Egg Collection Day

My small, stubborn veins let me down today.

The first nurse spent a while locating a suitable vein and tried putting in a needle for the IV line for my pain relief drugs. She was unsuccessful and went to talk to the other nurses to see if they were game to try it. She came back 5 minutes later to say that none of them were willing to do it. They didn't want to poke and prod me with needles unnecessarily and decided the doctor could do it. 

Flex Thunderstache offered up a couple of suggestions - could they use a scalpel and a drip tray to access my veins?

Um, no thanks!

They could get me lifting some weights and doing some press ups to make my veins more prominent.

Thanks but no thanks! I will wait for the doctor.

Even with the smallest butterfly needles my veins just would cooperate. We informed the nurses and doctor that when I was hospitalized in India, it took 9 attempts to get the IV line in. After 6 failed attempts they decided not to poke and prod me any more and instead gave me a local anesthetic. This was far more successful.

The whole process of getting me dosed up on pain relief drugs took about half an hour and the wait was the worst part. I was please I had taken my cell phone in so I could listen to music. I had made up a shot playlist of worship music the night before and was so pleased I did. It really helps to calm me. The effect of the drugs kicked in pretty quickly and then we were off.

The nurses were lovely, I was very grateful for the one who sat next to me and listened to me babble on about our trip to India and how much I love my dog. It was such a good distraction. 

The egg collection process was pretty quick and I could see it on the ultra sound screen. the needle would pierce each follicle and then suck out all the fluid (this is how they get the eggs) down a tube and into a test tube. It was then passed through a window to the embryologist who would count out how many eggs they had. 

1

5,

10,

14!

14 eggs - I am an egg factory.

We are both so pleased with  this result.

Here are some pictures from today

All ready for the procedure in the sexy hospital gown

Rocking my lucky socks.

Remembered to take my phone in this time so this is one of my follicles you can see on the screen.

Tomorrow we will get a call from the embryologist and find out how many of our eggs fertilized.
Stayed tuned for another update tomorrow.

Xxx Alana, Flex and Frankie