Retrieval Day

I'm still a little loopy so I make no promises that this will be written either coherently or entertainingly.

Started my morning at o dark thirty to make sure we got through Seattle traffic on time for my retrieval.  Traffic was on our side and we got there about a half hour early which kind of sucked since I wasn't able to go and get a snack or anything to pass the time.  So we hung out in the car listening to NPR make of the republican debates.

Gotta say, I was really nervous going in.  Not for the actual procedure, but for the weigh in.  I printed out the email I was sent saying that the procedure would move forward even if my weight had popped up above the 40 BMI cut off point and I was really prepared to raise a stink if anyone questioned me about the fact that yes, my weight has gone back up.  Fortunately, when I did weigh in, no one said a word about it, so all that worry and fight prep was for nothing.

K and I were taken to a back room and to a little bed behind a curtain where I stripped myself down.  I learned there why you can't be a fat patient, the gown hardly wraps around you!  If I were any bigger, I'd be mooning every body.

I got myself into the little bed and the technicians came in to put in the IV and that became quite the comedy.  They were both very lively women, unlike a lot of the zombies I've run into on the medical front lines elsewhere so there was a lot of joking around as we attempted to get a vein to work.  They thought they found one on the back of my right hand and when the numbing agent started plunging in, I accidentally jerked my hand.  I was startled by the intense burning of the stuff.  And it kind of went downhill from there.  My veins are just so sick of being poked, and I hadn't been allowed anything to drink since midnight last night, so all of my veins were hiding and not allowing medication into them.

The technicians attempted 2 different locations on my right hand, of 2 needle pokes each and were forced to give up and ask a doctor to come in and do it.  He went after my left hand and it took him 2 tries as well before we finally got what we needed.  And it's weird when they put that numbing stuff in, it swells up just under the skin so it looks like you've stuck a pea under there.  Between me jerking my hand, and them not finding the right vein, it took 9 needle pokes.

All the prep took about a half hour or so and it was very good natured, with a lot of joking around and stuff.  Then it was time to take me in and for K to go away to do his part, and for no reason at all I suddenly started crying.  I hate it when that happens!  I suddenly get overwhelmed and my face just wants to cry for no damned reason.

So then I find myself on the bed in the OR and I realize why I'm crying.  The last time I was looking at ceiling tiles like that, I was losing my girls.  And that's the last thing I said before waking up again back in the original bed.

K was next to me when I woke up of course and I was given a cup of animal crackers and a cup of water.  I knew I was going to want some pain meds before I left so I started chowing down on the crackers to get something in my stomach.  And I told K that we should get waffles on our way home and everybody giggled a little bit.  They told me that while I was still really groggy, I had muttered something about waffles.  Apparently I really wanted waffles!

They got 14 eggs.  I'm sure most people reading this think that's a fabulous number, but I'm really disappointed.  Our last attempt had 19 eggs and in the end we ended up with 5 good embryos.  So I was really hoping to have similar numbers, if not better to start with this time.  And since I had 15 ready to go at my last ultrasound, I had it in my head that 15 was the minimum that they were gonna get.

I really wanted to put an obnoxious number of embryos in storage from this attempt because I really never want to do this again.  While we have absolutely no way of knowing what the final tally will be at this point, if the numbers go about like they did last time, we anticipate 2 embryos to transfer, and 1 or 2 to put on ice.  But if we only put 1 or 2 in storage to keep that last one from the previous attempt company, that means that even if I get knocked up and deliver a baby from this attempt, I only have 1 or 2 attempts for a second child in the future.  I was really hoping for more than that.

On our way home we had breakfast at IHOP.  And just because I like to confuse everybody, I did NOT get waffles.

It was about noon, and I went straight back to bed and K decided to join me.  As did 3 of our 4 cats.  It's 5:15pm right now and I'm up, but K is still sleeping.  You know, because HE had a rough morning of making babies.

I'm bleeding a little bit and I'm planning on riding the Vicodin high today and probably most of tomorrow because I am in some pain.

And Bleeding Tulip, I got your comment - K had already stocked up on grilled cheese supplies yesterday.  My go to meal when I don't feel good is cream of tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich.  Sometimes we get fancy and put some tomato slices and/or bacon in the sandwich.