Chapter 25: Pre and Post Retrieval

It's confounding really, how so much can happen in the span of tens days and feel like light years have passed when in all honesty, not much time has passed at all.

I left off at my dosage of cetrotide that was set to begin. The first day for my cetrotide dosage, my nurse had instructed me to take it in the evening with the menopur and gonal-f. Every day following, I was to take it between 6 - 9 AM. I had planned on taking it immediately after Fajr so that there was no way I would lag on time; it had to be taken at the same time every day until I was instructed to stop.

Second day of cetrotide, I was up before my alarm, jolted out of my restless sleep, feeling as if I had entirely overslept. Don't you hate when that happens? Not wanting to risk the chance of actually missing my timeslot, I prepped the syringe so that we'd be ready when it was time to take the shot. Compared to the menopur, and based on all the negatives I had read about cetrotide online, I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't bothering me. Tips that I had read and helped me were to clean the needle with an alcohol swab after letting the air bubbles out, inserting it under the skin in one swift motion, pushing it in slow and steady, and taking it out in one swift motion, being careful not to get any of the medicine on to the skin.

That night, I realized why it was so important to keep the medicine off my skin. After I did my gonal-f and menopur, my husband injected the cetrotide on the right side of my lower abdomen. The syringe didn't come out as smoothly this time though. Even after we tried to clean it up swiftly, the injection site began to get red, blotchy, and itchy almost immediately. I kept an ice pack on it all night which helped a ton, and I would seriously advise anyone going through any of this to always have at least two ice packs handy. I've never needed them more.

When I awoke the next morning for Fajr, I got my cetrotide out of the fridge so that it could take the 20 minutes or so to come to room temperature. Refrigerated medications usually only stay usable for 15-20 minutes after they have been mixed. Anything longer, and it is generally recommended to discard of it. As I finished mixing the cetrotide powder with the saline and put the proper sized needle on and called my husband to come do the injection, my heart sunk to the pit of my stomach.

The nurse had said to only do cetrotide at night for the first dosage. I had done it two nights in a row. Which meant that on day 2 of cetrotide, I had taken the dose twice when it was meant to be only taken once. I panicked. It was 6:15 AM and not knowing what to do, I sat down at the edge of my bed and sobbed. I was froze in fear that I had ruined the entire cycle. I had essentially given my body more ovulation stopping hormones than it needed. Would that affect the whole process?

Thankfully, when it comes to stressful situations, while my flight mechanism does itch to break free, the fight mechanism generally kicks in first. I hunted down the emergency nurse line and had an answer from my doctor with ten minutes. I was okay to take my dose, and since it hadn't been more than 20 minutes since I had mixed it, I wouldn't have to throw it out and start with a new one. My whole world felt like it had come to a standstill. All it takes is one screw up and all of this could have been for nought.

Needless to say, the remainder of my cetrotide shots were all given once a day and in the mornings. I wasn't about to make the same dumb mistake twice.

My retrieval was scheduled for Tues, 9/8 at 7:30 AM. I had done the lupron trigger shot at 7:30 PM on Sunday, exactly 36 hours prior to when my eggs would be sucked out of my ovaries. I didn't really feel the trigger all of Monday. But when I woke up Tuesday morning, I couldn't even walk. I waddled. I waddled out of bed and into the bathroom. I waddled into my closet. I waddled to the car. I waddled as I stood to be checked in. It hurt to sit. It hurt to have the seatbelt press against my ovaries. Everything hurt.

The nurse checked me in and got me situated. I took some time in the room to get undressed and sign my life away on all the consent forms that were brought my way. Y'all, I lucked out again with an ALL FEMALE CARE TEAM. Allahu akbar; God is Great. When it was time for me to be wheeled back (sike, I had to walk there lol) to the OR, I waddled with my IV and settled into the bed. Same ritual as always: bottom to the edge of the bed, scoot on down, feet in stirrups, scoot an inch down some more, and lay on back.

As the anesthesiologist began to tell me that she was going to get started, I started reciting my Ayatul Kursi in my head. I'm not sure I got through the whole of it though, because when I awakened, I was back in my room in my hospital bed. Also not sure how I got into the bed, now that I think about it. Guess I'll never know. The doctor who had done the retrieval came in soon after my nurse made sure I was able to chow down some crackers and water. They had been able to retrieve 7 eggs. She said that my right ovary had been playing peek-a-boo which required them to press down on the right side of my abdomen quite a bit in order to get access to the eggs on that side. I felt that soreness for some time afterwards.

I was home by 10:30 AM post retrieval. Boy, am I glad that my nurse had talked me into taking the day off and staying bed. It was painful to even shift my position in bed, let alone try to get up to use the restroom. My in-laws came over to check in on us and brought us food for the week so that we'd be set. I spent the majority of the week keeping my feet up, sticking vaginal suppositories up there 3x a day and taking my estradiol 2x a day.

On day 3 post retrieval, my nurse called me to schedule my fresh embryo transfer. Of the 7 eggs that had been retrieved, 4 had been of mature size, and all 4 of those had fertilized. My transfer had been scheduled for this morning. Except as I was in the shower getting ready for the appointment, I heard my phone ring. Shampoo still in my hair, I grabbed my towel and ran to answer the phone. It was the doctor. He was calling to let me know that of the 4 fertilized eggs, two had grown and two were still lagging behind. The two that had grown though were still between a day 4 and day 5 and had not yet made it to blastocyst. Honestly, I sighed with relief. I had been fretting about having a male physician do my transfer as it was. But now, a female doctor would be the one working and she'd be the one to do it. Maybe this extra day to grow is good for us. I'm praying and hoping that my endometrial lining cooperates with us and that we have both embryos ready for tomorrow's transfer.

To ease our minds and keep us distracted, my husband suggested that we binge all of the Harry Potter movies. He has never read any of the books, not watched any of the movies in entirety. He's not much of a fan. But I am. So I'm not sure if he was doing it moreso for me or not. But all I know is that when we finished all eight movies an hour ago, he's agreed to possibly reading the book series. The nerd in me could not be happier.

I go to bed ready to face tomorrow, praying that the rising sun brings with it good light and good news. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.