Day 6: SIX EMBRYOS Going For Testing!

Both embryos made it! Holy shit! We now have two more hatching blasts to add to our batch, making 6! I can't believe it, after such a crappy cycle and only retrieving two eggs, I never would have dreamed they'd both be strong enough to make it. Taking them to day 6 was definitely the right decision, the embryologist says they look perfect.  We're going to send these 6 samples out for PGD/PGS and hope/pray/wish/cross everything that they're healthy!!

I was planning on putting one embryo right back once we get our results, an early December transfer, but the doctor says I should take a "wash" cycle. Not everyone needs to take a break but most people only take $1800-$4000 in meds for their cycles and do just one. I've been injecting $9200 in hormones two months in a row and he thinks I should have two periods to wash them all out. The first would be the upcoming one, due at the end of this week if I follow last cycle. Then I'd wait a month, have my next period and start the medication for transfer. He's right and it makes sense, I would never rush anything that could compromise an embie's successful implantation, but it's so hard to be patient!

Right now our biopsy samples are probably being packed in liquid nitrogen and readied for their journey to the east coast. I believe they'll be over nighted to Reprogenetics and then as long as all the samples are good, they'll begin testing. We decided to go ahead and add on the aCGH testing for $2250, it seems crazy to go through all this to test for Fragile X, a developmental disability, and then not check for Down Syndrome or other Trisomy problems. I need to confirm whether they run the tests concurrently or consecutively, hopefully we'll have all healthy embryos and it won't matter, but if somehow they're all affected with Fragile X, they should hold off on the aCGH testing. We won't need to go there though, our embryos are going to be strong and healthy and we'll have a healthy baby before we know it.

Day 5: Mature Morulas

We got a call this morning saying that our embryos were still plugging along, growing well, but weren't quite ready for biopsy. When the embryologist checked on them in the morning they were super mature morulas, right at the end of the morula stage and the beginning of the blastocyst stage.

Ideally, we want the embryos to be nice, expanded blastocysts before they're biopsied so you can get a really clear distinction between what will be baby and what will be placenta so Dr. D and the embryologist have opted to let them grow another day. It occurred to me after the phone call that we also did our retrieval a lot later this time, several hours later than our first one, so these embryos are actually a little younger on day 5. They might have been nice blasts if they were checked in the evening instead of the morning so I'm staying positive and not getting discouraged.

I'm also pretty sure that if they were going to arrest they would have done so already, but I'm not ready to celebrate just yet. They still need to clear this last hurdle though I'm really optimistic now that they can do it. Grow embies, grow!

Day 4: Wishing, Hoping, Itching

Today is day 4 of our embryo's growth and following the traditional protocol, we did not get an update. I'm choosing to take this as a good sign since I'm fairly sure they would have let us know if something happened to our embie babies today. One of the women in my online PGD support group also had two embryos growing at the same time as mine and she lost both of them on day 4. I'm so crushed for her and am now even more worried for our two, this is such a big jump for them to make.

I'm hoping that our next update will be tomorrow, but there's a chance we won't hear from Dr. D until Monday. Last cycle we had 2 embryos biopsied day 5 and 2 biopsied day 6 so these two could be ready on either day. My nerves seriously hope they're healthy and ready for biopsy/freeze tomorrow because I can't take much more of this waiting.

In other news, I haven't been reporting too much on recovery but I'm doing okay. I had so few eggs that I didn't get OHSS this time and only needed some Advil/Tylenol for the first couple days. I've taken an odd one here or there for a hormone headache and some muscle aches as everything returns to normal but overall it's been a pretty uneventful recovery. They didn't even need to give me Fentanyl after the retrieval, just two Tylenol and a hot blanket on my belly. Mostly I'm just exhausted, like can't keep myself awake tired, have to pee all the time and am still crazy bloated. I've been sustaining myself on a diet of Matzo Ball soup (thank you E for repeatedly playing delivery man) and Gatorade/Electrolyte water and feel like I have the flu.

Cillian takes advantage of my exhaustion and bloated pillow belly to get in a good nap

My most obnoxious complaint is probably the bruise on my hand from my IV. The nurse, who was quite experienced and really nice, had to try twice to get my IV in. She tried first on my right hand, which is usually my good one, numbed it up with lidocaine and popped in the IV needle. The needle went in correctly but she was right up against a valve so the catheter couldn't go into the vein. She tried to apply some gentle pressure to open it and then tried to float the catheter in but neither worked. She ended up taking it out and going for my left hand, where she repeated the process and the IV catheter went right in. That site doesn't hurt at all and didn't bruise but my right hand has this nasty, deep bruise that has been surprisingly painful. It was really bad the first day, definitely worse than my sore ovaries, and the bruise is still there and still tender today.

My other big complaint is that somehow, the hivey rash has returned to my stomach. This leads me to believe that I had two separate rashes last time - hives on my belly from the medication, and an allergic rash to E's shaving cream on my bikini line. They were there at the same time so I assumed they were connected but apparently not. The new rash is pretty close to where the old one was on my belly, a little lower, and has to be related to the hormone injections. Just like previous flare up, it itches like a bitch and I have to keep compressing Yin Care, slathering on Cortisone cream and pouring on Benadryl.  Maybe it's related to falling or rising hormone levels or a reaction to the HCG (please don't let this happen when I'm pregnant!) but whatever it is, I really wish it would take a hike.

The Rash Strikes Back!

Just one more day to get through. One more day and then we can move on to testing, find out that all our embryos are magically healthy and perfect and we can start putting them back where they belong. If we're able to do a successful FET in early December we could be bringing home one of these fighter embryos as a baby at the end of August. I hope, I hope, I hope, come on embryos, you can do it. 

Day 3: Quality Over Quantity

Every time I get the morning update I'm floored by how lucky we're getting with our two little embryos. Amazingly, here we are at day 3, and both little fighters look perfect. They are 8 cells each and according to the embryologist, are the highest quality possible. This means that their cells are even and regular, all the same size, and that they have no fragmentation. In short, they look like this:

High Quality Day 3 Embryo

I'm really starting to feel hopeful that these could be our babies. On day 3 last cycle we had 7 embryos - our 4 strong ones that became our frosties, 2 weaker ones that eventually didn't make it and one super slow grower that fizzled out. At this point, those two weaker ones and the tiny one lagging were already noticeably behind the main 4, not so behind as to count them out completely, but not looking fabulous. It gives me hope that our 4 that were growing well continued to grow well, we just need these two to follow suit.

Just twoish more days to go now. Days 4 and 5/6 are the hardest for the embryos, they need to make the big leap from simple cell division to compacting and differentiating. I know this has been a really disheartening and crummy cycle, but these little fighters are strong and I feel like they're going to make it. Come on babies, grow, grow, grow!

Day 2: Cautiously Hopeful

I've been having a really tough time staying positive and hopeful for our two little embies. So much is riding on these little guys making it that it's impossible for me to not be scared of a poor outcome.

Somehow, it appears that our embryos are taking a much more positive outlook on things. The embryologist was feeling quite sorry for us and all our empty follicles, so even though he doesn't usually do a day two check, he decided to look in and see how our embies are growing. The results were really encouraging, both embies appear to be high quality and they're growing strong and even. One was already 5 cells at day 2 and the other was just behind it with 4 cells. At this point last time we had some embryos that were only 2 cells so a 5 and a 4 are really wonderful.

I know I've mentioned before that E and I originally decided to just do two IVF cycles before turning to donor eggs. That plan was based largely on cost, each cycle is $20,000 and two is already an incredible amount of money. But then we had this cycle, and it was so far off that I think E is having to come around a little to the idea that we might need a third.

E has a hard time watching me go through these cycles, even though I think I do pretty darn well with fairly minimal side effects. Watching my stomach bloat up like a balloon and seeing it covered in bruises from all those tiny needles upsets him and he's been pretty set on just two cycles till now. After I woke up in recovery it took a little while for Dr. D to come out and give us our count. I know now it's because he was asking the embryologist to check and double check for more eggs but at the time we were expecting good news. It's hard to remember what happened once he told us we only got two eggs, the anesthesia makes you a bit foggy for a little while, but I know I cursed, turned to E and he told me not to worry, that nothing was off the table at this point and that we'd do whatever needed to be done.

Still, if we do need a third, I don't know where I'm going to find another $20,000.  Before all of this we were saving to buy our first house which is no easy feat in Los Angeles where a tiny two bedroom 900 square foot place runs 600k+. This is another one of those moments where I so, so wish that our insurance would cover IVF, I feel like there would be so much less pressure if we could just focus on the medicine instead of the price tag.

Day 1: Disappearing Eggs

We went into my retrieval yesterday expecting to get at least five mature eggs. Instead, we got two.

Two?

Two :(

Dr. D aspirated and flushed each follicle. They were all still puffy, filled with fluid and drained well. No signs that I could have ovulated early. A mature egg puts out at least 200 units of estrogen and my estrogen was over 1500, an excellent number for all those follicles. So where were they?

Dr. D was so surprised when the lab said two that he asked them to double check the tubes. There's no way I only had two, estrogen doesn't just come out of nowehere, the eggs had to be there. E and I are crushed :( 

I know there are no guarantees with IVF, every step of the process is an exercise in hope, patience and superstition and sometimes things just happen. But where did my eggs go? We know they were there, we have the estrogen has proof of their existence, but they just disappeared. It's like seeing the smoke but you can't find the fire. Dr. D says this happens in less than 1% of cases and he doesn't know what could have caused it. The eggs should have been there.

Our minimum number for proceeding with the PGD testing is six. We need six healthy blasts before it's worth using our PGD coverage and aCGH testing (~$10,000). We really wanted eight but figured just in case, six is still an okay number.

I paced around all morning feeling sick and holding the phone and finally got the call from Dr. D that both of our eggs fertilized. Thank goodness they still have a chance. If both of these little fighters make it, we can proceed with testing. If they don't we're going to need to do another IVF cycle but I have no idea how we're going to pull that off. 

Come on little embies, you can do it. The first step is done, now you just need to grow, grow, grow. 

Day 6: FOUR FROSTIES

We have FOUR frozen embryos!!! FOUR potentially healthy embryos that could grow into four potential babies! The two early blastocysts from yesterday continued to grow beautifully overnight and they were able to biopsy and freeze them this morning.

Original Photo came from here

I am so over the moon! The doctor said I responded so well that you can barely tell I'm a DOR/FXPOI patient :D It took a whoooole lot of meds, but it will be so, so worth it if these embryos are healthy. I need good chromosomes without Fragile X or trisomy problems.

Our breakdown for our first IVF cycle:

• 12 days of BCPs
• 3 days off
• 11.5 days of 600iu Menopur, 0.83mg Omnitrope, 1mg dexamethasone, 5 days of Cetrotide
• Novarel trigger - 10,000 HCG 

 This protocol resulted in:

• 14 follies
• 11 eggs retrieved
• 8 mature eggs fertilized
• 6 embryos
• 4 frozen day 5/6

My mild OHSS symptoms are starting to resolve today as well. I still got up to pee three times last night, but I think the swelling in my abdomen has gone down a little this morning which means the HCG must finally be leaving my system, I didn't test out the trigger since there was no reason but it would have been interesting to see how long it sticks around. Maybe I'll test it out next cycle to see if it really takes 10 days to get rid of it. The horrible acid reflux is also starting to go down, I don't feel like I'm going to throw up stomach acid, which is awesome. I know I got off a lot easier than many people do  so I'm not complaining.

Now, we need to do the whole thing alllll over again. The big question is, do we take a month off or start right back up with this upcoming period? I've been looking into it and research has shown there's a definite synergistic effect in back to back cycles, especially in really low AMH/DOR/Advanced maternal age patients.  The cumulative effect of both cycles ends up being greater than the sum of both cycles - if the med effect from cycle one is 2 and the med effect from cycle two is 2, the cumulative result is 5 instead of 4 in the second cycle. I think that's why Dr. D was leaning that way until I got 4 awesome embryos.

The wild card here would be cysts, last cycle I had the most stubborn follicular cysts on the planet that took two periods and two weeks of birth control to resolve. I don't know if I'll have them again this time since they aspirate the follies during my retrieval, which you'd think would mean no more cysts but who knows. It would definitely make the decision for me though, if I have cysts hanging around on my next CD2 baseline ultrasound, I have to take a cycle off.

Day 5: TWO Frosties!

It's only 11am here but we've already had a crazy, stressful morning. My phone apparently rang at 7am but E and I were both sound asleep and I didn't hear it. Waking up 3 times a night to pee is exhausting -_- Then E's phone rang a minute later, and we woke up just in time to hear the end of the call vibrating on the night stand. Fully awake now, I jumped out of bed and recognized the number as belonging to the ART center currently in possession of our embryos. Our updates come from Dr. D at a different number so it was really unusual to get contacted directly by the lab.

I called them back right away and got a somewhat frantic woman on the phone - apparently they never sent us the correct paperwork to sign for PGD consent! They can't biopsy our embryos without this paperwork, we're holding up the embryos and she was worried we might be on vacation or might not have a scanner or printer and she wouldn't be able to get a hold of us. Ahhhh!

Luckily we do have a printer/scanner and we've been waiting on tenderhooks for embryo updates so there's no way we'd be far from home right now. She emailed me the paperwork straight away and E and I quickly signed and initialed another 20 pages, scanned them in and emailed them back to her. Phew. This was not the start I was hoping for this morning but I'm glad she caught the oversight in time.

Knowing that we now had at least one embryo to biopsy (!!!) I carried my phone around with me all morning until 9:30 rolled around and Dr. D called! He said that out of the 6 embryos at our last update, TWO were now hatching blastocysts that were being biopsied and frozen! YESSS!!! Two more are early blastocysts this morning so baring any problems, they should be ready to biopsy and freeze tomorrow! Ahh!!!  I know we're not supposed to count our embryos before they're hatched, but we have a very real shot of having FOUR embryos on ice to test!

Original Photo came from here

I am so, so excited for these embryos. There's a good chance that our baby could be one of those hatching blasts in the freezer Right Now. Now we need to decide if we should take a month off or start our next IVF cycle straight away with this upcoming period. It should be starting in about a week or so, maybe a little more or less. If there is any benefit at all to doing back to back cycles I am ready to go and I will stick myself with all the needles all over again. Dr. D said my OHSS symptoms, primarily the fluid retention that is causing all the discomfort, should start to go away when the trigger leaves my system which is about 7-10 days after taking it. Today makes 7 days so I should start feeling better in the next 3 days which is awesome. If there's any lingering discomfort, the 12 days of birth control should take care of it and by the time I start stimming again, I should be feeling normal.

I have heard before that there may be some benefit to back to back cycles and Dr. D seems to be leaning in that direction as long as I feel good. If that is the case, we're repeating the same protocol and I'll need to place my next order with IVFMeds.com straight away.

Please send good thoughts to my two little early blasts, they need all the positive vibes/thoughts and prayers they can get to grow up and hatch tomorrow!

Day 4: Acupuncture and Patience

Today, I'm finding it difficult to be patient. We don't get an update on our embryos and I know they're in the most difficult phase of growth where many embryos are often lost. Last we heard, four were doing very well with 7-8 nice, even blastomeres (cells) and two were growing nicely but a little slower with only 6 nice, even blastomeres.

On day 4, we need those embryos to be in the Morula stage, the last phase before they grow into blastocysts, form the blastocoel (fluid filled cavity) and start differentiating cells. Today, and possibly tomorrow if they're slow growers, they should have between 10 and 30 cells.  They might even have begun compacting like the embryo below, which is where the cells start squishing together like the embryo below.

Nice quality Morula

Hopefully they'll make it through the morula stage and grow into nice blastocysts tomorrow. If they're not quite there yet it's still okay as long as they're progressing. They'll be allowed to grow to day 6 when plenty of embryos are frozen and I probably won't sleep until we get the call. As blastocysts, they should be dividing into the inner cell mass (ICM), the Trophectoderm (TE) and the blastocoel (fluid cavity), which gets bigger as the embryo expands.

Nice Blastocyst

We need good cell differentiation to get a clean biopsy of the embryos for PGD. They need to sneak some cells out of the TE on the side there, the cells that will become the placenta, so we can test the fetal DNA for abnormalities.

Since there's nothing I can do to help my embryos grow, my distraction for today was a much needed acupuncture appointment. I haven't been since my retrieval and it's supposed to really help with recovery and the symptoms of OHSS. I laid down on the table, S took one look at my belly and said "Oh boy, you're definitely hyper stimulated". Clearly other people think I look 6 months pregnant too.

I already knew that I probably had OHSS but it's still a bummer to have it confirmed by a nurse. I also woke up sore this morning, my hamstrings and back felt like I'd worked out, and S said it's because of all the fluid I'm retaining. The fluid is responsible for my bloat, my repeated peeing, the heart burn and now the muscle soreness. Oh the joys of IVF.

Dr. D's nurse also called today to ask us about aCGH testing for our embryos and to see how I'm doing. I told her we'd probably base our decision for chromosome testing on the number of embryos we get, our lab doesn't really need an answer until they have all of our biopsy samples but as long as we get a good amount from each cycle I think we'll probably go ahead and add it on. If we only end up with a couple of embryos from each cycle, I'm not sure if it's worth doing, but if we get six lovely frosties each time I'd say it's worth the extra $2500.

As for next cycle and the crazy bloating, she said Dr. D usually takes a "flush" cycle in between IVF cycles to allow all the hormones to flush out of your system. It would also give me a good amount of time to order my meds from IVFMeds.com so I wouldn't be doing things so last minute. She made a note for Dr. D to chat with me about it tomorrow when he calls with our embryo update, so I'll probably be holding my breath until the phone rings tomorrow morning. I so, so hope our six embryos are doing well, I worked so hard for them and I won't be able to relax until they're safely biopsied and frozen.

Day 3: Growth Report

We got our growth report this morning and our embryos are still dividing! We have 4 that look really good with nice, even cell division and 2 that look good but are growing a touch slower. We also have 1 that fertilized but is pretty far behind the others with only 2 cells so we're not sure if that little guy can catch up. E is calling it our runt, Wilbur, but I don't think there's any chance of him catching up.

Original Photo came from here

I talked to Dr. D about our next cycle and he thinks we're on track to start in about 6 weeks. I didn't get to really clarify what that means since I later realized it could mean taking a month off or not taking a month off. If I get my period in about 2 weeks, then go on birth control for about 2 weeks, then stim for about 2 weeks, that's 6 weeks right there. I was asking if we'd take 6 weeks off doing nothing before starting the next cycle but I don't think I got that across. I'll have to bring it up again another time.

I also asked about the crazy bloating which he said is probably from the HCG as well as the estrogen. He said I should expect it to stick around in my system for at least 10 days so I don't see this belly going down anytime soon. I have no illusions about the physical side effects of infertility and the IVF process but it would be nice if I could save some growth for a baby.

As far as recovery goes, I'm feeling a bit crappier today than yesterday. I'm still only mildly sore but I have a weird nauseous/imminent cold feeling that probably wasn't helped by the fact that I woke up every 2 hours to pee and didn't get great sleep. I'm not sure where I could have picked up a cold since I've been taking it pretty easy and not going anywhere but I can definitely feel it hovering at the edges of my throat. Hopefully it's just the hormones because I can not get sick right before our next cycle.

Day 2: Recovery

Thus far I think I've been pretty lucky with my recovery. I'm still good with just a couple Tylenol or Advil every 4-6 hours and if I don't take it, there's only a minor ache of discomfort. I never really had any bleeding, nausea, constipation, or serious pain. I know every egg retrieval is different and I don't want to jinx it for next cycle, but I hope I can get off this easy next time. Maybe it's my reward for having such a shot heavy stim cycle :)

The two symptoms I am experiencing at the moment are two I could definitely do without. For starters, I'm still super, super bloated and uncomfortable with a belly the size of a watermelon. Possibly even more bloated now than on retrieval day.  I haven't tried to wear my jeans yet but I doubt they'd button comfortably right now, even my loose jeans would cut right across my ovaries. This is probably still mild OHSS so I've just got to grin and bear it and hope it goes down.

In the same category, my grapefruit sized ovaries must be pushing on all sorts of things because I'm getting awful heart burn. No matter what I eat or how I sit, I have the worst acid indigestion. This is another one of those things you just have to wait out, so I'm popping Gaviscon like candy and hoping that it passes quickly. I just ran through my last bottle so getting more is first on my list of things to do tomorrow.

My secret weapon

For anyone else getting ready for an egg retrieval, I absolutely think that the crazy amount of water I've been drinking has played a big role in why I've felt okay. I drank 100-150oz the day before the retrieval and another 100-150oz the day of. I've been drinking at least 100oz a day since and despite the anesthesia, it's probably physically impossible to be constipated with that much water in your system. I know a lot of clinics push laxatives after a retrieval but I prefer to avoid that stuff if I can. In this case, I think the water is a pretty viable alternative. Plus, peeing every 10 minutes, while also tied to OHSS, helps clear the extra hormones out of your system which should mean less bloat and misery. I'm still sleeping with my feet up on a pile of pillows as well, which is supposed to help all the excess fluid drain.

The acupuncture has probably also played a roll. Even the regular treatments that just keep all your energy and such flowing normally can really help with clearing out your system. The surgery center was a little weird about herbs so I stopped drinking my herbs a couple days before the retrieval and I just started back up again today with my acupuncturist's blessing.

The embryologists try not to bother the embryos on days 2 and 4 so I sadly didn't get an update on my embies growth today. They should be growing and dividing with at least 4 cells so that they can reach 6-8 cells tomorrow. I'm on pins and needles waiting for tomorrows phone call and I'm hoping and praying that all six are still growing well.

 

Original Photo came from here

ETA: I totally forgot to talk about boobs! My boobs are SO SORE. They feel awful if I'm not wearing a bra, which luckily is almost never since they're on the gigantic side and I never go braless. This is probably from all the hormones too and just another thing I have to wait out :(

 

Day 1: Fertilization Report

Dr. D called this morning to give us the news that we now have SIX wonderful looking embryos. I was getting kind of starry eyed there for a bit, dreaming about having 11 embryos, but I'm very, very happy with our six.

Out of the eleven, 3 ended up being too immature/small to fertilize, leaving 8 good mature eggs, and 2 of those 8 don't look fabulous after fertilization, giving us the 6. The six all fertilized quickly and easily and are looking really good thus far. Dr. D said getting 80% of the mature eggs to fertilize is very good and I'm really excited for these six. Our next report will be on day 3 when we should be seeing 6-8 cells in each embryo. 

Original Photo came from here

As far as recovery goes, I'm doing better than I expected. I heard all sorts of horror stories about people being in terrible pain after a retrieval and I've been extremely lucky that that hasn't been my experience. I took two Tylenol around 1am and went to sleep with my feet on a big pile of pillows to try and help the bloat go down. Aside from getting up at 1:30, 2:30 and 5:00am to pee, I slept pretty well.

When I finally woke up, it was to the sensation of cramping and stabbing, but in my stomach not my ovaries. My first thought was:

"oh nooooo, is this the god awful constipation everyone talks about??? Noooo do not want!"

Ten seconds later I realized they weren't. Nope. Not even close. They were actually hunger pains! Apparently my body has not caught up to the fact that it's no longer feeding 11 protein leeching follicles and I'm still starving and craving soup. I did end up being a little constipated later but it wasn't anything like people had described, it did not make me feel like my ovaries were going to die and fall out, so clearly guzzling all this water is helping.  I'm averaging somewhere between 100-150 ounces a day of PH/electrolyte water, 2-3 of the big bottles from Whole Foods, and I have a couple more left to get me through today. 

I took two more Tylenol around 9am just in case and Dr. D told me to take it easy today. Since I inhaled all the Matzo ball soup E brought me yesterday, my first trip out of the house was to Factor's Deli to get two more Matzo ball soups. I'm pretty sure E thinks I'm a little crazy but it's nice to be craving the stuff I'm actually supposed to be eating. Clear, salty broth and protein is exactly what the doctor ordered, and as long as it continues to help, who am I to disagree?? 

11 Good Eggs!!!!

I had my retrieval this morning and the doctor was able to retrieve 11 good eggs! Yes! I'm so proud of my ovaries right now, take that FXPOI!

I know everyone's egg retrieval experience is different. Before going in for my procedure I read as many first hand accounts as I could, and I still wasn't sure what to expect. It's a little after 7pm now so it's still early but my good drugs have worn off from the retrieval and thus far I have to saw it hasn't been so bad.

We ran a little late in the morning but I still checked in about 50 minutes before my procedure. I had run a wash the night before and apparently E's jeans had gum in them - gum which got all over my lucky rainbow panties. I was not thrilled but opted for a pair of blue starfish undies to match my blow fish socks.

Puffers!

Once there, I turned in my paperwork for SCRC and they had me fill out another huge stack of paperwork for the surgery center. I thought I was coming in fully prepared with my three massive packets but apparently there's always more paperwork!  After signing about a million consent forms and handing over our credit card for ICSI and the biopsy, I made the mistake of going pee. I drank SO MUCH electrolyte water yesterday to try and stave off constipation that I'd been peeing like every 10 minutes. I asked the paperwork person in charge if there was anything else she needed from me and she said no, so I figured great, let's go pee now so there's no chance of my bladder getting in the way of the retrieval. I've hard about people needling a catheter when they go in with a full bladder and I was Not going to be one of them. Apparently, this was the wrong move.  I was supposed to pee in a cup, probably for an unnecessary pregnancy test, but there was nothing I could do at that point. Whoops.

After my potty faux pas, I met the nurse who would be taking care of me during my retrieval. She was very friendly and assured me that the lack of pee wouldn't be a problem. She took me back to the recovery room, took my vitals (my blood pressure was high, I was a bit nervous) and had me change into a gown, which I accidentally put on backwards and had to change. That thing was huge! I met the anesthesiologist, we went over my latex allergy and allergy to all the fun drugs and I decided to stick with Tylenol and later Advil instead of getting a script.  Then the nurse brought in E to sit with me and hold my hand which I so appreciated. I felt a lot better with him there even if he couldn't do anything but provide emotional support. 

A few minutes later it was time for my IV, which came with the usual numbing injection that burns for a second and the large IV needle which aches in spite of the local anesthetic. It wasn't bad though, she got it first try and Dr. Danzer came over to see how we were doing. I had my blow fish socks on, ready to dispense some good luck, and Dr. D decided to take me a little bit early since everything was good to go!

I said goodbye to E and they wheeled me back in to the procedure room. They had me scoot onto the surgery table and I was able to chat with the nurses about the centers preferred method of embryo culture. They must have given me the general around that point because that's the last thing I remember before waking up back in the recovery room maybe 20 minutes later. 

Egg Retrieval!

I've been under anesthesia a couple times before and have never had unpleasant side effects or difficultly waking up. I pretty much pop awake, fully alert, and this time was no different. I chilled for awhile, kind of feeling myself out, waiting for my nurse to come by, and once she saw I was awake she brought me E for company and a couple Tylenol. I don't know how useful Tylenol is for most people, but for me it does nothing. My ovaries were still feeling pretty sore and tender 10 minutes later and they don't like you to take Advil right after the retrieval, so the nice anesthesiologist brought me some Fentanyl for my IV. One small dose did the trick, it dulled the achey soreness to a completely bearable level, and a couple minutes later I was good to go.

E helped me back into my clothes and they brought me a wheelchair to chill in while E brought the car around. We gave him about a 10 minute head start, they wheeled me down, E helped me into the car, and we were home free! I was, as expected, starving so I placed an order for a massive amount of food at our local jewish restaurant/deli. As far as I'm concerned, Matzo ball soup is definitely Jewish penicillin and it was the first thing I wanted.

E dropped me off at home, got me situated in bed and then went to pick up my lunch. Almost immediately, I had to pee AGAIN, for the millionth time. This was another thing I was worried about - a lot of people report that the first pee after a retrieval is really painful but for me it really wasn't awful. My bladder kind of ached for a few seconds in a way I wasn't expecting, almost like the feeling of pressure, but I was basically just peeing out all the water I've been chugging and that was it. I've probably peed at least 8 times since coming home, drank another 100oz of water, and the slight bladder ache is mostly gone.

I was planning on taking it easy on the food since I'm still worried about constipation, but I devoured lunch like a starving person. The entire container of Matzo ball soup disappeared, along with some bagel chips and half a French Dip sandwich. I thought I'd have a little soup, relax some, drink water and maybe have more soup later, but I devoured the whole thing in one sitting like a beast. Then I kissed E goodbye, he headed off to work, and I promptly feel asleep with my full belly, not to be awakened until several hours later by my once again protesting bladder.

This is someone else's soup because I was too busy shoveling mine into my face to take a photo. But it was from Factor's Deli and it was delicious!

I've been up now for a bit and feeling mostly fine, just a little tender. I'm trying to be a good patient this go round so I just took more Tylenol instead of the Advil I'd really like to take. The tenderness feels like an ache as opposed to cramps or sharp pain, but it does make it difficult to bend over and get up. All in all, I'd say I've been pretty lucky so far.

Side Effects:

• Tender, sore ovaries/belly/uterus/lady bits 
• The backs of my hands and the front of my knees were weirdly sweaty, probably from the anesthesia or fentanyl
• Sore throat, probably from the anesthesia, but I wasn't intubated. I hope I'm not getting sick!
• Some really, really minor bleeding, like barely any when I wiped twice, along with some of the gel from the ultrasound probe
• Hungry like the wolf 
• Sleepy
• Bloating - this supposedly wont go away for about a week
• No constipation yet, but who knows with the amount of food I just inhaled ><

Tomorrow morning  Dr. D will be calling with our fertilization report and I am hoping/praying/wishing that all 11 good eggs fertilize perfectly. About 6 hours after the retrieval, while I was snoozing away, one of the SCRC embryologists was fertilizing my eggs via ICSI. Dr. D joked about it being a bit of a beauty contest and said that the embryologist would pick the absolute best looking and swimming sperm he could find from our sample.

ICSI!

It's officially out of my hands now so the only thing I can do is wait and hope and trust in the skill of their embryologist and the quality of my eggs. 

Grow healthy and strong little embryos, you're so, so very wanted!

TWW: Light Bulb

I started acupuncture at the same time as my first IUI, including the acupuncture diet. I've posted about it before, it's fairly restrictive, cuts out all white flour and sugars and emphasizes proteins and veggies. My breakfast on this diet was usually soup or eggs, or more specifically, egg whites with some whole eggs mixed in. Eggs were never my favorite food, especially after I burned out on them doing the Atkins diet in 2004, and I never ate just egg whites. Still, I figured it couldn't be too bad and started eating them on mornings where I didn't have soup, 50% whole egg and 50% egg white from a carton.

Scrambled Eggies

Some days, I ended up with a really awful tummy ache, complete with nausea and frequent trips to the bathroom. It would start about an hour after my breakfast and last 3-6 long, uncomfortable hours. I blamed it on the Menopur (it's so many hormones) on the herbs (I took them on an empty stomach) and on the prenatals and vitamins (lots of people get an upset stomach from prenatals). I tried to eat lots of acid absorbing foods like rice cakes and wheat toast just in case it was from not eating a lot of carbs, but nothing helped.  I'd just have to wait it out, feeling wretched and telling myself it was worth it if we got pregnant. I'd spend these days working from home, usually curled in a ball and miserable. Ugh.

This morning, it happened again. I made scrambled eggs and turkey bacon for breakfast at 10:30 and by 11:30 my stomach was starting to hurt. I assumed my curled-ball position and prepared for a miserable time when I realized something didn't add up. I hadn't taken any Menopur, acupuncture herbs or my vitamins today. In fact, the only thing I'd had was the eggs and turkey bacon. And then the light bulb went on. I only get this horrible stomach ache on days when I have eggs for breakfast. The worst stomach aches were from days when I had organic, cage free eggs mixed with egg whites for breakfast, on an empty stomach. It's not the hormones or the vitamins or anything else causing the horrible stomach aches. It's the eggs. An egg intolerance, or more likely and intolerance to egg whites. Ding Ding Ding.

Adding this photo was an entirely necessary edit.

Trying to be healthy and follow the diet, I've been making myself miserable and sick. I've never had a problem with eggs cooked in something, like egg noddles or baked goods, but on their own they now leave me a miserable, stomach clutching mess. Egg intolerance or sensitivity, unlike an egg allergy, is apparently developed later in life. They usually result in a mild IgG reaction, like my stomach ache, nausea and upset stomach. It all makes so much sense and means that I got really lucky and had very few actual symptoms from the Menopur.

No More Eggs for Breakfast

Next time I see my doctor, I'm going to ask for an egg sensitivity test to egg whites and egg yolks. If I'm lucky, maybe this is just a temporary sensitivity that will go away, eggs are such an easy source of protein, it would be a shame to cut them out even if I don't love them. In the meantime, I'm striking plain eggs from the menu. I'm hoping that at 2DPIUI, several little eggs are fertilized and starting cleavage or compaction, unaffected by my miserable stomach. Come on little ones, I promise things aren't always so upset in there!

Embryogenesis, hopefully my little ones are fertilized and dividing as above in day 2!