The Egg Hunt

Today we had our egg retrieval and I know everyone is waiting for updates on how it went. I've been in an intense amount of pain since 9:35am when the retrieval began. As I said yesterday in my blog, I was completely awake during the procedure. I actually did end up getting a shot of Dilaudid for pain about 45 minutes before the retrieval began, but it did not help one bit. I had a very hard time tolerating the long needle going into each follicle and felt extremely tense throughout the entire retrieval. Several times I even screamed out in pain.

Thankfully, Dr. Friedman was able to get the 12 most mature eggs during the retrieval despite the pain I was in. While the doctor and nurse were pleased with that number, I have to admit that I was a little bummed. I knew there were many other follicles that the doctor could have attempted to retrieve an egg from had I not been in so much pain. But at least the got the most mature ones! And although I know Alex did not enjoy seeing the pain I was in today, he said he did find it interested to watch the ultrasound screen and see each follicle collapse as the doctor punctured them to get the eggs out. I was unable to open my eyes long enough to watch the screen to even see that part!

The remainder of today I have been taking Vicodin to try to decrease the pain I am in and I have been sleeping most of the day. It is very difficult to stand up once sitting down and it's extremely difficult to walk without looking like a hump back and being as slow as an 80 year old woman! It also is hard to go to the bathroom without feeling like my abdominal organs are going to fall out.

All in all-this picture we took today truly speaks to our IVF journey. "To go from Desperation to Hope is Nothing Short of a Miracle." We have a lot of hope that tomorrow and over the next 5 days we will get good results from our 12 embryos. After losing 4 babies who were conceived naturally we were so desperate to have an opportunity to have a healthy baby who has a chance of survival, and Baby Quest Foundation instilled a new hope in us which is a miracle all in itself.


We will be providing daily updates over the next week so keep your eyes open for them! Today the lab took Alex's sperm and fertilized each egg so we will find out tomorrow how many of the eggs took to his sperm:) Thank you all for all your support, prayers, well wishes, and encouragement!!