Egg Retrieval Done!

We are home!

I am going to warn you – I am still under the influence of IV sedation and valium, so some of the sentences and trains of thought I have, might not make a whole lot of sense.

We arrived in Grand Rapids a little before 8:45am, and there sure weren’t a lot of people there at that time. I had to take a valium at 8:30 and by the time I had to walk to the “waiting for operation” room, I needed assistance. They would ask me questions and I couldn’t even begin to tell you what they asked me. I suppose that is why they say don’t sign any legal documents or drive on that medicaiton. Pretty soon after, they had me in the operating room. I think I could’ve watched them do it, but it honestly was a painful process. I could feel every poke and sometimes I wonder how they got those eggs out! I think as time went on they gave me more IV sedation, but those pokes on the ovaries were pretty substantial. The best words I heard were “30 more second.” I just kept telling myself “they are coming out” and a nurse was there coaching me through. It’s not necessarily a process I would ever want to go through again and I am so thankful it’s in the past. At some point they wheeled me back to the recovery room and I was out. Apparently I slept for like an hour and slept like a baby. Then all of a sudden the nurse came in and told me it was time to go home! My thoughts were – wow, that was a quick operation!

I think I slept most of the way home and when my feet hit the floor in our house I dropped whatever I had in my hands and went to bed for a couple of hours. Ahhhh. It was some of the best sleep I have had in a LONG time. I sit here thinking “wow, that part is over!” Very surreal to think about, but oh so very thankful that God has brought us another step. Another step in this huge process. I am so thankful that my heart did okay too. There was some concern over whether to do the procedure at the hospital or at the clinic – docs said they thought I’d be okay at the clinic, and I was. I am so thankful for that. I remember them saying something about my heart in the op room (don’t remember what), but PRAISE GOD that I am doing just fine.

I have quite a bit of cramping, but that is so normal. I can already tell I am not on these huge doses of hormones anymore. I think my body is thanking me for that! I still have to stay on my blood-thinning shot for over 10 days, but I am thankful because I will do ANYTHING to make sure I don’t have heart complications because of this. Plus, one shot vs. 4? Yeah, I’ll take the one :).

God has been so gracious to us today! Everything went completely as planned and now we wait to see if the two eggs they chose will fertilize. That is our next prayer in the process – that those two eggs will flourish. Yes, we chose to do just two. That is a whole other blog post in itself. Tomorrow we will find out if they both took! I will say I am eager already for that phone call. But like we prayed yesterday, God is the Creator and Giver of life. NOT us. Only GOD can create a human being – an embryo. If He chooses no, we need to understand that He is doing that for our own good. It would be hard to understand at the time, but God works for the good of those who love Him.

So join us today in praising God for His wonderful goodness and protection today! I was not nervous one iota going into it, and that is PURELY God’s doing. You’d think I would’ve been, but God helped us surrender that control. Now whatever happens, happens. It may come across as me not caring if they become embryos – I SO DO, but I can do NOTHING at this point except pray that they do. God will knit them together if it is His will.

Thank you ALL for your prayers! Hopefully tomorrow I will come bearing good news!

I hope this all made sense! My speech is a tad impaired at this point – but hopefully my brain made sense!