Egg Retrieval

So it was a rather busy morning, but it was worth it! We have 20 eggs!!!!! I'll get a fertilization report tomorrow and update at that time how many eggs were mature enough for ICSI and how many fertilized.

Pre-op my blood pressure was 124/83. Post-op, my crit had dropped from 37 to 30, and they rechecked it a bit later and it had come up (I didn't get the number, was just glad to be allowed to eat and drink something and get the tylenol into me). I have to say I don't think the tylenol has done much. I'm very tender, very crampy, and let me tell you that the gas I've had reminds me very much of when I'm around AF and have the shooting pains that I have thanks to endometriosis. I've been not feeling great. They went to discharge me, were wheeling me to my van when we got off the elevator and all of a sudden I was severely nauseated, sweating profusely, had lost all color (my hubby commented that my lips were really white), and felt like I couldn't breathe. They took me back downstairs and I was feeling slightly better, they hit me with some smelling salts (disgusting) and took my BP which was 95/78. The recheck about 15 minutes later was 99/80 so getting better and they let me go home.

Before we could go home we needed to pick Jack up, and my girlfriend had him and her daughter playing at Chick-Fil-A. We went in and I was sitting for about 5 minutes and all of a sudden it happened again. She said my lips were white, my color was gone, and wouldn't let me move. Archie went and got the van and we headed home. I talked to my doc, and he said once might be normal and while he can't say that twice would be abnormal it's not normal either. The concern would be bleeding internally. He said some bleeding around the ovaries after this surgery is normal, but not alot. In the fifteen months since our clinic merged with theirs, he's only seen one person with significant bleeding and that person had 42 eggs retrieved. I told him that while I was very tender and crampy, that I had checked my abdomen and it was not rigid or hard, so that was reassuring. He said if I continue to have issues then I need to go to the ER for a check on my red blood cell count and go from there. Needless to say we got home from the restaurant and I've been riding the couch. Still sore, but no more of that other mess.

Thanks for all of the well wishes and prayers. ICLW people-I'm out of commission for today, but I'll comment extra tomorrow, promise!!! As usual, I'll have an update tomorrow!

Day 12 IVF and Gratitude

I triggered last night with my HCG shot, and my ER will be at 9am tomorrow. I have to be there at 8am, and Archie has to drop off his sample at 7:30am, which means my girlfriend, B, gets the pleasure of having Jack at 7am (God love that woman because there aren't many friends I think I could ask for a favor like that!).

I have to say that through all of this, my mom, Archie, and some awesome friends and blogger friends have been so supportive. K was willing to go to Parent's Day with Jack as a fill in for us if need be, and this meant so much to me that Jack wouldn't be alone, and yet K would be leaving her boxer puppy with bad seperation anxiety at home alone to help us out. B is willing to get up at the crack of dawn to take Jack tomorrow morning and to tote him around on a playdate. Br was willing to take Jack on top of her twin boys, one of which has special needs, and she is always saying she'll take him anytime-God love her. L has just been nothing but supportive, and though she felt bad that she wasn't more available (she has infant twins), she's been praying constantly for us and is always just a phone call or text away. Jen who gave me advice on what helped her during her last cycle, and has been praying for us as well has been awesome. And my mom, while she doesn't understand what half of what I'm saying with regards to our IVF means, has let me vent, cry, talk through issues, and that's been great for me. My faithful blogger followers have been nothing but supportive, and the girls from my previous IVF/IF groups that I've stayed in touch with have been my cheerleader squad. You guys rock, and regardless of how this cycle turns out, I want you to know I feel so blessed to have you all in my life.

So here is the plan. We should be home around lunchtime (I think), and if I'm not too groggy or tired, I'll post to let you guys know how many eggs we had. I won't have a fertilization report until Friday. Embryo Transfer (ET) could take place on Sunday (day 3), or Tuesday (day 5). I'm thinking we will transfer on Sunday simply because we've never had great quality embryos. Jack was the result of a day 3 transfer with 2 so-so embryos, and last time, all of our embryos were abnormal. My hope is that we have enough to choose from this time like with our first cycle that we don't have to worry about the abnormal ones. I'm a bit nervous about the possibility of a day 5 transfer, just because our first cycle all of our leftover embryos that we were growing out to day 5 and hoping to freeze fizzled out. I'm just afraid tha the embryology lab would say that they think they can make it to day 5 and then we end up with nothing. I realize that these people make these decisions all the time, this is what they do, and I need to trust them. It's just like when people trust me to take care of their sick babies, trust me to give them accurate and correct info and not to steer them wrong. And let's be honest, God has made this cycle so much easier than the first two. The first cycle we felt like we had so much riding on it, it was our best and only chance at starting a family, it was threatened to be cancelled numerous times thanks to my hyperstimulation, and it was just so darn stressful. The second one I didn't trust to work the entire time, and when I finally let my guard down things hit the fan.

This time, and maybe the acupuncture has something to do with my stress level, but I feel like I've been more calm, and I think alot of that has to do with praying. I wasn't as faithful the last two times, and I've still got a long way to go, but I really do feel like I've been more at peace this cycle. That's not to say there haven't been stressful occurences (hello Parent Day conflict), but He has provided for us to be able to work things out beautifully, and I am so grateful.

B asked me today how I felt. I could tell her 100% honestly that I felt good. I felt excited and confident with how things are going. For someone who second guesses everything, this is huge for me. I just have a good feeling, and I hope it doesn't stop for a good, oh...10 months!

Thanks to all my peeps out there for your support. Love you guys!

Happy ICLW & Day 10 IVF *edited*

My current followers will have to bear with me for a few minutes.

Happy ICLW!!! If this is your first time stumbling upon my little place in web space, welcome! I'm a 30 year old NICU nurse, and mom to a 4-year-old piece of work! DH is 34. We suffer from MFI, endometriosis, and hydrosalpinx (removed in Nov), and we're going through IVF #3 now. Our little boy was the most awesome result of our first cycle. Briefly after IVF #2 we explored adoption until our insurance changed and we were given the gift of another IVF cycle covered by them.

For a little overview of our blog and where to look if you want to know about something specifically with us, we started the blog with the adoption adventure back in May 2009. Insurance changed July 2010, hydrosalpinx issues and info start around October 2010, and IVF consults start about the same time. I hope some of you will stick around and follow us on our journey to complete our family. :)

Now, for the first part of today's IVF update. We're on day 10 of stims. My ultrasound this morning showed quite a few follicles-I couldn't count after 3 shifts in a row, and Dr. M was just happy we had a bunch. We are "triggerable" today based on my ultrasound. Most of my follicles were like 16mm-20mm with some smaller ones lagging behind. That said, I explained my situation with Parent's Day on Wednesday and they were willing to schedule me for a late retrieval, however, if I was the only retrieval that day, I'd have to be there at 8am for a 9am retrieval. To be honest, this clinic is HUGE in our area, and I had never considered the fact that I could be the only retrieval for that location on any given day. So, this still has the potential to get fouled up. That said, Dr. M said he could also possibly plan for a trigger tomorrow night with retrieval on Thursday which would work out perfectly (I think...who will give me my trigger shot if I have to take it tomorrow night when I'm at my agency shift at a hospital where I'm not staff brings up any number of questions like who will give it to me, what part of my body am I willing to expose to an almost complete stranger, who should I trust enough to stab me with a needle?!?!?)...Dr. M said that the only way he would have no choice on whether to trigger me tonight would be if my estradiol was skyrocketing, and then it would be out of his hands and we'd have to trigger tonight.

So, while I say Thursday would be perfect, it would only be perfect in that it would not require me to do much but call out of work for Thursday night. The trigger part would be a minor fiasco, however, if we do retrieval at 9am on Wednesday, that part would be a major fiasco while the trigger shot would be cake. Such is life right?!?! I'm anxiously awaiting the phone call from my nurse. I'll post later!

*edited to add* I spoke to my nurse, and my estradiol was 2800, so we can put off my ER for Thursday. I've got someone to watch Jack all lined up, and I switched the nights I'm supposed to work at my regular job so that I'm not using up time I could save for a potential maternity leave. It means losing a couple hundred dollars working at another hospital (I was supposed to work a different hospital on Tuesday night, but since I switched days at my regular job, I'll have to cancel that shift), but it's worth it in the long run. Yay for ER Thursday!!!!!

Day 9 IVF

They measured 8 follicles at my ultrasound today, 5 on my right, 3 on my left. They were between 12-15mm. They said they would probably see me in two days, so Monday, which means no retrieval on Tuesday. I got a call from my nurse, my estradiol was 1024 this morning. Nice jump I thought! They are dropping my follistim dose to 100. This has me slightly concerned since my follicles were only 11-13mm two days ago, they haven't grown that much, and now they're dropping my dose.

I have a dilemna. I'm not sure if I ever posted my worst Mommy moment on here, so here it is. At the beginning of the school year, our church had a "Blessing of the Backpacks." I was definitely taking Jack, but they never made mention of bringing your backpack, so I wasn't sure if it was like a metaphorical thing where they were going to just do a generalized blessing of the school year and the students or what. I should have brought his backpack, but I didn't. I thought about putting it in the car "just in case" but I didn't. So they called all the kids up to the altar with their backpacks. Jack ran up there just as happy as can be until he realized all the other kids had their big kid backpacks, except him. He looked at us in the pew to ask where his was. I felt like the biggest loser ever when he dropped his head and started to cry up there. I still get tears in my eyes thinking about how disappointed he was.

So the dilemna comes in here. Tuesday would have been a great day for ER. If I go in Monday and they say take your trigger shot tonight, ER will be 36 hours after that shot-Wednesday. Wednesday is Parent Day at school. We will both be required to be at the ER. I talked to the nurse today when she called and asked what time the clinic starts their ER's. She said 9am. This MAY just work out for us. Parent's Day starts with chapel at 8:45, and then you go to your child's classroom with them until 10am at which point they have refreshments for the parents in the fellowship hall. We could book out of there at 10am if there was any way we could be one of the last ones getting their ER that day, say 11am?!?!?!

I'm really stressed out over this. These are two very important things. There is NO WAY I want to let our son down again and have him be the only kid at Parent's Day without a parent there. We could not take him to school that day, but he is still going to know it's going on because they've been talking it up to the kids, making invitations for the parents, etc. Then if I take him out of school I have to figure out where he's going to go that day because he can't go with us. I obviously can't miss my ER. So much for my acupuncture helping with my anxiety and stress right now. It's through the roof until I know what's going on Monday and will have the info I need to be able to make some decisions.

Please pray that our follicles grow, but just enough that perhaps my ER will be Thursday instead so that we can participate in our son's day at school. Please pray that if ER is on Wednesday that they can schedule us for later in the day so that we can avoid having to make a decision that may really upset our son. Please pray for some sense of peace for me during this next 48 hours of waiting.