Egg retrieval and fertilization report

My egg retrieval was yesterday. I was quite anxious and spent the time in the waiting area watching the clock, my surgery was scheduled for 8am and by 7.45am there were two of us waiting for Dr S to arrive and do our egg pick ups.

I walked into the operating theater by 8.05am and the drip was started shortly afterwards. And it hurt! Holy cow was that painful, I've never had a drip hurt so much. I haven't bruised from it but it felt like the anesthesiologist was scraping the cannula against bones in my hand.

I woke up in recovery and was in a bit of pain and felt ill. I was given some medication via the drip to take care of the pain and nausea. A while later I started to wake up properly and I just remember looking at my left hand for the magic number of how many eggs they'd collected. But my left hand had the drip in it and I was confused. The recovery nurse showed me my right hand and it said five. Five.

My heart sank. How did we go from having 12+ follicles to only 5 eggs. My Dr came around and explained that there was 15 follicles and he'd flushed each follicle multiple times to make sure they hadn't missed any eggs and that was why I was in so much pain. He said it didn't happen to often but occasionally the eggs just don't release from the follicles and that's why the count was so low.

After he left, I got dressed and went into the recovery lounge area to have something to eat. The nurses had already called my husband and he was on his way. They asked me if I'd like the fertility nurse to come down now, or wait until Tony got to the hospital. I said I'd rather wait. I knew it'd be longer to hear from the nurse, but I just couldn't hear that news again on my own.

Tony arrived a few minutes later. He sat and talked to me while my drip was removed and we waited for the fertility nurse. We chatted about which nurse would turn up to talk to us, luckily it was our nurse. She seemed disappointed at the number of eggs too, so I didn't feel so bad about being upset at only 5. (I know a lot of women go through a cycle with 5 or less, it was just the shock of thinking we'd be getting a lot more than that, closer to 9 or 10).

My nurse brought me box of Crinone and the after care instructions. She explained that I'd get a phone call from the embryologist the next day, probably around lunch time. She told me to think quality not quantity and to go home and rest.

I tried to nap when I got home but couldn't. I was thirsty, bloated and in pain. It really felt like my stomach was bruised and that the bruises would start to appear any minute. (But they haven't) I just took it easy for the rest of the night.

This morning I'd gotten up to use the bathroom and refill my water bottle. I was just going back to sleep when the phone rang at 9am. It was the embryologist.

Out of the five eggs, four were suitable for micro injection (icsi) and of those four, all four had fertilized. She said they still weren't sure if we'd do a three or five day transfer, and that she'd have more information for me tomorrow.

Through this whole process my fear was that we'd only get four eggs. I dreamt about the number four before my first follicle scan and was convinced that there'd be only four follicles. Then after the first scan, I dreamt that there was only four eggs.

We were so hoping that we'd have a few more eggs so that there would be embryos to freeze.

I'm hoping tomorrows phone call brings good news, but I'm prepared in case it doesn't. At this point in the game all you can do is wait and see. I don't want to be excited and hopeful, just in case things don't go as planned, but at the same time I don't want to be negative and fall into that negative funk.

It's out of our control at this time, what happens will happen.