Today was the big day! Last night after midnight, I was not allowed to eat or drink one drop of anything (when under general anesthesia, you could vomit and breath that into your lungs and no one would notice). I took a shower yesterday since in the morning I wouldn't be allowed to use any cosmetic products, lotion, or put on makeup. I also removed all piercings/jewelry and fingernail polish. The one thing I was allowed to do when I woke up was to brush my teeth. The reason you can't even wash your face or do your normal routine is because even just the scent of perfume in the air will degrade the quality of the eggs as they are collected. Wow, those little eggs are so sensitive!

Before I begin, I want to mention how nice the Boston IVF clinic is in Waltham, MA. It's a new clinic and it doesn't even feel like a medical facility. The staff are on top of their game here and even my case manager told me that her donors typically respond very well here. The nurses kept me comfortable during prep and talked me through everything. This is when I handed a card to the nurse - a good luck card to be delivered to the couple when they come in a few days later for the embryo transfer. I then met Dr. Berger who had been making all the decisions with my hormone level monitoring and will be performing the procedure. He said he's expecting to retrieve at least the 13 eggs they could find on the ultrasound. He also said that my cycle was a little faster than the normal 12-day cycle, but with the high hormone levels, it's a good indicator that my eggs will be of good quality.

After changing into the gowns, putting on a hairnet, putting on my warm cozy socks (since the feet will be propped up and the room is so cold, they recommend retrieval patients to bring socks to keep their feet warm), and connecting me to an IV drip, the nurse walked me right into the surgery room. I laid down on the table and right away they put a nice warm blanket on me like it had just come out of the dryer. There were several nurses there and they verbally went through their checklist of things to prep me before starting. Every few minutes, a nurse asked me if I was doing okay and was comfortable - I must have been too quiet and looking nervous. They propped my feet into stirrups like a pregnant woman, secured an oxygen mask over my face, and then a nurse held my hand for comfort while the 2nd nurse told me she was getting ready to apply the anesthesia in my IV drip and told me how I might feel a chill in that arm. She explained I should start to feel more relaxed and feel sleepy. The next thing I knew, I felt the room sway and told them it was working already, and....zzzz.....

When I came back to, I was in a recovery room with other patients divided by curtains, and I asked the nurse what time it was. I had gone into surgery at around 7:30am and she told me it was 8:30am ...and that it was the 3rd time I had asked her! hahaha. I was finally awake at this point and noticed I was holding a nice heating pad on my abdomen, which felt good because I could feel I was a little sore around my lower abdomen region, but surprisingly no pain. The nurse called my husband back to the recovery room, helped me move into a lounge chair and gave me some tea and crackers. She also shared with me that after they thought I was knocked out, I started talking about my hometown to them. That must have startled them, but I do have a tendency to talk in my sleep - my husband can attest to this. :)

Dr. Berger came back to check on how I was recovering, and then told me that he had retrieved 22 eggs! (Wow!) That made me very happy - that is much more than we were expecting and that should be a wonderful result for the recipients. The doctor told me it was a great result and recommended me as a repeat donor. Perfect, because I plan to - for my 2nd couple where he also happens to be my doctor again. My husband and I both received the rest of my recovery instructions from the nurse in case the anesthesia was still inhibiting my memory, and he could help me out.

Since then, I've been resting in my hotel room. I made a mistake though. I was prescribed some Vicodin and Ibuprofen - to use at my discretion. The nurse told me I could take the Vicodin 3 hours after I left, so I did that. My mistake is that I only needed to take if needed, but I didn't know if some pain meds would be wearing off and I should be feeling more pain soon. So as a precaution, I took it. I should have read the instructions, because I also took it on an empty stomach before I ate lunch, and you're supposed to take it with food.

I was feeling surprisingly good enough that we went out to a Japanese/Korean restaurant for lunch. Halfway through my meal, I started feeling nauseous and ran to the bathroom and vomited. After that, I haven't been able to keep any of my food or water down all day. I took a nap to help wear off some of the drugs and to take a break from the vomiting. When I woke, I continued to empty whatever was left in my stomach, and now am at the point of dry heaving. I called the doctor to see if we needed to do anything. He asked if I was feeling any pain, and I'm not. I'm pretty sore around my ovaries and crampy, but no piercing pain. He then explained that my body is possibly rejecting the narcotics in my system as if they're toxins and that's why I can't keep anything down. He gave me options of prescribing me nausea medicine if I can find a pharmacy that's open, or just to try and let it pass on its own by taking slow small sips of cool water. I decided to try to ride it through, and if this continues through tomorrow morning, I'll call back when the pharmacy opens.

As far as anything else, this cycle is finished. They retrieved 22 eggs for the IP, and whatever happens to those eggs after this is for our knowledge only. Fortunately for me, they do plan to keep me updated on all their status from here, but that's an agreement between us and is no longer my story to share publicly.

My 2nd donation with the next couple does depend on the outcome of this one, so hopefully it all goes very well for my current recipients.