Egg Retrieval

Today was the big day, the egg retrieval. I went in at 9:00 am for the procedure and was feeling great. The past two days I had some discomfort in my ovaries but that day I felt great and was ready to go. Besides how could I not be feeling great with the amazing get up that they give you for the procedure!!



The Dr. was able to retrieve 12 good sized eggs and Mr. EB arrived a 1/2 hour after the procedure to give his sample, so Monday I can call the Dr. and see how many fertilized and the time and day for the transfer. This time around I am feeling a lot more discomfort after the retrieval. I am not sure if it is because of more eggs or what but I am enjoying the Tylenol! The Dr. gave me my long list of meds that I get to start taking now. Estrogen patches, estrogen pills, progesterone shots, baby Asprin, loads of folic acid and an antibiotic. Oh the fun pill popping resumes but it is better than all the shots in the stomach!

For those of you that don't know what happens with an egg retrieval I found this great explanation and video.

"The egg retrieval is performed thirty-six hours after hCG injection. You are given sedation by an anesthesiologist through an intravenous catheter, a small tube in an arm vein. You are not completely asleep, but in a sort of twilight state; you remember very little of the retrieval. After you are sedated, the vagina is washed with a salt water solution. A needle is placed under ultrasound guidance into the ovary and fluid and eggs from the follicles in your ovaries are collected into a test tube and sent to the IVF lab. The whole procedure takes about 30 minutes, and discomfort is generally minimal. On average eggs will be retrieved from over two thirds of the follicles.

Click here to view laboratory footage of an oocyte retrieval."

Circling in the holding pattern

It's been about a week since I posted. I've needed some time to digest everything I found out.

The day after my appointment with the new RE, he had me come back in for an SHG. What he found was disappointing to say the least.

I have a fibroid. Not just any fibroid, but a HUGE freaking fibroid. It's the same one I was operated on in February. It was submucosal and most of it was embedded in the uterine wall and they could only get what was in the uterus. Since then, it's delivered into the uterus completely and grown. Grown so much that it's actually expanding my uterus and stretching it and distorting it's shape completely. A normal uterus is triangular shaped. Mine is a horizontal oval right now.

My right tube is blocked on the outside by ovarian tissue. He will decide completely once he's inside and can get a better look but he feels that removing it would be the best course of action. He said that when there is a blockage on the outside, there is generally damage inside the tube as well and that it greatly decreases chance of pregnant and increases chance of ectopic.

My left ovary is triple the size of a normal ovary. SHEESH! He has no idea what is going on there but he's hoping that it's overstimulation from Clomid. I'm on birth control pills for another month in the hopes that it will calm down and shrink in size. If it doesn't.... it has to be removed. It's also covered in cysts and he said that he can't safely remove the cysts without risking snapping the ovary off due to it's size and unstable state.

I'm scheduled for another SHG on the 27th of this month to see how that ovary is doing.

My surgery (lap/hysteroscopy) is scheduled for June 2. I won't know what is removed until I wake up from surgery.

I'm praying to God every day that I don't wake up with just a left tube and a right ovary. Because frankly, that would suck.

If I get to keep my left ovary, we have a shot at IUI. If I don't.... our only option is IVF.

But for now... I'm on birth control pills and am actually in a MUCH better place emotionally than I have been in awhile. Knowing 100% that I can not get pregnant is actually a relief for now. There's not stress or wonder or worry. It's nice to live in the moment and enjoy the NOW instead of being completely focused on what's going on.

I Don't Even Recognize Myself: AKA Monitoring Update #2.6

I'm not going to hem and haw and try to be all literary with this blog post. I'm just going to stick to the facts. And the fact is I'M A FREAKIN' ROCKSTAR!!!

Jem is truly truly truly outrageous!

My E2 yesterday was 1130. I never even got that high last time AFTER trigger. I bet I get to 2k after trigger this time. My highest E2 last cycle was between 1000 and 1100. This is CRAZY!! My lining is 17 and trilaminar. Like i've said - my lining doesn't seem to be my problem. At all.

Measurements... check out these babies!!!!

• left ovary: 23x17, 18x17, 19x16, 17x14, 25x16, 19x17, 18x15, 19x19
• right ovary: 19x17, 19x17, 20x16, 19x16, 23x14, 18x13, 19x18

Dr Z thinks we're going to get 12 mature eggs at retrieval!!! Oh, and speaking of retrieval; it's going to be Wednesday. I'm triggering tonight!

So, now I'm just waiting for the call. Sometime this afternoon, Nurse F will call me with the details for my trigger and retrieval. The trigger has to be given at an EXACT time. I was able to find someone to work for me tonight, so I can leave at 7pm and be home by 7:30pm. Hopefully, trigger will be after that, but i'll take it to work with me, just in case. One of the nurses has done IVF, and she knows that i'm cycling. I'm sure if I need her to, she can trigger me.

Is it weird that I'd rather have Mr DB do it, instead of a trained nurse?

Who cares... I can't believe it's happening!! And I can't believe my ovaries are working! It took maximum doses for 10 1/2 days... but it's working!!!

photo credit

Trigger is tonight!!

Exceeding Expectations: AKA Monitoring Update #2.5

The first thing that came out of my mouth when I saw the 22mm follicle:

"Holy Sh*t".

Dr B didn't really hear me - but later he asked me what I said and I told him. He laughed.

I like Dr B.

In other news, I'm still an egg machine. Follicle sizes for this morning are as follows:
right ovary: 17x14, 16x11, 16x14, 18x14, 18x16, 16x15 and 4 small
left ovary: 17x16, 19x16, 16x11, 18x16, 22x14, 18x10, 18x17 and a couple small

Dr B also said my lining looks great at 16tri. It's good that I have ONE thing going for me... my lining doesn't seem to be my problem at all.

My E2 yesterday was 899. I was hoping for something near 1000, so 899 is pretty darn close. And Dr B said that at this point, they're actually shooting for 800, so i'm exceeding their expectations now.

I like exceeding expectations.

So, it looks like I'll trigger tomorrow and be set for ER wednesday.

March came in like a lion - let's see if it can go out with a baby....

The Proverbial Square Peg - AKA Monitoring Update #2.4

We started a new medication yesterday. Ganirelix. I'm told that it's job is to prevent my oodles of follicles from releasing eggs too early. In other words, it delays ovulation. See - that's funny. Because I thought it's job was to burn and itch like a son of a bitch, but not until about 20 minutes after it's given. It first lulls you into this false sense of "Hey - this med isn't too bad". Then about 20 minutes later, you're all "son of a motherless goat... what the f is wrong with my freakin' arm?!!?!?!!?"

photo credit

As long as it does it's job, right, and keeps those suckers in there until Dr Z is ready to get them out.

So, yesterday, my nurse F did my monitoring u/s and it was great. I was an egg machine - she was finding them everywhere, and I LOVED the way they were measuring. This morning, Dr B (Dr Z's associate) did my u/s, and although I definitely LIKE Dr B, he's no Nurse F or Dr Z. And I definitely like the way Dr Z and Nurse F measure a little better. I don't know if they measure big, or if he measures small - but at least I still had about the same number of follicles today.

Here are my day 9 measurements, on day 2 of ganirelix, for anyone who's keeping count. My lining is 13mm and trilaminar.

Right ovary: 13x12, 12x11, 11x10, 16x14, 13x10, 14x12 and 3 small (less than 10)
Left ovary: 17x12, 14x10, 17x12, 12x9, 15x13, 15x13, 17x13 and a few small

The funny thing was that the 1st follicle on my left ovary looked like a square. I tried to find a good picture of one like it online, but this was the best I could do. It was sort of like the one in the middle on the right. But MUCH more sharply defined. Since it's 17x12, I guess it was more of a rectangle - but it REALLY looked like a perfect square. It was so funny.

photo credit

We're pretty sure that perfect square is half of our baby. ;) I like thinking that the funny looking ones can be our kid. We're such weirdos.

Anyway - no call from Dr Z's office this morning, which means they're not making any changes, and we have to be there again by 6:40 in the morning tomorrow. Yesterday, my E2 was 615, up from 480 the day before. Dr B says that's not bad at all. No call today means I don't get to find out today's E2 until tomorrow. Talk about pins and needles. Apparently the Ganirelix can also keep the E2 from rising and sometimes, even drop it a little bit. I hope it doesn't do that to me. I can't afford it. I just want this cycle to stay on the track it's already on. The good track. The working track. The "I have working ovaries" track.

In other news, the short term disability policy is a bust. Apparently, in the state of NJ, if you're infertile, you're all around screwed, regardless of how responsible you're trying to be. So, we're just not going to worry about it. There's nothing we can do about it. We can just hope we get pregnant, with all of the scientific and medical support we have, and do everything in our power to have a healthy perfect pregnancy that will allow me to work as long as possible.

Until then, i'll just be SO crampy. Headachey, nauseous, painful... I'm SO uncomfortable.

I'm so happy.