Retrieval is Done

I'm back at the hotel and resting. So far, there's minimal pain, but that's probably just because the anesthesia and pain meds haven't fully worn off yet. I'll be popping Extra Strength Tylenol like crazy for the next few days, I'm sure.

RE retrieved 30 eggs. I know, that sounds like a great number, particularly if you struggled to get even just 4 or 5. But keep in mind that last time we did this, we got 32 eggs, 20 were mature, 17 fertilized, 16 of the 17 had 8-10 cells on day 3 (the 17th had 7 cells), all had fantabulous GES scores, 2 were transferred at day 3, 10 of the remaining 15 made it to blast, 8 of those 10 survived thawing and were transferred during three FETs, and out of all of that we wound up with two pregnancies, 3 miscarried babies and 0 live kiddos.

One of my best IRL friends, on the other hand, cycled a few months before I did IVF #1, with the same RE that I did that cycle with. (Different clinic than current clinic, but still a top-notch clinic.) She wound up with 3 embryos, none looked fantastic, none to freeze, and she has an almost-2-year-old to show for it. She went back to said RE and cycled again two months ago, 4 embryos, only 1 looked decent, two were only 4 cells on day 3, they stuck all four back, and she's 10 weeks pg.

So, to me, 30 eggs means nothing. Except for the fact that I will probably be in a lot of pain for the next few days.

We'll get the fert report tomorrow, the day 3 report on Thursday, and the blast report(s) on Saturday/Sunday. The CGH report won't come until early January. If that shows a bunch of normal embryos, then maybe, just maybe, I'll be a tiny little bit excited and think that perhaps we really can chalk some of the past losses up to my thyroid issues.

Oh, and lest you read my previous post and think "What the heck is she talking about with regard to the title and description going next to the photo??" - I gave up and took the photo off the title bar and stuck it in the About Me bar. Not ideal, but better than what it looked like before.