Retrieval day! :)

I couldn't sleep well last night - I was too excited for today! I woke up several times before 7:30 a.m. (when I wanted to get up to get ready) and thought "this feels like I felt on my wedding day" - which I took as a good sign because it was one of the best days of my life. :)

The quick summary - things went great! The pictures are of me after the retrieval. I'm smiling - I think that is good! Thank heavens for Blake's cell phone camera - but where did that skinny lens go...? ;)

Sooo.... a bit more of the story. I felt calm and happy yesterday - I found out a couple of more people I know are pregnant, including one friend who I had seen a while back and was wondering about. I told Blake we needed to go to dinner to celebrate the event - so we went to Arella Pizzeria (Bountiful) and shared bruschetta, a pear gorgonzola salad, and a little pizza with artichokes, pine nuts, etc. I got a sugar free italian soda and was pretty happy about it. :)

We talked to some of our family members and fell asleep on the couch. :) I had a big glass of water around midnight and then we went to bed.

I woke up at 7:30 a.m., took a quick shower, and got ready to go. Blake gets ready faster than me so he got up about 7:50. We left at 8:20 a.m. and got to RCC at 8:55 a.m. (5 min early - nice driving Blake!) :) As we were driving, I thought wow - it's funny you can tell my body is getting ready to ovulate (at least, I think that's what I was sensing - I had some mild cramping and definitely felt bloated!)

We signed in and about 5 min later they came to get Blake to get his "sample". Lucky guy. Blake says he got the job done and it was uneventful - he said more earlier but now that I am coherent is being oddly quiet... hmmm... he did say he didn't think of the high fives and "Chariots of Fire" music that he had talked about before. :)

While Blake was back, Tammy (one of the nurses) came to get me. She gave me instructions for tomorrow (to start progesterone) and then I changed into a gown, booties, and cap and put my clothes and purse into a cabinet in the private room they let me use to change in. When I was done, I walked out and turned right into the procedure room. The nurse had me lay down on a table with stirrups. She got some warm blankets out, had me scoot down in preparation for the procedure, and then had me put my legs into the stirrups. I must admit this compromised position was feeling awkward!!!

The embryologist (didn't catch his name) came in from a side door and verified my name, date of birth, and that my husband is Blake. He said I had 9 follicles so they expected to get 7-9 eggs.

Dr. Heiner came in to see how I was doing and ask if I had any questions. He is a kind man - he patted me on my head and said I'm a good patient. I really like him. :)

The nurse anesthetist came in (Wayne Wright) and got an IV started in a little vein in my wrist. He was pretty funny - I told him my veins are bad and he said "I think I'm going to try this one - is that ok?" and I said "sure - you can do whatever you want". He said "well I see a pretty good vein in your neck..." and I said "umm... no... anything but that." He was glad to see I could set some boundaries. :) He told me he'd be including some meds for pain and nausea, and would use an oxygen mask but didn't expect to need to intubate.

I said something like "let's get this party started" because I was feeling awkward in my stirrups with all the people coming in for the procedure. He started the medicine, I asked if I should take my glasses off and he said yes, Nancy will get those, and before she could it was LIGHTS OUT.

Blake says while I was out, he asked the receptionist if he should go back to the procedure room. The receptionist called back to the OR and they said he should wait in the waiting room. He said while he was waiting, a lady came in with twin boys - he thinks he recognized them from the patient party in May. He said a few couples left - the wives looked kind of stoned and stumbled out. :)

By 9:45 a.m. (my procedure started at 9:30) - Blake was in the recovery room with me. I remember waking up and feeling VERY sleepy but happy. I think that's when Blake took my picture. I asked how he had done and how it felt - I guess I embarrassed him but I didn't mean to! I asked the nurse if I'd done ok since I've been known to say weird things in surgery - she said I had done just fine but she didn't know yet how many eggs they'd gotten.

I remember I got a really nice cup of ice water - it tasted great.

She left the room for a minute and came back and said they'd gotten 10 eggs - 10 eggs! I was shocked but happy since this means better chances of getting at least 2 embryos to transfer. Cool! :) I think by ~10 a.m. I was getting changed and ready to go. Somehow my bra was missing - they had to go find out in the other room - I thought that was kind of funny...

Tammy told me they'll call tomorrow to let us know if any eggs fertilize and how many, and if we have some developing, what the tentative day will be for embryo transfer - it will be between day 2 (Thurs) and day 5 (Sun). I didn't realize it could be so soon!

Anyway, we drove home - the first thing I did was sit down, then realize I had to use the bathroom and got my foot caught on the computer cord by the couch, tripped, and fell - it was a lovely slow controlled fall, and no big deal - but Blake waited until I got out of the bathroom and watched me to be sure I got safely back to the couch. :) He then went and got bagels for breakfast - a pretzel bagel with plain cream cheese from Einstein's hit the spot. I napped on and off for a bit, watched the new Judge Alex (though I don't remember it now), and Blake went outside to play with his new remote control car.

About 2:00 p.m. I was hungry again so we went to Taco Bell, then to Home Depot to get a new water filter, then Baskin Robbins for a treat (we shared) :) , then the pet store for some filters for the aquarium and Blake got two new red claw crabs. Good stuff.

I'm still a little tired/groggy, but I don't feel sick so it's kind of nice. I do think I may go take a nap. :)

Fingers crossed we get some embryos!!! At least we have one more major check-box checked! :)

More news (hopefully continuing to be good) tomorrow...