On Saturday we went to visit J's parents and to buy me new socks! All of my socks are white, and I wanted special socks for the retrieval and the transfer. I guess it's just something special, something I can do. So we bought at Walmart a pack of colourful socks that give me lots of options. I decided to go orange for the retrieval, they were very bright, very happy, and gave me a sunshine kind of vibe!
On Sunday we went for the retrieval. We arrived there at 7:30am and they prepared us for everything coming. They asked me to strip of everything but my socks, yeay for new socks! And gave me something to wear. Took my blood pressure and temperature and prepared to put my IV. Now, I have thin rolling veins, I told this to the nurse, and she still had a very hard time putting the IV. She was able to hook it on the third spot she tried, on the 4th try. Sigh...
After that it was waiting for the doctor and time for J to do his part of the job and change to his new fancy clothes. He looked like a doctor! And he looked at me funny when I mentioned maybe taking a picture of him like that LOL so no pics :) Also had to go to the washroom 2 times while I was there! I hadn't drink a drop of water since 9pm the day before, or eaten anything, and still had to go twice! The nurses were very nice about it though and there was no problem about that.
At 8:30 the doctor arrived and they walked me to the OR. The had me lay down and put my legs on the stirrups (good bye shame!) and they gave me something to make me loopy. They had told me I would feel pressure and pain, but would not care much about it. After that everything is kinda blurry. I thought it lasted about 5 minutes, I had lots of pain that I transferred to J by pressing his hand, and I know I stopped breathing a few times. Not like they had to bring me back or anything, just would hold my breath until the nurse would tell me to please let go of it, or take another breath. The pressure and pain were a LOT. While the doctor was searching for my follicles and my eggs, they would count how many he was getting, which was exciting!.
J told me it actually took between 20 and 30 minutes, not 5, and that the needle was massive! (That explains the pain). He got to see my follicles in the monitor, the liquid extracted, and everything happening around me, so that was interesting :) When I had 3 eggs extracted I said "now we can have 3 kids", and the doctor and nurses all looked confused LOL
After the procedure was done, they walked me out of the room to the recovery area and told us they had retrieved 11 eggs. That was a shock to me as I thought they would get only 6. I cried a bit and they kept the blood pressure monitoring on me. They also brought me a heat pad, a cookie and a Ginger Ale as a "prize". Since I was very loopy, J would feed me and give me to drink and just bare with whatever craziness I was saying or doing. He said he had a hard time not bursting out laughing with some of the things I said :D
So, 42 puncture marks into the process (not counting big IVF extraction needle), we were done and were allowed to go home and rest. They would call Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to let us know about the status of our embryos and so far the transfer would be on Friday.
Sunday I had a lot of pain at home, but nothing I could not handle with a heat pad, Tylenol and lying down. Plus J was awesome taking care of me. I also had to start the progesterone once at home, and continue the antibiotic I had to start on Saturday (ends today!). On Monday morning we received 2 calls, one from the embryologist and one from the nurse. The nurse wanted to know how I was doing, and told us the transfer was scheduled for Friday at 9:30 am but they would confirm to us on Thursday or let us know if there were any changes. The embryologist told us that 5 eggs had fertilized "normal". 5 out of 11. I know it doesn't sound like much, but we were happy about that. I was expecting 6 retrieved and maybe 4 or 3 fertilized, so 5 out of 11 was good enough :)
Today is day 2 of my little embryos and this is how they are supposed to look:
Today the embryologist called and said we have "4 embryos dividing". It's still a good number, since we "only" lost 1, but the news still hit me pretty hard. I cried this morning, feeling the loss and the death of one of our precious embryos. Even though we knew not all of them would make it to Friday, it was still very hard to hear this and to feel it.
Today I pray for those little 4 embies, may they divide and grow. I pray for God to keep them healthy and multiplying, for those 4 embies to make it one more day and maybe until Friday. I pray for strength to hold until tomorrow, and for tomorrow's call about one more day. I pray we have at least 1 on Friday and maybe 1 to freeze. I pray for this cycle to work and give us a wonderful Amanda or Miguel.
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