Saturday's Egg Retrieval

Yesterday morning was my scheduled egg retrieval (ER) day. So we arrived at CCRM around 7:15 am. We were way early for once. So we took a walk around the building and started taking pictures. It was cold, but it felt nice with the sun beaming down on us.

We finally pulled up to CCRM's parking garage located on the west side of the building. Jerry pressed the intercom button and spoke with a receptionist, who then buzzed us in. So we pulled into the parking garage and parked right outside the double doors. We took the elevator to the 2nd floor and waited in the surgery waiting area. A nurse came to get me back for the pre-op. It took about 15 minutes to get me ready. During this time Jerry had to wait in the surgery waiting area. Once I was done (IV put in, heart monitor, blood pressure cuff put on, oxygen meter, etc.), the nurse went and brought Jerry back to where I was. We had a few minutes before the anesthesiologist came in to speak with us. He was extremely nice. We discussed how nauseated I get every time I go under, and he told me that he would try to pre-empt the nausea by giving me Zofran and Decadron in my IV.

Next, Dr. Minjarez came in. She was the on-call doctor, as everyone else had gone to the conference. She did my July ER, and I was hoping that she would be able to do my ER this time around. And I'm glad that she did! She even remembered that she did my ER last time. She said last time, I had 30 eggs. And she didn't know how many I'd have this time, but she told me that she would aspirate all of the follicles that she could see.

Then the anesthesiologist came back in and injected a relaxing drug in my IV. I don't remember anything after that. Jerry said that about 15 minutes later, Dr. Minjarez went to the waiting area and talked with him. She told him that the embryologist was still counting my eggs, but she said that I had 20+ so far.

The next thing I remember is waking up in the recovery room with a nurse hovering over me. She took the tube out of my mouth but kept the oxygen tubes in my nose. She also changed my IV bag - I think it's a bag of electrolytes/Heparin to prevent hyperstim. I drifted in and out of sleep. Then the next thing I remember was Jerry standing by my bed.

He had a worried look on his face. But I knew why. With my 1st IVF back in Pensacola, FL everything went wrong. But we attributed that to the incompetence of the FL doctor. And since I triggered with hCG back in Pensacola and now this cycle here at CCRM, we didn't know what to expect. Last cycle at CCRM, I triggered with Lupron, and I was just fine. So we didn't know if my bad reaction in FL was because of the incompetence of the doctor or my body doesn't react well to the hCG. After yesterday's ER, my bad reaction to the hCG in FL was due to the complete incompetence of the FL doctor. I triggered with hCG here at CCRM this time, and I was just fine! In FL, I triggered with hCG, the FL doctor retrieved 23 eggs and I developed severe OHSS and was hospitalized for 8 days. Here at CCRM, I also triggered with hCG and Dr. Minjarez retrieved 34 eggs. No adverse reactions. Hmmm. Makes you wonder huh? CCRM doesn't get the honor of being dubbed the #1 fertility clinic in the United States for nothin'. They really know what they're doing. I just wished that we had come here first instead of going to the incompetent FL doctor.

Let me tell you what a genius Dr. Schoolcraft is. He wanted me to do the hCG trigger this cycle, and he knew what a bad reaction I had in FL. So he kept me on the Antagon protocol so that I would have the Lupron trigger to fall back on. That way he kept his options open, if my E2 levels started to get extremely high. If my E2goes high, he could trigger me with Lupron. However, this time, my E2 level was almost the same as my E2 level with my 1st IVF back in FL. Dr. Schoolcraft triggered me using the hCG trigger and I didn't have the same adverse reactions as when I was in FL. Plus, this time, I had more eggs!

34 eggs!!! When I told my sister, she called me an Easter basket. Gotta love her sense of humor!

I'm waiting for a call from the embryologist today to see how many eggs were mature and how many fertilized via ICSI. I hope that the numbers are working toward our favor. So right now, we're just anxiously awaiting the fert report.