The Retrieval

What can I say, it was a horribly traumatic experience. It wouldn't have been so bad if the people there could be nice and thoughtful and have communicated what was going on. But I was basically thrown a gown, told to sit in a chair, and then brought into the surgery room and strapped down. Nobody told me anything. I said, "When do I get the valium?" The nurses all looked at me in surprise and said, "They didn't give you the valium?" No, they didn't. They were totally ready for the procedure so they said they could take me back to the recovery room and give me valium and do the procedure in another 30 minutes, or I could do it without the valium. I opted to do it without the valium.

They used a local anaesthetic - about 4 shots I believe. They were able to retrieve 3 eggs. After my sonogram this morning they told me I was in the process of ovulating and they didn't know if they'd be able to get any of them, so I suppose this is a great outcome considering. I think they should have done it yesterday but what do I know. The doctor tried to get the 32mm but it had already ovulated and he finally gave up. I figure that's fine since it's probably not viable anyway. He was able to retrieve the other 3.

I was told they don't measure the size, but now they grade their maturity. I will not know their maturity or the fertilization status until tomorrow afternoon. The one that had been 20.5mm two days ago was the best. They said it came out easily of the follicle the first time which means it's mature. The other two smaller ones had to be flushed out, which involves flushing a fluid into the follicle to loosen the egg from the wall of the follicle. The two smaller ones had to be flushed twice, and the nurse said there's still hope that these will mature and be fertilized. If they flush them over 4 times, they often don't mature and there's less hope.

So basically I have one really great option, and two big if's.

I'm heading home to Atlanta now. I got an earlier flight to try and avoid the hurricane blowing in here.

I will update once I get the fertilization stats. After their call tomorrow, I have to wait until next FRIDAY to find out their embryo stats. They're killing me.

I seriously detest these people and never want to be involved in this clinic again.