Picking up from last week’s post, more journal entries! This week is missing Friday and Saturday’s entry because apparently, I didn’t write in my journal those nights.

IVF, Week 2, The Egg Retrieval:

July 13th: I woke up very early this morning for another Nashville appointment – a blood draw and ultrasound. The ultrasound technician felt certain Dr. V would trigger me (to ovulate) soon! I waited anxiously for Dr. V to call me tonight with further instructions but when he did call, it wasn’t to trigger me… just to keep my injection dosage the same and remind me come back in the morning.

July 14th: I drove to Nashville again this morning by myself. Another blood draw and ultrasound. The ultrasound technician said she was sure Dr. V would trigger me last night and was surprised to see me on her schedule for today. Which excited me! – that made me think that the day after being trigger would be a day without driving to Nashville, a day without getting stabbed in the arm for a blood draw – but found out that wasn’t the case. This evening, when my case manager called, she told me to take the trigger shot tonight but also told me to come in for another blood draw in the morning. When my case manager called to tell me to take the trigger shot, we were on our way to have dinner with friends and was told to immediately turn around to go back to our house so I could give myself the trigger shot. We packed our bags for Nashville to leave early tomorrow morning for a blood draw and the egg retrieval Wednesday… progress!

July 15th: Neil & I woke up early and drove to Nashville for my last blood draw before they retrieve me eggs! No ultrasound today so the appointment was short and we essentially had all day in Nashville, with nothing to do. To pass the time, we did a little shopping at the Opry Mills Mall and are now staying the night at their hotel – which is huge and lovely!

July 16th: We woke up and got to the clinic early and thankfully, they took me back right away. While I changed and signed consents, Neil took care of his “part” for the egg retrieval, and they took me back to the procedure room and started my IV. I spent more time waiting than the actual egg retrieval took but I guess that’s normal. I remember looking at the clock when the Dr. and team walked in – 10:15am – and they immediately started the sedation and I was out. When I awoke, only 30 minutes had passed. I passed out again and woke up again and another 30 minutes had passed, but I was in recovery and they were bringing Neil back to see me. When I was sitting up and more than just half awake, they told us they retrieved 33 eggs! They seemed very impressed with that amount so of course I was too! They released us and we drove home. The pain had already started and the rest of the day was spent being very sore and on bed rest, sleeping off and on.

July 17th: I was on bed rest until around noon today so I just slept in bed. I’m still very uncomfortable but slowly getting better. My case manager called sometime after lunch to give me my numbers – 33 eggs were retrieved, 26 of those were fully mature, and they were able to fertilize 18 of those eggs! So exciting!! But what is more exciting is that they’ll perform the transfer Monday morning!! The icing on the cake is that I’ll be able to shoot this Saturday’s wedding! After dinner we stopped by Neil’s mom’s for the first of no telling how many nightly injections in the hips of the new medication cocktail. It’s suppose to hurt but it didn’t at all! I guess the real test will be if it’s sore tomorrow.