Our Infertility Journey: Retrieval COMPLETE!!

Whelp folks, that's right.... we made it through the retrieval!

We had to be at the clinic in Pleasant Grove Thursday morning at 7:45. I made a plan with Tyk Wednesday night that we wanted to leave at 6:25 in the morning. He thought I was a little wack that I wanted to leave so early, but I just wanted to give us extra time for whatever might happen. I told him "I would rather be there early waiting, than them waiting on us and then we miss our retrieval time!" He just shook his head in agreeance. I can't even explain how wonderful he has been through this whole process. I get cranky, and even mean sometimes. And he doesn't react to me, just takes it and treats me like I am the sweetest thing ever. I really appreciate it, because sometimes... I don't deserve it. So thanks Tyk, you really are more than I could even ask for!

Thursday morning came around and we ended up having to stop at Northridge on our way to Pleasant Grove to drop off groceries for my ProStart class. I grocery shopped Wednesday night, but the checker at Walmart took WAYY too long to ring us out and we needed to get to Tyker's basketball game. It did turn into a funny thing standing in the checkout line though. I was beginning to get frustrated and anxiety because the dude was going so slow. We had just watched Zootopia over the weekend and Tyk leaned into me as he saw me getting anxious and said "It's okay babe, it's Flash Flash Ten Yard Dash!" This made me laugh, and made me calm down a little bit. So We ended up leaving at 6:10 Thursday morning, which was ten minutes later than I wanted to. We got the groceries to the school and headed on our way. Tyk knew I was stressed about time and got us to the clinic ten minutes early! As we went in, the front receptionist welcomed me in and told me that the anesthesiologist would be with us shortly. As we were sitting there, he came out to talk to another guy that was in the waiting room, and told him that his wife was done and just waking up. I thought to myself, "wow she had to be here early! And they've already done one retrieval this morning. That's going to be me soon!" It made me excited and nervous to think about. The anesthesiologist called me back and we headed back into a procedure room. He talked with us about what was going to happen and I had to sign a paper stating that I wanted anesthesia and that he could bill my insurance. He put my IV in, told me that I wouldn't feel anything and that I would actually ask when we were going to get started after the retrieval was done. Dr. Gurtcheff came in then and asked how I was feeling. She told me that I've done really good with all of the treatment thus far. She said that I've done everything I can to this point and pretty much that the damage was done in a nutshell. She was very positive and sensitive to the situation. After she left, the anesthesiologist told Tyk that it was time for him to go do his part. I think you can figure out what that is without too much detail. Tyk told me he loved me and left the room.

As I was laying there, the anesthesiologist told me to sit up and lean forward. I later told Tyk that he told me to lean forward and touch my toes, but I think this was the drugs talking haha! I leaned forward and the anesthesiologist asked how I was feeling. In a previous surgery I had for endometriosis I had a bad reaction to the anesthesia and was really nauseous afterward. I told the anesthesiologist this the night before the retrieval. I told him I was feeling fine, and then I pointed to the stirrups and asked "Did I already put my legs in here?" He looked at me and said "Yes you did." He really was not lying when he said I was going to ask when we were going to get started. I literally thought I was laying on the exam table this whole time listening to music. He's way too good at his job! lol. He then got me to my feet and walked me over to the door. I remember looking down a hallway where there was a rocking chair in the far room. I also remember thinking I hope I don't have to walk all the way down there.. Well I did and I made it just fine. On the way, we passed the lab and the anesthesiologist explained to me that that is where they will keep my embryos, but that no one is in there right now because they are counting how many follicles they got from me. He got me in a nice comfy recliner and gave me a heating pad and blanket. I was content. Tyker came in and hung out with me for a bit. The anesthesiologist came in after a while and told us we were good to go. As I started to get up I got really nauseous and decided I wasn't ready to go. The anesthesiologist gave me a Dramamine and told Tyk that it would knock me out but it should help. We sat for a little bit longer, waiting for that to kick in and then decided to try again. I got up, walked just about all the way out and had to stop against the wall right before the door to exit into the lobby. I told Tyk to grab me a garbage can. He was like speedy Gonzalez getting that thing!!! By then the anesthesiologist realized we were leaving and saw that I was getting sick. He told me that we should get me back to the recliner and I told him I couldn't move. He told Tyk to go get the car and pull it around back. Tyk left and as soon as he did I knelt down to the garbage can and started vomitting. This was great... I was in the middle of the hallway, and a women with a stroller and a little boy were trying to exit into the lobby at the same time. Oh well... You gotta do what you gotta do, I guess! After I was able to stand up again, the anesthesiologist had a wheelchair for me to sit in and he wheeled me back to the recliner. I laid there a little while longer and next got a big shot in the butt. Yes, it felt like peanut butter going in, and I'm still bruised from it! This made me feel a ton better though, and we were able to go home.

The ride home was pretty miserable. I started feeling pain in my abdomen and up my back. It didn't help that the sun was in my eyes and we had to drive over an hour. Tyk did his best to get me home fast and I was in bed by about 10:45. I slept for most of the day, finally getting up at about 7:30 to eat some soup that Robin had made for me. I was cautious with how much I ate because I didn't want to get sick again, but still probably ate way more than I should have. i don't know what it was, but that soup tasted SOO good!

Friday I had to be back at work. I was really stressing about this all week. I had never been through this surgery and had only read about how people felt afterward or talked with friends about the experience. From everything I found out was that you need the day after to rest. I told myself that I needed to work because I was going to be taking three days off the next week and that I could manage through it. That is exactly what I did. It wasn't a good day, but it wasn't awful either. I wore a comfy dress, because you don't want anything touching your belly at that point, let alone pants even fitting with how bloated you are. I told all of my students that I had had surgery the day before and they were very understanding and super good throughout all of my classes. I just took it easy. If you are about to go through this process, don't think that you can't do anything the day after retrieval. You can, but you will be uncomfortable and wishing you were just laying in bed, but you can do it! I was so grateful that the weekend was next, and looking forward to laying around for the next two days. It's been much needed and my recovery is going well. I heard from a friend that the third day after retrieval was her worst. I would have to agree. Today is my third day, and I am defiantly the most uncomfortable. I slept horrible last night, and I was in the most pain. I don't know what it is, but my back hurt so bad. I got the heating pad going, took some Tylenol, and that seemed to help a ton. I think it is just my ovaries still slimming down from stimulation and trying to relax.

So whats next? Dr. G came in a little bit after retrieval and told us the she was able to retrieve 15 follicles! She told me that she was expecting 2-4 to mature and fertilize properly by transfer day. Honestly,,, I was extremely discouraged by this number. Out of 15 I would get 2? But I just had to remember that it only takes 1 to make a baby, and that's all I'm hoping for. She told us that the lab would be calling tomorrow (Friday) to give us a fertilization report. So if you're not sure how this whole process works let me explain it to you. First you stimulate the ovaries to produce as many mature follicles in your ovaries as possible without over stimulating them. Then you do the retrieval which is where they sedate you and go in vaginally with a needle. They enter through the vaginal wall up into each ovary and suck out the fluid in the follicle to get the embryos. From there, they put the embryo's into petri dishes and mix them with the sperm. They hopefully fertilize and then they implant one or two, depending on lots of things, back into the uterus kind of in a turkey baster type of way. Then... a couple weeks later you're pregnant! Hopefully. The lab called on Friday and told me that 7 of the eggs fertilized normally! I wasn't too fond with this number either honestly. That's not even half of the follicles that we retrieved, and what if they're not good quality... All of these things were going through my head, but then I decided to be grateful for my 7! I've decided that these next steps in our treatment is not in my hands, its in Gods. I've done everything I can possible to prepare myself for a baby. Now I need to have faith in that plan that I've mentioned several times and stop stressing about what I don't have control over. When the lab called, they told me that they would be calling again on Sunday to give me another status report. He explained that they were going to be taking the eggs out and looking at the quality of each one. I was so worried that they would call and tell me that the quality of my eggs were poor and that all of this would be a waste. Typing this I realize how negative I have been, but when you've been through infertility for so long its just the way you cope with what could happen. You want to be positive and have all of the hope in the world. So you do, and then find out that it was all a big let down. I waited of the call anxiously today, and really I think that was a big contributor to my horrible nights sleep last night and me not feeling that well this morning. No call came, and I laid in bed all morning feeling bad about not feeling good. I had to teach today at my church and I was not excited about that because I didn't feel good. Tyk was so sweet though.... I needed cookies for my lesson today and I was not feeling well enough to make them. So he got up early and baked all morning getting my cookies ready for me! And man, those are some bomb cookies! I got up and made it to church. I'm not gonna lie, my lesson was pretty terrible but my sweet class was so kind and understanding. We even ended early and talked for the last 8 minutes about how the retrieval went. The girls also told me they'd come hang out with me on my bed rest days this next week. Anyway, back on track. After church we went to my in laws to see what was from breakfast. This is our weekly routine, but today the whole time I was there I was face timing my sister who is in Hawaii right now and was getting ready to get married!!!! This took my mind off of the time and helped me focus on her. I helped her do her hair over the phone and also put my two sense in on what earrings she should wear. I'm so so so beyond happy for her and her new hubby! It's about time they finally tied the knot! CONGRATS KARLI AND TORREY!!

As we were facetiming I got a call from a blocked number and I knew it was the clinic! I told Karli I had to go and answered the other line. The nurse told me to get a piece of paper to write somethings down on. She then began telling me that on Friday they had 7 eggs fertilize normally, and now they have two more that fertilized slower but were normal so we have a total of 9!!! She began telling me that they counted the cells of each egg and they like to see between 6-8 cells for day three which is today. She told me that we have 1 at 5 cells, 1 at 6 cells, 4 at 7 cells, and 3 at 8 cells!! I was so excited and relieved at this news. She told me our transfer instructions and we hung up the phone. I don't know why but I was so worried that we weren't going to have good quality eggs, and today I was proven wrong. Back to that faith thing i guess. For now I will keep my faith that everything will go according to plan and it will work out just fine! I mean to this point nothing has gone wrong, so I need to do the rest of my part.

The transfer is scheduled for Tuesday!!! We're not sure how many we are going to transfer at this point, and I'm not sure if we will until right before we actually do it. For now... we are grateful for what we have and will be praying for guidance on our next LIFE CHANGING decision! Tuesday I will officially be Pregnant until proven otherwise and I cannot wait! Afterward I'll be on what the clinic likes to call "Princess Days", which is bed rest, for two days and I'm actually looking forward to it. It'll be nice to have a break!

So many things are happening in our lives right now, and I'm so glad I can share it with all of you readers! I truly hope, once again, that our story is helping someone out there that may be struggling with infertility. Remember you are not alone!!!

And always,
THANKS FOR READING!

Love,
Shandee