IVF Round 1 Recap (from 2020)

THIS WAS WRITTEN IN MAY 2020, BUT I NEVER PUBLISHED IT. 

This update is overdue, and I'm trying to write this post again. I logged the entire journey throughout the months that it went on, but it got too long and too personal to share. Now, I'm trying again to round up our first IVF.

Our first round of IVF began in December 2019. We were so excited - and nervous. I started my stim injections on December 29. As we continued injections and monitoring, things were looking good. I had 16 follicles that appeared ready and another16 small follicles that could potentially produce eggs. I stimmed for 11 days (meaning 1-2 shots per day).

On January 8, we pulled the trigger! The trigger shot, that is. That meant that January 9, I drove to Bloomington for Bloodwork, then that night we headed to Indy for the egg retrieval!

I was sad when I woke up from anesthesia to find out that only 7 eggs were collected. Not every follicle will have an egg, but we had hoped to get between 10-15 eggs. The following day, we got the call from the embryologist to update us on the status of our eggs. Of the 7 collected, they were able to use 6 of them, and 5 of them had become embryos! This was great news, and the next step was to transfer on January 15!

When we went back to Indy for the transfer (Wednesday, January 15), they told us that we had one grade 3AA embryo (or blastocyst) to transfer, one had stopped growing, and the other three were just slightly behind the one they were transferring. We did the transfer and I came home and tried all of the tricks - McDonalds french fries, warm feet, and pineapple!

The next day, we received the call that none of our other embryos had made it to blast to be frozen. We were heartbroken, but the embryologist reminded us that we had transferred the best one.

I went back to work the next day, but by Friday, my birthday, I was really starting to feel uncomfortable. I was feeling very bloated - I couldn't even eat my birthday cake. I laid low the rest of the weekend, but by Monday evening I had to call the doctor. They scheduled me to go back to Champaign the next day for some tests.

Mom drove me to Champaign and I was sent all over the hospital for tests - ultrasounds, bloodwork, etc. When I met with my nurse, finally, she said I had mild hyperstimulation. This means my hormone levels had gotten high, my ovaries were still very enlarged, and I had fluid collecting near my lungs making it difficult to breathe. They weren't sure I would even be able to go home that day, there was a possibility of being admitted to the hospital. However, I was sent home and put on bedrest.

The next week was very difficult. I had to take a diuretic to help get the extra fluid off. That dehydrated me and I was having trouble keeping food down. I was getting bloodwork done every couple of days. By the end of the week, though, we thought it might be paying off - I got a positive pregnancy test!

A few days later, at repeat bloodwork, my hcg was not increasing like it should. This meant I was at risk of a miscarriage. I was also starting to feel a little better that day, which was not a good sign. When your cycle ends, the hyperstimulation symptoms are resolved quickly, but with a pregnancy, they take longer to go away. A few days later, it was confirmed that the pregnancy was non-viable. We, obviously, were heartbroken.

Unfortunately, the next couple of months were still very difficult. My body was not recognizing the miscarriage, so it ended up being almost two months later before I physically miscarried naturally. The time between that was full of ups and downs, lots of bloodwork, scheduling a d&c, then cancelling the d&c, and lots of emotions.

I can't even begin to explain all of the emotions we felt throughout the nearly four months of this cycle. The trauma and fear of going through this all again was very overwhelming. Things ended up shutting down because of COVID-19, but we had been told we needed to wait until at least the end of May anyway because of some of the medications I had taken during the miscarriage. I was partially glad to have that time to recover from what we had gone through and physically, emotionally, and mentally prepare for another cycle.

We are praying for peace of mind and body moving forward. After our experience, it is terrifying to do this again. It is so difficult to continue through this struggle and loss, but we are doing the best we can.

In memory of Lawrence "Leo" Eugene O'Connor. <3