Retrieval yesterday went fairly well. My doctor wasn't available this time, so my retrieval was performed by another doctor in the practice. She came to speak with us before the procedure. I had already changed into my gown and egg socks and the nurse had IV-ed me up (took two tries this time...one in each hand). She was very friendly, and introduced herself as the chief of surgery for the practice. We had a nice talk before the procedure, and felt assured that we were in good hands.
In the end, I woke up extra sore and the nurse brought Michael back to see me quickly, which was nice. We found out from the doctor that only 4 eggs were retrieved from my 5 follicles. The final egg just wouldn't release from the wall of the 5th follicle, which probably means it hadn't matured properly. She had tried a few different angles to be sure it wasn't just being stubborn, which explained the extra tenderness on my left side.
She then told us the good news. The 4 eggs that were retrieved were all MII level of maturity, which is great news, but I won't lie, I wanted all 5. Having the numbers narrow straight out of the gate isn't much fun. Still, 4 mature eggs is a better result than the last two rounds combined, and we felt happy about that. The nurse gave me some Norco for the extra pain, and once Michael helped me change back into my clothes, they gave him my discharge paperwork. They always take me to the parking lot in a wheelchair, which is a good thing, given how woozy I am coming out of anesthesia.
On the way home, I got my usual chocolate milkshake! Hooray!! But I was exhausted, so the rest of Monday I mostly slept. I was more sore than the last 3 rounds thanks to that stubborn 5th follicle, and the extra meds were taking a toll. Michael helped me get up when I needed to and brought me lots of fluids.
Today, I didn't set an alarm, just slept and rested as long as I could and woke up very sore, but better than yesterday. I needed the rest to recover, but I also knew the longer I slept, the sooner I could skip to the part of the morning where I got the phone call from Michelle with the fertilization report.
Distracting myself by catching up with work started around 8:30am...Michelle called at 10:45am. 3 of the 4 eggs fertilized and were growing successfully as of this morning. Another lost in the process, but still 3 going. This is normal attrition - ~80% fertilization success - and similar to what we had already experienced: 5 of 7 in round 1, 1 of 2 in round 2, and 2 of 2 in round 3. I was happy and sad, but mostly happy. So much work and hope goes into each of these eggs, so whenever one doesn't make it to the next step, there's a little grieving that takes place for the little hope that is lost. That egg or embryo is simply not meant to be the one, and this will unavoidably happen as a part of this whole process. The odds of perfection are slim to none, and each update is likely to contain news of loss. Intellectually, we know that <50% of those that fertilize successfully will make it to blastocyst stage. Still, it's not easy to cope with each narrowing of the field.
The next news will come on Thursday morning. The Day 3 report will be all about how many are still growing and how many cells they are. 8-10 cells each is preferred. <6 isn't great news, but isn't definitive. It's a bit of a purgatorial report, but it's at least an indicator of how things are going toward a day 5/6 blastocyst stage. For more info, check back to my prior rounds for descriptions of embryo growth stages.
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