If there is anything I learned from this process, it is that nothing comes easy. There always seems to be a little bad with the good. Nothing comes without a "catch".
Yesterday, we received excellent news. We were able to harvest 27 eggs. Twenty-seven. That is a fantastic number. We are ecstatic! What makes this even better? The update we received from Dr. Bromer today. He called around 1:00 pm to give us an update on our progress. Out of the 27 eggs harvested yesterday, 25 were viable. Wow! What is better yet? 24 of these eggs were fertilized and are now considered embryos! What??? As of today, we have 24 potential babies just hanging out in the Rockville lab. Holy crap. Dr. Bromer says this is amazing. I happen to agree.
However, this has not come without a price.. and I'm not just talking about the dollars and cents price tag. 27 eggs is a lot. Those things need some space to grow. That means over the last week or so, they have taken my normal walnut-sized ovaries and turned them into grapefruit sized ovaries. Thus the no room in the inn a few days ago.
A little background to explain where I am going. When the eggs are retrieved, a needle is passed through and "sucks out" one egg from one follicle at a time. The egg goes out, the follicle pretty much turns to fluid. This means I have 27 things of fluid now floating around. This fluid is absorbed into your blood vessels. However, it doesn't always stay there. As is the case with me. My blood vessels are starting to leak this fluid into my stomach cavity, causing Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome. One of the side effects from the many doses of fertility drugs. Like I said, nothing comes easy.
This OHSS is painful. Very very painful. The leaking fluid causes severe cramping, bloating, and a whole lot of discomfort.. especially when I have to pee. I don't even know how to describe it other than a UTI with a lot of added pain. It is not fun. It hurts to walk, sit, lay (I have about 5 pillows at different spots in bed to try and get comfortable) and just move. I took Vicodin religiously every four hours until 7:00 am this morning, when I thought it was a bright idea to go to work for the day. Mistake. Especially since I can't just leave my job at any time during the day. But I made it with the help of some extra strength Tylenol and an awesome heat pack from Cindy.
Dr. Bromer called and told me that I need to drink 96 ounces of Gatorade a day right now. 96 ounces. Good thing I like Gatorade, but bad thing I am not overly thirsty right now. He says this will not only help push the fluids back into my blood vessels, but will also cause me to pass the liquids more quickly. I am also supposed to eat as much protein and salt as possible to aide these things as well.
We head back down to Frederick tomorrow morning for an ultrasound and more blood work to better assess the situation. It might go away on its own in a few days, or it might require the removal of some fluids with a gigantic needle. I'm hoping for the first option. We will also have another ultrasound to make sure all is well on Saturday (we are at a 5 day transfer because we have so many embryos right now) before our transfer. Fingers crossed and hoping for the best.
One other thing the doctor told us today is that we will only be implanting one embryo as a result of the OHSS. If I do happen to get pregnant with the first transfer, I am not prone to this and I will have this the entire way through the pregnancy. He says it is tolerable and fairly controllable with one. If they were to implant two, and both took.. the OHSS with twins would be pretty much unbearable. So, one at a time. Slow and steady wins the race. He also said that if things are a little more severe then we think, we will freeze all of our embryos and go through the transfer in a month. That will give the symptoms time to subside.
Again, fingers crossed and lots of prayers being said right now.
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