Retrieval Process

     Before I jump in and tell you guys about the egg retrieval today, let me first catch you guys up on what has happened since my last post. I had to continue going to monitoring everyday, which meant blood work and an ultrasound every morning around 7am before work. Most people only have to go every few days, but because of my past history with IVF and also my "incredible response" to the medications, they wanted to watch me extremely closely. This week was utterly exhausting getting up at 5:45am giving myself my morning injection and then traveling a half hour to the doctor, then heading straight to work. I would come home, work on school and head to youth group with Jeremy (on the nights we had it) before giving myself my nightly injections and heading to bed. This is on top of Jeremy working two part time jobs and doing school too. This week, we really were able to draw our strength from the Lord and rely fully on him to get us through.

    Saturday, we found out that my follicles were just about ready and so they had us meet with a nurse to go over our trigger instructions. Basically all that means, is that they stop the injections I have been on to escalate my estrogen level, and to grow my follicles and instead give my shot of another medication that tells my ovaries to prepare to release all the eggs I have been building up, so that the doctor can go in surgically and retrieve them. Last year when we went through this, the trigger shot was a difficult thing for us. Its an intramuscular injection which is painful, but also Jeremy has to administer it. Last time, the fertility clinic kind of scared Jeremy and told him if he gave it too high, he would paralyze me, and if it was too low, it would cause me insane pain. So when it came time for him to give me the shot last time, it didn't go so well because of his nervousness and I ended up giving it to myself. So this year, he was a bit nervous about doing it again. As we were talking to our nurse about this, she began to tell us some tips to help this go more smoothly. All of a sudden, she stopped and then remembered something. She proceeded to tell us that since they were triggering me with a different medication than they do with most patients because of my history that my injection would be subcutaneous instead. This was a huge blessing, because this is how I have been giving myself daily injections and its a much MUCH smaller needle, and a ton less painful. It was so neat to see how God provided even just that small comfort, when I have been asking you guys to pray alongside of us for my physical comfort. So once again, I just thank you for being so diligent in lifting us up in your prayers. God is so good!

   So onto today. When I arrived to the center, they took my vitals, and hooked me up on the IV. I was a little nervous, because I really wanted them to have a good number of eggs to be able to fertilize and choose from. Last year when we went through IVF I had 6 eggs that were retrieved which is a great number, and of those 4 had  fertilized so I was hoping for at least the same results this time. But I wasn't sure since I have been on different meds this time around. So long story short, Jeremy and I prayed together and then they took me to get all settled in the O.R. Before I knew it I was sleeping. The next thing I remember is hearing the nurse in the recovery room telling me that they retrieved 18 eggs! I remember thinking, this sounds great!...but then quickly falling back to sleep. I woke up to find my loving husband standing right by my side and he asked me if they told me how many eggs I had retrieved. I told him the nurse told me 18, and he said "No Kia, She said you had 31!" Praise the Lord!

   Because I had so many, I was in a good amount of pain when I woke up and currently am still sore. They told me its going to take a few days for my swelling to go down and to feel 100%, but still Praise the Lord for his goodness! We were so blessed to have such a large amount of eggs, and Lord willing this will give us the best possible choice for perfect embryo's. It is so amazing to see him answer our prayers in ways we never expected. It excites Jeremy and I to see all the glory God is already getting through this process. That has been our prayer from day 1. That God would use our lives to give himself glory, and even through our infertility that is happening. That encourages our hearts so much. We appreciate the texts, phone calls, and messages that we have received today. You are such an encouragement to us and we are so grateful for you. You have made the process of us becoming vulnerable and letting you guys in very easy. Tomorrow, we will find out how many eggs have fertilized and then in the next 3-5 days they will transfer them in depending on how the embryos develop. We will update again once we find this information out. Below you will find a few pictures from today. Just excuse the way I look! :)

                       This is right after they put the IV in. Just anxiously waiting for the retrieval.

 Me and my most favorite person in the whole wide world. I am so thankful for a loving, supportive husband!

Right after I came out of surgery. I get so drowsy from the anesthesia, plus they had pumped me with a lot of pain medication, so I was very sleepy!