Another pivotal moment in our road to a hopeful pregnancy happened today. After weeks of multiple self-inflicted injections, my wife underwent an egg retrieval.

It seemed like a fitting time of year, with the stores full of delicious chocolate – something I’ve had to restrict as I haven’t been allowed caffeine in the run up to my small part of the process.  This has also meant I’ve been stuck to decaf coffee, which tastes of nothing and is basically pointless. I digress, however as this is nothing to compare with the daily stabbings of medicine into my favourite person’s belly.

The team at Olive Fertility were, once again, amazing. They gave my wife everything she needed to be informed and comfortable. They also let me know exactly what was happening, and when I should do my ‘thing’, in a small grey room which did not insight romanticism in the slightest.

Once I was done, it was her turn. They started off by giving her in IV of some drugs that would take away the considerable pain of the egg removal. The nurses then brought us in to a room, full of monitors and grainy displays.

During the operation, she had a few pain meds but it still looked really painful. She handled it like a champ and just wanted it over. As they drained each follicle, they took a vial to be inspected and around halfway through they started giving us an egg count. First came “You’ve got one egg!” shortly followed by “Now two”. The updates stopped coming as the nurses finished up and we were escorted back to our curtained-off seats. 

Where were the other updates? Just two eggs? I know it’s quality over quantity, but still. That reduces the chances of a successful fertilisation and healthy embryo forming. 

After what seemed like hours, the nurse pulled back the curtain and said that we had 5 eggs. The last time we did this, we had 6 and ended up with two healthy embryos, so we’re still in with a chance. 

From there, they took our respective ingredients and combine them. 



Today we got the call to find out how many fertilised. Four out of the original five have made it through the first gate. Now they just have to keep living. 

In a couple of days, the doctor will tell us how many are still ok. This goes on until day five or six, each day the numbers are likely to go down. If we get to day six and we still have embryos, then they’ll be sent for chromosome testing. 

Following that hurdle, it’ll be time to bring any healthy embryos, back into my wife to hopefully grow into a small, and perfectly lovely human.

In the meantime, my duties around the house have doubled as my wife is on strict bed-rest. Of course, I’m happy to do it, and would imagine she’d reciprocate if I’d have had a foot-long needle injected in my most gentlemanly of areas. Yikes. 

Wish us luck, there are lots of bridges to cross and time to spend thinking and waiting.

 

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