Thursday 5 February 2009, 8.30am – Surprising News

I got a call from the Lab on my way to work this morning with the great news that all three of my eggs had fertilised overnight.  I must have pretty good eggs for my age!

 

We discussed how many embryos I wanted transferred and I told her that I was still pretty set on having all three transferred.  There are pros and cons with multiple births:

 

Pros	Cons
Save the cost of extra IVF	Medical health of mum and bubs
Siblings for the children	No hand me downs so double the cost
One maternity leave – less job interruptions	Double the work when I’m alone
Getting older, so harder to conceive again
Double the hugs and kisses
Know no different

 

But I’m still not sure how I would cope with triplets!  Let’s hope it doesn’t get to that, twins will be hard enough.

 

Once that was decided, the embryologist told me that we could make the transfer tomorrow instead of Saturday.  Well that freaked me out a little bit, even though I had already arranged to have Friday off work.  I asked her what was best for the baby(s) and she said that the only reason they generally waited the extra day was to select the strongest embryo’s and given that we weren’t choosing, there was no reason to wait if I was available.  Basically, she said they would be better off where they belong to do their thing.

 

So… tomorrow is the big day, and there is still the 2 week wait to see if I become pregnant…again.  Oh my… what am I doing?

Wednesday 4 February 2009, 6.30am – Egg Retrieval Day has Finally Arrived

I stayed at my sister’s place last night and my brother in law drove me down to the Hospital early for an 8am arrival.  I checked in at the front desk and was directed to the waiting room for day surgery patients.  Once there, I signed some paperwork, paid the hospital fees, signed a claim form for them for my private health insurance to pay the difference (not much) and sat in the waiting room with 3 other women.

 

After about 10 minutes, the nurse arrived and directed us into another waiting room, where there were about 5 or 6 more patients in various stages of preparation for their surgeries.  I met with my anaesthetist, who has a great sense of humour and after asking a series of questions, told me that he was happy with me and that he would see me soon.  I told him that I was happy with him too.

 

Then the nurse came back and took my blood pressure, pulse, and height and weight details, strapped my bands to my wrist and ankle and sat me back in the waiting room. Around 9.15am they called me to get changed in the cubicle, and put all my clothes in a plastic bag under my bed.  Just after 10am, the anaesthetist and a nurse wheeled me down the hallway to the door outside the operating theatre.  He and I small talked about allergies and the human body’s reaction to certain things (we were fascinated about my allergy to avocado), and then the nurse met me in the hallway.  She double checked my information and then told me that at this hopsital we walk into the theatre, so I got off the bed and walked straight in. 

 

My doctor was there, and while the anaesthetist and the nurse were prepping me with the canula and chest monitor tags, my doctor and I discussed the number of embryo’s to be transferred.  I told her that I had discussed the matter with the stand in doctor and my doctor said that her and the Embryologist were just talking about the number before I arrived.  I was able to convey that it would depend on the number of eggs that were retrieved and fertilised, but I was leaning towards three embryos to be transferred.  My reasons for this are that the treatments were getting expensive, I am getting older, and if my choices were between three babies and no baby, then I would take three babies.  I reiterated that it would depend on the number of eggs that fertilised and the embryologist said that she would talk with me more about it tomorrow morning when she called.

 

I woke up in recovery at around 10.40am and the recovery nurse told me that they retrieved 5 eggs.  I started crying because I was very disappointed that they didn’t get more.  I truly expected that they would find a few more eggs hiding inside my ovaries.

 

It was a pretty quick move from the 1st stage of recovery to the 2nd stage and it was around 11.30am that they gave me a sandwich and some juice.  The nurse rang my brother in law and I heard her tell him that he could pick me up at 12.30pm.  I then got changed and moved out to the 3rd stage of recovery… which was sitting on the chairs in another waiting room.  During that stage, another nurse took my blood pressure and pulse and completed my discharge papers.  I sent a few text messages to the family with the news and my sister sent me a text saying my brother in law wouldn’t pick me up until 1pm as he was in the city.

 

Around 1.15pm he arrived to pick me up and we left to come home.  On the way, the Lab called to tell me that 3 of my eggs were implanted with sperm and we would know overnight if they fertilised!  If they do, I will be choosing to transfer all three on Saturday to increase my chances of a full-term pregnancy!