So Many Updates!!!!

Hello! It has been a while and MANY things have happened! Buckle up, it’s going to be a long post!

I’ll start with approximately three weeks ago when we officially started the IVF process! A few days before I was to start on June 1, an Amazon box came in. I didn’t remember ordering anything (I’ve been trying VERY HARD not to order anything from Amazon lately) so I panicked that I must have started ordering things in my sleep. But nope! My awesome sister, Katie, had sent me a box full of IVF essentials! It included these awesome little gel pads that could be frozen or heated up (the frozen pads were perfecting for numbing before the shots!), a “Get Shit Done” notepad to keep track of everything, pineapple pens (pineapples are a fertility symbol), pineapple bandaids, and a cute pineapple pouch to hold all of these things. Corey had also bought pineapple socks that I wore during the retrieval. So with all of that and a hanging organizer full of needles, syringes, and meds, we were ready to go! 

Our first night of shots was June 1. I took Gonal-F and Menopur. Gonal-F was a redi-filled pen. Just slap a little needle on there and it is good to go. After about 10 minutes of numbing, I didn’t feel a thing when Corey gave me the shot (after holding the needle to my skin for several seconds, we concluded that it would be best if Corey gave the shots and he did an AMAZING job the whole time!). The Menopur was much more intense. It required mixing two ingredients, switching needles, and then injecting. This was also the medication that anyone who has taken this will say “DON’T USE THE BIG NEEDLE” because they give you a massive needle for mixing and then a tiny needle for the injection. So we made sure to immediately discard the big needle every time so we wouldn’t forget! That medication burned as it was injected, which hurt quite a bit, even with numbing.

After three nights of shots, I had my first bloodwork and ultrasound appointment. Some baby follicles had started to grow and my bloodwork showed that my body was responding well to the medications. I went back two days later and had the same results. By the following Monday, a week later, I had several follicles and my estrogen level was through the roof! (Corey swears I wasn’t that bad!) By that point, I had to go to the doctor for bloodwork and an ultrasound EVERY DAY. Quarantine life has blessed me with the opportunity to sleep in every day so these appointments first thing in the morning was a shock to my system. After four days of that (10 days total of shots), I was ready to “trigger.” I want to explain the trigger shot but know that I can’t in a way that makes sense so here is a clearer explanation from the internet: “With IVF, the trigger shot is used before egg retrieval to help facilitate a process called meiosis. In meiosis, eggs go through an important division where its chromosomes go from 46 to 23, priming them for fertilization. Before the eggs release naturally, your doctor will schedule your egg retrieval procedure to collect them for fertilization in a lab. Once fertilized, the embryos will then be transferred back into [someone else’s] uterus for implantation or freezing.” (taken from healthline.com) The trigger shot is scheduled for exactly 36 hours before the egg retrieval. My egg retrieval was scheduled for 2 pm on Saturday, which meant that we had to take the trigger shot at 2 AM FRIDAY MORNING. NOT FUN. So we set an alarm for 1:30 am so we would have plenty of time to actually wake up, get the mixing of ingredients right, and be ready to inject right at 2 am. I, obviously, did not sleep before the shot in fear that we would sleep through the alarm and mess this whole thing up. But we successfully triggered and slept peacefully the rest of the night. The next day, I woke up with a large welt and bruise on my booty where the shot was injected. 

That evening, I had to take an antibiotic, which is standard before an egg retrieval. Well around 11:45 that night, I woke up in a cold sweat and with extreme nausea. I thought I must be having a panic attack. I hadn’t felt overly anxious about this procedure but I wouldn’t put it past my body to respond to something like that. So I tried to do some meditation type breathing/thinking and talk myself down. I started to feel a little better when all of a sudden, the cold sweats were back and I had to RUN to the bathroom to vomit. It was bad. I wasn’t allowed to eat or drink anything after midnight so this was perfect timing. At 11:55, I chugged some water, took a Xanax for good measure, and hopped back into bed. I was able to sleep like a baby the rest of the night. The next morning, I checked my Shady Grove Fertility Facebook group, which has been a godsend in preparing me for everything. The women in that group are so informative and helpful that nothing has been stressful or surprising, as they all tell you exactly what to expect every step of the way. However, I never thought that the antibiotic would be the worst part of this whole thing! I searched the group and found many posts about how the antibiotic made everyone SO sick! Who would’ve thought?! 

Around 11:30 am, we headed up to Rockville for the procedure. I was so hungry and thirsty and bloated by the time I got there that I didn’t have the energy to be anxious. However, even if I had been anxious, the staff there were so accommodating and friendly, that all my nerves would have been eased. After about 2 hours of waiting with nurses and doctors coming to check in/hook me up to various IVs, my IV and I walked back to the procedure room. I laid down with stirrups under my knees, my hoo-ha out for all the ladies in the room to see, and the next thing I knew, I was waking up in the recovery room! I had been so worried that I was going to be nauseous and feel terrible afterwards that I couldn’t believe how easy the recovery was. It felt like I had woken up from a good nap. I was so confused when I woke up that the first thing I said to my nurse was “Wait…that’s all?” She laughed and her response was “Yeah we have a good system here.” I immediately asked for water and crackers and texted my family that I was awake. After taking a few more minutes to wake up, I started to get dressed. The doctor came in while I was getting dressed, but, seeing as how she had just been scooping out eggs from my lady parts, I figured I didn’t need to be embarrassed that I was putting on underwear in front of her. She came in to tell me that they had retrieved 9 eggs and everything had gone well. I was a little deflated because I know 9 is a lower number but I also knew that I only had 8 follicles anyways. After that, my nurse walked me out to Corey who was waiting for me at the front desk. 

On the way home, I snacked on Gatorade and goldfish and pondered how they had gotten me back to the recovery room, when I had left the bed and walked myself into the procedure room. I then realized that they had probably hoisted me onto my bed and that I would rather not think about how unattractive and awkward that whole thing must be. 

Once we got home, we were greeted by my whole family. Everyone had come up to celebrate with drinks and Chinese food. (Side note: after an egg retrieval, you are instructed to not eat heavy greasy food….oops!) I honestly couldn’t believe how great I felt. I was tired and a little sore but nothing that a heating pad couldn’t help with. 

The next morning, I still felt a bit tender but again, Tylenol and a heating pad were my friends that day. I had also gotten a call from Shady Grove that 6 out of my 9 eggs had fertilized! Now I just had to wait for my day 5 update, which felt like the loooooongest 5 days in the world. Fortunately, work had kept me pretty busy and I managed to make it through. 

The end results??? We have 4 perfect grade embryos! Yes you read that right. PERFECT GRADE!! Our kids are so smart already!!!! (Also, it’s a good thing they all had the same grade so one day we don’t have to tell our second child that he was truly second best.) So while 9 eggs retrieved was a lower number, the fact that we were able to get 4 AA embryos is awesome! So our four embryos are officially at their first day care, a storage freezer.

Soooo….what now?? Today, we signed the contract with the Center for Surrogate Parenting (CSP) in order to start that part of the process! So now my hard work is done and I can sit back and let someone else do the dirty work for me. We’ll keep you updated on the matching process for a surrogate! Bye for now!