Advice to help a friend (updated)

[awick14]

Hey ladies, some of you may remember me from a couple years ago when I was on here before conceiving my daughter. I have a quick question for you ladies going through IVF. (Specifically retrieval’s)

A friend of mine and he wife are staying with us for a few days as they have come to town for her retrieval. (They live where there is a satellite clinic and they have to come here for retrieval and such.) Anyways tomorrow is her retrieval and I was wondering if you have any advice on anything I can do for her. Unfortunately we don’t have a spare room so tonight they are staying on our couch, as they refused our room, but tomorrow night I hope they will take us up on our offer to sleep on our bed.

I have already told her that after the retrieval she is welcome to sleep in our room for the rest of the day or do whatever she wants/that will make her most comfortable. But what else can I do for her? I’m not working tomorrow so I will have a few hrs to run and and grab anything for her if needed.

Thanx ladies

Update: of the 15 eggs they got 9 fertilized and they are waiting to hear what happens on day 3 before they freeze.

[woowoo]

This is probably odd, but maybe ask her preference in water to drink? If she prefers bottled or tap or what? Lots of fluids is important and if she's picky about water (like me) that might be a small comfort.

[pooh8402]

Nov 1, 2018 4:12:55 GMT -5 woowoo said:

This is probably odd, but maybe ask her preference in water to drink? If she prefers bottled or tap or what? Lots of fluids is important and if she's picky about water (like me) that might be a small comfort.

Actually, I would nix the free water and get her lots of her preferred flavor of gatorade/powerade. She may not be allowed water for the next few days.

The first few days after retrieval, all I wanted to do was nap and watch TV because I hurt and was so swollen. So lots of easy high protein snacks would be good.

[icedcoffee]

Grab her a few bottles of Gatorade and plan for high protein/high salt dinner. I basically just wanted to watch TV all day. Do you have a heating pad? I laid in bed with that the rest of the day.

[shauni27]

I had a super easy retrieval. I wanted to nap because...who doesn't? But I had no pain or discomfort or anything. It felt like a regular (though tiring--started pretty early and included travel) day.

I told my H I was just excited to have an excuse to nap on a week day and have him be at my beck and call. I required takeout of my choice

But that was it. I really milked it.

LONG STORY SHORT--ask what kind of recovery foods she would like, maybe make up a little goodie basket with gatorade, magazine, bottled water, ibuprofen, and a couple of takeout menus so she can choose where she wants her meal from?

[icedcoffee]

Nov 1, 2018 7:43:54 GMT -5 shauni27 said:

I had a super easy retrieval. I wanted to nap because...who doesn't? But I had no pain or discomfort or anything. It felt like a regular (though tiring--started pretty early and included travel) day.

I told my H I was just excited to have an excuse to nap on a week day and have him be at my beck and call. I required takeout of my choice

But that was it. I really milked it.

LONG STORY SHORT--ask what kind of recovery foods she would like, maybe make up a little goodie basket with gatorade, magazine, bottled water, ibuprofen, and a couple of takeout menus so she can choose where she wants her meal from?

My doctor doesn't allow ibuprofen.  Just Tylenol (and the percocets she prescribed).   She should also take Colace daily for a few days after.  Trust me!!

How she feels after retrieval will really depend on how many eggs they get.  My first they got 33 and I felt like I wanted to die for almost a week.  My second I got 18 and it was so much quicker to recover.  I felt about 80% better by the next morning.

Takeout is a good call I think especially because it's normally salty which will help her feel better quicker.

[pooh8402]

Yea, no ibuprofen. It can interfere with implantation.

[shauni27]

Nov 1, 2018 7:48:11 GMT -5 icedcoffee said:

Nov 1, 2018 7:43:54 GMT -5 shauni27 said:

I had a super easy retrieval. I wanted to nap because...who doesn't? But I had no pain or discomfort or anything. It felt like a regular (though tiring--started pretty early and included travel) day.

I told my H I was just excited to have an excuse to nap on a week day and have him be at my beck and call. I required takeout of my choice

But that was it. I really milked it.

LONG STORY SHORT--ask what kind of recovery foods she would like, maybe make up a little goodie basket with gatorade, magazine, bottled water, ibuprofen, and a couple of takeout menus so she can choose where she wants her meal from?

My doctor doesn't allow ibuprofen.  Just Tylenol (and the percocets she prescribed).   She should also take Colace daily for a few days after.  Trust me!!

How she feels after retrieval will really depend on how many eggs they get.  My first they got 33 and I felt like I wanted to die for almost a week.  My second I got 18 and it was so much quicker to recover.  I felt about 80% better by the next morning.

Takeout is a good call I think especially because it's normally salty which will help her feel better quicker.

yikes! shows you how much I remember! Don't do what I said, lol.

Also, yes, I may have had a much easier recovery because I had a whopping 6 eggs retrieved. Do you know how many follicles they were guessing they would get, awick14?

[awick14]

Thanx ladies. She brought her own food for dinner as she has some allergies, but I will text her H when she’s in the procedure to ask him what type of snacks she would like and I’ll pick some up from the grocery store, as well as some gatorade or something.

I will grab my heading pad out as well, good idea.

I have both Tylenol and ibuprofen on hand. She is only doing retrieval and freezing the eggs. It is their one and only shot at IVF, because of costs. And her doctor recommends doing a frozen transfer.

[seeyalater52]

This is so sweet of you! And if she isn't doing a fresh transfer she can have ibuprofen or other good drugs. Also colace since it's very likely she'll be backed up from the anesthesia.

[awick14]

She is now sleeping in my bedroom. She walked right into the bedroom with her favorite blanket from home and was asleep in seconds.

I am not sure if all the correct lingo but her H said that there were 18 follicles retrieved and 15 of them were eggs. (I’m not sure if that’s correct but they were both very excited)

[awick14]

shauni27 they expected 17 follicles

[icedcoffee]

15 is great! I hope she had great fertilization numbers!

[kellikans]

I definitely took advantage. I laid on the couch or in bed all day and napped a lot. Lots of gatorade/powerade. And I ate whatever I wanted. I usually didn't start feeling shitty until 2 days later when the bloating got out of control and really painful.