Eggs Retrieved!

The egg retrieval was this morning and it went just fine. The doc got nine eggs, which I suppose is a good number. I feel fine and, having taken the day off from work, am lying on the couch in front of the air conditioner (it's in the 90s here today), blogging supine.

It's not bad at all.

Two nights ago, right after I posted about giving my trigger shot in an hour, Mr. Lyrehca and I gathered the syringe and the needles and two vials of the HCG material. Unfortunately, the instructions we had weren't great. Shouting ensued, then we both went tearing upstairs to download an online video from a local pharmacy. I had to figure out exactly how to mix liquid A with powder B, using a ginormous syringe. Then, after mixing things properly, I was supposed to switch out enormous-needle for much-smaller-needle, then inject the whole thing precisely at 7:30 p.m.

I was twenty minutes late.

The thing about the trigger shot is that it's carefully timed so that the retrieval happens 36 hours later. And although it was a pleasant Sunday evening around us, I paged the doctor on call to find out if the 20 minute delay was a problem.

It wasn't. And the doctor on call was kind enough to tell me I was well within normal ranges, and he didn't even sound annoyed that I bothered him with this kind of question.

Monday came and went without any issues. I told my boss and assistant I'd be out for a medical procedure/sick day and no more details. I finished a huge freelance deadline in the afternoon. I did as much work at my day job as I could concentrate on.

Last night, my last meal was around 9:30, and I didn't eat anything else, as directed, after midnight. I'd already had a conversation with one of the fertility clinic's anesthesiologists about my insulin pump, and how I wanted to keep it intact. Unlike the last surgery I had, this anesthesiologist was like, "You're the expert on your own diabetes, and the procedure is only 20 minutes long, so it's fine if you want to leave your insulin pump on and handle your own blood sugar testing." Hooray!

I got up around 4am to pee, and tested at around 160. I bolused .8 units (how I love my insulin pump) and woke up around 6:15am at 127. I showered, wore super-lose clothes, took off all my jewelry, nail polish, and was makeup- and product-free, and we drove to the clinic.

My appointment was for 7am, and I wasn't nervous at all. Instead, I thought about how awesome it would be to lie in bed and relax for the rest of the day.

Once I checked in, a nurse brought me to a room that resembled a hospital ward, but instead of beds, there were comfy armchairs. I signed a release form, tested again at 110, and talked to a nurse about the procedure. The doctor came in to shake my hand (at this clinic, you may or may not get your own doctor doing the procedure, as they rotate days). My doc was impressed my blood sugar was 110. "I'm used to patients coming in here with 300s," he remarked. I assured him I was in very tight control.

Mr. Lyrehca and I kissed goodbye, and he went out to the waiting room (he gets more nervous about these things than I do), and I walked into the operating room and got onto a surgical bed. I quizzed the embryologist (the person who examines the retrieved eggs) about a few things, put my legs up in these rubber-band-like stirrups, and got some oxygen and anesthesia in a mask, and was out like a light. The last thing I remember asking was if my tipped uterus (not even sure that's what I have, but I've been told it's tilted somehow) would make the retrieval a problem and the nurse assured me it wouldn't.

The next thing I recalled, the nurse was telling me loudly to wake up. I was back in the hospital ward area on a surgical table. "You had nine eggs," the nurse told me. This sounded great to me, as I had eight good-sized follicles two days ago. My abdomen was definitely crampy, a three on a 1-10 pain scale. The nurse brought me extra-strength Tylenol and called Mr. Lyrehca into the room.

"I thought you would be less groggy," he said. Once I'd gotten up and tested my blood sugar (124!) and got a few graham crackers (25 carbs), I was feeling OK. We hung out at the clinic for perhaps 20 minutes longer, then I was discharged and we went home to nap and take it easy.

So tomorrow I should get a call to hear how many eggs actually fertilized and whether we'll do the transfer on Friday (three days after the retrieval) or Sunday (five days later, and what the doctor would prefer.) It'll all depend on how things fertilize day by day.

Stay tuned.