IVF #5: Retrieval

On Wed. Nov. 28th I got off work at 5 like normal, drove 45 mins home. Changed and ate a quick dinner with Bryce and we ran back out the door to head to mutual. (I work with the Mia Maids and Bryce works with the Teachers. Awesome)

As soon as it was over we rushed back home to figure out how to do the trigger shot. 

I was nervous. 

I remembered in the teaching visit before we started IVF, when Tiecha had me do a practice trigger shot and just squirted it into a trashcan after loading it. It took SOOOO long to push all of the fluid out through that teeny tiny needle. Yikes.

Anyway, Bryce took a video of me doing the entire thing but I don't know how to load videos....it always tells me it can't do it. Love that.

So we'll settle with a pic of the trigger meds in the bottles (you mix the Novarel with the water before injecting it) and one of my stim shot pics just for fun. LOL 

The shot goes into your stomach just like all the other shots. But it's more fluid than the others.

The funny thing about doing shots with that much fluid is that when your pinching your skin/fat :) out and you inject the fluid in, once you get enough in you can feel the fluid under your fingers beneath the skin.....lol. Such a weird feeling. Sorry if I grossed you out but guess what....I actually experienced it. 

Yeah. Weird.

Anyway, so we did it and there ya go!

The next day was beautiful---sleeping in the extra 5 mins since I didn't have to do ANY shots that day. :)

And knowing we'd be headed in the next morning. It was so exciting! 

I think that might have been one of the days I was out on my lunch looking at things like this at JC Penny....

And these...holy moly. Found them online and I'm in L.O.V.E.

Everything was becoming so real. 

That night we decided to go get one of our favorite TX dinners.

THE GOLDEN CHICK'S fried chicken.....

Oooooh man. It's 100 times better than any KFC or any other fast food. It's AMAZING. Only Texas knows how to fry chicken.

This is what I wore to get dinner that night. 

Oscar the grouch slippers and sweat pants. Oh yes, ma'am.

It was amazing.

The next morning we got ready. We had strict instructions not to wear any perfumes or deoderants and I figured that also meant hairspray....

I opted for my side messy bun so it wouldn't be in my face and so I could still lie down without it buggin. And then my comfy breast cancer run shirt and my comfiest jeans and my comfiest sweater.....I'm noticing a trend....

I had to be fasting so Bryce had a quick breakfast while I got ready. Man, I was hungry! Cherise doesn't like going without food....luckily the grumpiness that usually accompanies my hunger was suppressed by the fact that we were gonna go make some little babies! 

(bahaha, seems like that would be really awkward to share but this is a little different...)

I had a slight dilemma. I really wanted some special/meaningful songs to listen to after the retrieval to help me relax and be calm and happy. But since we recently got our free upgrades on our phones, I no longer have all my music on my phone. So we stopped at Walmart on the way and grabbed an iTunes gift card so I could download a few songs I was wanting. And grabbed a couple more gatorades while we were there. (Lived on them, I'm telling you....)

HOW I WAS FEELING PHYSICALLY:

I. Felt. Full.

For the week prior I had been feeling more and more full. My stomach never seemed to go flat anymore. Usually I wake up in the morning and it's flat and when I eat I get my pooch but it goes away with a bit of time. But the further I got with the meds and the closer I got to retrieval the more uncomfortable I was.

But honestly, it was nothing compared to what I had expected. I thought I would be miserable but it was really fine. Uncomfortable, yes but still good! 

An hour later, we arrived at the clinic. Bryce parked and we just looked at each other for a minute. Bryce seriously took such good care of me. Well, he always takes really good care of me but during this whole process he was there 100% for anything I needed. He was amazing.

We headed inside and into the elevator.

ORDERING A FAMILY OF....

We only had to wait a couple of minutes in the lobby before Amy came to get us. We headed to the back of the office, past the ultrasound rooms and the hall where we'd get all our labs drawn, past Dr. Noorhasan's office, past the radiology room where I had my HSG and was diagnosed with a Uniconuate Uterus and PCOS and into the back where we'd never been before. 

We got our own little room with a hospital bed and a chair for Bryce and a cabinet for our things. The retrieval nurse, Amy was the one who brought us back. 

She had me change into a hospital gown, a beautiful blue hair net and matching blue booties to go over my socks.

When I finished dressing we propped the door open again so they’d know we were ready and I sat on the edge of the bed and Bryce scooted his chair up to me and held my hands. It was exciting and nerve racking but we were both so so happy to be there and be moving forward!

Amy came back in with a stack of paperwork. The first thing she told us what the Dr. Noorhasan was able to rearrange her schedule so she could be the one the do the retrieval. She normally works in the other office on Friday mornings but she was able to make it work. We were so so grateful and relieved! We would have been in great hands, of course, with Dr Golstein, but having your own Doctor just makes a difference. We were so happy! Amy went through the procedure and what would happen and then had us sign consent forms. Then she went over the discharge info a little so we’d know what to expect but she said they’d go over it again after the procedure. She talked with me again about the possibility of OHSS since I had all the risk factors for it. It was the same thing they’d discussed with me three other times.
Here's me and Amy! (again with the closed eyes....what's up with that?)

After she was about done, Dr. Noorhasan came in to chat with us. She’s so sweet; we really really like her. She went over the procedure again and asked if we had questions. She said afterwards I would feel a little crampy, kind of like period cramps but that overall I should actually feel a little better than prior to the procedure. We discussed that Carlos, the embryologist would be calling us the next day to give us an update on any embryos we had and give us a good estimate on the date of the embryo transfer. (Most likely would be around Tuesday, give or take a day.) Once all our questions had been answered I asked if I could take a picture with her so she sat next to me on the bed and Bryce took one for us. We joked about how she got to take off her scrub cap and have her hair look so nice and I had all my garb on aaand my eyes are pretty much closed.... But I’m so glad I got the picture anyway.

I had had Bryce take a few other pics earlier as well. It is just really important to me that I document as much as possible during this whole experience.
And here's my man! He really is amazing.

So we made sure to take pics cuz it’s not every day that a bunch of doctors keep such close tabs on you and then take out a bunch of eggs all at once to fertilize under a microscope!!

Amy started my IV because they’d be giving me anesthesia for the retrieval so I’d be completely under the whole time. They took me to go to the bathroom and then let me say Bye to Bryce before I went in. He gave me a kiss and I just admired his adorable face before they took me back. 

I love it.

I was introduced again to the anesthesiologist, who was super nice and I think I recall seeing Carlos (embryologist) walk through right before they started but I was never introduced.  They got me settled on the bed and hooked me up for the anesthesia. 

And honestly, I hardly even remember the moments before I was out. That stuff worked FAST.

According to Bryce, they did the procedure and after, they stopped administering the anesthesia, and I woke up enough to sit up and move to my own bed which was then wheeled to my own room where Bryce was. 

But the first thing I remember, is waking up in my own room, in the bed I had sat on originally while we waited beforehand, with Bryce next to me. Amy and Dr Noohasan were either both in there or just Amy and Dr N came later…I can’t remember.

I was a bit fuzzy.... evidenced by this beautious pic of me right after the retrieval:

They had told Bryce I’d be confused and ask the same questions over and over while I came out of it. He said it was exactly as they said. Apparently I asked how many eggs they got about 5 times. I think I recall only two of the times. I asked once and they answered but a little later they were still talking to us and I couldn’t remember what the answer had been. They told me again. They had gotten 21 follicles, mostly from my left side. The right ovary only had a couple.  

Most follicles have one egg each. It’s a sack containing fluid that surrounds the egg. So most have only one but sometimes a follicle will contain more than one or none at all. The bigger the follicle the more likely it is that it will have an egg. So during the procedure Dr N got all the big and medium sized follicles. My left ovary was so overrun with follicles and they were all so squished together and overlapping each other that it was a difficult procedure but had gone well overall and 21 is a great number!

At some point they came for Bryce so he could give the semen sample for the fertilization. While he was gone I put my headphones in connected to my iPhone and listened to the few songs that I had downloaded specifically for after the retrieval. 

I was in and out of sleep until he got back. They had given me some apple juice to drink. 

We talked for a bit with his chair up close to me by the bed and held hands and smiled. It may sound cheesy but it’s exciting and a crazy experience that we just never expected to have.
But it was special for us to be there together and trust that they could help us bring our child(ren) down here. :)