Back to Sydney we go again. This time for the retrieval and transfer! And also the most undignifying scan so far. Previously when I’ve had scans they’ve been in a reasonably large room with a sonographer who has gracefully left the room before and after for me to change. This time I found myself in a tiny room, feeling like I was about to be strip searched! After it was over, the woman stood about a foot from me as I lost all dignity and scooped out about a litre of lube from of my vagina post-scan. She did not even buy me dinner first. How rude. 
The silver lining in this undignified moment was that they said that 16 of my 47 (thanks PCOS) follicles looked nice and juicy, ready for the picking! Sally’s lining was also given the all clear and I was instructed to go home, rest up and set my alarm for 230am – prepare to be triggered! Every time you get told to go home and ‘rest up and wait’, time seems to slow down to a snails pace! I don’t think I really even fell asleep before 230am came around and I was up to jab myself – probably the worst injection so far, I had a mild reaction,my throat itched and I couldn’t stop coughing – a couple of Phenergan later I managed to fall back to sleep. And then the waiting game began again. 36 hours this time, 36 loooooong hours until I had to present to the clinic, fasted and ready for pick up. This means that I also had to fast from the time I woke up until after my collection (around 4pm). Let’s just say that hormonal AND hangry is not a great mix! I was anxious, irritable and hungry by the time I met my anaesthetist. He was pretty good, for the record. I asked him what and how much of everything he was going to give me “propofol, midaz and plenty of it. You a nurse?”

“ICU” 

“the best kind to put to sleep!” 

I woke up a little over 45minutes later and blearily asked “how many?” We got 4. I was pretty disappointed! 47 follicles and we only got 4 eggs?! I thought my ovaries were going to spit eggs out like machine guns! Joel (our Doc) assured me that 4 was fine, better than none! But I still felt a little disappointed, how I imagine a man with premature ejaculation would feel. What an anticlimax.

Then the waiting game began again, 24 hours of my little eggs laying in a Petrie dish full of sperm (poor little suckers) before the clinic would call to tell us how it went. The hours draaaaaagged! Especially since I was also having quite a lot of cramping and couldn’t really do much to make the time go faster. It got to about 3pm the next day and Sal couldn’t wait any longer so she called through to see if the results were ready. 3 of our 4 eggs had made it through fertilisation and were looking good! We were booked in for a day 3 transfer and settled back in for another wait. In the meantime I had started to feel a bit better so we managed to get out and do the Bondi to Coogee walk – a beautiful way to get some much needed fresh air and breathing space away from all the IVF palava.

   
 The day of transfer finally arrived and we excitedly made our way back to the clinic for the last time this trip. We got to see our beautiful 8-cell embryo (clearly my superior genetics shining through) on the big screen as Joel shot it forth into to Sally’s lovely lining. And then it was done.

And now we wait. 

Again.