My OHSS experience

I finally have a chance to sit down and write about what has been going on over the last couple of days - it has been absolutely crazy.

On Sunday as you know, our transfer was cancelled due to OHSS and I was feeling really sick. I couldn't keep any food or water down all day and finally around midnight we decided to head to the emergency department at SJOG Murdoch. Luckily we were seen straight away and hooked up to a drip. Unfortunately the doctors knew very little about IVF and it's complications, I spent the time in between throwing up, explaining to the doctor exactly what hyperstimulation was, and trying to convince the nurses that "No, I don't have gastro!". I was weighed in at 102kg at this point (98.5kg before EPU).

I was put on a drip and given some morphine to knock me out while the doctors tried to get in touch with my clinic. Unfortunately I got a bad migraine from the morphine which made it impossible to sleep and just added to my pain. By Monday morning, my nausea was still out of control so I was transferred to Bethesda hospital in Claremont which is where my clinic is based. My specialist was able to come up and look me over when I arrived and organised for full fluid checks to be done, some decent anti-nausea medication given and a new drip put in. I had to be weighed and my girth measured daily to keep track of how I was going. As of Monday I weighed 104kg, 2kg more than the previous night and 4.5kg more than before the EPU.

Tuesday morning I wake up feeling a lot better nausea-wise but stomach still in a lot of pain. I weighed in at 108kg Tuesday morning,a four kilo gain on the previous day and now 9.5kg all up gained. I stayed on medication all day but by night time my urine and blood results were dramatically improved.

Woke up this morning and my nausea has completely gone, THANK GOODNESS!! I can handle pain okay (yeah, I'm kinda a wuss but I can do it) but I can not handle throwing up, it freaks me out big time. Urine and blood samples came back even better so time to get weighed again. Today's weight? 111kg!! I have put on 12.5kg in 8 days. No wonder I feel like such a beached whale! Despite the increased fluid gain, I was allowed to be released from hospital this morning on the condition that the moment I start feeling sick I call the clinic or the hospital, and I drink at least 3 litres of fluid a day. I will need to keep track of my weight over the next couple of days as well. My waist measurement is currently 22cm bigger than it was eight days ago - what a disgrace!

The biggest issue now is that the fluid is so heavy, it makes it really hard for me to breathe. I can't lay down on my back, I have to sleep in a half-sitting position which is terribly uncomfortable but I least I can breathe with it. I get breathless just speaking to people normally, which is quite upsetting.

I am hoping that I have turned the corner with my OHSS experience, I can honestly say that it is one of the most horrible things I have done and I do not plan on ever going through it again. Once we use all of our frozen embryos, I think I will need to be convinced pretty strongly to put my body through the stimulated cycle process again.

Which on the topic of frozen embryos - we have four blastocysts on ice! Or in our case they have been vitrified, whatever that means!?! My doctor wants me to have a cycle in between to let my body recover from the OHSS which I am happy to do as the next month at work is going to be crazy busy. I am currently on Day 3 of 10 Provera tablets, at the end of which I will have a bleed apparently.

OK I have just read back and realised this post is a bit of a jumble but the short version is, after an interesting couple of days in hospital with OHSS, I am back home and okay - Oh and we have four frosties!