ER: The Long Version (seriously, it's long)

Ok, I'm ready for the long version.  I tried twice yesterday, but the computer made me even more nauseous, so I had to quit.

I feel soooooooo much better now.

So here's the long version of the story.

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I got up easily yesterday morning.  And totally unlike me, I cleaned the kitchen before we left.  I knew it would stress me out if it was messy when I got home and I wouldn't want to clean it.

Also, Mr. GG was gone last night.  I'm pretty sure he told me the other day, but it didn't really click that he'd be gone the night after Retrieval.  I was a little stressed about, but he told me he'd cancel if I was feeling too bad, so I felt better.  He also took the rest of the day off work yesterday which he wasn't planning to do because he felt guilty.  So that was nice. : )

Before I left I also got all of my meds together for last night and the next few days.

• Endometrin (vaginal progestrone)
• Prometrium (oral progesterone)
• various meds for the next few days - I'll tell you about them when we get there

When we got to the RE, I took my Zofran.  I was a bit hungry after not eating since 9:30pm but not too bad.

They took us back to the recovery area and went over procedures and discharge instructions.   The doc came in and leaned in awkwardly close to my face and told me everything would be ok and that he would take very good care of me and that he would be meticulous about finding all follicles and eggs.  Then the embryologist came and went over what would be happening the next few days.  She also said that we qualify for a research study which we get $200 for. Score!  The study checks for biomarkers in the morula and the follicular fluid (stuff they would remove from the egg and throw away). So it won't affect our IVF in any way, but they'll see if any of these biomarkers can predict fertilization and pregnancy rates.  Last, the anestheseaologist came in to start my IV.

Then the doctor seriously "hug-walked" me to the room.  The nurses kind of laughed at him because he was technically doing their job.  It was sweet, but extremely awkward.  I got on the table, lying flat with my legs hanging over the edge.  The doctor held my hand and said more comforting things while the anesthesiaologist put the sleeping med in.  He said I might taste it. I did and it was nasty.  I filled up my whole throat with a weird taste (but no liquid) and it made me cough.  I remember closing my eyes about 5 seconds later, then I was OUT!  They weren't kidding when they said it takes 10 seconds to work.

I woke up in the recovery room and the nurse told me they got 12 eggs.  Then for some reason I started streaming tears.  I won't say "crying" because it was more of spontaneous leaking.  No one was in their then, so I just moved my mask and wiped my tears.  I was extremely woozy and sleepy and kept dozing off.  When the nurse came in again, I said "You said 12, right?"  And she confirmed.  Mr. GG was on a conference call, so he took about 15 minutes to come in.  They gave me a hot IV bag to place on my abdomen and I asked for one more because my stomach felt uncomfortable higher up too.  My pain never reached higher than a 4 (the entire day) but I did still have her give me some IV pain meds.

The only time I really started crying was when the dizzyness got really bad.  This was after she explained my discharge instructions and I had to read (or I did anyway) and answer her questions.  I was not in a state to attempt listening and speaking. 

The doc came in again to tell us that everything went great in his opinion, that getting 100% eggs from follicles was rare and to expect 70% of those on average to be mature.

Then we left...

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The ride home was pretty painful (nausea-wise).  I guess some people go eat lunch right after?  I was in no state to be in public. Every time the nausea got really bad, I had a major hot flash.  Mr. GG was blasted the AC the entire way home.  Cold air was the only thing that really made me feel better.  I decided that I wanted an Acai Bowl from a coffee shop by my house and Souplantation chicken noodle soup.  So DH got the Acai Bowl, took me home and then went to fill my pain prescription and get the other stuff.  When we got home I went immediately into the back yard and just sat.  I figured it would be nicer to puke on the grass and the cold air felt good.  About 5 minutes later I was ok.

My best friend yesterday was pretzels!  During the retrieval DH got my shopping list: pretzels, bread, soup, rice, yogurt, berries, milk of magnesia (which I haven't tried yet), and Tylenol.  

I never puked at all, but I had what I would call 3 major episodes of nausea.  It was seriously horrible.  It makes me think being awake would have been better.

I guess that there can be bleeding and other pain from the procedure.  I didn't have one drop of blood.  I'll have to credit my awesome doc for this.  I feel a little uncomfortable when I sit on a hard surface, but I think it's more due to the gas and liquid pressure than anything else.  

So I'm glad I took work off today. I probably could have been there, but I would have been moving really slowly and I would have had to get up early.  Sleeping in (until 10) was really nice.

The embryologist called when I started this post, but I don't want to put the results at the bottom, since this is sooo long and I bet few people made it this far.  So I'm gonna make it a whole other post.  My babies deserve it. : )