Successful Egg Retrieval!!

Our retrieval was a success today! They got 29 follicles! I was astounded and excited by that number! They put me under and the whole procedure only lasted about 15 minutes, according to Mark. He got to watch the whole thing. He said it was pretty cool. The doctor sucks the follicles out and there is a little window leading to the embryology lab. She just passes each one right through the window and the embryologist gets to work on separating the egg from the follicle. I guess I started to come to when they were wheeling me back to the recovery room. I was mumbling, "That's cool." Like I was drunk. As soon as we got back to the recovery room I asked Mark how many they got. He told me. I was still quite drugged, so I asked him again a half hour later. He said, "You seriously don't remember this conversation?". I remembered once he said that! :) Hopefully we get a good fertilization rate and get a couple really strong ones for our embryo transfer!

Because of the number they retrieved, they are concerned about ovarian hyper stimulation syndrome (OHSS). This happens when your ovaries fill with blood and fluid. Your abdomen gets large and you can get a fever, and worse. They are bringing me back in on Saturday to do an OHSS check. In the mean time, Mark and I have to watch out for signs like a fever, gaining more than two pounds a day (yes, less than two pounds is just fine...scary!), and some other things.

Right now I'm just feeling OK. My stomach is huge and I'm tired. Other than that I thought I was doing fine. I was laying on the couch and decided to go to the bathroom. I realized I was in some pain, so I decided to go upstairs to get some Tylenol, the only medicine I can have today. I got to the top of the stairs and my heart was pounding. By the time I got to the linen closet it felt like my heart was pounding in my throat. I stopped and braced myself on the closet door. I suddenly lost my hearing and got dizzy. Luckily Mark was there because I then collapsed and hit the floor. I would have hit my head on the bathtub if he hadn't caught me. I came to immediately and didn't want to move because my ovaries hurt and it hurts to use my abdominal muscles. Mark carried me into bed. By the time I reached the bed I was sweating profusely. It was just the strangest thing. Now I'm sitting in bed and doing just fine. I think I'll ask Mark to get things for me from now on!

Now we wait. We find out on Saturday whether our embryo transfer is on Sunday or Tuesday. They watch the eggs for fertilization (once they separated the egg from the follicle, they injected each with Mark's sperm). They then watch to see if they split. Once an egg is fertilized, it begins splitting into multiple cells. If it is evident on Saturday which two embryos are the best, they will do the transfer on Sunday. If there are still multiple embryos that are splitting well and of good quality, they will wait a couple more days to identify and transfer the best two. After transfer, they will watch the remaining embryos and they will freeze the viable ones. It really is amazing! I wish I could hang out in the embryology lab just to see what happens! I guess we'll find out in due time. What's a few more days after over two years? It's all rounding error, now.