The events of the day

8.15am get out of bed (dh and I really like to go to bed late and sleep late, but all of the monitoring apts have cramped that style for the last 4 days).

9.30 on the road -- lots of traffic, unfortunately.

10.30 check in, exactly on time

10.45 go up to the magic floor and get taken into the magic room.  Dress in hospital gown, dh says that it's weird how I always look so good in hospital gowns.  I don't think he was joking.  Hm.

11am  very handsome anesthesiologist comes to chat with us, asks about my somewhat complicated medical history.  Why are all anesthesiologists good looking?  Is this like a rule when interns apply to particular specialties?  It's kind of strange.  As handsome anesthesiologist walks away dh looks slightly freaked and said that he forgot about the health risks (I have some heart weirdness which mildly increases those risks, but not a big deal).  That was sweet.

11.05am dh leaves to do his part of the deal and I go into the procedure room.  My wonderful doctor shouts out across the hall, "hi!" as I'm on my way in.  I love her.  About 10 people (so it seems) are all squeezed into this rather small dark room and are arranging me on a skinny short bed with scoops to hold my knees up and very spread apart.  Lots of monitors hooked up to me, lots of tubes and wires and blankets.  I remember the cute anesthesiologist commenting on my cold hands and asking a nurse to get me a warm blanket.  My wonderful doctor gets me all arranged, I make some comment about how I think I like the traditional method better than all of this, they chuckle.  I wonder how many people say that.  I also made some comment about my "litter"... how many people joke about that too?  I remember nothing else.

12pm I am having weird but not unpleasant dreams as I wake up in a curtained-off recovery area with polka dots.  I close my eyes and go back to happy-ville.  My wonderful doctor comes in, is very happy and very close to my face.  I can't remember what she said but the memory of her smiling face is nice.  Wake up again a little later and a nurse and the handsome anesthesiologist are there, we chat for a while about drugs and being in a good place.  He tells me about how some patients have sex dreams on those drugs, and others get really chatty and a bit too honest.  I asked if I was one of those, and he said no.  Hm. 

The super nice nurse who taught my injections and IVF class brings me crackers and some gingerale and juice -- she mixes the juice and gingerale and it tastes wonderful. 

Dh comes in, they bring him a chair.  I'm feeling really good, no pain, just an awareness of my ovaries. 

We all chat, get the info from the super nice nurse about what all to expect, what happens next, etc.  We ask a lot of questions and she's great about answering them all very patiently.

I sit up.  Get monitored a lot more.  Nurse starts to remove all the heart monitors and tubes.  I then get to stand up, undo my hospital gown while she kindly draws big black circles around where I need to do my progesterone shots when I start those on Thursday. 

We all laugh about how crazy it all is, and how I have about zero modesty left to hold onto after all of this.

I wonder if dh still thinks I look good in a hospital gown now that he got to see a nurse draw black circles on my butt under fluorescent lights. Hm.  He can be  weird one, so maybe...

We are out of there by about 1pm.

I am very specific about what I want to do next.  We go to McDonald's drive-through and then go sit by the marina and I take a nap after consuming hamburgers and frenchfries. 

I feel exhausted but I'm sure it's not because of the retrieval; it's all of the stress and emotion leading up to today.

But things look hopeful.  Dh said that the dr. came in very excited to tell him that she retrieved 6 eggs.  Two are really really nice, one is ok, and the others are pretty small. He said she had an air of "yes!  I decided on the right action plan here!"  I like this.  She's very smart, so I take some hope in her optimism. 

When he gets home tonight I am going to ask him to tell me the story again. 

Two good eggs.  A bunch of fresh spermies.  Let's see what they can do over night.