After a short wait in silence in the waiting room (they really need some music or something playing in their lobby), Penny came to take me back. My room wasn't quite ready - so she took me to another room and took my blood pressure. Then she told me to go in the bathroom to "empty my bladder," use these 3 sanitary wipes afterwards, and then wait for her back in the room. By the time I came back out of the bathroom my husband was waiting there for me. Penny came back and gave me the narcotic medicine via an intra-muscular shot. After that I laid down on the table and my hubby sat in the chair and we just chatted while we waited for it to work its magic. Penny came back a few times to check on us and checked my blood pressure again. I could tell that I was starting to feel a little sleepy and dizzy. While we were waiting, I told my husband that if they happened to go in there and only find one egg (like the scene from "Finding Nemo") that if we got a baby from the egg that we had to name the baby "Nemo" and he agreed to it.
When our room was ready, we walked over and I could tell I was a little off from the shot they gave me. But I was able to undress from the waist down and get into position. Dr. Williams came in with a nurse and a resident that was observing him - so we all shook hands! The more the merrier, right? :) They also told us that they recommended that we do ICSI - which is when they actually insert the sperm directly into the egg, instead of just letting the sperm find the egg in the dish. I think it's just an extra-precaution they do to ensure that the eggs are fertilized. If the eggs are retrieved but none fertilize - there's nothing they can do after the fact. At this stage of the game, we are all about doing whatever it takes to make things work! Since we are doing ICSI - they gave me a prescription for a steroid that I will take for 6 days (starting today) to weaken my immune system. He said it's something that is often prescribed for poison ivy. But it just helps to ensure that my immune system won't attack the embryo when they are transplanted.
Dr. Williams used a probe-like instrument like he did for all of my previous ultrasounds - except this one had a needle attached to it (which I really didn't get a good look at). When he inserted the needle up I felt some pressure and he asked if we were still friends. :) I said, "Of course!" We could see the follicles on the ultrasound and see the little needle poking into each one and draining it. During the procedure, I could feel pressure and slight cramps - but nothing that was too unbearable. I liked being able to watch it on the screen - but I could've laid back and not watched it if I didn't want to. One-by-one he drained each follicle. While he was doing it, we were all joking about how it was like he was just playing a video game. He would also talk "doctor talk" with the resident from time to time as well. I had my eyes glued to the screen, but my husband was also watching the other part of the process happening. He said that the needle/probe thing had a long tube coming out of it that was connected to test tubes that the nurse was holding. As the tubes would fill up, she would pass the filled tubes through the window to the lab and start filling another one. If Dr. Williams found a big follicle, he would ask if she had enough room in the test tube for a "big one." Neither of us counted how many follicles were drained or tubes that were filled. Towards the end I was definitely ready for it to be done - but it wasn't really painful - just uncomfortable like a stomach ache. He double-checked to make sure that he didn't miss any and then then checked me to make sure there wasn't any major bleeding up in there. He said everything looked good and then commented on my nice froggy socks (Thanks, Robbins!). We chatted with him for a little bit and he said that the lab folks would be busy counting up the eggs under their microscope. The entire procedure honestly only took about 10 minutes - went by very fast!
A nurse came in and brought in a small glass of water for me to sip. She took my blood pressure again and asked how I was feeling. I told her I felt some slight cramping, but pretty good otherwise. She noticed my husband's Bengals sweatshirt and we found out that she grew up in Cincy. I asked but she didn't go to any of my Cincy friends' high schools. She gave us a few more minutes and then came back with the good news - Dr. Williams was able to retrieve EIGHTEEN eggs!!! :) I'd like to thank my wonderful nurse husband for giving me all of the shots and helping me to make so many eggs!! We are a good egg-making team. The nurse told us that 5-10 eggs would be good - so we were level-setting our expectations with that range. So 18 is much higher than we were expecting, but wonderful news to hear. From this point on, it's kind of a numbers game. Of the 18, only so many will fertilize and turn into embryos. And then only so many of those embryos will continue to develop as they need to. But at least we have a high number to start with. I'm hopeful that we'll have a enough good embryos to transfer this time and maybe even save for the future. But we just have to take it one step at a time and see how many fertilize.
We left the office around 11:30am and headed to Giant Eagle to drop off my prescriptions. Dr. Williams also prescribed me with some prescription-strength Tylenol for the pain/discomfort/bloating. After we got home, I just went up to bed and relaxed. There was a nice little care package of magazines and snacks along with a card from my IVF buddy - so thoughtful of her! I made a few phone calls to family members sharing the good news. My voice sounded really scratchy/groggy because the narcotic medicine made my mouth really dry (which they told us would happen). My husband went to pick up my prescriptions and my sister stopped by with a cute little plant and some more magazines. Even though I felt okay besides the slight cramping, I took one of the prescription strength Tylenols around 1pm and rested until about 3:30pm - sleeping on/off. Then I watched some TV and read some of my magazines. I had some Sprite and Club crackers for a little snack - they said I could eat whatever I wanted as long as I felt like it. One of my friends stopped by after work with a beautiful fruit arrangement and then my sister & her family brought over some dinner - we are feeling the love! Tonight I was able to walk around without any troubles. Even though I'm not in pain, I can definitely tell that something was done to me today. But I never had the really bad cramps and bloating that they warned me about. Maybe it will come tomorrow? But if not, I'm okay with that, too. I'm starting to think I don't have any nerves or that my pain sensors are busted - but I guess I should just go with it.
Tonight was my first shot of Progesterone and it also went really well. I thought it would hurt more than the Novarel (HCG) shot - but it wasn't bad at all. And I also took my Minocin pills this evening and the new steroid pills (because of the ICSI) and my whey protein drink. So much to keep track of these days - but luckily, I'm pretty organized! I decided to take tomorrow off of work as well - I could work from home if I continue to feel okay, but instead I'll just relax for another day. Tomorrow we find out how many eggs were fertilized.... to be continued!