The day has come! Tomorrow will be my egg retrieval and boy am I excited! A lot has happened in the past couple of days since I last posted. As I said in my previous post, my follicles were developing really well, so well that I am now at risk for OHSS (ovarian hyper stimulation syndrome). OHSS happens when your ovaries are hyper-stimulated and produce so many eggs that they become enlarged. I am extremely uncomfortable right now and my ovaries are really sore but my right one is REALLY sore. My doctor has scaled my medications all the way down. I also had to be seen everyday over the holiday weekend due to my OHSS risk. I’m very ready to get this over with. I’m happy that I’ve produced so many eggs but OHSS can be very serious so I’m also really nervous.
Another issue is that with OHSS is that the hormone that is produced when you become pregnant (HSG) can make it worse so my doctor is now talking about freezing all of my embryos and waiting to do my transfer. That is very disappointing news but I understand his reasoning. I also understand that this could be God’s way of saying “not right now”. Let me back up a little bit as I’m sure all of this information sounds like a foreign language. With IVF, you can either have a fresh cycle or a frozen cycle (FET). The plan was for me to have a fresh cycle which means that they would transfer my embryo or embryos 5 days after the egg has been fertilized and they would freeze the remaining embryos. A frozen cycle is when they thaw out an embryo that has already been frozen and transfer it. I hope that makes sense but if it doesn’t you can ask questions in my comments section below. 🙂
I really hope that I don’t develop OHSS and that I am able to proceed with my fresh cycle. Another issue is that I want to transfer 2 embryos so that I can increase my chances of at least one implanting. My doctor isn’t sure how he feels about transferring 2 embryos. We will discuss it again right before the transfer. Deep down inside, I know that there isn’t anything that I can do since this is in God’s hands. It’s so hard to accept that this is completely out of my control. I have to remind myself every minute of every day that I MUST TRUST GOD.
My next update will be after my embryo transfer. 🙂
But when I am afraid, I will put my trust in you.
Psalm 56:3 (NLT)
Kristen D. Johnson
