The day has finally come! I’ve been scared but at the same time excited. Such a whirlwind of emotions.
Retrieval was scheduled for 11:30am on Friday. I had to arrive by 10am. Because of Covid-19, Spencer was not allowed to come into the office. This added to my anxiety. I have never been put under with IV sedation, never had a surgery or even been in an OR.
5 different nurses came through my bay verifying my information, semen sample, vitals, process for the retrieval and then finally entering the IV. I did much better with than IV than I thought. He only had to prick me once!
My private bay in the pre/post OR
As I lay there, in a hospital gown, alone, I saw numerous women being rolled on beds, sedated but then waking up. Few minutes later, they would walk right out. I was like wow, they don’t seem to be in much pain. Maybe this won’t be as bad as I thought.
Nurses made sure I emptied my bladder at the last minute. I was guided back to the OR room, walking, dragging the IV bag.
I laid on the table and was assisted with getting into the stirrups.
Anesthesiologist walked in and gave me the special juice.
I was out almost immediately.
25 minutes later, I woke up in my bay, alone. I felt a little groggy and sleepy for about 5 minutes. A nurse helped me take a few steps on my own and by 10 minutes, I was back to normal.
My doctor came to meet me with great news!
24 eggs!
Wow, 24 eggs. I knew I had a lot of follicles but I didn’t expect them all to have eggs. This was great news.
I could finally give my husband a call to let him know he could enter the building and pick me up.
It was a scary process to do alone and masked. This whole IVF process during Covid-19 has been a little different from other women’s experiences I’ve read. With social distancing rules and reducing capacity, there are just some things we have to do alone these days.
I went home, got McDonalds french fries to reduce the chances of OHSS, and watched Netflix for the remainder of the day. I used the heating pad off and on for the slight cramping. I filled a pain medicine prescription but luckily I haven’t used any.
I was expecting to be very crampy afterwards, especially with that many follicles, and pricks! So far so good, even one day later. Every woman is different, some have severe cramping or OHSS, and others don’t. Everything about infertility is so dependent on the individual.
We got the call today that ALL 24 eggs were mature! AND 20 have fertilized normally. We did choose to do ICSI so I believe that help tremendously.
Now we wait to see how many make it to Day 5, which is Wednesday!
We are elated with the news so far.