Retrieval

C and I got up at 4:30 this morning, showered, and hopped in the car. I'd slept better than I thought I would last night; I laid there being worried for several minutes before dropping off, but once I was out I was out all night.

We got there probably 20 minutes early, and had to wait about 20 minutes after we were supposed to be there for everything to be ready. I met the nurse and the anesthesiologist, and they went over what would be happening. Off went the pants, and they covered my lower half with a sheet while they hooked me up to the cardiac monitor and stuck the IV in. The IV was painful; it stung a lot and the anesthesiologist said it was probably because it was poking a valve in my vein. She adjusted it a little but it wasn't super helpful. She also put on one of those finger clamp thingies. Meanwhile, the nurse called down an order for more meds so we could pick them up in the downstairs pharmacy.

Then the doctor (the same one as my last two ultrasounds; I like him) came in with a resident (she squeezed my hand and it felt weird to be on the receiving end of a hand squeeze; no idea why) and had me sign consent forms. One was for the procedure and the other was so they could use my discarded eggs (ones that don't fertilize, or immature ones) for a study several of the doctors are working on that has to do with mitochondrial DNA therapy for fertility.

Once all of my thinking was finished, they went ahead and started the sedation. It worked FAST. I kind of felt weird for a minute, and then felt super tired. They got my legs up in the stirrups and turned the lights down, and then C said goodbye to me as it was time for him to give his sample. Turns out he missed the whole thing; they sucked out all the eggs and did some painful poking on something up in there (I can't remember what they were doing and I wasn't quite with it enough to say anything) and then got me out of the stirrups and I was lying there recovering when he got back. He was there, though, when the lab tech stuck his head through the door and said "We got THIRTY TWO eggs!" Holy cow. The doc said transfer would most likely be Sunday or Monday.

So I lied there for I don't know how long; maybe fifteen minutes, and then they started gradually sitting me up to see how well I was recovering. I was OK until I stood up and was helped back into my pants, and then I got super dizzy and sweaty and I told them I was going to have to lie back down. (I'm not surprised; even when I give blood I tend to need several extra minutes to lie there before I can get up.) So back down I went, and C stroked my arm and face for awhile. They had taken all of the heart monitor things off of me so they put the cuff back on and checked to make sure my blood pressure was OK. It was; and I slowly sat up again and this time was able to stand up and get over to a wheelchair. While I was upright, the nurse drew big rectangles on my butt so C knows where to put the progesterone.

The nurse wheeled me downstairs to the pharmacy, who had not checked their messages yet from earlier in the morning so they weren't ready for me. So C wheeled me out to the car where I called Mom to let her know I was doing well, albeit groggy. C came back to the car twice; once to give me a bottle of water and a scone, and once with the pain meds (acetaminophen and hydrocodone) and to drive me home. I slept for an hour in the car, and another hour once I got home, and now I'm taking it easy for the rest of the day.