Post 46: Let's Get This Party Started!

The day is here - egg retrieval!! I'm checked in, my IV is started, and now we're just waiting on the doctor to arrive. The procedure should start at 10:00AM, and will be over in about 20 minutes. I'll update once I'm out of surgery!

Surgery went well, and they retrieved 14 eggs!  However, I was told that the eggs were darker than they should have been, and that they were going to do ICSI on more than originally planned.  My inability to sleep also affected the ability to be put to sleep, and I ended up having twice the amount of sedatives as normal, and had a very nice nap.  

However, after waking up, they asked if I was ready to stand, so they could mark the location for my progesterone in oil shots (which suck by the way).  I moved to the edge of the bed, and told the nurse that I was still really dizzy.  She asked me to go ahead and stand up, and to support myself on Shaun.  About the time I threw my arms around him, I blacked out.  The next thing I knew, I was back in bed, surrounded by nurses, and they were talking about my blood pressure.  I ended up having to stay a little longer than I had hoped, but we were still on the road by lunch time.  In the days following surgery, extra strength tylenol and a heating pad became my best friends.  I was extremely sore, bloated, and crampy for the first few days, then was back to my normal self.

The day after retrieval, I received a phone call from the embryologist, updating me about the fertilization rate of my eggs.  Of the 14 eggs retrieved, 8 were fertilized with ICSI, and 6 were fertilized with traditional IVF.  The difference between ICSI and traditional IVF is that with ICSI, a tiny hole is drilled in the egg, and a high quality sperm is placed inside the hole, in hopes of fertilization.  With traditional IVF, one egg is placed in a dish with 50,000 sperm, in hopes that one sperm penetrates the egg.  Of the two different styles, 7 out of 8 ICSI eggs were fertilized normally, and began growing, but only 1 of 6 traditional IVF eggs fertilized normally and began to grow.  However, we still had 8 embroys, which is a pretty good number.

My day three report from the embryologist was not quite what I was expecting.  I was hoping for all eight fertilized eggs to be growing quickly.  I expected some changes, but still hoped that we had quite a few good eggs remaining.  However, when I received the call, I was told that we had all eight embryos remaining, but that three were above average quality, one was average quality, and four were below average quality.  The quality of the embryos plays a part in the implantation statistics.  A below average quality embryo doesn't necessarily mean that it can't or won't turn into a beautiful, healthy child, it just means that it's not quite as likely as a higher quality embryo.  I was also instructed that we would be doing a day five transfer with my eggs.