39 - Retrieval - August 21st, 2008

The above picture is a result of my husband screwing around while I was waiting for the anesthesiologist to come in before retrieval. He took it on his iphone. I told him to send it to some of my closest friends and title it "Christina on vacation in Colorado". We have a similar picture of me laying on the table waiting for the ultrasound on our one day work-up at CCRM. I think my husband takes unflattering pictures of me on his iphone as a form of stress relief during this process. Ah well, better than hitting the bottle or doing drugs, I guess :-). My form of stress relief at this wait time was holding my breath in an attempt to see how low I could get my heart rate - of course, I was hooked up to all the monitors. We were both being completely silly, and I've discovered that "silly" is a good way to be at various times throughout this process.

The retrieval went great. No problems. No bleeding. No cramping. No nausea. I have never had any kind of surgery before, so I asked the anesthesiologist if she could give me some extra anti-nausea meds just in case. She was happy to comply. I probably would have been okay without the extra, but I just didn't want to have the additional stress of worrying about being nauseated. Last time I had looked at the clock before they rolled me into the operating room was 12:21PM...when I opened my eyes in recovery, it was 1:08PM. The nurse was right there and asked about my pain. I told her "no pain" and she brought me some crackers and ginger ale. I was starving and thirsty because the last time I ate/drank was 8PM the previous night. Then the nurse we had been working with since the beginning of this journey at CCRM stopped by to give me a hug and see how we were doing. I love her - she is such an angel. Then I moved to a reclining chair and the embryologist came up to discuss the results. 14 eggs. We were pleased. And it looked like my husband did a good job as well :-). There is a chance we may not have to do ICSI, or maybe only half ICSI.

The nurse explained that I should drink plenty of fluids and eat a lot of salt the rest of the day to prevent hyperstimulation. No problem - I love salt and had actually been avoiding salty food since prior to the stim process. So on the way home we stopped by the store to pick up cheetos (I've been craving them - today was a great excuse). When I first got home from retrieval, I watched a little tv and had some lunch and made a few phone calls. Then I took a two hour nap. When I woke up from the nap was the first time I felt any pain...but two max strength Tylenol took care of it. Then the hubby and I went out to dinner.

No more shots! I've decided to do the suppositories 3Xday of progesterone instead of the shots. Those will start tomorrow. 9 days from today, I will also start estrogen patches. For the next few days I will also be on tetracycline, medrol, and
baby aspirin.

So today is the big fertilization phone call. They said they would probably call before noon (denver time).