she's alive + shit

hey there - I'm alive! I had egg retrieval surgery on Thursday, 7/1 and we were able to fly home to Chicago on Friday, 7/2. We've been hanging out (mostly horizontal for me) and trying to will the bloat away. I will say that I am feeling worse in the last 3-4 days after surgery than I did the entire time on shots. I look 4 months pregnant and can't shit for the life of me. All of the miralax, prune juice and coffee haven't saved me from the constipation - this shit sucks, literally. 

Had a bit of a scare on Friday night after I stupidly thought taking a steam shower might help my situation. Poor Evan was trying to figure out why I was crying and yelling on the toilet for like 5 minutes until I just curled up in the fetal position, naked on the bedroom floor. God, this man loves me. 

I've been slowly feeling a bit better - usually feeling best in the mornings, and then over the course of the day feel like i have 10lb dumbbells in my stomach. Hoping that with time this will go away.

A couple of highlight quotes from my time on anesthesia (looks below brought to you by Fentanyl) 

After my OR nurse revealed she had started watching Real Housewives of Beverly Hills from Season 1, I awoke from surgery saying, "You're such a fucking liar, Camille!" 

After I said my pain was at a 7 and the OR nurse gave me a hit of the good stuff, I said, "Fentanyl is the shit." This is no longer funny to me because little did I know, it was not the shit... quite the opposite really. 


It's called hospital chic


yep, those are Cheez-Its


IVF tradition to get McD's fries after egg retrieval


Can you believe this is what is offered in the jerk off room? In pandemic times? In normal times? The horror.


Nothing to report on the status of embryos yet. As a reminder, we will be getting a call on Wednesday to say how many of our fertilized eggs (which there were some, so yay!) made it to the blastocyst stage. Then 2 weeks for genetic testing. 

We don't have a schedule or timeline for when we'll be back out in Denver - it all hinges on if we have genetically normal embryos and how long my treatment regimen will be to get my body ready for the embryo transfer (so yes - I will be doing shots again. I'm a pro though, so nbd.)

Hope everyone enjoyed the 4th and ate many grilled meats. 


ttyl,

AJ


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On joy & grief -- Spencer's First Birthday

Image
 While the days of infertility have luckily slid into the rearview, I am sitting with some thoughts on the eve of my daughter's 1st birthday.  Her birth did not go as planned - as most births don't. I felt steadfast in my answer to the question, what's your birth plan? 'Arrive alive: Healthy mom and healthy baby." And in the end, that is what I got. But I also got a whole lot of trauma and grief alongside it.  It's tough because the day I should've been my happiest, if not most fulfilled, was possibly the worst day of my life. I don't want to tell her that. I don't want her to know how broken I was - physically, emotionally. I don't want her to carry any fault for what happened... or maybe even worse - I don't want her to think I'm weak or a bad mom for not 'getting over it.' So how do I tell her about the day she was born? How do I convey to her how happy I am that she is here, that I am here - that we got through it together wi...
Read more

Introducing Elsa - The Ice Queen

Image
 This post is coming a bit later than I had planned, but so is life with a toddler, work, buying/selling a house, etc. (Sorry, kid - already getting the second child treatment.) I won't bury the lead any longer - we're pregnant with #2! It's been a wild ride but we are so happy to have the opportunity to expand our family again. We are so very lucky.  Backing up - I want to make sure I document this transfer process because it was very different from Wyatt's - goes to show every baby / embryo is different! Must remember this when I do the comparison game once the baby gets here...  We decided last year (around this time) that fall 2023 would be a good time to jump back into the IVF pool again. I could have my best hot/feral-mom-summer and then get back to business. While most (fertile) people can just say, 'oh what the hay! let's give it a go!' and throw caution and birth control to the wind, our family planning requires a bit more than that. Because it had ...
Read more

THE ICEMAN COMETH

Image
Well hello again. It's been awhile. Thank you for your patience and diligence in checking this lil' spot for updates. We have many of them for you.  The most important one being...  WE ARE PREGNANT! I am writing this the day after we found out and I'm swimming in constant excitement and then drowning in ever present worry. This is the moment we have been working so hard towards - it felt like we were at the top of Mt. Everest yesterday (except for the 95 degree heat in Chicago). There were days when I never thought we'd reach this point and days when I was sure it was around the corner. The ups and downs of this journey have been jarring - but crying in Evan's arms yesterday clutching a test that finally said "pregnant" was unlike anything I've ever experienced. Indescribable happiness, relief, joy, exhaustion, worry, and excitement flooded my thoughts. Could this really be happening?! But before we get into all my doubts and fears - let me tell you th...
Read more