Rollercoaster

Today was egg retrieval day, and what a day it's been...full of anxiety, stress, anticipation, disappointment, sorrow, and then, finally, some relief.

Egg retrieval itself was at 8:30 sharp. We had to be there at 7:30. We arrived with zero minutes to spare (after locking the car keys in the motel room - of course after turing in the room keys!), Paul's sample in its sterile cup shoved between my boobs to keep it body temperature. Nurse A., new to us, met us and took us downstairs to the pre-op room, where I changed into a gown and had my vitals taken and an IV placed in my hand. (She was wonderful, as have been all of the nurses we've met. We love that!) The anesthesiologist came in, gave us a run-down, and promised he wouldn't use Demerol on me (!). Dr. H. came down and checked in at about 8:26, and promptly at 8:30, Paul kissed me and off I went. I was out fairly quickly.

The procedure took only 30 minutes. Dr. H. went and got Paul and brought him in just as they were removing my oxygen mask. I awoke quickly and felt good...until I asked how many eggs they got. Three. I couldn't stop the tears. (In February 2011, our first stimulated IUI cycle converted to IVF because of "too many follicles", but out of six, they only retrieved two eggs. One fertilized. We transferred the Little Blastocyst that Could on Day 5, but it didn't implant. It was devastating.)

Soon enough, Nurse A. had me eating crackers and was happy with the amount of water I was drinking, and once I peed without falling over, she sent us on our way...to wait for the maturation report from Dr. H. We missed the call (I was napping and Paul didn't hear my phone), so had to wait for her to call back. We sat there in silence, both positive we were about to get bad news (because she hadn't said anything at all about the eggs in her voicemail). But no, good news: all three of those eggs are mature and are going to be fertilized via ICSI! She'll call tomorrow mid-morning with a report on how many of those three successfully fertilized, and then we'll wait until Friday to hear how many made it to biopsy for the PGD. My embryo transfer, provided we have at least one normal embryo, will be Sunday, and my blood pregnancy test (scheduled today, even though I'm not even pregnant yet) is October 24th.

We're so relieved that Paul, who couldn't nap today due to stress and anxiety, promptly walked down the hall to our bedroom and crashed. He's still there two hours later, poor guy. :)

I really am feeling so much better this time around. No nausea, no vomiting (!), minimal pain (Tylenol after I woke up and that's it so far), normal appetite (fish for dinner!)...it's just so much better than our previous experiences. I hope that trend continues.