This past Thursday was my third attempt at an egg retrieval. By the time retrieval day rolled around, I still wasn't feeling quite as physically crappy as I did for the first two retrievals, so I was worried that my ovaries hadn't produced many eggs (I imagined that the more eggs produced, the more bloated and crappy-feeling I'd be).
The morning of the retrieval, I filled out the usual anesthesia-related paperwork and then was called back to start the prep. Apparently during the first two retrievals, I was given fentanyl through the IV to help with the pain, but due to a nation-wide shortage, they were now giving women norco pain pills instead. If you recall (or maybe you don't), I was given norco while in the hospital recovering from the fibroid-removal surgery, and it did not agree with me. I had no intention of repeating that horrible dizziness and nausea, and especially not during a 4+ hour ride back home. Luckily, I brought the tylenol with codeine prescription that I filled for the first retrieval back in September but never used, and the nurse decided that it was okay to use that (thank goodness, because that was my only other option).
The medicine change wasn't the only thing different about the retrieval this time. I wasn't given the IV until I was in the operating room (that definitely made it easier to climb into the bed) and I didn't have long to enjoy the oxygen flowing directly into my nose before the ceiling began to spin and I conked out. As I slowly woke up from the anesthesia, the nurse told me they had gotten 7 eggs. I thought I had heard incorrectly, as that was more than double the quantity retrieved the first two times. I asked her to repeat it, and then I conked out again. When I came to, I saw the nurse doing some paperwork and I asked about the egg count. I believe I said something along the lines of "Did you really get 7 eggs? Like the number between 6 and 8?" I'm fairly certain the nurse tried and failed not to laugh at that, but yes, it was really a 7-egg retrieval. Now, that's not really a big number -- based on the infertility chat boards I follow other women get in the double-digits during their retrievals -- but for me getting 7 eggs was a huge relief.
About 2 to 2-1/2 hours after we arrived, I was being wheeled out to the car to see my husband for the first time since I was called back (another change -- he used to be allowed to see me while I was waking up from the anesthesia). Except for a lunch stop, I basically slept the entire time, but kept hearing these weird sounds that would wake me up. I finally asked my husband if he was okay because I'd heard loud yawns and snorts, and he laughingly told me I was the one making those sounds in my sleep (I guess the tylenol with codeine had a stronger effect on me than I thought). So I did the only thing I could: went back to sleep.
Later that afternoon, I groggily video chatted with my mom and 3-year-old niece as is typical for a Thursday afternoon (not typical though: I missed the first text she sent because I was sound asleep), and midway through the conversation, my niece asked me what I was going to do with the 7 eggs I had found. My mom had been on the phone telling various family members about the number of eggs retrieved, and although she didn't think my niece was listening, she was. After I stopped gaping, I told my niece that I liked to prepare hard-boiled eggs for the week since they're healthy snacks, and she agreed that eggs are good. I mean, I could have told her that when two people love each other very much and they want to create a third person they sometimes have to turn to science, but I didn't think her parents would have appreciated that response. I'll let them deal with that question when she's a little older -- I'm just the aunt.
Two days after the retrieval, I received the early-morning phone call from the doctor's office with the first hurdle report. Of the 7 eggs retrieved, one was immature and one stopped dividing after being fertilized, so that leaves 5 eggs in process. Now I wait another 5-6 days for the second hurdle report: how many, if any, of those 5 fertilized eggs make it to blastocyst stage. I'm hoping it's all five since the blastocyst is what gets biopsied for genetic testing (a 2-3 week wait even though that testing is now done in-house at the doctor's office). Given the results of the first two rounds, the more embryos that can be sent for testing, the better odds I have of finding that one normal embryo (but yes, I'd very much like to have more than one normal embryo waiting for implantation in case something goes wrong with the first attempt).
Now I'm in the de-bloating stage (by the time retrieval day comes around, I was 10 pounds heavier than normal from fluid retention, and two days later that was mostly gone) and the waiting stage ... waiting for the second hurdle and then waiting for the genetic testing report, assuming there is something to be sent out for genetic testing. By the end of June, we should know whether we have to think about doing another round (or rounds) or IVF, whether we need to think about donor eggs, or whether I will start taking the medicines in preparation for an embryo transfer.