Black Jack!

....It's set!  21 eggs retrieved today at my egg retrieval!  I call "Black Jack!" :)  Lucky 21.  I think I'll play the Power Ball tonight, lol.  The egg retrieval went fairly well--without a hitch.  We dropped Vanessa off this morning at school and went straight to the center.  Checked in at 8am and went over some paperwork with the RE Nurse, Brenda.  After signing off on the consents, Gregg then went to provide his "sample"...or as I like to say it, spit in a cup, lol.  I then went to change into my oh so lovely party hat, gown, and skidsocks.  Dan, the anesthesiologist came to prep me and to let me know how things would go in terms of sedation and signing off again on consents.  Gregg sat with me while they prepped the OR.  Dr. Dokras then came to let me know she'd be doing the egg retrieval and just prep me for that as well.

...They then whisked me off to the OR and then Gregg went to sit and wait for me.  We both had agreed to participate in an IVF study related to incubation of embryos and if there was any correlation with the percentage of oxygen exposed to the embryos while they were incubating...so I think Gregg got his bloodwork done for the study while I was getting the retrieval done.

...While in the OR, Dan and the head nurse, John were prepping me for the procedure.  They of course noticed my bedbug bitten arm and we talked about what a pain it is to have them and all that was necessary to get rid of them...as we were talking Dan was getting my I.V. ready and administering my lovely cocktail to sedate me...I remember talking about my appendisitis and then I was out, lol.

Obviously we didn't conceive naturally, but I still found this cartoon to be totally funny... :)

...According to the staff...I was aware and awake much quicker than most and they said everything went really well.  Dr. Dokras told me they were able to retrieve 21 eggs...how exciting!  She said I had many more follicles, but successfully, they aspirated 21 of them...yey!  They then wheeled me into recovery and had Gregg meet me in the room...where I was greeted with graham crackers, water, ginger ale and saltines...and pretty heavy cramping...and of course the chills as the sedation was wearing off.

...We sat for about an hour until we got the all clear for me to change and go home...and they said I'd get a phone call tomorrow with a progress report on how many fertilized and how everything is going. 

...So now I'm home...I've had lunch...my sister-in-law and her family are on their way here to go to the Phillies game and know nothing about our IVF so I am very thankful that I feel pretty good because if I would have bailed, she would've became suspicious so thankfully, I am gonna go and hang out and it's a baseball game, spent...sitting down so I should be OK but in case I'm not, we only live 10 minutes from the stadium so I can always go home, easy.

...I'm going to try to nap before the insanity begins and Gregg will have to give me my progesterone injection tonite at 10pm in my "bum" so we will see how that goes...I will be sure to update when I find out the stats on my eggs...until then, Go Phillies!

Elise_PG_Wannabe