The Pre-Surg Burrito...

Today I was...and am...a bundle of nerves in anticipation for tomorrow's egg retrieval. But today was also very busy - which was a bit of a blessing. It didn't give me a whole lot of extra time to obsess!

It started off bright and early when my foot escaped from under my covers and came back to report that it was FREEZING. And not your "oh, it must be cold outside" kind of freezing. It was more like a "Is the air conditioner on by accident??" Turned out our heater wasn't working. Luckily a few hours (and several hundred dollars) later we were fitted with a new fan pump and were toasty warm in no time.

Miss Stephanie had to endure the cold house during Gavin's Occupational Therapy. For the past few weeks she has had a student intern named Andy shadowing her. (Note to self: take picture of Andy!) Last night Andy made pumpkin spice play dough! How adorable is that? It smelled good enough to eat.

Brian and I made pretend cookies at the other end of the table and pretended to eat them!

She also brought a mini pumpkin for Gavin, which was so sweet. I pulled out our paints and she attempted to convince Gavin to hold the little paint brush so they could decorate it. It was slightly unsuccessful - Gavin has resisted ANYONE holding his hands or making him do things with his hands lately.

After short naps (for the boys - not me!) it was time for Gavin's physical therapy with Miss Wendy. Wendy hasn't been here for a couple weeks and was amazed at the changes in Gavin. She eased him into therapy by just following his lead in the beginning - observing how much stronger he's gotten. But Gavin was not feeling PT today and cried...scratch that...SOBBED most of the way through. The heartbreaking bury his head in his hands on the floor kind of sobbing. I didn't take a single picture because I was trying to cheer him up! Poor Wendy felt horrible - but it wasn't her. I think Gavin was just in a mood. Not that I would know anything about that...

But can we just talk about how cool Gavin looked today?

So, tomorrow.

Ed and I need to be at the fertility clinic at 10am for an 11am procedure. I am NPO from midnight tonight until tomorrow. In preparation, I went out and got myself the biggest chicken burrito from Wegman's. I'm pretty sure that was on the list of pre-surg instructions. That - and my favorite cake. I will be under anesthesia for the egg retrieval. Once they pluck out all of my eggs they will then fertilize them with Ed's, you know. I will be brought to recovery and sent home rather quickly where I will remain in bed for the rest of the day. I already have a stack of magazines and the DVR packed!

Then, we wait. We pray that the fertilization is successful for at least one of the eggs! After five days, I will go back for what's called an embryo transfer. But during those five days we have chosen to have genetic testing done on the eggs. It's a quite fascinating process. They're somehow able to extract a few cells and test them for chromosomal abnormalities. If they were to find any embryos that would have genetic defects that would be incompatible with life - they will clearly not choose them for the transfer. It's very possible that the number of miscarriages I have had were because of chromosomal abnormalities. This process could save me from another loss.

I really am very nervous about tomorrow - and all next week. And it didn't help matters when my doctor - the one I've had for years at this fertility clinic - called tonight to tell me he won't be there tomorrow. He had to go out of town. So another doctor - who happens to be Ed's old fraternity brother - is going to do the procedure. I'm quite crushed to lose the comfort of the doctor I love...but I know I am in capable hands. It's just an emotional connection.

I'll write tomorrow with an update on how it all went. I'm grateful to Miss Katja for helping us all day tomorrow. She really has been such a good friend.

Thank you, as always, for your positive thoughts and prayers and encouragement. It means so much to me.