I’m still relaxing in bed, but wanted to get this post out while my memory is still fresh. So, I’m coming to you live from my bed and I am accompanied by my friend the heating pad.
Yesterday, we left our house for the egg retrieval and made it there in amazing time because of the Memorial Day holiday. Once we arrived, we filled out the necessary paperwork and they quickly took us to the main procedure room for my pre-op. We go through all the normal questions (and over again what I had just filled out, as is customary) and I tell them that I normally need Zofran in my line because I get very sick when I wake up from anesthesia. The nurses told me that this is how the anesthesiologist prepares her sedation, so I should be all set.
After this, I literally met every single member of the team for my surgery. The Doctor, the embryologist, my nurses, and the anesthesiologist. Doctor A (she has a crazy last name so she called herself Dr. A) explained the procedure to me, and then told Dean he would be sitting in the waiting room until it was “his turn for fun”. The whole procedure would only be 20-30 minutes long and I would spend about 30 minutes in recovery. I kissed Dean goodbye and walked to the procedure room with my nurse.
The bed was actually cozy and heated – which was really nice, given the circumstances. I chatted with the staff, who all were very kind and very concerned with my well being and my comfort. They asked me about my fertility and I explained our story in brevity. Turns out, my anesthesiologist had tubal factor infertility – and got pregnant BY DOCTOR CASS. And Dr. A who performed my egg retrieval, she also had infertility problems from her endometriosis. Somehow, being cared for by people who truly understood our circumstances really put me at ease. Everyone was making jokes and laughing, which made everything less scary for me.
The anesthesiologist, Grace first gave something to relax me. They then had me put my legs into stirupps but these were not your normal OBGYN stirrups, my entire calves rested in them. They warned me that I would maybe feel uncomfortable from the Betadine they used to cleanse the area – but in the grand scheme of things it wasnt bad – just awkward. Then they put an oxygen mask on me, and out I went. Apparently I woke up quite quickly, and they told me that they got all 15 eggs and we would find out tomorrow all about fertilization.
I was wheeled to recovery, and got off the gurney and back onto my bed. I was there for a few minutes and they let Dean in to see me. It was a relief to see him and hold his hand. My recovery nurse could tell I was in pain, and over the course of the hour I was in recovery she gave me two doses. I felt completely fine and ready to go, until I sat up. I told the nurse I was going to be sick. Oddly, this is the exact same thing that happened to me when they removed my fallopian tube. Felt fine, until I sat up. So of course, I puked nothing but bile – about three times (sorry Dean) and the nurse putmore zofran in my line. That dose did the trick, and the nurse gave me a cracker and apple juice to settle my stomach a little. After that, I was given a heat pack for the ride home and was sent on my way.
The ride home sucked. I had deferred nerve pain and every bump was very unpleasant. Dean was very careful, but you cant help the freeways. By the time I got home I was ready for bed and my heating pad. Dean made me breakfast and made sure I was taking it as easy as possible.
This morning, I felt pretty well, except the pressure when sitting was really painful. Not ideal for a desk job. Luckily, my boss told me to stay home. And at around 9AM I received our first fertilization report.
Of the 15 eggs harvested, 10 were mature. That’s about what I expected per my last blood results. Of the 10 mature follicles, 4 failed to fertilize and were considered abnormal. Which leaves us with 6 beautiful fertilized eggs. Now, it is possible that we could lose some, they can either arrest, or grow abnormally. But 6 is a great number.
Now, the embryos will be grown to Day 3, and if they are not doing well – we may end up doing a day 3 embryo transfer. But hopefully, they all grow normally and we can proceed with a day 5 blastocyst transfer on Saturday. The doctors will call me on Thursday morning to let me know if I need to come in for my transfer.
Now the waiting game. The next two days are going to make me crazy.
Xoxoxo,
Jen