Seven Eggs

On Friday morning, they found seven* eggs.

It's now Saturday night... they called this morning to say that four of the eggs had successfully fertilized. We can do nothing but wait.... they'll call tomorrow to let us know which ones are still cooking along.

FUN FACT: The incubators in which they keep the fertilized eggs are made by a company called Cook. There's a joke in there somewhere that has a "how do you like your eggs cooked" punchline, but it's not coming right now... any suggestions?

It was extremely tough on Red... after all, they had to start an IV in her hand, drugged her up, hooked her up to more monitors than a matrix pod, and then poked a ginormous needle through her vaginal wall and drained her ovaries.

It was tough but the staff were awesome. Brenda and Karen were fantastic... caring, empathetic, gentle, reassuring, and often hilarious. Dr. Hamilton got probably more than a dozen vials of fluid out... and she was very reassuring... this one knows what she's doing... and there was Josee's matter of fact voice calling out from the lab in the next room as she found each egg... Red was so worried there wasn't going to be any eggs... the relief, combined with the drugs, meant tears once the procedure was over... I was so in love with her sharing her joy and relief... she did so well...

And then, 45 minutes later, it was my turn... as Joey would say, "That's right, I stepped up, and I would pee on any one of you if I had to." Except in this case, that wasn't quite my task. Unlike Joey, however, I didn't get stage fright.... everything worked just fine, especially the homemade stuff (more on that in a later post).

They keep telling us that every gate we get through makes the chances of success better. We just have to keep thinking only about the next step, and all of the ones we've passed, and not get freaked out about all the other stuff that needs to go right.

Let's see, what was before this one...would they fertilize? Before that, were there any eggs? (I suppose there was also a technical concern about whether the sperm would be available, but as I told Red, "I've been practicing my whole life for this task" ... if we were talking Malcolm Gladwell, I'd more than have my 10,000 hours.) Before that, would Red's follicles respond to the drugs? Before that, would Red's system be down-regulated? Before that, would Red's uterus pass the cavity check? Before that, would my boys pass their cavity check? Before that, will I be able to get this TV working so I can enjoy the fine AART pornography?

That will bring me to my first flashback... on my next post.

* Josee actually came in later to announce she had found an eighth, but she thought it was "post-mature" and wouldn't be a good one.