I’ve been telling you my story, one bit at a time, as to how I came to be pregnant. There

are lots of ins and outs to this whole thing (no pun intended really- not those kinds of

‘ins and outs’ unfortunately), more than I realized when I first began

the endeavor of telling my story. My hope is that, whether you have any interest in

having children, or even if you have given birth to an entire soccer team, that

there is something in my story that will reach out and touch you in some positive way.

 

If you’re just joining us now, go to http://mirzukfitness.com/blog/

 

We are at the part now where I’ve done the shots, gone to all the dr’s appointments

and somehow miraculously not lost my job or my health insurance, and we are ready

for the final two procedures. At this point I am pretty much just going with the flow of

this process that I put into motion. I’m just riding the wave now and I’ll see where it

takes me.

 

First comes the egg retrieval and here’s how it went for me.

I went to the office first thing in the morning and they gave me my

groovy outfit: gown (with the backside open of course), little footy things and  a

special cap. Then I get assigned a bed- there were 3 and they just kept rotating us.

I hung out in the bed and signed away my life, then just waited for them to come

and get me. I think I was watching “Arrested Development” on my iphone to keep

my mind off the procedure.

 

Egg retrieval day is also sperm retrieval day. Seems much less complicated to get

the sperm than it is to get the eggs. Anyway, while I am watching “Arrested Development”,

the other part of the procedure is going on in a room close by.

 

Next thing I know, I’m being escorted into a separate room with a slew of people all wearing

scrubs and face masks. I am put on a table with one leg WAY over here and one leg WAY over there

and told to “scoot down to the edge”. You know, after years of the gyn, I know that I’m supposed

to “scoot down”.  I just don’t wanna do it.  And usually I have to be told at least twice.

 

But here’s the part I like. An anesthesiologist comes over and sticks a needle in my arm (Ok, that’s

not the part I like, I like the result. Judge me if you will).  And soon after that I melt into a very

peaceful state of nonexistence.

 

Next thing I know, I’m waking up on my designated bed and a nice nurse comes in to give

me water (Part of the preparation for this procedure is that you can’t drink any water or eat

any food after midnight the night before). Then she asks me how I’m feeling and makes sure

I am ok. After a little while longer, she tells me I can get dressed and that I should go home and

stay in bed the rest of the day. Ok, no problem!! I feel so relaxed and peaceful.

 

Ron takes me home in a cab and I’m off to bed. That day I get lots of reading and emails done.

A great catch up with self day. The next day I am back to work, but taking it a little easy, i.e.- not

doing absolutely everything that I’m telling my students to do. There’s a little pain. Like

someone scraped out my insides, which I guess they essentially did.

 

At some point in the two days following the egg retrieval I get a call from the embryologist

telling me how many embryos we have made. They take the best sperm and mix it with the

best eggs and voila!! We had 7 embryos!! Doesn’t that sound promising?!? Then they tell us

that we will do the ‘Embryo Transfer’ (when they put the little guys back inside my body)

in 3 days. For most people, this means 2-3 days off of work. For me, the Dr suggests taking

a week off because of the nature of my business. So I scramble to find subs for the whole week.

I can’t tell you how many hours I spent on the computer emailing other instructors. It was crazy.

I definitely lost sleep and sanity. Somehow I got it done and showed up for the Transfer.

 

In the office I go to, they do the Transfers in the middle of the day. My appointment was around

2pm. The office is near Columbus Circle, so I made a trip to Whole Foods first to make sure that

I had enough guacamole for the week 🙂

 

Then, it’s a similar story to the Egg Retrieval: I show up, they give me my groovy outfit, I hang out

in the bed til they’re ready for me, I go into the room, one leg here one leg there and here’s where

it gets different. There’s no nice anesthesiologist to put me out. AND, instead of not drinking any water,

they want you to drink a LOT of water- so that your bladder is full when they do the transfer. Something

about it makes the embryos go to the walls of your uterus more quickly? Anyway, that’s the most

uncomfortable part of this whole entire thing for me. My bladder does NOT like to be full. And then, once

I get it full, they have me wait longer, and I can’t I just CAN’T- so out it goes and I have to start over.

ARGH! (Not on the table! Before I went into the room. But it just makes it all take longer).

 

The Dr informed us that since the initial call, 3 of the embryos have died. For some reason, that

surprised me. Died? They can’t DIE.

 

They also grade them. Basically A’s and B’s. An A+ is a very good candidate.

A B- is probably not going to stick, but you can try it anyway. We didn’t have any A+’s. We had I think

1 A and the other 3 were B’s. I still knew it was going to work.

 

So now we have 4 somewhat ok embryos and what do we want to do? They said they can transfer all

4, but if all of them take, they will be required to do a ‘termination’ on at least one, maybe two of them.

We decided to take the risk at the hopes of having at least one of these guys attach. So 4 went in…

 

The procedure itself was not so bad. Like I said, it was having to pee HORRIBLY the whole time

that really was painful. I was doing slow breathing exercises to make it through.

 

Then, home with my guacamole and 4 embryos and happily off to bed! Ron walked the dog,

made me food and made sure I did not do anything active. You are permitted to get out of bed

to go to the bathroom and grab food, but that’s pretty much it.

 

Now you would think that I might not enjoy having a week of bed rest, but it was GREAT!

I read, caught up on netflix, did creative writing, worked on my business, called people,

all kinds of things that I generally do not get to do. It was a great week.

 

Then you have to go back in for a blood test if you don’t get your period first. And thus, the

next part of my story- next week!!!

 

It’s a crazy ride, as many things are. Take what enjoyment you can from your ride!!!

 

Your Fitness Coach,

Miranda Zukowski

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