Week 4 I had my egg retrieval. That was the biggest doozy of all. Except for the anesthesia. That was absolute heaven.
I was one day ahead of schedule, which ended up being a great blessing because it was one less day of feeling like my ovaries were pregnant. I had gone in on Monday morning for another ultrasound and blood work and they told me to give myself a trigger shot that night, which is HCG and basically releases the eggs so that the doctor can go in and get them. 36 hours later, on Wednesday morning, we went in for the retrieval. I was SO nervous, but anxious and excited to see how many eggs they were going to get and how many would fertilize.
I remember going into the room (pictured below!) and seeing this bed and them telling me to put my gown on and to keep it open in the back. Classic. I did as I was told and I laid my tired little head right on down. They stuck the I.V. in my wrist, which didn't feel super great, and then the doctor came in and started talking to me and all of a sudden the ceiling was moving and things were spinning and I was blissfully unaware of what was about to take place- thank the high heavens!
I was all sorts of fun when I was drugged. They even told me what a fun drunk I'd be. I told them how much I loved the feeling and they told me how Michael Jackson did, too. So much so that it killed him. Buzz kill. But anyway, they plopped me down in my recliner, set a massive heating pad over my belly (which was glorious), and then they proceeded to tell me important information, assuming that I would remember it. I'm like - HELLO! I AM ON DRUGS! I did remember some, but definitely not all. I had to revisit some of the videos Cory took of me so I could hear what the doctor was saying in the background.
They told us that they had retrieved 23 eggs and that everything had gone perfectly. That was such a relief.
I really wanted to have cute hair through all of this, so I decided that it would be a good idea to go to my appointment right after the retrieval. I walked through the door hanging on Cory and she was like, "Are you sure you want to do this?" I was like, "Yeah..." And I stand by what I did. I could've sat at home tired and sore or sat in the chair and been beautified. I chose the latter. :) Although, I do have to say, the anesthesia started wearing off as I was sitting there and that was not a pretty thing. I did not know something could hurt that bad.
They basically told me that my ovaries would shrink because they'd taken all the eggs out, but that then the follicles would fill back up with fluid, that would then leak out into my abdomen, and would take up to three months to go down to normal size, which is about 1 inch in diameter. At that point, mine were the size of oranges. I was dying. The doctor was like, "Yeah, you should feel no worse tonight than you already have." Liar liar, pants on fire. He told a falsehood.
Sitting on the toilet was excruciating. So was climbing stairs, laughing, moving, and breathing. That first night was the night from hell. And the first few days following the procedure were nothing short of a blast, but things were looking up every day and I finally don't feel like I am 6 months pregnant with orange sized ovaries. That week was a major doozy, but at least I had a fresh cut and color. :)
They called us the day after, on Thursday, to give us our assessment. 19 out of the 23 eggs were mature, and 18 out of the 19 fertilized. I was ecstatic. I prayed so hard for those embryos.
On Saturday they called again to give us another update. All 18 embryos were still alive and growing, and 15 of the 18 had grown over 6 cells, which is what they want them to be over. Again, ecstatic.
When we went in to our transfer appointment on Monday, which is where they put the 5 day old embryos in, they told us that we had 4 perfect embryos, and 3 that they weren't sure would be able to be frozen. They had to watch them for another day. I was sad to hear that most of the embryos had arrested, but my doctor assured me that 2/3 of them do between days 3 and 5. He was thrilled we had 7! Then he asked us how many we wanted to insert, and we told him two. His eyebrows shot up and he was like, "Are you sure??" And we were like, "Yes?" He said our embryos were perfect, and if we put two of the top ones in, then our chances of twins were 40% and our chance of them splitting was 1/100. (He had originally told us it was 1/500!) Cory asked him about putting one of the 4 perfect ones in, and one embryo that was lagging a bit, and the doctor suggested we do that. I was happy with that, because that left us with at least 3 frozen ones for the future, if the other ones didn't live. And he told us that the best chance that embryo had of living was being inside of me. So that we did! They called me the next day to let me know that the other lagging embryos had continued to grow and they were able to freeze all 5. What an answer to prayer! And I was reassured that the embryo we had put in had probably continued to grow as well. I want twins!
The transfer went beautifully. They have you take a Valium before, which was absolutely wonderful, and then they tilt you downward a little, put your legs in stirrups (that were fleece lined, no less! What a dream!), shine a bright light where a bright light should never be shone, and then on a little screen in the corner of the room, they have an embryologist picking up your embryos and he walks them in from the room next door. It was amazing. And it was a total party: Cory, the nurse, my doctor, the embryologist all looking down there. I literally could not have cared less, but a younger me would've been mortified. We've come a long way. :)
They have you do two "Princess Days" following the transfer, which basically means they want you on bed rest. It was nice to relax, but also kind of horrible, and I started to get major cabin fever after the first day. We made it through, though, and now we have hit a new kind of miserable.
There is a ten day waiting period before they do a pregnancy test. I am on day 7 right now and I am dying. I can be in a perfectly good mood, and then suddenly I'm not, and I'm bawling my eyes out. The hormones. What a blast! The anxiety of not knowing yet if it took, a real blast! Sometimes I feel like I am being systematically tortured. So, you pay all of this money and your child is conceived in a test tube, and then you STILL have to wait the 10 days for a pregnancy test?? It's pure torture. To all of you out there who have made it through one or more rounds of IVF, my hat goes off to you. I had no idea that it could be this bad.
My skin has changed. What has normally been on the dry side, is now on the greasy side. I've popped more tiny white zits than I can count.
I. Am. Starving. Which isn't totally out of the ordinary, but this is like middle-of-the-night hunger where I am frantic for food.
I am sweating all the time. I've never enjoyed a hot bath less. Sweaters, yuck. That heating pad that was so wonderfully delicious that day, has lost it's savor.
Weepy. I am a true weeper. Leave me alone in my room and I am sobbing crocodile tears in the blink of an eye.
Pinch me, I dare you.
Also, don't cross me. I'm more irritable than a bowel.
Don't even look at me wrong. I WILL be offended.
And the bloating. I try and tell Cory to be grateful for the gas, that it's a good sign, but I don't think I have him convinced quite yet. :) #gratefulforgas
All I'm saying, is you might want to steer clear of me. I've now decided to pick up a chest cold, which is great because I've already been on 2 Z-packs this month because they didn't want me to get sick. And now I may (better) be pregnant, and I am scared to take anything. Grrreat. This afternoon I thought, I'm going to make myself some honey and lemon tea. Then, when I went to drink it I was too hot to even finish it. Like seriously, this typing is making me sweat. WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME???
I'll just be over here on a mood swing, with my dogs, until next time.
Thanks for stopping by!
Em
