A New Record

As promised, I’m back on regular blog day with an update. 

The day of my procedure, I posted an update on the IVF That Facebook page, and as it turns out, the numbers were even better than I was initially told. I’ll back up a bit for just a minute, though, to give you a recap on the actual egg retrieval. 

As I mentioned in the blog that morning, Nick had to work. Poor guy had to get up extra early to drive down to the clinic (45 miutes away), do his part, and then drive up to Boulder (another 45 minutes) to work. I know it made for an exceptionally long day for him. 

We were lucky my parents were in town, because they were able to take me to the procedure. 

We arrived right on time–a 10:30 check-in for an 11 a.m. procedure. From the get-go, it was different than the first two. Nick wasn’t there, we sat in a different area of the lobby, the weather was way better (no snow this time!), and they were about 20 minutes behind on procedures. I went back around 11:20 a.m.

The procedure went pretty well. A doctor I hadn’t met yet, Dr. O., was the physician, and she seemed very nice and pleasant. She asked if I had any questions, and really only one came to mind: 

Me: This may sound silly, but are you a fan of using the Monsels to cauterize after the procedure?

Dr. O.: No, never. I have my own methods to aid healing.

Me: Wonderful. Dr. G. did that to me last time, and I was NOT a fan.

We also had a brief exchange aout how many times I’d done this procedure and how many embryos we had. I told her we had two, and we were trying for just a couple more, just to be safe. 

I shared that Nick has two chromosomal translocations. Her reaction?

Two translocations? And you got two embryos? That’s amazing! 

It was during this conversation when the anesthesiologist started administering the anesthesia. We were chatting, then my face got a little warm and tingly, and then I was out. 

I had the anesthesiologist who prefers using the arm for the IV, Dr. H., (hooray), but I was also less aware after the first time he put me under in 2022. My reaction to the anesthesia this time was a bit of a mix between the first two procedures in terms of awareness and nausea. 

While I wasn’t completely zonked (like I was in 2022), I was much sleepier than I was in the recovery room after the March 2023 procedure. This time, I was drifting in an out of sleep while in recovery. I vaguely remember Dr. H. and the nurse helping me into the chair and then I was out again. 

I also said something to the nurse about “I seem to be less aware after Dr. H. does my anesthesia.” (While still groggy.) A few minutes later when I had a few more wits about me I asked, “Was Dr. H. still in the room when I said I was less aware when he was the anesthesiologist?”

Nurse: I don’t think so. He wouldn’t have minded if he was in here though. 

Apparently, post-recovery Julie was very chatty. I asked a few questions, talked about the blog, doing this for the third time–all kinds of things. 

But the big thing (and first thing) I asked about was how many eggs Dr. O. got. The nurse looked at the paperwork and told me 25 eggs. 

Woo hoo! I finally broke past 19! (Here’s a look back at our numbers from 2022 and March 2023.)

Shortly after that, the nurse walked me out to the lobby where my parents were waiting, and we headed home. Out of curiosity, I’d asked them to let me know how long I was back there–it was about an hour. 

At first, I felt OK–no nausea–even after the long drive home. So when I got home, I ate some applesauce and took my pain meds. 

Mom and Dad went to get breakfast and brought something home for me. I ate about half of it, and then the nausea started kicking in. I spent the rest of the day fairly nauseated. I was finally able to have some dinner (some chicken tortellini soup – thanks Mom!) around 9:30 p.m., and after that, the nausea abated. 

In terms of soreness/crampiness, that was also a little bit different than last time. In March, my abdomen was tender, but I also had some pretty bad cramping (for the lady readers, think period cramps). This time, I certainly felt tender, but the added layer of crampiness wasn’t there. (Thank you, Dr. O!)

The next morning, I was still pretty tender, but it wasn’t too terrible. We went to breakfast with some family (shout out again to the Gabbards; it was so wonderful to see you all!), and while we were waiting on our food, I got the first update from the clinic. 

Nurse: This is E. with Conceptions. Do you have a minute for me to share an update with you?

Me: Absolutely!

Nurse: So yesterday, we collected 27 eggs. 

Me: Holy cow! That’s amazing! 

Nurse: Yes, that’s a great number! Of the 27, 20 were mature enough to fertilize. Today, 15 have fertilized properly, and there are another four that could potentially fertilize. I’d give them about a 40% chance. 

Me: Wow, that’s incredible. That’s the best result we’ve had so far! How did the egg quality look? I know that’s been an issue in the past. 

Nurse: It was about the same as the last couple of times. Some of them were a little mushy or coming apart, but it was about the same. We saw the same issue with the sperm that we’ve seen in the past as well. 

Me: Well, hopefully this gives us a good enough start to get one or two more viable embryos. 

Nurse: Yes, absolutely. Hopefully we can get you some good quality embryos. We’ll call again with another update on Thursday. 

From past experience, I know it’s highly likely the majority of those embryos won’t make it to the next stage (not to say I’m not being hopeful, because I am!), but the fact that we got so many to start with makes me hopeful getting one or two more is more likely than not. 

As for recovery, I’m continuing to feel better each day, and the tenderness in my abdomen is easing up. I’m still not allowed to do any activities for the next couple of weeks, but I feel like I’m over the major hump.

I’ll be back next week with an update on how many embryos made it to the final, blastocyst stage and are sent for testing.