Hello blog friends. Please excuse my lateness on this post. An IVF egg retrieval turned out to be harder on me physically than I thought it would be. But here I am now with all the up-to-date information.

Egg Retrieval - February 22

So, you remember how I've been worried about taking so much time off?  Well, our office manager is out for the next 2 weeks! So I was able to easily sneak in my 101 (absence request) with out her hawk eye scrutinizing it.

Wednesday morning we woke up bright and early. I was terribly hungry and thirsty since I wasn't allowed to eat since 9:00 the night before. We had to be at the office by 8:30 and since both of us are always early, we got there at about 8:15. We checked in and they gave me a hospital bracelet with my name, birthday and patient number. We waited a little while and they led us back to a little room we've never been in. It had 2 armchairs, a TV and a portable heart rate monitor. Cozy.

Our nurse-coordinator told me I had to undress completely except for my bra. I assumed I would keep my shirt on because the instructions said to wear a short sleeved shirt, but they gave me a spa wrap instead. And a robe! It was pretty funny. I also had a hairnet and non-skid booties. It was a very sexy outfit.

After that another nurse came in and started an IV (in my hand...ouch!) and hooked me to the heart rate monitor. Then it was just a waiting game until 9:00.

Close to 9:00 they came and got me and walked me to the operating room. It was down a hallway and in the hallway is the desk where all of the nurses sit and work. I gave them a Miss America wave as I passed in my sexy robe and hairnet. Then in to the operating room. I've had probably more than my share of surgeries but operating rooms are still pretty scary. They had me get on the table and put my legs in some giant stirrups. THEN they strapped my legs in, which really creeped me out. The nurse told me she was giving me an anti-nausea drug and a painkiller in the IV. Then she gave me the sedative. I don't know what it was, but it was very fast acting. Almost as soon as she finished plunging the sedative, the tiles in the ceiling started spinning and that's the last thing I remember until waking up in the lounge room again.

It turns out that the armchair I was sitting in before was ALSO a wheelchair! Crazy. I assume that I must have been awake enough to get into the chair because I don't think they could have lifted me off the table. But I don't remember. I just remember waking up in the room and asking how many they got. Vaguely, I heard someone say 40. 40 I thought? 40??

After a few minutes when I was more awake I asked "Did someone say 40?" And the nurse said it was indeed 40 eggs. Well, I was pretty impressed with myself but unfortunately, this disqualifies us from the study that was going to pay for the progesterone cream.

The doctor came in after I was thoroughly awake and dressed again. She said that because I had so many eggs it was a train wreck in there. My ovaries are leaking fluid, plus the inflammation and other affects from the hyperstimulation. So the bad news is that instead of doing the transfer on Monday like originally planned, she wants to wait until I heal up, at least a month. So I'm waiting for my period...yet again.

Now, for the aftermath. When we left I felt pretty good. I was hungry so we decided to go to Cheesecake Factory, which is my ultimate comfort food. But they didn't open until 11. So we went to Krispy Kreme first. This is how good I was feeling. After we got all of our food we went back home and ate. I wasn't really sleepy so I watched some daytime TV and just lounged. I even joked that I probably could have just taken a half day and gone to work for the afternoon. I didn't know it then, but this was because I was still full of painkillers. The next day was another story.

Actually, that night was another story. One of the medications I have to take is an anti-infection pill called Flagyl and it is well known for making people very sick. That night I barfed up all my avocado egg rolls and cheesecake and I barely slept because my stomach hurt so bad. The next day I woke up and everything just hurt. It wasn't even a pain I could easily describe because I have never experienced it before. The closest I could come up with is a combination of the stomach flu and bad period cramps with spotting.

Unfortunately I had not planned on this and had not taken the day off from work. So I had to go. And I went, and it was miserable, but I made it. I couldn't take the Flagyl again that night. I needed to keep some food down and I needed sleep. Thursday night was better and I felt much better on Friday, I'd say I was at about 80%. I could walk without pain and I was finally interested in eating something other than Ritz crackers.

That brings us to today. One of the embryologists called and told me that out of the 40 eggs, 30 fertilized properly and they did the genetic testing on 8 of them and it looks good so far. I feel pretty good, except when I take the Flagyl but I only have a few more days of that. So now it's just another waiting game. Waiting for my insides to heal and waiting for my period again.