Today was egg retrieval day.  Our appointment was at 7:00 am which required a 6:30 check in.  The timing of all this is very important because at 7:00 pm on Saturday night Katie had to take a HCG shot which was the trigger that caused the release of her eggs.  They’re not screwing around about it either……the shot NEEDS to occur 36 hours prior to the retrieval.  Too late and the eggs won’t be ready for retrieval, too early and Katie would ovulate and the eggs would be gone.  Same thing on the appointment side….don’t be late!  The science of all this is pretty crazy.  We were there right on time and the procedure went well.  They were able to remove.  In addition to the retrieval procedure, I also had to bring my primary semen sample to the appointment.  As I discussed in an earlier post regarding the backup sample, there is a specific process you have to follow, questionnaire you fill out, etc.    The backup is collected in the event of “stage fright,” which apparently happens more than one would imagine.  So, now they’ll fertilize the eggs and call us tomorrow with the “fert rate.”  If you want a better explanation of that, you’d better pop over to Katie’s blog as, I’ve indicated before, she’s smarter than me.  All I know at this point is that 8 eggs are awesome!  I like those odds as I’ve been telling Katie since this started, all we need is one.

Aside from the two grueling semen samples I had to provide, so far I’ve had it pretty easy in this process.  Katie, however has had to put up with a ton and has dealt with it like a champ.  She never, and I mean NEVER, complains……and the pills and shots she’s had to take made her feel “pretty cruddy.”  The fact she said anything shows to me that she feels like crap.  I’m thankful that at this point she is through that stage and can hopefully start to feel better soon.  I’m so thankful for my beautiful wife.