I Wanna be Sedated

***TMI POST ALERT***

I have to share a secret with everybody...I have the best husband in the world. He may be a bit of an odd ball but we have the same sense of humor and he's always been there for me through thick and thin. The night before our egg retrieval he was singing "I Wanna be Sedated" by the Ramones to gear me up for the big day ahead of us.

Our appointment was set for 10:45 in the morning. Since we decided that I should "help" Brandon with his end of the deal, we came in a little bit early. It was quite unnecessary because they didn't call us back for the specimen contribution till around 11:00. When Brandon and I got into the room we were a little disappointed. There was a tiny loveseat in a corner that could barely fit the two of us and an enormous bookshelf filled with knick knacks, sterilized cups and a few magazines. The first thing I noticed was this panda bear statue.


Are you kidding me? Two pandas doing it doggy-style in a room that's reserved for baby batter collection? I thought it was hilarious. At any rate, the job was done and Brandon pulled through. He didn't drop the cup like I was deathly afraid he would do.

I finally got called back around 11:45. I changed into a gown and was seated in a chair. The anesthesiologist asked me a bunch of questions and hooked me up to an IV. Then I was led into the actual retrieval room. Everything was set up almost like a birthing table/IUI table. They didn't have the normal ultrasound stirrups, I got the calf stirrups so my goods were hanging out for everyone to see. I was given a heart rate monitor, oxygen in my nose and a blood pressure cuff. Luckily Nurse D was there which made me feel a lot better. She showed me the ultrasound screen and the "take-out" window. The embryologist was on the other side of the take-out window waiting to pick up my order of over-easy eggs as they came out. Next thing I know Dr P is coming in the room and the anesthesiologist tells me she's going to start the medication drip.

And then I woke up in the recovery room sitting in a recliner. Brandon was called in to the room and I was given some apple juice and crackers. I remember watching Who Wants to be a Millionaire and yelling at the guy on there who was an idiot. He was getting questions wrong that I was able to answer correctly even in my semi-conscious state. I asked Brandon if he knew how many eggs they got and he said 18. Then Dr P showed up and told us they had gotten 20 eggs. They were still counting the number of mature eggs though. So far they had counted 10 eggs and all 10 were mature. We don't know the status of the other 10 eggs but Dr P thinks we'll get 16 mature eggs out of the bunch. I might call the lab tomorrow morning to get a definite number. **UPDATE** I called the lab and the doctor was right...they got 16 mature eggs!!


Brandon brought the good camera and took a picture of my cute socks. He said the camera phone I had been using for the ultrasound pictures wasn't that great. We sat there for a bit before I was ready to get up and go home. I was still in a bit of pain, quite crampy and feeling like I had to use the bathroom (#2) but didn't want to push anything out because of the pain. I'm feeling quite constipated right now.

I took two Percocet and drank some Gatorade before laying down to take a nap. After waking up I felt much better and got dressed to go out to eat at Golden Corral. I drank a little more Gatorade but as we were getting ready to leave I started to feel queasy and sat down. Brandon said I had some anti-nausea pills so I asked him to get me one. I took it but I think it was a little too late. A few minutes later I was throwing up in the bathroom. Luckily I didn't throw up alot because I hadn't eaten much all day. Afterwards I took another anti-nausea pill and felt much better. We still ended up going out to eat and so far I've kept it all down.

I'm so glad I got past one more hurdle in this IVF process. Everything is really just a gamble: how many follicles will you get, how many eggs are in those follicles, and how many of those eggs are mature? Now we have to see how many of those mature eggs will fertilize. It's pretty much out of our hands now. No amount of relaxation or vitamins can help those little embies at this point. All we can do is hope for the best. We've been quite lucky so far and we've had a great cycle, I'm just praying that things continue to go well for us.