for air bubbles and pop or scrape them out before I apply anything to the glass. Last, I carefully touch the drop to the slide without my finger touching it - only the saliva. I also dry the sample a lot longer than the directions say to. I set the slide down, then shower, put on make up, dress, etc. before I even look at it. If it's not completely dry, it won't show the ferning pattern either. I'm afraid I don't know what your abbreviations mean (cd, dpo) so I can't weigh in on those, but hopefully this gives you some good information. Good luck!!
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