So I am finally back at work (we will see how long I last), and at a computer. So during my break I thought I would update you all on what has been happening.
Last week, I came down with a cold (courtesy of Mr A.). That, along with my very bloated ovaries made me quite ill. I had the shakes, severe nausea and insomnia. I couldn't get to work, and ended up taking Thursday and Friday off. On Thursday I had my scan which told me I had just over 60 follicles between the two ovaries. They were thankfully still within an acceptable size, and I only had a small amount of fluid. My hormone levels were still good (low estrogen), and the decision was made by my specialist to still trigger with Ovidrel (HCG), but cancel a transfer back this week. I was however on 4 hour pain killers, as the pain was building up (in both my ovary and backs - I could actually feel the ovaries through my skin - that was weird). The reason they avoid using HCG - is pregnancy hormone makes OHSS worse. There is heaps on how OHSS works, and if anyone wants me to explain, let me know and I will post a hopefully easy to read explanation.
I triggered that night at 11pm, and by Friday night I was actually starting to feel better. I think not stimming anymore just helped my body relax a little. On Saturday I got my son ready (my wonderful mum came and took him for the day), got myself ready and then we went to the hospital. The pain was starting to build up again, and I was very uncomfortable. At the same time I was admitted, my husband did his thing. I never actually saw him again, and found out from the embryologist that they had a sample. I had to sign some documents, and was taken to a room to change. I then saw the embryologist - who checked all my paperwork. She was actually surprised they were not doing a fresh transfer based on my estrogen levels, but I am so happy we are doing a FET (frozen embryo transfer). The doctor doing the retrieval was not my doctor, and I got two seconds with him saying when did you trigger and running out the door again (not so impressed with his bedside manner, he may not have been my doctor, but he could have been a little nicer). My anaesthesiologist came in, checked me out (he is lovely, same guy who did my d&c last year) and was happy I could proceed even with the cold. I was taken into the surgical room, via the laboratory where I had to confirm who I was (a small part of me misses the lab - and it was cool to see it in action), and jumped onto the bed. There were two huge stirrups which was kind of intimidating. The anaesthesiologist put a line into my hand and started to inject fluids to put me to sleep. There were a lot of people in the OR, but the next minute I woke up in recovery.
This is where things didn't go as well for me (as usual). The first thing I asked for was some pain relief. The pain was that bad. I got some meds in my canular, but it didn't help much. I ended up getting the full dose, and oral pain relief, and it did help to a point but I was still in pain. I also found it very hard to open my eyes and wake up. It was a real struggle. When they finally sat me up, I started to shake all over - and once I ate something, that settled a little. In between all of this the doctor came and said they got 30 eggs. That was it (his patients he spoke to - would have been nice to have had something else from him) When I was ready to go home, they got me to sit in a chair for ten minutes. Within a few minutes I started feeling nauseous, shaky and faint, with tingling in my mouth. They took my blood pressure, which was fine, but I got worse and they had to lay me down. They then gave me an anti-nausea med and let me lay there for a few minutes. The nurse told me I had gone grey. I was then able to sit up and go home. I fell asleep the minute I got home and kept up the pain meds.
Pretty much everything hurt. It seems with ER you can either be absolutely fine, or be terrible. They don't quite warn you how bad it is. Or how much time you need to recover. Some of the things I found out:
- It hurts to pee. Firstly it was like a UTI feeling, but then it was just my poor swollen ovaries feeling it. It still hurts three days later.
- You won't poo for a few days. It took two days with me, and this hurt. You can not push at all without extreme pain.
- If you have IBS expect it to play up. I had one of the worst attacks I have ever had (and I rarely get them), so much so my husband was about to take me to the hospital. This was brought on by my lack of ability to go to the bathroom, combined with the pain I already had. Yeah. Not nice.
- The more eggs, the more pokes, the more pain. Heat packs are your friend.
- Two days to recover at least, lots of bed rest. Good thing is a good sleep normally worked wonders with my recovery.
- I still had spotting two days later.
- You will bloat! I don't think I have bloated as badly as some others, and I expect it to start disappearing either when the HCG from the trigger leaves my body or I get AF. My stomach did feel very hard.
- You will be gassy. This gas will hurt. This gas will not want to leave you.
- You will struggle to eat. All those inflamed organs, they don't want too much.food
There are some great sites on what they don't tell you about egg retrieval. I wish I had read them earlier. For now, three days post-op, I am still in pain (still on pain meds and heat packs - I bought it to work with me). Finding it hard to walk long distances without feeling ill, and generally better, but not great. So I am super happy we are holding off putting those babies back in. I will have one month off, to let everything settle down, and then we will do a transfer back. Not sure how that all works yet, but once I do will update you all.
Now is the waiting to see how many make it to freeze. Even if 50% make it, that is still 10 embabies we have. Still amazed by it all. I know that as hard as this cycle is, we have had an amazing outcome, and we are very lucky to have got this far with so many.
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