Here's are a couple entries I wrote while I was in Toronto. The first I wrote after my second visit to the clinic (Monday morning) and the second entry I wrote shortly after the retrieval.
The retrieval went down this morning. It went well, I think. Matthew and I got to the clinic at 8:45am. I had to dress in a hospital gown and wear a cap and slippers, Matthew had to wear a yellow gown, and a cap, and mouth mask. We ended up waiting quite a while to go into the operating room. They took me in first and hooked me up to an IV and strapped my legs into some stirrups. Then they brought Matthew in. There was an ultrasound monitor on the wall opposite from me so if I sat up a bit I could see the screen. They drugged me and then the doctor got to it. I didn't feel all that out of it. I watched most of the procedure take place on the screen. The doctor inserted a long ultrasound wand into me so he could see what he was doing, and then he used this tube-type thing to suck the eggs out. On the screen you could see the follicles get pierced and they would turn from black to white (or white to black, I can't remember) when the egg got sucked out. It was pretty interesting, and pretty quick. After I sat around for awhile drinking gatorade and falling in and out of sleep. Then they sent me home with some more medication that will help make sure I don't hyperstimulate and get my hormones back to normal levels. Everything should be back to normal after my next period. I was pretty sleepy all day, and felt fairly sick when I got back to Matthew's after the procedure, I thought I might throw up. But I didn't and Matthew went and got us some Pho for lunch and everything stayed down just fine. I feel almost one hundred percent now, just my uterus is really sore, it feels sort of crampy, mostly I just feel it when I walk though.
I'm in Toronto now. I went into the clinic Sunday morning and got an internal ultrasound and some blood work done. The nurse told me I'm doing very well, and that I've produced a lot of eggs (18 in one ovary and 19 in the other) and that this is really good, but that she's worried I'll be 'very uncomfortable' because of it. I haven't been super uncomfortable, but I have been sore in the uterus area, I feel like I have a stomach ache all the time, it is more uncomfortable than usual when I need to pee, and my breasts are very tender. After I left the clinic I got a call asking me to please come in again the next morning and that the doctor would see me then. So I went back and got another internal ultrasound, after which the doctor decided to move the retrieval date to Wednesday, two days earlier than it was originally scheduled for. I think this is good because as it stood I was going to be flying to New York the very next morning; this way I'll have a little more recovery time after the retrieval. They seemed a little worried about me over stimulating, to help prevent this they gave me a list of things I should drink and do. I'm not allowed to drink coffee so I'm pretty sleepy all the time. I slept a lot today.
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The retrieval went down this morning. It went well, I think. Matthew and I got to the clinic at 8:45am. I had to dress in a hospital gown and wear a cap and slippers, Matthew had to wear a yellow gown, and a cap, and mouth mask. We ended up waiting quite a while to go into the operating room. They took me in first and hooked me up to an IV and strapped my legs into some stirrups. Then they brought Matthew in. There was an ultrasound monitor on the wall opposite from me so if I sat up a bit I could see the screen. They drugged me and then the doctor got to it. I didn't feel all that out of it. I watched most of the procedure take place on the screen. The doctor inserted a long ultrasound wand into me so he could see what he was doing, and then he used this tube-type thing to suck the eggs out. On the screen you could see the follicles get pierced and they would turn from black to white (or white to black, I can't remember) when the egg got sucked out. It was pretty interesting, and pretty quick. After I sat around for awhile drinking gatorade and falling in and out of sleep. Then they sent me home with some more medication that will help make sure I don't hyperstimulate and get my hormones back to normal levels. Everything should be back to normal after my next period. I was pretty sleepy all day, and felt fairly sick when I got back to Matthew's after the procedure, I thought I might throw up. But I didn't and Matthew went and got us some Pho for lunch and everything stayed down just fine. I feel almost one hundred percent now, just my uterus is really sore, it feels sort of crampy, mostly I just feel it when I walk though.
