Sunday, February 2, 2014

Egg Retrieval and 1st Fert Report

Yesterday was egg retrieval day! It went pretty well. We got to the clinic around 9 AM. After we double-checked all of our instructions for the embryologist, Seth was sent to the collection room and I was taken back to the pre-op area. I got to change into a fancy gown and then they got the IV ready. That was easily the worst part. I don't remember it hurting so much for my lap surgery. I think they did it in my hand that time, but this one was in my arm. I'm pretty sure they used the horse needle too.

Anyway - the whole pre-op process only took about twenty minutes. They were super efficient. The anesthesiologist came to talk to me and then I was wheeled back into the operating room. I was really nervous at first because Seth didn't make it back in time to see me before I went in. That didn't last long because they started pumping something through the IV which was amazing. All of the stress from the past two weeks disappeared and I told the doctor that I wished I could have that every night before bed. Next, they pumped in something that made my arm burn. I was told to scoot down to the edge of the table and the next thing I knew, I was back in the pre-op room telling the doctor about my ethnic background (he asked about my last name). I came around pretty quickly which was nice and they put Zofran in the IV so I didn't get sick. The cramping was pretty severe, but the Vicodin helped much more than it did when I took it after my lap.

While I was lounging in bed waiting for the drugs to wear off more fully, the nurse came back to tell us that everything went really well and that the doctor was able to retrieve 12 eggs! 12! I must have asked Seth five times in five minutes - wait, how many? I knew that they might not all be mature and then they might not fertilize, but 12 sounded a lot better than 5. I was so relieved.

The next 24 hours weren't horrible. I was able to half-sleep for another three or four hours and then I needed to have some buffalo chicken for dinner so we took the boys for a ride to get drive-thru wings and Otis Spunkmeyer cookies (hell fucking yes). I took a Tylonel 3 and had a nice almost dreamless sleep.

This morning the panic set in. What if none of the eggs were mature? What if they didn't fertilize? What if my eggs are just shit and they tell me I'll never have biological children? I walked around with the phones in my hand from the time I got out of bed until the phone rang a little before noon.

A lovely nurse named Carol asked how I was and I said 'nervous'. She told me not to worry, that our report was excellent! The doctor retrieved 12 eggs and the embryologist placed them all in the petri dish for conventional fertilization. 9 of those eggs fertilized normally. She said that we currently have 9 embryos growing well! I couldn't believe it. That was so much better than I was expecting after talking to the nurses on trigger day. I am so, so happy and relieved.

We'll get another call between 8:30-9:00 on Tuesday telling us whether we need to come in for a day 3 transfer or if things are looking great and we can wait until Thursday. How do people get through the next 24 hours? I'm already so nervous thinking about those 9 little embabies and praying that they're growing and staying strong. That's all I can do. Hope and pray.

6 comments:

  1. Keep yourself distracted!!! Do anything and everything you can possibly think of between now and Tues :-). I'm so happy you got such a great Fert report! I'm thinking of you and sending growing vibes to your sweet embabies!!

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  2. Congrats on your 9 embies! That is great number and it sounds like your ER went great. Hoping for good news for you.

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  3. Congrats. I'm praying hard for your embabies. Sending positive vibes your way!

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  4. Congrats on a great fert report!!! Grow, embabies, grow!!! Rooting so hard for you! <3

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  5. I got the goosebumps reading this!! I'm so hopeful for you!! Xo

    http://lnfoster.blogspot.com/

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