Egg Collection

So, the good part in all of this crazy cancer stuff is the notion that my eggs can be frozen and having a family is something Jeremy and I will actually be able to do. Amazing stuff really. So after my emergency surgery on Friday last week, I headed up to Portland on Saturday morning for my eggs to be collected from my ovaries and frozen for a period of time until we are able to have a family.

I honestly didn't want to go, I was still very sore from surgery the day before, but this was it, no stopping, no turning back, no nothing but yes, we are going. Jeremy was incredible and helped me through it all. With out him I wouldn't have done it. Without him all of this would have been difficult. I know he is struggling through all of this too, and he hated seeing me go through two seperate surgeries in a row, but he also knew if he didn't make me get into that car I would regreat it later.

We made it to Portland way early, and just sat in the car. We laughed, I mean really laughed. It was fun to just kind of be immobilized in time, in a parking garage, with nothing else to do, but talk. And I don't even remember what we talked about, but I remember laughing. He always has a way of doing that, but lately I don't see it as funny, for some reason I did that morning. And we headed in.

I got all gowned up, emptied the bladder, laid on the table, got the IV's going through my PICC line of course, and I was off to surgery to gather me some eggs. I remember going in, getting situated on the table, and then I was back in the room, listening to conversations around me. Oh, and the cramping, what an incredible feeling.... not comfortable, but bearable. They have drugs for that. I think waking up from that was much more painful than the day before when my expander was removed. But I had an infection with the expander and that was causing all kinds of pain on its own, so removing it made everything feel better.

The results.... they were able to gather 19 eggs that seemed large enough to take, with only 14 mature enough to be frozen in time. And the odds go down from there. Of those 14 only 75% will make it thru the thaw = 10 and then 75% of those will make it to the fertilization process, so 7-8. And then 75% of those will actually become fertilized = 5 and half of those will make it.... so maybe 3 when all is said and done. I was hoping for more. But that is 3 more than I had before the process started, so I figure I am ahead of the game. I love competition.