IVF #1 - ER results

So night before last Daisy and her family were gracious enough to let Berliac and I stay with them overnight (thank you Daisy!). We decided to stay with Daisy because her house is only 1 hr from our clinic (and we're more like 2hrs) - so she cooked us a lovely dinner and we got to hang out with her two beautiful children (one of which is our Godson!!)

It was all going wonderful until after dinner my tummy didn't feel well (and no, it wasn't the cooking) and I decided that my pants were too tight so I changed into my sweatsuit/pj's thinking that would help. Well, within 5 minutes I realized that that didn't help, before I knew it I was shaking and nauseated, I went in to weigh myself on her scale and I was 5 pounds up from my Friday weight - FIVE POUNDS! At that point I started getting really worried. My heart started to pound out of my chest (at well over 100 beats per minute) and my temperature dropped to 97.0 (this was about the time I started shaking with the chills) Daisy and Berilac were so worried about me - Daisy opened the window for some fresh air and wrapped a cozy blanket around me.

Anyone ever hear of OHSS? Doesn't it kind of sound like it?


So I stopped drinking liquid at about 8:30 (after dinner and right about when this episode started) ... well let me tell you that within 4 hours I peed like 10 times and I wasn't drinking any liquids - my body was trying to process something I just don't know what.


After a few hours I started to feel better. By midnight I was doing much better. I had peed enough that I lost 1.5lbs (and was now only 3.5lbs heavier than I was 3 days prior) and my tummy was feeling less full and bloated. I wrapped a string around my waist to measure just how bloated I was (I had no baseline, but I assumed that hopefully the next morning things would look better and sure enough there was a one inch difference between evening and morning.)

Finally by midnight I was ready to fall asleep and I was going to be NPO. But I was so thirsty I had some water at 12:30 (when I shouldn't have had anything after midnight). I got a few hours of sleep and woke up Monday morning ready to get some answers and to get these eggs outta me!

We got to the clinic on time 10:15, and we filled out all the prerequisite forms ... I got prepped and ready to go. The nurse tried twice to get me IV'd, but she couldn't get the veins - fun. So we waited for the anasthesiologist and he did a fine job hitting the vein. He started the relaxin' meds because my heart rate was 100bpm (I have white coat syndrome).

I asked about my episode the night before - the nurse thought it sounded like overstimulation, the doctor said it was "normal" ... my thought was, if it's normal then why the heck didn't he tell me it would happen (preemptively!)

So they had me walk into the OR I got all situated in the stirrups and then I remember the anasthesiologist say that he was putting in the sedation stuff. Next thing I remember I was waking up back in the recovery room asking them when we were going to get started! She laughted and said that we were all done!

So the results: so of the 18+ follicles the doctor was only able to retreive 6 of them. 5 of them were mature. The doctor said that he tried flushing all the other follicles, but he didn't get any more out. He said they checked the free floating fluid for eggs in the hopes that maybe I had ovulated them, but there were none there.

Berliac and the doctor were disappointed but I'm content my original expectation was 6 going into this cycle - so when we had 18 I was pleasantly surprised. In my book, God is in control and if it's only 6 then it's only 6.

I've read articles online that talk about the hcg trigger shot causing empty follicle syndrome - either we didn't inject it into the right muscle that best absorbs or we didn't get enough (though I did a 10,000 iu shot intramuscularly) or my body metabolized hcg really well.

So overall, I'm happy and now I'm just recovering from the procedure. If you think of me, please pray for a quick and uneventful recovery.