Our very own case manager shares another update from her current donation cycle. Her egg retrieval was actually yesterday – and we will post her final update soon!
SOOO VERY CLOSE!!!
From 2/9/11 Yesterday afternoon, the nurse called me with further instructions. She let me know that she wanted me to take one more injection of one of the stimulation medications at 5pm. I was still to take the trigger shots at night at 9:15pm. I also had to call the clinic and leave a message with the answering service to tell them what time, exactly, I took the two injections (trigger shots). Since I know that my cell phone time is off by about 5 minutes or so, I went on Google.com and searched “current time in California” to get the accurate time. I took the injections at 9:16 and 9:18pm. While my stimulation medications were supposed to be administered between 6:00 and 8:00pm, the trigger shot needs to be much more accurate, down to minutes of the ordered injection time. When I finished my injections I realized that I was now done with the injections and I would be going in for the retrieval tomorrow. Knowing that I’m going to be going in for a medical procedure and put under anesthesia tomorrow is a little nerve-racking but the doctor has been treating me with the utmost care so I’m sure everything will going smoothly! He also assured me that I should have little to no side effects after the retrieval because of the type of trigger shot that he had me take last night. He assured me that I would be able to return to work on Friday but I’ve decided to take the day off to relax a bit.
No shots tonight and I have STRICT instructions no to eat or drink anything after midnight tonight. I was also told not to wear any jewelry tomorrow and that perfumes, scented lotions, etc can harm the eggs so I’ll need to remember not to put on deodorant after my shower too. I was told to wear something comfortable tomorrow so I’ll be showing up in my PJ’s – that way I’ll be ready to go straight to sleep when I get home tomorrow (most donors sleep a lot the day of their retrieval). 🙂 I was told to arrive 30 minutes prior to my retrieval, the process would take 45 minutes (typically 30 minutes but I have so many eggs that it will take longer), they’ll keep me in recovery for an hour, then I should be ready to go home. That’s it!
As a case manager with Family Creations, I obviously cannot donate for our own clients. I wish I could, because I know how well we take care of our donors! But, instead I am completing my cycles through a clinic that has their own small in-house pool of donors for their patients to select. No conflict of interest! So anyhow, the clinic has asked me a few times if I would consider donating again with them and assuming that tomorrow will go smoothly, I said yes. They already have someone in mind for me as well. With my high number of follicles, they think that they’ll be able to match me quickly. I sent them more recent photos of myself and gave them the black out dates that I know of so far. They let me know that I would need at least one month for my ovaries to rest before starting another cycle. If I donate again with them, the cycle will go much quicker because I’ve already had all of the preliminary testing that they require (genetic testing, etc). They will need to repeat the FDA labs as these are to be done within 30 days of retrieval and they will likely need to retest me on the 3rd day of my period but things should move along quickly.
When donors are matched for another cycle, cycles tend to be quicker. However, if donors are matched with a different clinic, the new clinic may require additional testing to be done. For example, during my first donation cycle, I was only tested for Cystic Fibrosis. However, during this cycle, I was tested for Cystic Fibrosis, Fragile X and Karyotype. (The type of genetic testing depends on your family health history, ethnic background and clinic requirements.)
Tomorrow’s the big day! I’ll have another update soon.
**Please note that all cycles are different and instructions will be given to each donor by the facilitating physician.