Tag Archives: egg retrieval

Egg retrieval #7

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I’m on the couch catching up on trash tv. Feeling a little crampy and dizzy. I’m glad I took tomorrow off.

So everything went well. They got 8 eggs. Pretty much what I expected but didn’t want to say out loud. Dr P was actually there doing retrievals in another OR and after I’d gotten dressed he popped in to ask how it went. He’s usually devoid of emotion anyway so I couldn’t get a read on whether he thought that was good or not. I mean, it is what it is. All we can do is hope there’s at least one super hero in the batch.

The procedure wasn’t much different. We had the same intake nurse from last time and a younger pretty surgeon. She was very serious. I wish these surgeons would crack a joke or laugh at a joke. They make me nervous with the seriousness. The anesthesiologist was a lot more jovial. They usually are in my experience. Probably because they make so much money.

My retrieval was set for 8:30 and they only took my back at 8:40 and around 8:20 I started cramping really badly and I kept thinking I was ovulating and they were going to miss it because of all this incessant form signing! But I guess we made it in time.

I got 2 bags of snacks this time and a hot chocolate that burned my tongue twice. I recovered from the grogginess a lot quicker which was great. This time I tried so hard to remember falling asleep. But all I remember is the dr telling me he was doing a painkiller first that would taste chalky. That’s interesting right? An intravenous drug causing a taste in the back of your throat. After he put the drug in the room literally started spinning. I had to close my eyes. Someone asked me if I was allergic to progesterone in oil. I remember saying no then she said but she has it noted in my chart that I lam. I was thinking so why ask then? Then I remember trying to explain but the spinning room was making it hard to say anything. And then I woke up.

The nurses after were so amazing. I didn’t feel rushed to get dressed and kept checking in and offering more snacks. The last one walked me right to the car and closed the door for me. I felt really taken care of it. I had a really good experience this time. Not to say the other times were awful, I just felt good when I left.

Sorry this post seems a bit all over the place. I’m just glad everything went well. I’m feeling okay about the 8 but I’m having the same worries. What if none fertilise, etc. etc. I am afraid of the call tomorrow. I want to wake up in two weeks with the final results. I don’t want to go through this torturous part again.

Thank you all very much for the continued support. I will keep you all posted.

xx

Fertilization Report

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Four eggs were mature and two fertilized normally.

I’m wondering if it’s self preservation that has me disregarding these two already. I was mentally writing down what questions I’ll ask about moving forward when we go to our follow-up appointment. I’ve pretty much already given up on them.

I won’t hear anything from the clinic until Friday but I’ve already prepared for neither of them to make it biopsy. The thought of one or even both making it to Friday has not crossed my mind. And then after that, the chances of one or both passing PGD testing is completely out of the realm of possibility for me.

I really appreciate that everyone around me (yourselves included) are able to be positive and hopeful. That’s what this is all about, right? Rallying.

Anyway, I definitely think I’m self-preserving. I’ll need all this energy to get up and go again if I have to. I don’t have time to fight between hope and despair.

I hope I’m not coming off flippant or ungrateful. Let’s just say if, by some miracle, we beat all the odds and we happen to have a healthy baby from this cycle, you can be damned sure that child will be the most spoiled child on the planet so that I can make up for essentially turning my back on it today.

 

I Can’t Brie-lieve It!

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FOUR!!!

Earlier when I heard, it was more like

FOUR…

But the news has sunk in for the most part. I am so relieved that this part is over. Of course I wanted more. We always want more. But 4 is better than we’ve ever done. This is cycle is still the best cycle!

I am so fucking scared of the next part but I am going to try my utmost to relax and forget about it as best as I can. Thanksgiving could not have come at a better time.

So there you have it, my friends. 4 little fighters. 4 potential babies. 4 hopes and dreams.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to eat and entire wheel of brie.

 

Faith Purchases

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Hello!
We’re on day 6 and I am Fuh-reaking out. Silently. On the inside.

I think I didn’t want to write before because I didn’t want to jinx anything but I can’t really concentrate on anything today so I thought I would catch you all up.

So my next call was supposed to be on Saturday (day 3) but Friday around 6pm Dr P called himself to find out how I was recovering and to give me a day 2 update.

We still had 12 on day 2. I was extremely relieved. The doctor didn’t sound excited. He said that they ranged from 2 to 6 cell and they were all B’s and C’s, which is great! I was relieved because I figured if we lose half like we usually do on day 3 then at least we’ll still have more than we’ve ever had on day 3. So Friday was yet another good day.

Both of us had to work on Saturday and I was surprisingly okay. I came to terms with my 6 embryos. I started going over plan B’s and just mentally preparing myself for big drop offs. She called around noon and I had to run out of my dungeon office to where there was cellphone reception.

Twelve little guys were still happily growing!! Wow. Both the nurse and I were absolutely giddy. I asked her for the cell counts and grades but I’d forgotten a pen and paper so I wasn’t even really listening to what she was saying but there were some A’s B’s and C’s thrown in.

The rest of the day was a blur of good news sharing and a little work peppered in. I wanted to go out and celebrate but both of us were so tired from work we just climbed into PJ’s and watched 90 day fiance all night until 1am. So Saturday was certainly a good day.

Sunday was a long day. I had wonderful plans to meal prep but then I realized that it’s a 2.5day week and that would be dumb. I thought I would just makes lunches at least but Saturday night I’d forgotten to take the Cabergoline so I took it in the morning and as soon as I wanted to start cooking I was hit with the motion sickness. We rotted away again in front of the tv for the rest of Sunday.

Yesterday was another long day. A long and terrible day. I know that they said they would call on Tuesday to let us know how many were biopsied and frozen but last time on day 5 at around 9am, Dr G called several times and eventually left the message that no one going through this wants to get. So yesterday I was quite a mess. I don’t want anyone to call but I want to know how our embryos are doing. I am going to say that since I didn’t get a call all day that at least they’re not all gone. I think that’s a safe assumption.

I don’t know why I’m big on jinxes (rolls eyes at self) but it is what it is I guess. So I was thinking this weekend that our PGD lab charges $250 per embryo over 8. We’ve never been there before so I’ve always just budgeted for the minimum. And now in a perfect world we may have 4 embryos I didn’t budget for. I would have to transfer extra money to our IVF account for the PGD lab. I can’t remember if they debit the account as soon as my clinic tells them how many samples they’re getting or or if they debit the account when they have the samples in hand. So yesterday I made a big ‘faith purchase’ and transferred the extra money into the account. And I’m really hoping and praying they use at least some of it. But if they don’t I will spend that money on something to make myself feel better :)… Or save it for the next round of PGD testing. It took a lot for me to do that. My online banking session kept timing out while I went back and forth trying to decide. I made the purchase but I’m still undecided, if that makes sense. But it’s done and it’s not the end of the world.

So here we are. 9 am on day 6. My stomach is in knots. I want them to call already. N keeps saying that he has a good feeling about this. I do sometimes but I’m very scared still. Especially today. I made the mistake yesterday of googling stories about embryo drop off rates after day 3. Huge mistake. But I’ve put a self ban on Google now so that’s good.

Okay, I have to get some work done. My next post will have results.

I hope everyone is having a good week so far!

Carb City

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It was a good day and a good retrieval. I only took today off so I’m just napping and resting and filling up on all the carbs I missed out on these past few weeks.

I’ll write more in the morning but everything went well and the pain is minimal. I’m just battling a violent headache. 

They retrieved 20 eggs!  I’m extremely surprised and elated. I know most of them won’t be mature but that’s a great number. I was worried that with that many eggs I would be in a bunch of pain but I’m really doing well. Right now anyway. 

One day at a time. And today was a win. 

Thank you very much everyone for keeping us in your thoughts. Thank you so very much. 

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to dive into a grilled cheese sandich… Maybe two. 

Big Day Tomorrow

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IVF ROUND 5

DAY 4
(Monday Nov 7)

Meds: 300iu Gonal-f , 150iu Menopur 

Notes: estrogen=26.49; LH=4. 68; progesterone=0.226; lining=4.9mm; antral follicles=13 

Nothing of import to report today. My period has stopped so life is good again. And tomorrow is a big day for the country. “Huge! There’s never been a bigger day than tomorrow”. My first monitoring appointment! I can’t possibly think of anything more important happening tomorrow in America :D. (JK, enjoy voting day!)

Another thing to look forward to is the public holiday on Friday. Then I suspect my retrieval will be next Friday so another day off and the the week after that it’s Thanksgiving. It’s going to be a great November, people. Probably not for whoever’s candidate loses, though.

Emotional: Short week short week short week!!

Physical: Every present nausea and dizziness. Please make it stop.

Food: 2 Boiled eggs for breakfast. Spinach and chicken salad for lunch. Steak and stir fried vegetables for dinner.

The Morning After

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IVF ROUND 5

DAY 1
(Friday Nov 4)

Meds: 300iu Gonal-f , 150iu Menopur 

Notes: estrogen=26.49; LH=4. 68; progesterone=0.226; lining=4.9mm; antral follicles=13 (it was on the voice mail lol)

Captain’s log. Last night we did our first shots at 8pm sharp ish.

The menopur burned as usual, the gonal-f pen clicked down as expected. I felt dizzy for a bit per the norm and we spent the rest of the night on the couch watching movies as we did before.

I realized that because this is an exact copy of a cycle we did before that I am going to be comparing them like it’s going out of fashion and it’s going to suck if this one goes worse but it is what it is. So far today, the cycles are exactly the same and that’s good news haha.

I had a full day of nothing planned today, maybe some online shopping but it turns out I have to go to the police station to get some fingerprints taken so that I can get documents from home. So I might as well get up and make breakfast .

Happy weekend my friends!

Emotional: Was nervous and down yesterday afternoon I think because my period was starting. But the closer it got to injection time the more excited I got.

Physical: Period became real around 9pm so with it came cramps. Experienced dizziness after menopur injection. No metalic taste in mouth.

Food: Sneaky bag of my favorite chips from Cumberland farms. Salad for lunch. Bunless burger and fries from Five Guys for dinner.

Just some notes

A few pre-cycle gifts I received from ttc sisters

A must!

Well That Didn’t Last Long

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We’re back where we were 2 cycles ago.

14 eggs were mature (what I expected) and 9 fertilized normally. And then today I got the call that 5 were still growing on day 3.

We’re still not out by any means but I was am crushed.

I hate this. One minuter you’re on cloud 9, the next you’re standing in the greeting card aisle in Walgreens choking back tears wondering if you’ll ever receive one of these baby cards.

There’s, of course, always hope but fuuuuck this suuuucks!!

Next update on Wednesday or Thursday.

IVF Season 4: Finale

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I didn’t want to write this until we got the fertilization report. To be honest I actually wanted to disappear until this is all over. It still feels a bit too good to be true.

The day went pretty well. Both of us were in great spirits, even at 5:30am. We got there with time to spare and went through the same spiel and everything was blissfully boring. There was a new doctor doing the retrieval. The Dr L. I’d seen pictures of around the office. I told N that she was Forbes 40 under 40 a few years ago and that she is one of the doctors I was thinking of going to for a second opinion because she takes appointments closer to us. So I was glad to have met her in person and even more glad that she was so warm and friendly when she came to introduce herself to us. We also got a nice surprise visit from our nurse too. I’m so embarrassed, I didn’t recognise her at first. I met her twice since we started this journey and our exchanges have been strictly telephonic since then. But she’s been like my ivf mom and I am beyond grateful that she popped in to say hi and wish us luck.

The retrieval itself was as it always is. Over really quickly. The pain, however, was unbearable when I woke up and I was promptly given some Fentanyl. As I lay with my eyes closed, wincing, I overheard one of the nurses say “It’s probably because they got a lot of eggs” and I smiled to myself.

N came back once the nurses had stopped fussing over me and we shared some nervous glances while we quietly shared a bag of graham crackers and ginger ale.

It wasn’t long when Dr. L came in and told me, with a big smile on her face, that she’d retrieved 21 eggs. I’m tearing up as I’m writing this, still in a little disbelief. I don’t remember what I said to her but it was there were a lot of “OMG’s” and “Wow’s”.

The pain was gone almost instantly after getting the news. The graham crackers tasted sweeter, the ginger ale crisper. For the first time in a long time I felt hope. Sweet, sweet hope.

Back home, N had to go back to work and I spent the rest of the day resting and sharing the good news with friends and family. Unfortunately, as the day has wore on I’ve been battling with the fear of how high I am right now and how far of a fall it will be if bad news comes.

I’m working very hard on not letting the fear creep in. I know how lucky I am to have 21 eggs. I am trying to enjoy it. It’s amazing. My body did something really amazing today. I really need to give myself a break.

Today really was a good day.

IVF Season 4: Episode 9-11

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Date: 7.29 – 7.31

Starring: 10 units microdose lupron twice a day, 0.5mg tablet dexamethasone, 225iu Gonal-F twice a day

Produced by: 12 follicles (10 on L, 2 on R) ranging from 11 – 15 mm. Estrogen at 2100 on day 11.

Directed by: Oh so much nausea.

Synopsis: I can’t tell if these counts are good or not. My retrieval is supposedly set for Thursday which means only 2 more days of stimming and I don’t think that’s enough time to get more follicles to grow. And he wants me to drop the Gonal-F to 200 now as well. Don’t know if that’s good or not. I’ve definitely hit the mid-cycle bump. Not feeling very confident right now as I’m writing this. It’s because I’m comparing cycles (comparison truly is the thief of joy).

I go back on Tuesday. There’s really nothing else I can do except wait and chat to my eggs. Especially my right ovary. She’s making it so hard. *sigh*

At least birthday month starts tomorrow! I have plans for almost every weekend which is fantastic and I have 2 vaca days that I have to use before the end of the month. Groupon Getaways here I come! Just have to get through this week.

I’ll leave you with a pic of my left ovary. I think it’s cute that it looks like a fist. I can’t almost hear is shouting “follicle power!”. I’m proud of you lefty, thanks for carrying the team.

IMG_20160731_135553

Best enjoyed with: Bacon, egg, avocado and a mushroom for breakfast and we’ll be having salmon and

Outtakes:
PSA

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