Friday, December 04, 2015

Egg Retrieval

Yesterday I woke up after taking milk of magnesia, my shots and my oral supper pill.... I felt awful. 

That milk of magnesia cleaned me out quite well, and the rest of the day went down hill from there. Did my 6 am injection shot alone as Chris was at men's group. All went successfully but right after the shot I felt so nauseous I could barely function. 

The rest of my Thursday consisted of lying down or sitting up with a garbage bucket beside me just in case I needed it. Chris brought breakfast to me which went down okay but two hours later it was gone, in the handy dandy bucket. (He was kind enough to clean it out without complaint.)

I ate a little dried toast Chris prepared for me after that, and just continued to doze on the couch all afternoon, giving one to two word sentences when necessary. I barely felt functional and I was starting to have my doubts that I could get through this. 

At about 6:30 pm Thursday night I told Chris I didn't know I could go through with this. I could barely function having had only one day of severe nausea, how was supposed to live through 9 months of that? I was being serious! Chris just stayed calm and listened to me. Encouragement me to pray and eventually helped me to bed when 8 o'clock rolled around. 

He gave me my prescribed sedative for the night, still with my doubts being spoken from my lips, kissed me goodnight and tucked me in. I have no idea what time that man came to bed. I slept heavily until a little after 1 am when I had to get up to pee. 

I remember feeling disappointed that it was after 1 am, since I wasn't allowed to have any water past midnight, but off I went back to bed, to try and get some more rest until 5:30 am.

At 5:30 am Chris kindly woke me up with kisses and hugs as we both got up to get ready for The Big Day. Any doubts I still had were muddled through the sedative fog I was feeling. To top it off, another sedative and antibiotic was handed me to take with small sips of water at 6 o'clock in the morning. I did my duty and took them without complaint.

Brother Gary, from Blackburn Campus and his lovely wife Katie, picked us up promptly at 6:30am. It's a short ride to the clinic and we were a few minutes early. (perfect timing) I almost dozed off again sitting in the waiting room to be called. 

Once we reached the prep & recovery room it was a bit different than I expected. There were reclining chairs for the ladies to sit in..... huh! I thought to myself. No recovery beds....

We were directed to a change room where we good put hospital downs on me and Chris could put on some overly wrinkled scrubs. He liked the scrubs and found them very comfortable.

Chris practically unchanged me himself since I couldn't physically do very much. Still feeling nauseous and very uncomfortable with follicle babies in my belly, I just kinda told him what to do when...

After I got situated in one of the recovery recliners Chris left the room to go down to a donation room to give his live sperm sample. (yeah no pressure there, right?) I told him not to worry about it, we had frozen back up if need be and my parting words to my husband as he walked away were, "have fun!"

The nurse hooked me up to two IVs through my right hand. One was for anti-nausea medication (where was that when I was home suffering?) and the other was pain medication for upcoming procedure. I don't think she gave me another sedative...but I could be wrong about that....

It was too long until Chris came back saying he had been "successful". 

Then off we walked into the surgery room. (I was so glad to have my walker this morning. I was unsteady on my feet and couldn't seem to stand up straight from the belly pain I was experiencing.)

They had to grab me a stool to stand on to get up on the bed, but that went more smoothly than I expected. Down I sckooched my little behind to the end of the bed, where they place booth my legs into stirrups... not my feet, just my legs and the knee bending joint. MUCH more comfortable for someone who can spread their legs easily due to Cerebral Palsy issues.

Chris was there sitting on a stool beside me, holding my hand. And our doctor of the day came in and placed tools necessary down into my body.... I don't remember everything that took place, but I wasn't asleep for the procedure. There was a screen you could watch to see what was going on. I opted to keep my eyes closed and just concentrate on getting through the pain.

Chris did watch the screen and so he could to see the little needle catch on to each follicle, take the eggs from the follicle, which would then flatten and empty that follicle completely.

In and out she went to each follicle she could reach.... I moaned through it all, but remained as still as I could, squeezing Chris' and the nurses' hand with a super grip from the major discomfort I was feeling.

Before I knew it the 10-15 minutes procedure was over. The nurse began to count how many eggs they were able to retrieve....32 eggs!

Off I went back to recovery and to sit in that recliner... Oooh how comfy it was! Eventually I felt good enough to try to eat a cracker or two and sip on apple juice. I was sore, but very little nausea which was such a blessing. 

Then came the walking to the bathroom pee test.... Yup, Chris helped with that one and I pee just fine. It was painful (being sore and all) but everything seemed to come out all right and my pee was the right color. (something we have to watch out for)

We were then allowed to get dressed and head home. I couldn't have gotten dressed without Chris' help. My body just kept saying, "Nope not gonna do that!" He helped me put on my socks, put the feet through pant leg holes and even put on my little boots..... What an awesome guy....

Now we're home...I'm situated in my recliner with the heating pad and a blanket.

Chris has already fed me soup for lunch (approved by the doctor) and I am sipping on Ginger Ale and Water respectively.

I am starting to feel a little nauseous again and suspect it's time for a nap... I'm hoping to encourage Chris to take one with me, and I think he'll be drained by today's events as well...

We will get a call later one about how many of those 32 eggs that are actually able to be used and also what Chris' sperm count number and activity looks like as well.

If you're willing, will you continue to pray for us? What a journey this has been so far and I can only imagine what will come next!

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