the retrieval

And so I begin the injections. They started roughly a week before my retrieval. They are self injected into my abdomen (stomach). Giving myself them wasn't that bad and I was able to do most of them myself. I sometimes would rotate and give them into each thigh. Near the end of the week I had a melt down and just couldn't to it to myself anymore. I know most of it was psychological but couldn't talk myself into it. I had my hubby do it. I had multiple ultrasounds done that week - actually 5. It was exciting watching the follicles grow. It almost felt like I had a baby growing in me already. Every ultrasound there were more follicles and they just kept growing. It was amazing. Yes I was getting bloated and uncomfortable too but so worth it seeing the ultrasounds. It may be the closest I come to ever actually feeling like a baby was in my belly. As the retrieval was becoming closer, the more anxious I became. The morning we arrived to the doctors, I was glad my hubby was with me. My brother came over to pray with us before we left. The staff was amazing and attempted to help put me at ease. I was placed in the room where the eggs were to be retrieved from my ovaries. It looked like I expected. My IV was placed and meds were given. I don't remember much after that except for trying to talk through my oxygen mask. They Nurse Anesthetist was great and later we laughed at what I told her while I was somewhat sedated. The next thing I remember was waking up and the staff placing me into a chair. I had some cramps but was amazed at how easy it was. If you want to know what they do read on...if not may want to skip a few lines. They take a catheter and place it into my uterus with ultrasound. There is a needle inside that is injected into my ovaries and pulled out multiple times to remove all the eggs. They were able to retrieve 18 eggs! We were super excited. It is a great number. They let me go with plans to call me in the am to inform us how many were actually mature and able to use.