Retrieval Day

Retrieval was scheduled for 9:30AM, but we needed to arrive by 8:30AM. This meant getting on the freeway by 7:00AM in order to beat the traffic, and getting up at 6:00AM so that I could shower, make J a latte, pack my gear, and go. Amazing how much time we needed to allot in order to get there on time...and to also ease my worried mind about arriving late.

So....here's the skinny on the egg situation:

15 eggs were retrieved

5 from the right (6 follicles previously found here)
10 from the left (9 follicles previously found here)

So somehow the left ovary was hiding a follicle because they got an extra egg there, and the right side had one follicle that didn't give anything up. Or maybe he simply miscounted the number of follicles on the right side? He is usually very conservative in his counts so it's likely a follicle being tight with its egg.

Needless to say, we are blown away. Utterly blown away.

I was praying for 10. "Give me 10 and I'll be happy because it will mean I might, just might, get 5 embryos." Also, this morning I was telling one of Dr. Moustache's nurses that I was concerned because this time I wasn't "as uncomfortable as my last cycle at this point."

"Really, I don't think I'm hurting enough. I know this sounds weird to hope for more pain, but heck, shouldn't I be reeling in pain from all of those follicles? Last time I had less follicles and it hurt more."

Did my follicles not mature? Did I botch the HCG shot?

But 15. Fifteen? I'm 41 years old. I have an elevated FSH. How on earth did my body make 15 eggs? I am stunned, happy beyond belief, and grateful, not yet beyond words as I can't stop talking about how relieved I am. I just hope that most of them are mature, chromosomally and structurally fine, and that they all take to being fertilized.

We do not yet have any information as to how many of these guys are mature. I inquired about whether it was possible to freeze the immature ones for future IVM. No. They've already been subjected to a massive dose of hormones over the last week or so and they didn't do anything. So they wouldn't be responsive in the lab under IVM conditions. Drats. Dr. Moustache said they let them rest for a few hours before doing ICSI on them and then in the morning they'll call us and give us the scoop on the number of mature eggs, and how many fertilized.

And yes, despite chatting with him for a while on the merits of the CDC data, and whether we should do "rescue ICSI" (him: "You can nearly count the number of live births with rescue ICSI on one hand"), we wound up again agreeing to do ICSI. Sigh. I'm looking for an edge. Any edge to give us a couple percentage points more chance.

So today is a day of relief for us. But in saying that, I know it's a short-lived relief, as I'm already worrying about egg maturity and fertilization rates. And right around the corner, I can nearly see them already, are my worries on implantation and betas. If we are so lucky as to get a positive beta, I know I'll then be angsting over heartbeats, number of embryos, and chorionic villus testing.

Time to make an appointment for acupuncture and have them stick a few extra needles in my head as a preemptive measure against worry and stress.