Shots, shots, shots

For those of you who have been through IVF or the egg retrieval process, I now have an entirely new respect for you. The egg retrieval process is a hurry up and wait kind of game. Hurry up and get your medications, blood work, and ultrasound. Watch this video link on how to inject medications into your belly at home AND… begin tomorrow! You start injecting medication to encourage the ovaries to produce more eggs. You inject medications daily for about 8-12 days increasing the amount of medication and injections as you get closer to the egg retrieval procedure. During this process you go in for blood work and ultrasounds every couple days to make sure you are responding to treatment. During a typical cycle, women only produce one egg, so stimulating multiple eggs is… well uncomfortable to say the least. Bloated, irritable… and on top of all of that, they keep you on activity restrictions due to being at high risk for ovarian torsion (your ovaries can flip and cut off blood flow) which is a high risk of losing an ovary all together. So here I am, injecting medications into my belly every day, bloated, and not able to workout or be active (my worst nightmare). Anyways… when the follicles are mature, you administer a trigger shot and 36 hours later you are ready for your egg retrieval procedure. Everything is very precise on timing of medication. So in December of 2022 I had 14 eggs retrieved and 10 of those eggs were mature and sent off to be frozen for another day. Great success! The actual procedure was not painful, however I was given fentanyl during the procedure to assist with pain management and when I woke up, I was feeling good. (See photo). My husband said when the doctor came in to see me after the procedure all I said was “I feel fucking great”. So egg retrieval… check! What’s next…