Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Egg Retrieval!

I could hardly sleep the night before my egg retrieval! I was excited and nervous at the same time.

I was excited that it was finally time to pull the eggs out, but nervous that my follicles would be lacking just that...eggs.

I was instructed no eating or drinking after midnight as I would be put under for the retrieval process.

We hit the road at 10 am. The fertility clinic where I was having the retrieval was approximately 1 1/2 hours away from us.

We hit more traffic than we expected and got lost on the way, but found the place with 15 minutes to spare.

Upon arriving, I paid the $400 fee for the anesthesiologist and had a seat. Mine and my husbands names were called after only a few minutes. I was lead to one room, while he was lead to another room to give his sample.

I entered the room and saw a semi-familiar face there. I believe it was the woman's husband whom I'd seen at the clinic a few times before. She wasn't as friendly as he. We had a nice conversation about infertility and soon that turned to our dogs.

Before long, I was called back and instructed me to undressed from the waist down. Within a minute or two the anesthesiologist arrived and started an IV. We chatted a bit about my Extreme Makeover and how being put under for this is nothing compared to that experience.

Suddenly I felt the room spin a bit and must have fallen asleep because the next thing I know, I was awake, talking to the Dr. and noticed my husband sitting next to me.

The Dr. told me that we only had 3 eggs from the 4 follicles. I was a little disappointed, but chucked it up to, "We only need 3...and God knows what he's doing."

Apparently, I was talking nonsense to my Dr. and thankfully, my husband reminded him that I always do this coming out of surgery. The Dr. got a chuckle and told him that most people do.

After lying there for a couple of minutes, a nurse came in to offer me a hot pack. I declined as I was feeling fine. A few minutes later, another nurse arrived and offered me the same hot pack, I declined, but she insisted I use it, so I did. Shortly after that, yet another nurse arrived and offered me apple juice, I gratefully accepted.

About 30 minutes later I was released. I don't remember much about the car ride home as I slept through most of it. I do remember stopping at the grocery store and waking up to extreme heat. I looked at the thermometer on the car and it said 91!! No wonder I was dying of heat. The window were up and no AC.

Upon arriving home, I called my family and prepared my first progesterone injection. I took the oral medications I was given and sat there, dreading this injection.

After warming the injection in my fist and my behind on an electric blanket, I asked my husband to administer the injection I'd been dreading for weeks.

After forcing him to stop several times, taking the injection away from him, unsuccessfully trying to administer it to myself, I finally bent over and told him to just do it.

YIKES!!! That poke HURT!!! The first few seconds were ok, until he hit the muscle. OUCH! He told me, "DON'T MOVE!!!" as he began to administer the progesterone.

I moved my head twice and was scolded to keep still. The injection sting didn't last too long. Removing the needle hurt just as much as feeling it go in.

Overall, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I'm glad I prepared myself for the worse!!

As of now, my next step is to call the clinic tomorrow and find out how many of my eggs fertilized and get my transfer date. As of now, it's set for Friday!!

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