Today was egg retrieval day! I can't believe it. We started our first "round" of IVF on October 10th and it has been a serious piece of cake. I have a bad habit of reading similar women's stories in the "blogosphere" and I was NOT looking forward to the shots, restrictions, and most especially, developing and taking out my eggs. Lesson learned: some women are major drama queens and take things to a whole other level than what they need to be taken to. It's time I take them down a notch!
Let me give you a little background info. The evening before I started my fertility drugs, we met with the doctor and I had a crash course on the do's and don'ts of this process. After two weeks of birth control, I was told, 1. No smoking. 2. No alcohol. 3. No exercise. 4. No caffeine (or very limited) and 5. No ibuprofen. Tylenol only. Umm, not sure about how your uterus feels during your period, but mine is like tiny T-Rex dinosaurs eating away at the flesh. If I'm told to take Tylenol, I might as well eat a handful of Sweet Tarts. They'd probably give me more relief.
So basically, I told him to just go ahead and kill me then.
Surprisingly, considering my profession, the no alcohol and no smoking wasn't a big deal. However, I need the last 3 to survive on a daily basis. Ok, let's be real, I just need the last 2 to survive. A sweet tea cocktail mixed with a handful of Motrin are at the tip-top of my "Oprah's Kristin's Favorite Things" list.
Like all my complaints about this process, I filed my whining into File 13 and put on my big girl panties.
I took 2 shots nightly and three daily vitamins, one of Follistim and one of Menopur (to stimulate egg production) for a few days and then Ganirellix towards the end to basically stop the signal from my brain to my ovaries telling them to "hold up" on the natural egg-releasing. I had to make the drive to Richmond every other day for about ten days for ultrasounds and bloodwork. The day before yesterday, I had sixteen follicles and my hormones were through the roof. We knew we I'd done a great job making the eggs before we even went in. Finally, I got something RIGHT!
We met with my doctor and he delivered some somewhat (at the time) disappointing news. With a normal "fresh" IVF cycle, they would take my eggs today, mix with Mike's "specimen" and start the fertilization process. In 3-5 days, the developed embryos would be placed back in my uterus and it'd be a waiting game to see if I became pregnant.
Because it's ME, I don't recognize the words "normal" and "regular" in my vocabulary. I have to do things differently.
They were able to get 27 (TWENTY-FREAKING-SEVEN!) eggs today. 20 of them are of really good quality, so that's what they will mix. (By the way, the pain is nothing like what I read. I took a nap this afternoon and woke up feeling like somebody punched me in the stomach. Just soreness, not cramping.) While I am THE Rockstar of Egg-Production, (Self-titled. I'm feeling pretty cocky after today ;) it's sort of put a damper on completing the "fresh" cycle. Here's why:
1. First of all, did y'all ever see the movie, Grease 2? Grease is arguably one of my top 5 favorite movies and even thought the sequel was a slap in the face to the first, they had some bangin' songs emerge from the film. Not only do the characters look like FORTY year old high schoolers, they randomly burst into song in the middle of wherever they please, and they do it horribly. Anyway, one of my favorite songs from that movie is the science class scene with they belt out, "RE-PRO-DUC-TION". I'm pretty high right now because I just took an ENTIRE pain pill. When I wrote the words, "egg-production" above, I burst out to the empty room "EGG-PRO-DUC-TION", then followed it up by whispering, "egg pro-duc-tion". Just wanted to share that. And now you have that song in your head. You're welcome.
1 (and a half). My hormone levels are super high. Great for producing eggs, not so great for keeping developing embryos where they need to be.
2. My uterus lining could be thicker. The embryos would have a hard time sticking to the lining with it the way it is right now.
3. Women who respond greatly to ovarian stimulation often have a better success with FROZEN embyos than fresh.
4. Women who are petite and have many eggs removed respond better to frozen, not fresh cycles. (Doc called me petite and I basically tuned out everything he said after that because I was basically falling in love with him after he called me "small". There were literally birds, butterflies, and rainbows circling his head in my eyes after he said this. And I'm pretty sure there was Celine Dion singing in the background of my imaginary rom-com playing out in my brain starring my fertility doctor)
So what does this mean?
It means that today my eggs and Mike's sperm were mixed together (as I fondly refer to it as, scrambled, and will *hopefully* fertilize over the next few days.) I'm having a hard time because I feel like we just left them behind at the office this morning and I wanted to stay and watch the little fellas work their magic.
On (probably) Tuesday, the 20 (if they make it) fertilized embryos will be frozen.
After I go through my next period cycle, we will do the FROZEN transfer instead of the fresh. We are looking at that happening over the next few weeks. While I was a little frustrated about this, I'm so grateful I have an extremely knowledgeable physician who immediately recognized this potential frozen transfer happening. We've already lost so much, it would have been devastating to have gone through all this and had it not work due to things that could have been prevented just by waiting a little bit.
We are waiting a little longer and I'm going to keep myself in check until the transfer happens. I will NOT take for granted how easy this entire thing has been for me, because there are so many women out there going through IVF who don't make ANY eggs, or don't ovulate when they should, etc. etc. If I have to wait a few more weeks with my 20 eggs, then that's just exactly what I'm going to do. Meanwhile, Santa is busting his rear preparing for Christmas...I'm putting a resume into the Easter Bunny.
