Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Retrieval Day


Today was our retrieval day. I was not too optimistic going in, but decided to just hope for the best. On Sunday, after my disappointing phone call with Dr. C my mom gave me her Believe in Miracles cross. I have slept with the cross under my pillow the last few nights, and took it with me today. It's been my little sidekick.

We got to the clinic at 7 this morning and signed a few papers. They then took us back to my room where I got to put on my fancy butt revealing gown, blue socks, and hair net. They then took my vitals, (and got my BMI, which looked good!) started my IV, and gave me a dose of antibiotics. The nurse we very nice, and we talked a lot. I asked her if she had ever had anyone come out with zero egg retrieved, and she said no, and we were not going to be her first. She then told us a story of a woman who only got one egg, it fertilized, she came back a few days later for transfer, got a positive pregnancy test 2 weeks after that, and then found out at her first ultrasound that the 1 egg had split and she was pregnant with twins. She also asked us our daughters name, and that led to a discussion of baby names. She said her favorite name has always been Vivianne, but none of her kids would name a grandkid that. I told her if we got some eggs, we would name an egg Vivianne.



After that we just waited. I watched a little I Love Lucy (the episode where they are on a cruise and Lucy gets herself stuck in a porthole.) The anesthesiologist, Ruth, and Dr. C all popped their head in my room and said hello. Then a few minutes after 8 we went back. We got in the room, I got up on the table and got a nice warm blanket. I remember the anesthesiologist putting something in my IV and telling me I was going to start feeling sleepy, and I remember talking to him about A&M going to the SEC, and then I remember waking back up in my room. Dave told me we got 3 EGGS! I was too tired to be excited though. And I don't know how many times he had to tell me before I remembered. I apparently asked him 4 times if he had called my mom and texted L before I was able to remember the answer.

I had to eat, drink, and pee before I could go home. And the surprising thing is it was the bathroom part I had the most trouble with. If you know me, you know I have to go every other second, but this morning I just didn't need to. Probably because I hadn't had anything to eat or drink since dinner the night before. They gave me some crackers and apple juice, and it made me feel nauseous. So I took a little nap, and switched from juice to water, which helped. Finally, maybe an hour later, I finally needed to go, and after that we were on our way home. I was still a little woozy and unsteady on my feet, but my wonderful husband helped me to the car, and into the house, and I have pretty much been on the couch ever since.

I did have the best lunch ever of Panera Bread (chicken frontego panini and a cup of creamy chicken and wild rice soup. YUM!) and have taken several naps, and am feeling almost like my old self again.

We got a call from the clinic later this afternoon and they said D's Herculean little men defrosted well and look great, so they are going to try fertilizing the old fashioned way of just putting them in the petri dish with Vivianne 1, Vivianne 2, and Vivianne 3, play a little Marvin Gaye, and hope for the best. (Or, as my sister said, we put them in the petri dish and let them do the nasty.) Had "the boys" not looked as good, we would have done ICSI, where the embryologist injects a sperm directly into the egg. But Dr. C didn't think we needed that, and I hope he is right.

So now we just sit and wait for V1, V2, ad V3 to do their thing. The embryologist will call in 2 days and let us know if any eggs fertilized, and then they will call every other day to let us know how they are growing. I am trying not to stress about it, and just trying to trust that at least one will fertilize and grow. When we first started this process I was prepared for it to take 2 tries to be successful. Of course, I didn't think it would be at this point that it was going to fail. I figured we would get all the way to transfer and it not result in a pregnancy.  But still, I was prepared for 2 times. But I really, really, really don't want it to actually take two times. And this is my only shot at doing this with my eggs. If this doesn't work we will move to donor eggs, since I apparently don't produce enough. I think it would be too big of a risk to try again with me. And I thought finding the surrogate was going to be the hard part. Boy was I wrong!


So let the waiting game begin!

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