I’m writing this post from my mom’s couch. I’ll get to why my moms in a little bit. It took me a while to emotionally and physically even be able to sit down and try to process the last 36 hours and write this post. If you follow my Facebook you know it was a rollarcoaster. A nightmare. Then a miracle.
Saturday morning I had my egg retrieval surgery after weeks of IVF. The surgery was supposed to be Weds but got pushed to Sat. Which stunk because my hubby had to leave on a business trip to Seattle Sunday am. So thus why I am on my moms couch. I moved in with her during my recovery. There is no way I can take care of my two year old at the moment let alone myself.
For surgery, I was fully put under…thank goodness. Basically they put a 20 inch needle up your lady bits and then pierce the vaginal wall to THEN pierce your ovaries to get to the follicles (sacs that contain an egg). They put a needle into your ovaries dozens of times to drain the follicles with the hope there is an egg floating in there.
When I came too I kept asking my hubby to tell me, “How many eggs did they get???” He wouldn’t tell me and looked away. Uh OH. When the nurse came in she said, “Six. They got six”. In that moment I wanted to cry. I wanted to punch the wall. “How I asked, how?????” With 14 mature follicles how were there only 6 eggs???” She softly said over half the follicles didnt have an egg in them. My world went silent. Like someone hit the pause button. I was in disbelief. THEN the doctor comes in says, “The six you have are small. They might not be mature enough to work”.
I looked at the nurse and said, “This is a nightmare. Put me back to sleep I want a good dream.” The doctor said they were trying to fertilize them now (they were injecting sperm into each one in the lab) and that she would have the lab call me as soon as they knew if the eggs were able to be fertilized (if they aren’t mature they wont be receptive insemination).
That’s when you saw my facebook status… coming home from surgery sitting in the car, drugged up on pain killers and wearing a diaper from the bleeding, thinking it was ALL for nothing.
A little before noon my phone rang. I literally held my breath. “Yes this is embrology. All 6 are mature AND fertilized. They are small but mighty.”
“SAY WHAT?!?!?!”
MIC DROP.
Tears. My nightmare turned miracle.
Although the IVF was easier this time around, the surgery and recovery have been much more painful. All that fluid they drained from my ovaries looking for eggs? Well my body replaces that fluid and then it leaks into abdomen through the holes from the needle. Your stomach feels like a pressurized gas chamber for days if not a week after. Its very hard to walk, I am constantly on strong pain killers, using a heating pad at night to get through the early recovery days. Last time there was pressure. This time there is pressure, pain, and some bleeding. Tomorrow the nurse expects it to start getting easier bit by bit.
The eggs have to get through huge hurdles in the weeks to come. Tomorrow is hurdle #2, did any start growing and multiplying after they injected the sperm into them??
Holding my breath once again.
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