Enough eggs for an entire bakery!

Yesterday, Sean and I woke up early (Hello 5:15!) to head into Boston for my egg retrieval.  I was the first of the day, so they brought me right in got me prepped for surgery.  In addition to all the normal taking of vitals and putting in an IV, my nurse also fully instructed me on Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome (OHSS).

As mentioned by my cycle nurse, I am at a high risk for this because of the number of measurable follicles and high estrogen levels.  OHSS causes your body to deal with liquids in a different manner and causes liquid to pool in the abdomen.  For many people, this simply causes bloating and some pain.  Others may need to go to the hospital to have the liquid drained.  Others may even need to be admitted to deal with issue.  Whatever the case, getting pregnant while dealing with OHSS is not a great idea.  The HCG (pregnancy hormone) causes the OHSS to become worse. This is one of the reasons why I only did a half a dose of the HCG trigger.  This is also why it would be not be a great idea to transfer an embryo if I was showing symptoms.  That would mean we would need to freeze all the embryos and do a frozen transfer.  Hearing that news my heart dropped!  I have not had a good history with frozen transfers.  Two I transferred only okay embryos and one I didn't transfer anything.  I know changes have been made, but I do NOT want to have gone through all this to not have a fresh cycle.

Not long after, I was brought into the operating room, and there was a flurry of commotion: doctor checking my cervix and uterus and all the machines, nurse getting my legs and body situated, anesthesiologists getting ready to put me asleep for the procedure.  I don't remember much of anything after that except I was dreaming about Olivia.  If I remember correctly, my first words to the nurse after I woke up was about her. Hopefully that was a good sign.

When I woke up a little more, I got the total of eggs retrieved.  Ready for it?  28!! How in the world was that possible?  I only had 20 measurable follicles two days earlier!  How did that happen?  I guess it explains my crazy high estrogen level; this is at least double what I have had before and almost 3 times what they want to see.  First thoughts to that were...uh oh!  I'm sure that not all the eggs were mature; if fact, I would not be surprised if about 10 weren't mature.

The doctor came not long after to discuss our options.  He had spoken to my personal doctor, and they have created a plan.  I will be taking a new medication (caberglobine) to help reduce any liquid  that may pool.  I am also drinking almost my weight in Gatorade.  The association of reproductive medication recommends drinking over 120 ounces daily for each of the days following retrieval to help.  I am also drinking a couple protein shakes to help.  I supposed to look for excessive bloating, weight gain of a couple pounds within a day (though my body does that anyways), sharp pains in the abdomen and dehydration.

At the time he said to help make sure they don't transfer before the symptoms arrive, we need to wait until day 5 to transfer.  Cue another panic.  We did not have good luck with day five transfers in the past, though MANY things have changed in the four years since we last tried.  If symptoms do show, the embryos will be frozen and the OHSS will be taken care of before we do a transfer.

Now how did those 28 eggs do with fertilization?  25 of them were mature and were injected with sperm and 23 became fertilized.  Fantastic news, right?  Then the on call doctor told me that we would be doing a 3dt or freezing on day 3.  I had no clue where this came.  I was told that this was in no way a possibility.  The on call called the doctor who did my egg retrieval yesterday to try to figure out what was going on.  According to her, he and my personal doc went back in forth for quite awhile yesterday afternoon trying to figure out the best plan.  Great right?  I'm glad they took the time, but at the same time the one thing I was told that wouldn't really be taken into consideration at all is the one thing that is pushing decision: my previous attempt at 5 day transfer at my old clinic.

If you remember from earlier posts, it was my concern about this that pushed us to want to do a 3 day transfer originally.  My doctor said that she was doing that for us even though she was totally confident that enough has changed in the 4 years since then that the results would be different.  I guess looking back at this changed her mind.

This means that I am going in for a 3 day transfer of one embryo on Monday.  If I show ANY signs of OHSS then they will freeze all on day 3.  There lies my issue with all of this.  If we have to freeze all, I do not want to have to freeze with day 3 embryos.  I have had 3 frozen cycles all with less than ideal thaw results.  I do not want to deal with that about  11 times!  I can't believe we are facing another cycle that is basically a waste.  I also know that I cannot handle having over a year's worth of frozen cycles before we can try a fresh again.  This cycle is such a whirlwind.  I have gone from feeling confident to distraught and back too many times.  I'm hoping for good news but preparing for the worse.  Hopefully I will be coming home with a strong embryo for the last time because I'm not sure how much more I can put myself through.  I don't know if I can deal with how bad of a mother and wife it makes.