Egg Retrieval Update

Egg retrieval went pretty smoothly today.  We arrived at the clinic early (summer Friday traffic was much better than anticipated), and sat for about 15 minutes before we were called in.  I remember walking in through the "IVF Suite" door with a special password protected door.  Then a nurse asked me the usual questions: health, drugs, when was the last I ate or drank, etc.  Then I changed into my gown, cap and booties.

Steve, the nurse anesthetist, came and talked to me.  He asked me if I have had any problems in the past and I said no.  I did mention though that the last time I had my egg retrieval, I threw up when I got home.  He said he would give me some Zo.fran, the kind of drug pregnant women use for nausea.  He did say though, it may or may not help.  He was also going to give me something for my allergy congestion, and said I would feel pretty thirsty when I woke up.

Then Dr. Hopeful came in and chatted with us for a bit.  I was glad that she was the one doing the egg retrieval this time.  She was feeling pretty optimistic about this.  The right ovary was still in a difficult location, but she said she wouldn't know if she could get to it until I was asleep.  I was concerned that we didn't have too many mature eggs, especially only 3 on the left ovary.  She thought my numbers looked very similar to my last cycle and she wasn't too worried.  She said all we need is ONE good embryo.  Plus we would be doing ICSI, so that would help too.

Babe and I hugged, said our good byes, and he was off to the Andrology lab, and I was off to procedure room 1.  Steve had me hop up on the table and he covered me up with a warmed blanket, fresh out of the warming oven.  Steve then put an IV in a vein in my arm.  This is new since in all my past surgeries, I've always had them in a vein in my hand.  Steve said "looks like someone's been poking you a lot lately, huh?  You've got a nice juicy vein."  He was kind of a funny guy.  I preferred it that he put the IV in my arm anyway.  I think it hurt less.  At the last IVF, the IV wasn't put in quite right, and it hurt for a bit.  After the IV was put in, it was time for my "nice little nap" and the triple cocktail of meds (not sure what was in it) was injected into the IV.

The next thing I know, I woke up in the recovery room, and in walked Babe and Dr. Hopeful.  Dr. Hopeful was able to retrieve from both ovaries.  Yup, both ovaries.

7 eggs were retrieved.  

I guess Dr. Hopeful had to press down on my abdomen (when I was asleep), and I guess the right ovary moved to a location that was accessible.  I don't know how many eggs were retrieved from each ovary.  Dr. Hopeful seemed pretty happy with how things turned out.  We'll see what happens next.

I was given some water and liquid Tyle.nol.  Yuck, I can't stand liquid meds of any kind!  Next thing I know, it was time to dress, a wheelchair was pushed in, and it was time to go home.  We were out of the clinic by 9:30 and were home by 10 am.  On the way home, I could feel all the turns and bumps on the road.  I kept telling Babe to take it easy.  It was a little better this time though.  The last time I thought I was going to throw up in the car.  Just in case, we brought along a barf bag.  Luckily we didn't need it.

The first thing I did when I got home was walk into the bathroom and threw up my liquid Tyle.nol.  It still amazes me how fast something comes out the other way when you don't want it to!  My first thought was, God, I hope I don't have to throw up like this when I am pregnant.  But if I do, bring it on!

I felt much better after that.  I brushed my teeth, took my first dose of tetracy.cline, ate something and went to bed.  I spent most of the day sleeping, getting up a couple of times only to eat, drink, take my tetracy.cline and tyle.nol, and use the bathroom.  Recovery is going fine.  I'm still a little sore, but not too bad.  It hurts if I sneeze or cough hard.

So now we wait.  I was hoping we would be able to get more eggs, but I think I am fortunate to have 7, and from both ovaries.  Last time we had 8 from one ovary.  Now, we pray that the eggs are mature and especially that they are of GOOD quality.

I will be getting a call on Sunday with a report of how many eggs were mature and how many fertilized. We are doing ICSI this time, so I am praying that we will have many fertilized, and hopefully we will have some to freeze.

Again, I have to remind myself that God is in control.   Please pray with me that there will be the perfect number of mature eggs, the perfect number of eggs that will fertilize, the perfect number of embryos that will make it to day 5, and the perfect of number of embryos to be frozen.

Thank you all for your support, best wishes and especially for keeping me in your prayers.  I will update as I find out more.