The 30th October finally arrived. We were told about this date back in July and since then have had questions about what we were to expect, what would happen and what our outcome would be. It’s fair to say that our disappointing scan on Monday influenced the confidence that I went into this with and how I felt about it. The only thing holding me together and keeping me calm and peaceful was the amount of prayers and encouragement that our family had put into this in the few days leading up to egg collection.
Our alarms were set for 6am because we were due to arrive at the clinic for 8am so we had to leave at 7am. Due to Covid, Pete wasn’t allowed anywhere near the clinic which meant he had to produce his, ahem, sperm sample before we left home.
Now this might sound lovely but the list of instructions they give about how the male has to clean himself first, even down to how he has to dry himself and then there are the instructions about how the female can help if they wish makes it all a little less lovely! Not romantic in the slightest. And talk about performing under pressure!
Sorry if that’s TMI for you ;)!
So that had to be sorted before leaving the house at 7am…
I got called into the clinic a few minutes early so by 8.05am, I was gowned and sat waiting for my procedure. I was definitely feeling the nerves but I was also incredibly peaceful too. I am not sure how they work together, but somehow I felt both!
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7
So anyway, I had a lovely anaesthetist come and see me and he checked my details and explained why I had to have a general anaesthetic, then another lovely man came and collected me and took me down to the theatre.
What I wasn’t expecting was to walk into the room with about 5 or 6 different doctors, surgeons, anaesthetists etc all standing and waiting for ME! I was lay on the bed and suddenly had everyone around me checking my blood pressure, putting a canula in my hand and asking me all sort of different questions. It was pretty overwhelming. The anaesthetist was AMAZING. He bent down so that his face was in level with mine and asked me close my eyes, was helping me with my breathing and really gently putting different drugs into me, including some morphine.
And before I knew it, I was woken up back on the ward and it was all over.
This is where the best part of my day happened. Now when I think of it, I cannot stop laughing. As soon as they woke me up, I burst into tears and was uncontrollably and hysterically crying. I HAVE NO IDEA WHY! I just could not stop crying. I was completely out of it and for some reason managed to send Pete a video of me crying (which is the most hilarious 2 seconds worth of video I have ever seen), I sent him a load of jibberish and also managed to take some great pictures of myself which I also sent to my family. Here’s one such example…
Besides the emotional mess I was in and trying to take strange films and pictures of myself, I also had to try and understand the news about how the egg collection had gone.
Remember: On Monday we were told I only had 7 Ok sized follicles that still had plenty of growing to do so we weren’t expecting 7 eggs to be collected. My expectation was about 5-6.
THEY GOT 8 EGGS! 8!!!
I am sure this was another reason for more hysterical crying. We were absolutely amazed and so grateful to God for his provision.
And that was it. I had to wait for about 90 minutes before I settled, was able to string a clear sentence together and they could see I was calmer before I went home.
I mean… I am pretty sure the morphine and anaesthetic was very much still influencing me on our drive home…
We are so thankful to our God for bringing us his peace and helping my body to produce this many eggs! God is good.
And so began to long wait to have a call from the embryologist the next day about how many eggs had fertilised with Pete’s sperm sample.
Journeying to Family 