Egg Retrieval

On Friday morning we went to the clinic for the egg retrieval.  We arrived a bit early, which was a good thing as they took an extra 15 minutes trying to get a good vein for my IV.  I changed into a hospital gown, and a great nurse came in to explain things to us and start the IV.  She got the vein on the first poke, but there was a bit of a 'leak' and I bled all over the white leather chair I was sitting in.  I felt terrible at the mess, and so did the nurse! 

Then the embryoligist came in, a really warm, personable woman who took more time to explain what she would be doing with our eggs when they were retrieved, and more about the incubation process, then one of the clinic doctors, Dr. Seetham, came in and again went through things with us. 

David went his way at that point, and I went into the operating room.  The doctor asked what kind of music I preferred and after putting some tunes on, he began to prepare for the procedure.  The table had stirrups, which was kind of strange because it reminded me of a birthing bed.  When they strapped my legs in, I kind of figured things might be a 'teeny' bit more intense than I was expecting.   

The drugs they gave me induced a 'heavy' feeling, but I never really got the buzz they had made me anticipate.  I felt a good pinch when the needle first went in, and the first ovary - the left, was extremely uncomfortable, but not exactly painful.  There were a lot of eggs and things took longer than anticipated.  I suspect that's why the second side hurt so much... the drugs had started to wear off.  When we moved over to the rigtht side, the poke through the vaginal wall was more than a pinch.  I felt it, and it hurt. 

Then came the pokes to the ovary on the rigtht side.  The follicles were big and there were lots of them.  I realized, watching the ultrasound screen, that the needle had to go through the ovary to get to the follicles on the backside.  By this time, I could see each time the needle poked through the follicle, and dreaded the pain that came with it.  At the end of it all, I was actually moaning with each movement of the needle.  

Keep in mind, the needle was inserted over 20 times into my ovaries.   My raw and swollen, tender ovaries that were heavy with ready-to-pop, angry, red follicles (see pic at bottom of the blog!).  By the end of it all, I was near tears, but still insisting that the doctor keep going and get all that he could.  The entire process took about 10 to 15 minutes. 

The coolest part of it all was that the nurses kept taking vials of fluid over to the embryologist and came back with ongoing reports as to how many eggs they had. 

So I'm strapped into stirrups, with a doctor 'down there' doing his thing, I'm moaning in pain, and every few moments a nurse comes in and cheerfully announces, "We got three more!, Up to ten now!"   I had to laugh.. it was kind of like hearing 'It's a boy! or It's a girl!'  And at the end, I really didn't care how many freakin' eggs they had, I was just ready to it to stop.

I do remember muttering at one point that "David is having a MUCH better time." and everyone laughing.  Glad I can be of some relief to all in the room!

Then I was back in recovery and feeling a lot, lot better.  The swollen follicles removed, the invading blade of steel no longer invading my body, and seeing David again made things a lot more pleasant.  They gave us the total number of eggs retrieved... 22!  We were really happy.  I kept saying throughout that I wanted at least 20. 

Today (Saturday) we'll find out how many eggs were mature and fertilized.  I'm nervous about it, but so far things have gone well so I'm starting to be more optimistic then I wanted to be.  We'll see what happens.  The clinic said they get an average 70% fertilization rate, which means we should get about 15 fertilized eggs.  I will most likely be very anxious when that phone rings.