I didn't know what to expect except for a few things some friends told me about. Apart from feeling very "hangry" from not being able to eat or drink anything, I felt at peace. As soon as we got there, they whisked us away in a very professional way. We could tell they were in the zone to get all of us through this day successfully. At one point I turned to Michael and said, "can you believe we are in a fertility clinic about to do IVF?" A year ago I had no idea what we were in store for!
We met the nurses, anesthesiologist, and most importantly our embryologist. After they put my IV in, I walked over to the operating room for my procedure where they put me under in a dream like state. I do have hazy memories of what happened which is a little bizarre to me. The whole egg retrieval took around 15 minutes, and then I was wheeled away to the recovery room feeling like a total champion. We were pleased to hear that the doctor was able to get 10 eggs this time around, so that's a great start!
Through this experience, a new level of courage and bravery that I didn't know I had has risen up and taken a hold of me. Of course I was nervous and scared, but I knew I had to do it anyway. Don't mess with a mama grizzly fighting for the lives of her children (or I guess in our case unborn children).
Tomorrow we find out how many eggs fertilized. I have moved on to a new medicine regimen after having one day off from shots. Now I am doing inter-muscular progesterone shots and estrogen patches to prepare the lining. The nurse taught Michael how to give them, and he is a pro so far. Apparently the comparison to playing darts really helped him.
So now we wait again to find out how our little embryos are growing and when to transfer them back. Here's a little picture of me on egg retrieval day. I'm not sure why my hat was so much bigger than everyone else's, but I think the picture is pretty funny.
You look radiant, beautiful and hopeful, Ingrid! We are praying for you!
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