Retrieval Day!

Our retrieval was this morning, and it went really well! It was snowing when we got up and headed to the clinic. The roads were a bit slippery and slushy, but made it right on time! We found out right after the retrieval how many eggs they were able to remove, 16!!! So relieved that we got a descent number, I was a bit worried. Now I just have to be patient as things fertilize today and how things grow. hope that a lot of them get grow to the blastocyst phase for PGS!!

So, run down of the procedure!

8 am arrive at clinic, get dressed in a johnny and they weigh me. Head back to my pod wrapped in warm blankets to wait for the nurse to put the IV in. They hooked me up to the IV and gave me some saline fluids, and liquid antibiotics. They went over what to expect after the procedure as well as what I could and couldn't do in the next 24 hours and next couple of days. I met the anesthesiologist and the MD retrieving the eggs, both of them were very nice, and reassuring.

8:30 am, hubby heads to his own part of the process, room full of porn, who knows how old. He said there was literally a stack of porno DVDs, he has the fun part, God really must be a man...

So, I have to pee prior to the procedure, and then they lead me to the OR room, wrapped in blankets. The nurse wanted to also make sure my ass wasn't hanging out of my johnny; those things don't cover anything!

9 am I'm in the OR that has so much stuff in it, but it's dark with some bright lights that will be putting my vagina in the spotlight. She's a star! The bed they have you lie on is like half a bed since the other half is stirrups, and your butt has to be scooted right to the edge, which is hard when you're legs are jacked up in the stirrups. But while I'm getting adjusted, I start feeling the anesthesia, just as the anesthesiologist says, "you're going to start feeling sleepy." I'm out like a light!

9:20 ish am, I wake up back in the pod with Jeff by my side waiting for me to wake up, feeling like nothing happened, no discomfort, and not too sleepy once I wake up.

The docs and nurses came in and out and I told them they are very good at what they do, and Jeff told me I was chatting with them far too much, but hey why not! Funniest thing, for some reason on the list of the do's and don't's they left a super important part, "when can I have sex?" So, the nurse was kind of baffled it wasn't on there, and said she'd check. She returned to tell me that I have to abstain from sex till my next period or pregnancy test, really?!! Well, I'll be looking into this, maybe it's just protected sex, since the bigger fear is somehow getting pregnant cuz I could still ovulate after all of this! So, no sex is involved in this whole thing, which makes sense, but is so ironic. Like "Jane the Virgin" or something, but I'm definitely not that!

The procedure consists of them inserting an instrument into the vagina and then a very thin needle travels through the vaginal wall to the ovaries to, what I imagine suck the eggs out. Well they are "draining" the follicles to get the eggs. They do not go through the uterus. The surgeon who did the procedure was very pleased she didn't touch the endometrioma, as she called it, on my right ovary. She said it was pretty big, but since they managed to not touch it, I didn't need to worry about more antibiotics. Phew!!! I wonder if I'll have to get that removed at all at some point, I keep hoping it will go away. It doesn't really give me problems so I'm not going to worry about!

I only had a very small amount of blood after the procedure, which was pretty much gone after I peed, which I had to do before they let me head home. I was very excited to immediately know the number of eggs they retrieved, and felt great the rest of the day. I just drank lots of water, had a nice protein rich breakfast afterwards, and relaxed for the day. I thought I'd want to nap, but I'm still wide awake now and it's 11:30pm. We even had some friends bring us dinner for the evening and watched a movie.

I couldn't have asked for a better procedure and day!!

(Playing around with Photo Booth while relaxing with my cute kitty!)

Best,

Natasha