Medication(s) administered and dosage(s).  A whole bunch of anesthesia drugs…who knows what!  And some Acetaminophen/Codeine #3 300/30mg 1 every 4-6hrs as needed for pain.

Medical procedures undertaken. Oocyte (egg) retrieval!  I arrived at the clinic today nice and early for a 7AM start.  No one was in the waiting room, Chris and I literally sat down for 30 secs when we were taken upstairs to the IVF surgery room.  We were number 3 out of 4 for egg retrievals today, so we got to see what the deal was before it was my turn!!  I was immediately shown to my ‘bed’ area, a curtained off area, like in any hospital I guess.  There was a waiting room/small coffee room for partners to wait in, but Chris mostly sat with me.  The nurses I met were bright, bubbly and friendly who seem to love their job, but they seemed constantly busy managing four patients at a time, they did a great job!

I was given a hospital gown and ‘Deli Ham Hat’ i.e. a hair net to put on.  I was allowed to keep my socks on! Yey!!  We waited for about 15 minutes in the bed cubicle with a ‘hot water bottle’ placed on the back of my hands, then the nurse asked Chris to take a seat in the waiting room whilst she put my Intra-Veinous drip in to the back of my hand.  Mostly because the nurse wanted Chris’s seat in order to sit down to do her job!  But also so that she doesn’t need to worry about him passing out when watching.  Clearly this has happened to some poor person in the past!  The nurse apologised for not offering me a numbing cream initially, but I pointed out that another needle really wasn’t going to ruin my day after the past 10 days of injections and needles!!  She did a great job of getting the IV in and I hardly felt it (she told me about my great veins!), although I couldn’t watch her do it and had to look away.  Once I was attached to a the drip she switched it on and I felt a coldness run up my arm.  She went to call Chris back from the waiting room.

As we waited, we heard the other ladies come and go quite quickly.  My doctor popped her head in to say hello.  She is quite eccentrically introverted, so her bedside manner isn’t the greatest!  She asked us how our summer was going, quickly realising where we were, and she said ‘Oh yes, doing IVF, it’s probably quite stressful!’ and then she wondered off.  I wasn’t offended by her, she is lovely, but I am not sure she would be everyone’s cup of tea in this regard.  In fact the first couple up for retrieval had specifically requested for our doctor to do the egg retrieval procedure because they respect her so much.  I am not so sure I would want that.  Not because I don’t trust her, but because I’d rather have the surgeon who does it day in day out!

After 30 minutes or so of waiting it was my turn.  The anesthetist asked me a few questions, I went to try and empty my bladder – there wasn’t much left at this stage – then she injected something into my IV, I started to feel woosy, like I had had a few alcoholic drinks, my words were slurring as they pushed my bed to the theatre room.  They asked me to shuffle onto the operating table, which I just about managed, I put my legs in some stirrups and the anesthetist injected something else. The next thing I knew I was talking to the nurse back in my bed cubicle.  Oh the pain was like my worst period times two, I really wanted to just curl up with a hot water bottle and cry.  For some reason I had started talking to the nurse about my experience of American military hospitals in Kuwait….I have no idea why!  The next thing I knew, I had my eyes open and Chris was holding my hand next to my bed.

During my egg retrieval Chris provided his sperm sample.  All in all, I was in and out in 25 minutes.  After about 15 minutes of recovery I was up walking to the bathroom – slowly!!!  The nurses told me that they thought 9 eggs was the magic number,  Which was incidentally the same number of eggs for the two other ladies before me!!! What are the chances of that?  Chris and I made a bet, I said 9, he said 11.  We find out tomorrow morning how many fertilize successfully.  I was made to sit in a wheelchair and taken to the front door by the nurse where Chris picked me up.  The drive home wasn’t overly comfortable, I felt every bump.  It felt like I was balancing a couple of weights on my ovaries, particularly my right one.

How do I feel today? I’m feeling positive.  I also feel like there is absolutely nothing in my control right now, so there is no point in worrying.  My mum and Chris are taking care of me whilst I take some time out on the sofa.  I really really hope our embryos stay strong to make it to a 5 day transfer because a 3 day transfer would be on Thursday and a few months ago I bought front row tickets to see Cirque Du Soleil for Thursday evening!! Of course if a 3 day transfer is on the cards then I will have to give my ticket to someone else and go another time, just not front row 😦

What are my symptoms? Very tender after the egg retrieval, it feels like I have been punched in the stomach and have weights hanging down from my ovaries so moving slowly is a must!!! Also going to the toilet is quite painful at the moment 😦

How does Chris feel today? He is a soldier.  Chris came up with a couple of funny egg based jokes…e.g. Today I will have my eggs ‘poached’…how do you like them? Over ICSI…. (*sigh, groan).  But he kept us chipper!

Any results? The nurses said they thought we had 9 eggs retrieved, but tomorrow morning we find out how many eggs fertilise.  I’ve finally got all my estradiol results, so I have changed the plot below to show my follicle growth and estradiol together over time.

What’s next?  Apart from finding out how many eggs have fertilised, tomorrow I start taking the estrogen patches and Chris starts injecting the progesterone. Oh crap….not looking forward to that.

Weight. I’ve managed to keep the weight off.  The nurses said after I told them my weight that I’m the kind of person they dislike!  Obviously they were joking 🙂

Waist.  NSTR.

Boobs. NSTR

Hours of Sunshine 🙂 It’s 92F outside and I am stuck inside recovering 😦

*Notes.  I take First Response Reproductive Health multi vitamin gummies (pre-natal) and CoQ10 200mg gummies daily.  NSTR = Nothing Significant To Report.