Egg Retrieval Complete: Make that 17!

The past 48 hours have been unfolding as well as we could possibly hope for.  My estradiol came back looking great on Monday (3681), so we triggered at 7:45 PM that evening and scheduled our egg retrieval for exactly 36 hours later-this morning (Wednesday) at 7:45 AM. I had to laugh when it was time to do the Ovidrel trigger shot. I remember a day long ago when we first started fertility treatments and I was told I may have to do a trigger shot. I remember being so freaked out at the thought of injecting myself. At that time, I was so relieved to get a +OPK and forgoe that trigger shot altogether.

Fast forward to many months and cycles of TTC later, and being faced with this tiny little trigger shot now seemed like a breeze compared to the rest of the shots we've been doing. So funny how your perspective can change right? We were thrilled to get the news we had no more stims left and only one little Ovidrel shot remained. Thank goodness, because finding any unbruised real estate on my belly has become quite impossible at this point.

I was also told to do a pre-IVF "clean out" using magnesium citrate. I had never heard of this stuff, but apparently it's used commonly pre-surgery. If there is anything in your bowel at the time of egg retrieval surgery, it can interfere with the RE's ability to aspirate all of the eggs from the ovaries. My RE is adamant about having all of his patients do this the day/night before ER. After visiting my second opinion, Dr. Google, on this previously undiscovered substance, I basically spent the whole day yesterday afraid of what might follow drinking this prehistoric sounding solution. I basically slept with one eye open, just waiting for the dreaded mad bathroom dash, which did not even end up occurring until 12 hours after I drank it @ 4:30 AM. I won't go into the details, but rather I'll just chalk that one up to yet another ahem, "learning experience." Whatever. I will follow dr.'s orders if it means helping him get more eggs!

Luckily I've been in a pretty nice state of zen over here this week to balance out all the craziness leading up to the ER. I had one of the most amazing acupuncture sessions to date yesterday. I actually fell asleep on the table and then drove home with blurry vision for part of the drive I was so out of it. Probably not too safe to be in that state while driving, but I didn't care; IT FELT SO GOOD....exactly what I needed.

We arrived at the surgery center this morning at 6:30 AM, the procedure was performed, and I was released about 2.5 hours later. I was most worried about the IV needle, but it wasn't bad at all. It just went into my arm and not the hand thankfully. I seriously LOVE anesthesia. I was knocked out instantly, like in less than 15 seconds and woke up after the procedure feeling perfectly fine, like nothing even happened!

Our initial report from Dr. Vaughn was that we had 12 eggs retrieved, but he said the embryologist would have the final report after he checked all of the tubes containing follicular fluid. A short time later our embryologist, Tom, gave us our final report.

17 eggs retrieved
Total Sperm Count (pre-wash)= 298 mil., 50% motility, 21% morphology
Total Sperm Count (post-wash)= 31 mil.

I guess the motility of the "final cut" sperm also increases once they add it into their special solution, and they start moving really fast at that point. Tom said the sperm motility increased to about 80-90% once they did that and he said all things on the sperm front looked "spectacular." I'm a little foggy on the rest of the details, but that's what I do remember. We are not being indicated for use of ICSI at this point, and we are thrilled with our total egg count.

This is one more step of the process successfully completed! The sperm aren't added to the eggs until about 6 hours post retrieval, as the eggs are also placed in a special medium to allow them to stabilize first. As I'm writing this at 5 pm, I'm assuming the sperm have now been added to the eggs and they are hopefully beginning their best Michael Phelps butterfly stroke towards my eagerly waiting eggs!

Tomorrow, we will receive a call from an embryologist with a more thorough report on the eggs: how many were actually mature and also a fertilization report, which tells us how many actually fertilized on their own and/or if there are any problems with fertilization requiring other measures. My clinic has an average fertiliation rate of around 70%, but the more the merrier of course. 

I'm doing fine physically. I napped for 4 hours straight today, and since waking have gotten considerably more uncomfortable as they day has gone on. I'm becoming bloated. It feels weird to walk, and I am expecting to be even more seriously bloated tomorrow per the nurses warning. Just popped some tylenol and snuggled up with a heated blanket at home. It's rainy out, and hubby is picking me up a Chelsea Handler book on his drive home to keep me occupied and smiling. So far so good! Still praying for everything to keep going smoothly. More on our fertilization report tomorrow!