Retrieval Day - May 23rd

It's finally the day! Time to get those eggs :) Here's our play by play:

6:00 am
Wake up and walk the dogs. Daily routine, but super anxious, nervous, and scared! I think I was more scared than I thought I would be.

7:30 am
We arrived at the doctor's office. Time for the anesthesia and a visit with the doctor. Chris and I had some fun taking pictures while we were getting ready for the retrieval. Those hospital gowns and lights are so flattering. I'll be sure to post some pictures. We had a different anesthetist than before, and she was awesome. Our doctor stopped by for a quick visit. It was kind of sad to hear that we didn't have an average amount of follicles. I kind of felt like a failure - but I'm sure again that my mind wasn't stable. I like to be an overachiever and at that moment I felt like I had underachieved. If only I could've been thinking like a sane person and been happy to have follicles. IVF is such an intense process and I was so scared of anything going wrong.

8:30 am
Time for the retrieval. Thank goodness I would be taking a super nap because I was so scared. We entered the room and I sat in the funky chair (this chair is like a crazy lazy boy). The chair end at my mid-butt and has the large padded thigh rests that strap your legs in. It's totally funky. I got the oxygen in my nose and the drugs started. I was out within seconds. So the rest of the retrieval is through my husband's eyes.

During the classes we got to see pictures of the instruments that would be used. It was crazy. So basically the doctor has to insert the ultrasound probe and the ovary egg sucker (at least that's what I'm going to call it) and there might have been more... It's crazy how much stuff they can stuff up there and still get the job done :) The ovary egg sucker is a large needle that goes through the vaginal wall to the ovary. The needle pokes the follical and sucks out the egg(s) that are within that follicle. Who thinks of these things??

Have you ever seen lipo suction on TV? Well...My husband's jaw fell and his face was kind of stunned when they started the process. The doctor went to town on my ovaries I guess. It looked like he was just jamming on my ovaries and Chris was expecting the process to be delicate. Crazy! Another moment that it would've been interesting to be a fly on the wall. But this makes sense on why I felt like I did after the procedure.

10:00
I started waking up. I was so happy to see Chris and the nurse, but I was in so much pain. The doctor asked me what pain I was in from 1 to 10 (10 being the worst). I guess I told them about 5 to 6 right away, but I don't remember that. I wanted to ask them "What do you want me to say?" I was hurting like someone was squeezing everything they could out of my ovaries. So I was modest and said a 7 when they asked again. Now it was time for Chris's duty - time to get the swimmers. He had to leave me, which made me feel sad because I didn't want to be alone. I had just heard the results of the retrieval. The doctor said they got 7 eggs. 7 EGGS!!! I should be happy, but I wasn't. Before the procedure, the doctor said that they like to have at least 12 eggs on average. Again I felt like a failure! Bring on the tears...

So now I was in a room by myself just thinking like I did something wrong and I was scared and in pain. But when Chris was on his way out he made us all laugh. I told him Good luck and I would see him in a little bit. Chris responded and said "Don't worry hunny, you know me, I'll only be a minute". He had all the nurses laughing and even the doctor. I guess the doctor doesn't laugh like that very often so it was a good moment and helped cheer me up.

Occasionaly, someone would come in the room to check my status and the tears would start again and they would stay by my side to help assure me that everything was going to be okay. They've had less eggs and everything turn out successful. Chris was back and helped calm me down as well. That was great and exactly what I needed. Unfortunately, the pain wasn't getting better, but it was time to go home.

It's time for another suggestion for anyone going through this: The nurse gave me the choice of a thin or thick pad as we were getting ready to go home. I chose the thin pad because my last procedure I didn't bleed that much. Oh was I way wrong this time. Suggestion to any ladies that have to go through this - CHOOSE THE LARGE PAD. By the time I got to the elevator, I felt like a coffee mug of blood had just been poured right out of me. Luckily I had black sweat pants on... ISHDA!!

So we made it home and I went right to bed waiting for the pain to go away. My parents came down as well and that was great to have so much support. I was pretty sore for the rest of the day and kind of laid around. I was able to go out dinner, but that was about it. By Sunday afternoon, I was able to walk around and go to the dog park with my girls. My mom and sister came with to chase after the dogs if need be since I could basically only be at a stroll pace :)

Now that it was Sunday, time to start another round of shots!! SHOTS!!!! I'll talk about these again in my post about Progesterone :)

Take care everyone!!