I'm an Over Achiever

Monday was the egg retrieval - and it went great! I have never been a patient in the hospital so I was nervous - never sat on a hospital bed, never had an IV, never had anesthesia (more than wisdom teeth removal) and definitly never been in an operating room. I was pretty uneasy the whole morning, unsure of what would happen. So when it was time for the procedure I had Todd give my swollen belly a little pep-talk and then I was rolled away to the OR. In the OR there were a few nurses and the embryologist right there to look at the eggs that were extracted right away. I said a prayer as the room started spinning...and then 45 minutes later I woke up in my recovery space with some horrible abdominal cramps. The doctor came by and said they extracted about 30 eggs - I didn't know if that was good or not so Todd did a little google search and found out it's REALLY good, normally no more than 20 are extracted. The rest of the afternoon I was in a lot of pain, a lot of discomfort so I stayed in bed.

Tuesday was the fertilization results. The embryologist called and let me know they extracted 29 eggs on Monday, 23 of which were mature and usable eggs. So they then performed the ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection) procedure on all 23 eggs Monday afternoon and then on Tuesday 18 of them were fertilized and growing strong! I'm still in disbelief that we have 18 embryos now. The embryologists will monitor those 18 eggs for the next few days and identify the best and strongest ones to transfer and implant on Saturday. The remainder will be frozen for future use.

ICSI procedure. 

5-day embryo stages

So we're all set for Saturday, received the pre-op instructions and now it's just the waiting piece. This one isn't an actual surgery, more of a routine gynecological procedure and no anesthesia, just vicadin to keep me calm during the procedure so really nothing to worry about. I think one of the best parts about Saturday is that Todd can be in the procedure room so he can be a part too. Yea!! I just hope my abdomen swelling and pain goes down by Saturday so the procedure is easy and I feel good- mental prep is important too. It will be a week where I wear dresses all week - no constricting waistband for me!