Retrieval

It's been a while since I've written anything, but that's not for lack of activity - just significant lack of time. Things have been very busy in the last few days, with three round trips to San Francisco and another one scheduled for this Sunday. The first was to pick up my husband from the airport, and for his sperm cryopreservation the next morning so we would have a back up on the day of the retrieval if he was not able to provide a live sample that day. Then I went back for another ultrasound and blood test to see how the stim injections were progressing, and everything was looking very good. 

At that appointment, the doctor counted 18 follicles - a tremendously good sign, in our eyes, because 18 is a special number in Hebrew, because it sounds like the word for life. They scheduled the egg retrieval for the following Tuesday, and the night before the procedure, we celebrated with a special lamb stew with plums from a Hunger Games recipe, and a beautiful cake we ordered to kick off what promised to be a busy and emotional week and beyond.

The trip to San Francisco on Tuesday morning was very stressful. For the cryo appointment, there was a little bit of traffic and we got there exactly on time with not a minute to spare. So when I went back for the ultrasound and blood draw, I left an hour earlier and there wasn't a lick of traffic at all so I ended up killing time at a department store outside the city. On a good day it's about 2 1/2 hours drive, so we gave ourselves 3 1/2 hours on the day of the retrieval just in case - about an hour into the drive, the estimated time on the GPS jumped up significantly and said we would show up about 15 minutes late for the appointment.

We were supposed to arrive at 9:15 AM, for the retrieval at 10 AM - the retrieval is very specifically timed, exactly 36 hours after I had given myself the trigger shot. we did the shot at 10 PM on Sunday night, so if there were any issues on the drive there, it would be problematic. 

I called the doctor from the road and let him know that the GPS was saying we would get there closer to 9:30 or 9:40 AM, and he reassured me that it was fine, that there's a little bit of a buffer built into the schedule, and that I would still be plenty ready for a successful retrieval.

We made it to the clinic a little after 9:30 AM, and I immediately went to the bathroom with a nervous stomach, after being so anxious on the drive there. I was more anxious about the traffic than the procedure I was about to go through!

Before I headed in for the procedure, I got a hug and a kiss from my husband and my son, who stayed in the waiting room for me. My son leaned into me and said "I love you like all-fire," another special reference to the newest Hunger Games book. It's a special series for us, we've read it together a couple of times and it's something we get very engaged with together. It was exactly what I needed to hear heading into the procedure.

I don't remember the procedure itself at all, as I was under anesthesia - not a full anesthesia, and they said I might remember some things although I wouldn't feel any pain. But I just remember being awake and then being awake again and in the middle, apparently the retrieval happened! I really wasn't nervous about the procedure at all. I was even looking forward to it a little? Partly because of all the built-up pressure pressure in my lower abdomen from the growing follicles, but also just looking forward to a anesthesia/medicated nap for a few minutes after having a lot of restless moments in the last few weeks.

There was a little digital counter in the embryologist's window, and when they brought me out of the procedure room to the recovery room, I could see that the count was already at 11 eggs retrieved! So that was really relieving also. I didn't know how many we would end up with, but I was hoping for double digits so we would get as many possibilities as we could.

I was a little bit sore the rest of the day, but overall pretty fine. The hardest part was waiting for the phone call from the clinic the next day to hear about the final count on the eggs, as well as how many were mature and able to be fertilized. The nurse told us that the final count at the retrieval was, in fact, 11 eggs retrieved. Nine of the eggs were mature, and seven were fertilized! Those are very good numbers, I've been reassured, although I don't know that I will stop being nervous until there's a baby in my hands, and I know from the first time around that even that doesn't stop the worrying.

So now, we've got a couple of days until the embryo transfer on Sunday morning back in San Francisco. In the meantime, I am walking as much as I can but also taking it easy because I'm still a little bit sore. I'm staying hydrated with electrolyte drinks, no plain water they said. That's been one of the toughest parts of the recovery! I hate Gatorade. Especially after my bariatric surgery, it just tastes sickeningly sweet to me, even the sugar-free one. And I've been trying to have salty meals and snacks, which they said are good for avoiding ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, which they predicted I would be at a moderate risk for. My weight jumped up about a pound and a half right before the retrieval, but it has stayed at the same exact weight ever since, so that's a good sign - sudden quick weight gain is a sign of OHSS, so stability is ideal right now.