Bonus Eggs!

Egg retrieval today.  Since we only did one less than a month ago, things were very familiar, except that I was asked to do a “quick ultrasound” when the nurse called to give me trigger instructions.

On cycle day 12, which was on Friday, we went back for a monitoring appointment.  The follicles were measured as follows: 18mm, 12mm, 10mm, and the small one that wasn’t even measured.  We went ahead with signing all the consents as if we were going to proceed with the trigger that night and retrieval this morning.  The nurses still had to confirm with Dr. No Nonsense if he indeed wanted to trigger that night.  I emailed Dr. No Nonsense’s personal nurse ahead of time about the Val.ium but hadn’t heard back from her.  So I asked this nurse who signed consent forms with us if I could have her call it in for me.  She was very good.  When I checked on the pharmacy website later that day, it was already available.  But see, you really have to remember things and ask for things yourself.

When another nurse called at 4:30, she instructed me to arrive at 7:30am on Sunday for 8:15am retrieval.  Trigger was to be at 10:15 pm.. which was a bit odd.  So instead of a 36 hour trigger, it was a 34 hour trigger.  I wonder why but I would just do it.  The doctor also wanted me to do a quick scan before we head over to the procedure floor.  A quick scan? I had never done a scan right before any retrievals.  Of course I asked for an explanation.   Apparently they wanted to make sure I hadn’t ovulated already.  What?  What about Ganirelix?  I asked about that.  She had to call me back after confirming with my nurses that indeed I would be doing Ganirelix.  I felt a little bit better.  I would NOT want to ovulate before the retrieval.  Ever since I was told about the extra scan, I had been checking my cervix to make sure that it was still high and soft.  Man… It was a bit stressful to know that the professionals thought that there might be a possibility of premature ovulation…  One has to trust….

That night, we pre-celebrated with a Japanese dinner.  We hadn’t had Japanese in a while.  Our engagement anniversary is a great excuse to eat some sushi.

When I got ready the night before, I picked out these owl socks that Bob bought me for Christmas:

Owl is my second favorite animal.  I love these socks and was happy that I could wear them.  Since I am not wearing super hero socks or outfit, I enlisted the help from my secret FB group friends.  One of them even had her whole family wear super hero outfits to church.  I am so so touched!  Bob wants to buy a super hero t-shirt for the next round to join in the fun.

I have been quite at peace with this cycle.  My thought process is… we’ll get what we can get.  Bob was very good this morning and got me there 15 minutes before the scheduled time.  I had been fasting so I only took a little sip of water before taking the Val.ium.  When we arrived, the receptionist initially couldn’t find my name.  And when she found it, she didn’t have it down that they wanted to do a quick scan before we went up to the procedure room.  We did a scan anyways.  It was a real RE who did it.  In fact the RE who would later perform my retrieval.  Dr. Dry Humor came in and I asked him why we needed to do a scan.  He said that with my kind of protocol there would be a possibility that I had already ovulated prematurely.  They would do a scan just for precaution.  Although he said that he didn’t understand why I needed one since I wouldn’t be doing anesthesia so they could see my ovaries in the procedure room before they poked me with a needle.  I was thinking, well, it’d be better to discover earlier on when I was fully clothed than after I was all prepped for the procedure.  We were all relieved that there were still follicles on both left and right ovaries.

I like doing egg retrievals on the weekend.  The clinic appeared so peaceful.  It was the same nurses who helped me.  I changed into my gown and sat at my designated seat.  The difference today from a month ago was it was cold in the room.  BRRRRRRRR.  I needed not one but two warm blankets.  The Val.ium started to take an effect quite quickly and I felt heavy all over.  I sat there waiting and watching people go in and out of the procedure room.

Today’s procedure was actually on time.  The operating room was very cold.  They put two blankets on me and I was still cold.  Dr. Dry Humor was not as mellow as Dr. Turkey but was still very gentle with everything.  My thighs were high up and quite exposed.  Because my behind was so cold, my legs were shaking a bit.  I was definitely not nervous.  I was just cold.  I tried my best to hold still for the doctor.  He did not have to release any urine like last time.  He cleaned my cervix quickly and proceeded to start with the right ovary with the needle to get the big follicle.  One of the nurses came by and held my hand throughout the whole procedure.  Dr. Dry Humor got that big one quickly and passed the needle through the plexiglass to the embryologist on the other side.  After a couple of moments, they declared that there was an egg.  Very relieved.  The needle only felt like it poked me instead of a sharp pain.  Totally tolerable.  Then Dr. Dry Humor attempted the left side.  I felt the needle going in and he maneuvered it a little.  We got two follicles there.  After a few moments, it was announced that we got two eggs there!

We had a total of three eggs?!?!!  I was expecting one.  And we got some bonus ones!!  I was very pleased and surprised!

Apparently my right ovary has some very prominent veins.  Dr. Dry Humor said it was almost impossible to avoid nicking them.  He had to go in and stop the bleeding, which took longer than the retrieval itself.  HA.  After a few minutes, the bleeding decreased to 20% and then 10%.  When I got up from the table, I could see my blood all over the pad that was under my gown.  Gross…

Throughout the process, I was joking with them about a bunch of things.  Bob did semi-complain that the “educational material” while giving his semen sample was a bit outdated and boring.  Dr. Dry Humor said… Dr. No Nonsense is actually responsible for the material.  😀  He urged me to bring that issue to Dr. No Nonsense and see if he would go improve the quality.  I was like…Noooooooo.

The nurse already prepared a heating pad on my seat when I sat down.  It felt soooo good.  She then placed another heating pad on my tummy.  They really took very good care of me.  I was given hot water and was just told to lie there and rest.  I asked to bring Bob back.  When he walked in, I asked him to guess how many we got.  He said.. I don’t know.. two???  I said nope, Three!!!  He was very pleased.  And guess what he said?  He was very happy that we paid $2000 per egg instead of $6000 for one egg.  I gotta laugh at his mentality.  It’s as if we got a bargain or a deal… which we did!

I rested for a little bit and felt a lot better.  I got up to change and the back of my gown was full of blood.  I think the bleeding has stopped now.  Bob and I went to a mexican breakfast place and I got my comfort food there, beef soup with rice and tortilla and some plantain:

It definitely hit the right spot.

I am very surprised and pleased with three eggs.  Praise the Lord for this miracle!  I am well aware of the possibility that some of them may not fertilize.  We may end up with one embryo.  We may have two.  OR we may have three!  We’ll find out if they fertilize tomorrow.  Every egg gives us more chances for our take home baby.  I hope to bring Ivan, Jenny, and Kevin into the family.

Three eggs!  Way more than what we had anticipated!  God is so good!