Just goes to show you.

My second retrieval is over. And I can tell you right now that if the first retrieval had gone like this one, I don't know if I would have gone into a second cycle so quickly. Almost everything that could go wrong this time did. R was so nervous about succeeding in his portion of the equation that he psyched himself out and had a really difficult time 'producing'. I ended up having to drive myself to the procedure so that he could take more time to work on it. Then, they used a different anesthesiologist this time and I had a terrible reaction to whatever she gave me that they had to keep me for two extra hours so that they could flush the drugs from my system. I was so dizzy and nauseous that I couldn't sit, stand or even move without feeling ill. To make matters worse, the RE was only able to get 10 eggs this time and had to be 'aggressive' about getting them so I ended up having a lot of pain this time. There was virtually no pain last time, so it really surprised me at how much I was hurting. The pain started radiating into my collarbone and the RE was concerned that I might have fluid in my abdomen from the procedure. I'm still very uncomfortable today so the RE wants me to lay down for the day and try to take it easy. All in all, just not a fun experience this time. Just goes to show you how different each procedure can really be.

So, the fertilization report for today is that 7 of the 10 have fertilized right now. One more little one is trying to fertilize, one fertilized abnormally and one egg was still not mature enough and didn't fertilize at all. Basically, it's the same exact fertilization rate as the first cycle, even though there were less eggs to work with this time. And because we had less than 10 fertilize, the three-day versus five-day argument is completely moot. They'll put the three best babies-to-be back on Friday, as long as they are all developing normally.

Keep your fingers crossed for some good-looking eight-celled babies!