ER is done: 10 eggies!

The story of our Egg Retrieval Day:
We got up this AM, loaded up and dropped Mads off at Big Mady and Missy's house, another friend of Mooshie and I from the board, who is now an excellent friend of mine, and an excellent helper!

We got to clinic and off CJ went to deposit his boys. *snicker*. Mooshie and I waited in the waiting room, glancing through the trashy movie gossip magazines with stick figure ladies, and then CJ came back, complete with his job.
The nurse, Courtney, came and said it's time to go prep -- but CJ declined to come back. He felt awkward going back with the two of us, but now he's totally kicking himself in the ass that he didn't come with, because I got to watch the doctor "aspirate" the follicles, aka "suck the liquid out of each follie". He loves that kind of science stuff. Oh well, hopefully there won't BE a next time, so he missed his chance.

Anyhoo -- Mooshie went through the background medical stuff with Courtney and chatted about where she is from *(Portland)*. And again, Courtney asked if Mooshie and I were sisters, since so far every nurse has seemed to think we resemble each other. The anesthesiologist came and hooked up Mooshie's IV and went over all the drug information with her; they were putting her half under, just enough to make her fall asleep for a few minutes. At around 10:50 or so they walked her into the ER room. She got on the table and the nurses bundled her in blankets, and one nurse strapped her legs to the stirrups (apparently others have tried to get up and walk) and the anesthesiologist wrapped her upper body in a blanket and clipped them shut . Like a mummy. Mummy Moosh.
Dr. S came in, smiling, and said hello to us (we had said a brief hello in the waiting /prep room). He saw Mooshie lying there on the table and said she didn't look like she was 32, he said she looked more like 22. She smiled, all groggy from the drugs starting to flow through her veins, and said "you can do anything you want". LOL. The drugs were kicking in and you could see she was getting more and more loopy. She was watching the lights on the ceiling and said it felt like she had 10 glasses of red wine poured into her.
I have to also say, the nurses throughout this, and Dr. S. were ALL extremely kind to both of us through all this and so warm and informative.
Mooshie fell asleep, they dimmed the lights, and they started the process. The doc's nurse, Sarah, was by his side holding the little test tubes. In this ER room there is a window that goes into the Embryologist lab---- so the nurse is helping the doc then handing the test tubes with follicle fluid/eggs to the lab directly.
Dr. S inserts the trans-vag. ultrasound wand, to see the follies and uterus, then takes this LARGE needle thing and sticks it up as well. This penetrates the vaginal wall into the ovary, and then sucks each mature follicle -- it sucks the follicles "liquid" into the test tube which Sarah then hands to the lab -- while she says "Right side" or "left side". As the follicle is getting sucked, you can literally see it disappear as it collapses on the screen. I guess this is called egg aspiration procedure. Meanwhile, the women in the lab behind the window is taking the tubes and apparently looking under a microscope to see if eggs are in the tubes, because they are yelling out "1" or "2", etc., and they finished with Mooshie at 9.
Dr. S. says it went very well, etc., they turn lights on and start unstrapping her legs and unwrapping her, while she is still sleeping, but the IV gal is starting to wean her from the drugs to get her to wake up.
Doc. S goes into the lab, and then comes back to talk to me. He tells me they got 10, not 9 eggs, 5 on each side! YAY! He says that is excellent, there were no "empty" follicles, which can happen.
He says we will ICSI (shoot the sperm directly INTO the eggie) the first 8 eggs and then the final 2 will be fertilized the "normal" way -- in a tube or whatever and hope they find each other.
The doc seemed very happy with the egg results, and said to plan on our 11:45 AM (CST) Embryo transfer on Saturday.
However, he said that if we have some really excellent quality embryos, then we"may" have a day 5 transfer -- to let them divide (cells) a bit longer -- which may be better and more successful. But he seemed positive it would work. Well, the docs have to be like that though, don't they?

Mooshie was adorable waking up, and insisting she could help get herself up. She does not remember that. Heehee.
We went back to the room and she slowly got less and less groggy and within a 1/2 hour she was herself, except more tired and groggy than a usual day. She repeated herself a few times, asking about how many eggs they got, and asking me if I was OK with that. At one point, she got all teary and said she just hopes this work. I took her hand and there we were, me standing next to her, holding her hand while she lied there, trying not to cry. I assured her we were VERY excited and happy and are thrilled that she is even doing any of this for us. 10 eggs is a great number, and its all about quality over quantity, anyways.

We eavesdropped on a few different women and their DH's that were on either side of the curtains of Mooshie. They were also have their ER's, and the one next to us was getting emotional before they took her into the ER room. When her and her DH got back, I heard her asking her DH how many eggs they got, and they told her 9 eggs. Her DH told her, "that's 2 more eggs than last time, honey". *sigh* I'm hoping that our 10 eggs is an even, positive number and we are successful. This is all so scary to go through.

I went and rejoined Chris in the lobby, where he was waiting. He had went to get an early lunch and did some shopping while we had the ER done. I told him all about what had happened and he seemed very excited.

Mooshie came into the lobby with Courtney, and she is now trying to rest downstairs, although Maddie keeps crying for her mama, while I am trying to watch her so Mooshie can rest. Maddie missed her mommy so much today, so I can imagine its hard to be out of town and know your mom is in the house. They are sleeping together now. I'm hoping that the prayers of all our family and friends is doing magic on the eggies and they are playing nicely with the swimmers right now!