Retrieval update

Sorry for the string of boring titles... I haven't felt inspired by these relatively mundane updates.

Egg retrieval was this morning. I asked for the IV to be put in my arm, not my hand, but they insisted ("the anesthesiologist prefers it there") and the new nurse had trouble getting it in, which was incredibly painful, and then blew the vein.

So that IV came out, and they decided to let the anesthesiologist decide where to put the next one. She was awesome, and used a spot on my forearm that I was initially squeamish about, but actually worked really well. Different anesthesiologist from last time -- I really liked this woman. Listened to my description of how nauseous I was after the last egg retrieval and made sure to add stuff to my mix to help avoid it. I continue to think the anesthesiologist is usually the most important person to have a good rapport with for medical procedures...

Procedure itself was easy. I was just on relaxing meds and an anti-nausea med initially, while the doctor did an ultrasound to check the follicles, but then they knocked me out for the retrieval.

Woke up with no nausea - yay!

Ate a few snacks, had some water and juice, and then they started the Intralipid. I was relieved, because I had had the impression there would be a longer break. And, drum roll please, I even sat up for the whole Intralipid! (This is a big deal because I have vasovagal episodes and pass out easily when needles/IVs are involved. So my previous Intralipids I've stayed horizonal the whole time.) I did go horizontal when they took the IV out, tho. Better safe than sorry.

We were perturbed that the doctor didn't come in to tell us how the retrieval went. Last time he showed up about 30-45 minutes into my recovery period and told us what happened. This time I recovered (30 minutes), had the Intralipid (1 1/2 hours), and he still hadn't showed up.

When the Intralipid finished, they unhooked the tube from the IV but left the IV in me. I guess their standard procedure is to have the patient get dressed first, but a) there's no reason to leave it in once the Intralipid is done, and b) last time we did that I passed out. So they took out the IV, and then I got dressed.

Waited another 5-10 minutes and the doctor finally showed. Turns out the big follicle from my last update (was 15mm at my Tuesday ultrasound) had nothing in it, nor did the other follicle on that side. The other side, which had been dormant last IVF cycle, had 2 follicles and he got 2 eggs.

I don't know for sure, but I think one of them is likely to be mature and one of them may not be, because he talked about how they'll do ICSI tonight if they're mature, and if one isn't mature, they'll do ICSI on that one in the morning. And that being a day behind isn't a big deal, even with a Day 3 transfer.

So, assuming we have embryos to work with (still a big assumption), we'll do a Day 3 transfer.

Right now, I'm not feeling very optimistic. With no egg in the big follicle, it means the two eggs came from follicles that were 7-9mm on Tuesday, so they had to have been still pretty small today (certainly <18mm).

If we can transfer one or two embryos on Monday, I think I'll be able to be optimistic again, since it did work the first time around. But right now I wouldn't be surprised if we don't get anything out of this cycle.

After the miscarriage on IVF #1, my thinking is definitely adjusted. No embryos, or a BFN at least means we can move on to the next cycle immediately. A BFP would be awesome, but I'll be scared to death for 3 months, and if something goes wrong again, it slows us down so much. (This IVF cycle is almost exactly 5 months after our first.)

Rationally, we talk about it taking 1-5 IVF cycles to get our baby. But emotionally that's so much harder to accept.

Fingers crossed for fertilized eggs! I'll get a call before noon on Saturday from the clinic with an update.