Retrieval Details

So I'm feeling a little better than earlier. Still super crampy, but I would think that's to be expected after carrying around 24 eggs. :)

So we arrived this morning around 8am. They took me back and after a few sticks and tries, finally got my IV started. Adam came back and stayed with me until the anethesiologist came in to start the "happy juice" and wheel me away to the O.R. I remember giving Adam a kiss goodbye and getting on the table in the OR. I remember following a few instructions....and then......nothing. I woke up in recovery with my adorable hubby there. While I was in the OR, Adam got to make his fairwell visit to "the room" to make his contribution. He says it went well and I believe the word he used to decribe everything was "stellar." The embryologist came in and talked to us after I had woken up a little bit and told us they had retrieved 24 eggs and that Adam's sample looked great....of course, Adam prefers the word "stellar."

So they will fertilize them this afternoon and call us in the morning with a fertilization report. They usually expect about 75% of the eggs to be mature and about 75% of the mature ones...to fertilize. Hopefully we 'll end up with about 15 embryos tomorrow. After that, about 50-60% of the embryos won't survive until day 5 blastocyst stage where they are biopsied. Then once we send the biopsied cells off, about 50% will come back abnormal on average. In the end, after 24 eggs, if we can have 3-4 normal embryos come back from testing......it would be considered FANTASTIC. So that's our ultimate goal.

The test results take about 6 weeks so hopefully around April 19th, we will find out how many normals....if any...we have to transfer. We will get a phone call on Monday to tell us how many we had biopsied and how many were sent for testing. I'm going to be a mess until then. I have no control over anything at this point though, so I'm trying not to stress about it.

So Adam's swimmers are going through the ironman competition this afternoon as we speak...all competing to be the "chosen" ones. They are put through the ringer in tests. They are observed, washed, observed again, forced to swim up a tube, observed again, forced to swim towards some sticky stuff, then observed again and looked at closely....then chosen one by one out of several hundred million to fertilize each of my eggs. Crazy isn't it?

Today is my grandpa's (Gompers) birthday. Our potential future children are being created on his birthday. :) We also have 2 frozen embryos on their way to Denver as we speak from Chicago and they should arrive tomorrow. One of those was created on IVF#3 on what would've been my brother Ryan's 30th birthday. So hopefully he's watching over us and sending good vibes to our little embryos.

I have been wearing a gold thumb ring as well for good luck. My grandma (Gommers) gave it to me at Christmas for good luck and is wearing a matching one. She is so cute. :) My Mom and Dad had given me a St Girard necklace (fertility Saint and protector of mothers) as well about a year ago and I have been wearing that non-stop as well. We're not Catholic (we're Presbyterian), but we figured God would be cool with it. :)

So Adam is going to get me some cheesefries now and I couldn't be more excited. :)

Thanks for being here!

Love,
T & A