Highs and lows

Yesterday was egg collection day. We had to be at the clinic by 10.00am and before we left we both took three paracetamol, as advised. We were feeling very excited and had our fingers crossed that many of the 16 follicles identified in the scan would produce eggs.


Before the procedure, Nurse K took us into a small room where she checked all our details, allergies, etc, and she took my temperature and blood pressure and gave me some medication to make me drowsy and relaxed. My sore throat has developed into a cold, so I was a little snuffly, but it wasn't too bad. I changed into a gown and then we were taken into the theatre.

I don't really remember much of the collection itself except that it was quite uncomfortable and sometimes painful (I don't think the paracetamol helped that much). Dr P talked the whole time, chatting away about this and that, probably to keep my mind off what was going on. D and a nurse were sitting next to me and there were a few other staff members around. As he collected them, Dr P passed the eggs through a window into the laboratory.

After the procedure was over, we were taken into the recovery room. I lay down in a big black recliner with a duvet and a hot water bottle and dozed for a while. Nurse R and Nurse J looked after me. I was feeling quite sweaty and my blood pressure dropped at one stage, so they hooked me up to a saline drip, which made me feel much better. I think I was probably a bit dehydrated because of my cold, even though I have been trying to drink lots of water over the past couple of days. A message came through from the lab that 12 eggs had been collected, which was great news. I slept while D was away having his sperm extraction. After he came back, we chatted for a while with Nurse R, had a hot drink and a muffin, and then we were ready to go.

Before we left, I was given a box of Utrogestan pessaries, which I have to use three times a day for at least the next couple of weeks, possibly longer if we have a positive pregnancy test result. We paid the final amount on our bill and then D drove us home (I was still quite dopey and had been told not to drive for 24 hours). When we got home, we were both quite sore so we had some more paracetamol and sat down to watch a movie. I had a brief nap in the late afternoon. My tummy was quite uncomfortable, especially when standing up from a sitting position or moving around, so I kept up the paracetamol. It definitely felt like it had been a long and important day in our journey.

This morning we received a call from N, the lab technician at the clinic, to tell us what had happened overnight. They had injected nine eggs with sperm but only three had fertilised. That was really disappointing because we had very high hopes after yesterday's success. But we keep telling ourselves that we only need one. I have an appointment on Monday morning at 11.15am for the embryo transfer. D will be out of town for an unavoidable work commitment so he won't be able to be there, but it is quite a simple and painless procedure so I will update him by telephone. If all three embryos have survived to that stage, two will be transferred and one will be frozen in case we need to try again.

So it has been quite an emotional day or so for us. I am looking forward to Monday and I have my fingers crossed that all will go well. Then somehow we have to survive the two-week wait until we know if we have been successful this time. It is hard to think of three little fertilised eggs sitting in the lab over the weekend, but we know that the staff have done everything they can and it is all up to nature now.