February 18, 2014 - Egg Retrieval Day

Today was a HUGE day in this whole process. Kenny and I woke up early and left the house at 8am so I could be at UFC for my 8:30 check-in. I was SO nervous for this morning. Kenny is typically very calm also, but he told me when we were getting ready he was nervous too. We both wanted to badly to make sure we got enough eggs to have a successful cycle.

 

Before Heading to UFC for Retrieval

We got to UFC and sat in the waiting room for about 15 min. Then the anesthesiologist came out to get me. He took me back to the room and told Kenny he'd see me afterwards. My nerves hit hard when I realized that this was it. He took me back into the room and had me get all dressed in my gown. Then he set me up with an IV that had some medication in it to help calm my nerves a little. I was doing fine until Dr. Foulk walked in the room. Even though the medication had calmed me down a bit I was still shaking a ton from the adrenaline and nerves. Dr. Foulk came over and put his hand my shoulder and told me it was all going to be okay. I seriously think he has been a gift to calm people and make a difficult thing not seem so scary.  The next thing I knew though, the anesthesiologist was telling me that he was going to put me to sleep. I remember saying to Dr. Foulk that "he was one of the greatest people I had ever known." (Clearly the drugs were kicking in. Dr. Foulk said I was pretty funny right before I was out) and then asking why my face was tingling. Before I knew it I was waking up with just the anesthesiologist and Dr. Foulk was already gone with my eggs. My head felt like it weighed about 50 lbs and I was a little sore, but really not as bad as I thought I would be. I asked the anesthesiologist probably 10 times if he knew how many eggs they got. He didn't, but because I was really out of it, I kept asking. He was really sweet though and patiently answered every questions I asked. The anesthesiologist walked me into the recovery room where I waited with Kenny for Dr. Foulk. I have never been so happy to see my hubby. When Dr. Foulk came in the first question I asked was "How many eggs did we get?!" His answer? 15!! We are thrilled by the number of eggs he was able to get.

 

At My Sister's After Retrieval (Feeling a little out of it still)

 



Dr. Foulk explained that typically they expect 60% of those to fertilize and that of those that fertilize usually about 1/3 of them reach the blastocyst stage. He said that we will find out how many actually  fertilize tomorrow, but he was really pleased with the results.

We left the office and went to breakfast with my Mom and sister. To be honest, I don't remember much of the morning. Then we hopped in the car and drove back to Vegas since Kenny had work. I was sad to say goodbye to both of them. It really was such a great weekend with my family and they have been such a HUGE support through all of this. It has made everything so much easier. As far as my pain level... it really wasn't too bad. I was glad we were driving all day though.. it was nice to be able to just relax and enjoy some time with Kenny. We spent the majority of the drive talking about what our future baby will look like and what we their personalities will be like. It was perfect.

February 19, 2014

This morning was really rough for me. I woke up with intense cramps. The pain was way more intense than yesterday. I decided it would be best for me to stay home from work and take it easy. As the day went on the cramps got better. I got a call from the embryologist lab telling us that of the 15 eggs they retrieved, 3 were immature, so that left us with 12. Of those 12, 7 fertilized! She said she expects that with the quality of my eggs and based on my age, that she expects to see 5 of them reach the blastocyst stage, at minimum 3. There's no way to really know though. We will find out Friday for sure. For now we just wait, but I am relieved and feel so blessed that all of this is working out. I can not forget that everything is in His hands. He is there... he is watching out for me. I am so grateful for my Savior and Heavenly Father and their unconditional love for me.

For now we will just wait to see how the eggs develop. From that point they will take DNA samples from our embryos and send them to Genesis Genetics for testing. The embryos are then frozen until we are at a point we can do a transfer. So excited to see what the next few months holds for us. I continue to pray that we will have at least one healthy strong embryo to implant... until then all I can do is have faith that things will work out!