Complications

Hello Dear Friends,

I am writing to give you a quick update. I had my egg retrieval on Friday and the doctor harvested 21 eggs! Wahoo! This is a great number and well above average. I guess my overachieving ovaries really delivered. We got an update yesterday and 16 of the 21 eggs have fertilized and are rapidly growing embryos. We may lose a few more along the way, but if all goes well we may come out of this with a dozen or more good embryos. This is the good news...

The past few days we've also been given some not so good news. First of all, the nurse didn't give me enough anesthesia and I woke up during my egg retrieval surgery. Very painful. Even worse, I have OHSS (Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome,) which occurs in about 10% of IVF patients. In short, I feel like I have an evil creature living in my stomach and my ovaries are the size of oranges when they should be the size of a fig, which is very painful and crampy.

This is a serious complication because when the ovaries are hyperstimulated they pull a lot of the fluid and electrolytes out of the bloodstream. The result: I have gained 10 lb in water weight in the last few days and I look six months pregnant.

All this yuckiness would be fine, but if I don't get well quickly, my doctor will cancel the rest of my IVF cycle, and we will have to wait for 2 months when we will then use our same embryos, which will have been frozen and thawed. This is not ideal compared to a fresh cycle, so it was really tough news to take. Right now I am just doing everything the doctor is asking me to do and hoping and praying for the best. My doctor will make a decision by Tuesday if we are going to have the transfer Wednesday or not.

We know that Heavenly Father is in charge of our family, and that all the pain and suffering is for a good reason. We love you all and hope all is well with you.