Denver egg retrieval update: IVF #7

Hoooo Yeah!!!!!!

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Denver egg retrieval

We are retrieved! We are so relieved!

And the process wasn't bad at all. It was such a more humane experience than our NYC clinic - Will kept remarking that the stress of it all is so much less here, and I agree. Maybe that is part of Denver's secret to awesome stats. Everything from the facility itself to the people to the procedures was just orderly, calm, friendly. Didn't have to fight for pain control. Didn't feel like just a number. Seriously. So nice to do IVF this way. We haven't known what we've been missing.

And most importantly, we are very happy with the yield:

Nineteen. Ooh yeah, baby!!!!! Can you believe it? Hard for me to, honestly.

Probably not all mature, but an incredible number to start with. Not too shabby for 38 year old post-chemotherapy ovaries, if I say so myself!

The head embryologist came out and talked to us (!) and let us know he will be in touch with us as the process continues. We have six embryos at the New York City clinic, frozen at the 2pn stage that we are going to have join the cohort out here. They will be ICSI'ing this latest bunch o' oocytes and then culturing to blast and doing FISH as well as microarray to look for polyploidy and aneuploidy. I'll write more about this later. For now back to bed. To dream some very relieved dreams.

Here's hoping we get a good fert report tomorrow.

Thanks for all of the support and well wishes!

Mo

Egg retrieval day: part II

Just got home from the retrieval. A little woozy, 'cause I ended up needing some morphine afterward, but fine.

Number retrieved: 6.

Trying to tell myself that this is ok, but I am really disappointed by this number.

Glad we're not doing PGD with only 6, and a blastocyst transfer is out of the question. Actually a "Hail Mary" transfer probably isn't necessary either. By the time we lose some to maturity, some at the fertilization stage, and some to embryo development, I'm just hoping we have anything left.

Of course if whatever remains is viable and we are able to get and stay pregnant, then it will all have been worth it.

Mo

Egg retrieval day: part I

Thanks to my laptop and a wireless hospital internet connection, I am sitting in the OR waiting room in my hospital pajamas. Sans IV. Unfortunately, despite multiple tries, the nurse could not get the IV into my chemo-scarred veins, so apparently the anesthesiologist will put it in once I'm on the table...which should be in less than two hours. There are eight women getting retrievals today, a fairly standard number at my clinic. I think I've seen a many as 12 women go through retrieval with me, and I heard that right before the lab closed before Christmas, they had 23 retrievals one day, but I don't know if that's urban legend or not.

So here we sit. Like Sassymama said a couple of posts ago, at IVF #5, I'm reaching the place where I feel I could retrieve my own eggs. Not quite, but almost. And I hate to say, really, I do, because I want to be inspirational and hopeful - and you know, cheery, about this - but but in all honesty, I'm not feeling so hopeful about this cycle. My estrogen was only 900 on Thursday, which seems really low to me (was 1180 on the same day last cycle, for comparison purposes). Maybe that isn't such a big difference? Hoping not.

This time also, by design, a lot of my follicles are smaller. One of the reasons this cycle seemed to go so fast is that my RE triggered me a day earlier to see if that will make a difference in how many euploid eggs we get. So I know we're expecting to have fewer of the eggs be mature. And I expect we will have fewer retrieved overall. And while I know that what we're looking for is quality not quantity, it's really hard not to want a high quantity, ya know?

It will be what it will be. Hoping for a good-enough number retrieved so that we can do the mega-transfer again, which seems to be the direction we're heading in, rather than PGD or a blast transfer. Of course, you never know.

Fingers crossed, tightly. I will send an update later today on how the retrieval goes. Thank you for all of your well-wishes. We are hoping all your wishes for good luck might actually change our luck. We are ready for it to change!

Mo

Egg retrieval

They retrieved 15 eggs today. Tired and sore, but very happy.

We will post fertilization results tomorrow.

Thank you for all of your support and well-wishes. We read each and every comment and they mean more than we can say.

Mo

Getting to be that time

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.
.
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You know it's time for egg retrieval when





your ovaries, which are normally each the size of an almond

begin to resemble - and feel like


















Minus the stalks. I got no stalks.


T minus 21 hours.


Mo

And all this time I thought we were asleep during egg retrievals!

In a recent conversation with the RE, I was asking if there was any way he could give me a higher dose of stims this upcoming cycle (yes, this is how pathetic it's gotten), while simultaneously apologizing that I must sound like a drug-seeking patient ("More drugs, doctor, please, more!") and ha ha isn't that funny since there is not one iota of pleasure that comes from these drugs.

He laughed and said at least I could have my few minutes of pleasure from the anesthesia during the egg retrieval.

"But I'm asleep during the egg retrieval! It's not pleasurable at all!" I told him earnestly.

Well, come to find out, "you may be more awake than you think."

Um, Ok.

The RE went on to tell me about one patient who throughout the retrieval and following kept saying she should have stayed with her ex-boyfriend, who at least had good sperm (apparently her husband had male factor issues). The RE said they kept her in recovery, away from her loving and unsuspecting husband, until she was wide awake and in control of her faculties.

Later, the RE told her what she had been saying, and she said, "I hated that SOB - I'd never want to be back with him! My husband didn't hear me, did he?" She was assured, that no, her husband had not heard her.

I try to remind myself that they've seen it all. Whatever shocking behavior I could come up with must be boring to them. Of course, when I said this to the RE, he smiled, and said, "You'd be surprised."

Egads! Who knows what I've been saying during these multiple retrievals!

Figures that I'd be amnestic for the one bit of euphoria during this crappy process.

Thoughts on your potential behavioral pitfalls while disinhibited on meds? Pray tell, any actual stories?

Mo

Egg retrieval

A normally stressful event was made somewhat easier by having our RE make an unscheduled appearance to do Mo's procedure today. He retrieved 12 eggs! Mo has been fairly uncomfortable (but very relieved) and resting most of the day. She will update on the fertilization report as soon as we get word tomorrow. We are very, very pleased.

More news soon.

Will