Egg Retrieval

I can't believe that I slept last night. The date is 1/11/12. I was nervous. I was excited. I was .. a little bit of everything, I suppose. We woke up early and drove to VASC together and checked in. It was the same place we went to meet Dr. Kim when we were interviewing him and then a lady from the lab came and got us. We walked down the hallway, made a right, then a left, and there we were. It was a very simple room with three sections rooms separated with curtains and we were in the right most one. This wonderful nurse, Julie (I adore her!), came and put my bracelet on and asked me a bunch of questions. I got into the gown, put on the gray socks they gave me, the hair net thing, and sat on the gurney and waited. There really were a lot of questions. Chris sat to my right. Dr. T was running half an hour behind and so there was a brief period where we were left alone with no questions to answer. We met the embryologist (Jen), the operating room nurse (can't remember her name right now), and the anesthesiologist.

The absolute worst part was when the IV went in. I knew it was going to happen, and Julie even joked with Chris whether he was a fainter because she said she had lost some husbands at that point. She was great, though. She numbed the area first and so I didn't feel the IV go in. It was just the thought that made me feel light headed. Afterward, she put the tape on and explained that there was no actual needle in my arm. She showed us this contraption where you use the needle to get into the vein but then you insert a small plastic tube in there so the patient can still bend their arms. It was neat ! I wish the tape was white, though, because I didn't like being able to see where it went into my arm. Oh well.

When Dr. T arrived, they had me empty my bladder again and then I walked myself into the operating room. It looked like a space laboratory and they undid my gown :( and had me sit up on the operating table (this would be the same room and table later used for ET). They asked me to scoot up on the table... and that was the last thing I remembered.

I woke up to see Chris peering at me from the left. I felt good ! I wasn't in pain though my ovaries had been throbbing a bit for the past few days. She gave me two Tylenol and I took them. She talked for a bit and then told me if I could use the restroom then I could go. There were a whole bunch of discharge instructions. The most useful one was that I shouldn't have anything but Gatorade or whey protein to drink. I had already been doing this, but still drinking a lot of water at work. That was a mistake. It turns out that water is too pure and can be absorbed by the ovaries.

Ah, I should probably mention that we retrieved 26 eggs ! Out of those, only 16 of those were mature, Jen said, and I asked if it was possible for them to mature before fertilization. She said yes. We opted to ICSI 8 of them (I should mention that we decided to split ICSI before this date because after thinking about it, we didn't want to even risk not having anything and we didn't know if fertilization was an issue, even if his sperm wasn't). We won't get a fertilization report until tomorrow. Fingers crossed !

Julie put me in a wheelchair (she had to, she said) and wheeled me to Chris's car. I took the pair of socks. :( Then we went home and I just sat in bed and watched TV and browsed the internet for the rest of the day (so pretty much like usual). :p

I did feel kind of a dull ache in my ovaries area so I've been drinking my Gatorade.

Trigger Day

Dr. T wasn't entirely truthful yesterday. I did end up doing blood work, but I'm glad that I did. My E2 is at 8110 now (eek) and my lining at 11.2. Because of those numbers, we're triggering today ! I will still take a dose of 150 iu Follistim at 3:30 PM and then trigger tonight at 10:30 PM. Ahh ! This all feels unreal to me.

Right:

15.8, 15.6, 15.8, 13.5, 13.6, 17.6, 17.3, 16, 12.2, 12.6, 13.3, 5 others smaller than ten

Left:

16.4, 12.2, 14.5, 17.6, 13.6, 11.5, 12.8, 14.3, 14.2, 18.7, 15.1, 14.6, 17.3, 13.6, 10.6, 14.7, 17.1, 12, 13.1

Tape recording my RE

I felt so shady taping my appointment with my RE this morning. I just always came home feeling like I wished I had every number that she read off, and so I came up with the idea that I'll just tape record the follicle count part so I could listen to it at home.

Today, my lining was at 10.2, E2 at 7216. I was told I'd most likely trigger Tuesday. Thankfully, the fluid that was behind my left ovary disappeared the next appointment, and it has not returned. Dr. T wants to see me again tomorrow morning. The good news is that there will be no blood work !

Right:

14.5, 13.7, 11.7, 13.9, 13.2, 15, 14.1, 13.6, 15.2, 13.4, 9.6, 9.6

Left:

12.3, 15, 11.5, 11.3, 11.8, 11.9, 9.9, 16.5, 12.5, 11.6, 12.3, 14.1, 15.8, 13, 16.8

Mission Impossible

No, it's not how I feel about this cycle. :p I went to go see it with my mother and sister tonight, and I was miserable the whole time. I've had this nasty cough for a few weeks now, and trying to sit through a movie without coughing (frantically digging in your purse looking for a cough drop) or peeing (I had to pee so bad and sat smack in the middle and so I held it the whole movie) is the worst. :(

January 6, 2012

Every time I go into an u/s appointment, I start to get apprehensive. Will the follicles still be growing ? Evenly ? How many ? There are always so many uncertainties. I always leave feeling like some people up there are watching out for me. Today, I had 11 follicles on the right and 16 follicles on the left. My lining is at 8.7 and most follicles are 11.+. There is one 12, one 13 and one 14. Some smaller ones are at ten. My E2 is at 3455. Although these are great numbers, I am a little disappointed that my follicles appear to be growing slower than my previous IUI cycles. Perhaps it's the Lupron (suppression), or maybe the TCM I've been taking (behind my RE's back), but they have been growing about 1 mm per day.

We will be lowering the dosage of Follistim tonight to 75 ius. I was told that unlike what we initially planned (back at consent signing), I will most likely not trigger on Sunday night (most likely Monday or Tuesday).

Surgery pre-op / Follicle check

I better get used to these early mornings ! They took my weight today and told me that I was at risk for mild to moderate OHSS and so they wanted me to take my weight daily. The only problem ? I don't have a scale at home. Today I weighed in at 124.4. I was told that I had a little bit of fluid behind my left ovary. I had 19 growing follicles and a triple striped 7.9 lining. My E2 level was 1402. The date is January 4th, 2012.

1st u/s appointment

For anyone who is going through IVF, we all look forward to ultrasound appointments ! That's when we can see what is going on inside and how we are responding. I had a great appointment today.I had 8 follicles on the right side measuring mostly 6 mm, though some were 5 mm and there have been a 4 mm. On the left side, even more follicles ! This is usually the case as I can feel my left ovary a lot more than my right one. There were two 8.+ ones, a bunch of 6 mm, some 5 mm and some 4 mm. I feel very lucky and thankful. I hope that all my follicles continue to grow at an even pace. <3

My lining today was at 6 mm. E2 = 552 and we are reducing the amount of Follistim I will be using to 100 iu for two days (until my next appointment). It looks like I'll be having every other day ultrasounds and blood work from here on out. My poor veins !