Friday, September 23, 2016

Day 15 - Egg Retrieval!

Day 15: Friday, September 23. Poke count 47

16 Eggs Retrieved!! 

That's 16 possible embryos! Statistically half of those will not be mature and half of the embryos that do grow to 5 days will have the defective gene. If everything goes by those numbers we should have around 4 healthy embryos!

I took a sedative, an antibiotic and Tylenol at 6:45AM and we went to the fertility center. We live less than 5 minutes from the center so we luckily don't have to go too far. They brought us back to a procedure room and had me change into a gown, foot covers and a super sexy hair net. The nurse came in to start my IV but had no luck. The vein in my left arm likes to roll around and the one in the left "goes all crazy" and shoots to the side right where they always try to draw blood. How may people does it take to start an IV? apparently 3, two nurses and an anesthesiologist. they finally got one started in my left hand.

Once they took me to the procedure room everything moved pretty quickly. I layed there for a few minutes watching them hook up machines and getting everything ready. They had me confirm my name and birthday, sign a piece of paper and then it was time to start. It's a strange feeling not remembering an entire chunk of time with several people staring at your...parts. The last thing I remember is the anesthesiologist talking about how he loved the Eagles music that was playing on the radio and him injecting the anesthesia into the IV tube. Brian said at one point they opened the door and he could hear the suction machine they use to retrieve the eggs and it sounded like a small generator.

When I woke up from the anesthesia I remember telling Brian about the "moon boots" I got to wear. They use stirrups like they do for any annual exam, but they have these boots that hook onto them to keep your legs in place while you are asleep.Brian said I told him I was feeling emotional and wanted to cry. He said "It's ok, you can cry"...and I did. I cried and cried and cried. I think I reacted the same way to anesthesia when I had my tonsils removed. I just become very emotional when I finally do wake up. I was in a great deal of pain too. I was having shooting pains from my lower abdomen all the way down through my legs. They gave me a heat pack for my stomach, which helped a little bit but they said everything I felt was normal.

We got home around 9:30Am and I went straight to bed. I woke up around noon for a few minutes and went back to sleep till after 3PM at which point I was still feeling pretty crappy. I felt like someone had punched me repeatedly in the abdomen and had severe pelvic pain. I have just been on the couch the rest of the day and the pain comes in waves. If I'm sitting in the right position I can get pretty comfortable but any movement hurts all over. It's slowly getting better as the night goes on and hopefully I'll be feeling great tomorrow morning.

They will call us tomorrow and let us know how many eggs were successfully fertilized. We are, of course, hoping for all 16! I'll start Lupron injections in the next couple weeks and once I get a period I will start taking estrogen. This will help prepare my uterus for the embryo transfer in 4-6 weeks. I have a post-op appointment in 2 weeks, but other than that no more appointments for a bit!

-Emily


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