The eggs are out

- by Janelle (IM)

I had my retrieval this morning. It started off with a mix of pills to ease the nerves and relax me. Joel was in the room with me the whole time which was wonderful. I was sedated through IV and although I could feel a poke here and there, I'd have to say that the procedure itself was pain free. Throughout Joel kept telling me that I was doing good and with his comfort I even fell asleep for a part of it all. The retrieval itself took about half an hour and I was relaxing in the recovery room for another hour after that.

The result was 5 eggs, 3 of which looked nice and mature. Considering all the not so great news up to this point, we were quite happy to hear what they were able to get from me!

After my retrieval, Joel got some action...he got to provide his sperm for the fertilization of my eggs. Upon looking at his sperm the doctors had a chat with us on whether we go with traditional IVF or with ICSI where they inject a sperm directly into an egg. The final consensus was to go with IVF because we haven't had an issue with fertility in the past. We are very happy with this decision because ICSI increases the chance of birth defects upwards of 9% - a stat we'd rather avoid if possible.

Tomorrow well find out how successful Joel's sperm and my eggs were during their mix 'n mingle in a Petrie dish :) As you can imagine, I'm hoping for at least 3 successful matches. Then they'll be frozen in time until Kim's uterus is ready to invite them in.

Other then sleeping the day away, not being able to walk in a straight line and feeling lightheaded, my recovery today has been going very well. The clinic told us that I'll feel like I've been punched in the stomach since my ovaries will be bruised from the retrieval. To keep away the pain the answer is Tylenol. I'm glad that this part has felt really simple compared to lead up to it! If I'm still feeling good tomorrow were going to aim for an evening departure from Victoria and a multi day drive back to Calgary.

I'll be happy and sad to go back home as I truly feel at home here.