What To Expect

A good friend (Jen) gave me the book, What to Expect When You're Expecting about a month ago. I really like to read every week about how much the baby has grown, what the baby could be doing, etc. And I'm grateful to have something to answer little questions that I might have, or questions I haven't even thought about.

At the same time, I can't help but wish there had been something similar to guide me through the in vitro experience. Of course, I am actually very lucky because another good friend of mine was about 2 steps ahead of me in IVF and we either spoke on the phone or chatted online daily about what we were going through. There were a few times though that something happened that really worried me, and I would call the fertility clinic only to be reassured that what I was experiencing was completely normal.

I'm not sure how many people are interested but since this blog is the closest thing I have to a journal, I really wanted to keep track of info about my IVF experience. A lot of which I wish I had known was really "normal", so I wouldn't have worried as much. (I will preface this by saying that just like every pregnancy is different, I know that everyone's IVF experience is different. These are my experiences which I was told were "normal" and therefore know that I'm not the only one to experience. However this doesn't mean that everyone who goes through IVF will have the same experiences.)

1) The first set of injections that I gave myself were "subcutaneous" injections and were to be given in the stomach area for anywhere from 9 - 12 days (for me it ended up being 11 days). The nurses were great about teaching me how to mix medications for my injections and how to give myself my injections. They didn't tell me that although the injections wouldn't hurt at first, the longer I gave them to myself the more tender I would be. So by day 7 or 8, it began to be difficult to find a good place to stick myself where it wouldn't hurt. At first when it starting hurting, I thought something was wrong with my needle and threw it out (in a sharps container, of course) and got a new one.

2) I knew the first set of injections were to get my body to create as many eggs as possible. I didn't realize that for your body to create a lot of eggs, that meant a lot of swelling/bloating - and I was especially given no warning that it was possible that each of my ovaries would swell up to be bigger than my uterus. Which means that by the time I was done with the first round of injections, none of my regular clothes fit - only pajamas and workout clothes. At least I was as comfortable as possible, but just keep in mind - I don't think a person's ovaries were ever meant to swell up quite that much meaning it was almost impossible to get comfortable.

3) 36 hours before egg retrieval, Justin had to give me an injection of HCG in the back of the hip. This was to tell my body to release the eggs so they could be retrieved by the doctor. Because HCG is the "pregnancy" hormone that makes a lot of people feel sick in the first trimester, I was warned that I may feel really tired, nauseated, etc. But I had no idea how sore my hip would be the day after the shot. It was hard to sit, difficult to walk and even worse trying to get comfortable than it was before.

4) I was super eager for the egg retrieval because to me it meant my ovaries would start shrinking and I would start to feel better. However when the doctor came in and talked to me minutes before the procedure, I was informed that if I was swollen and bloated then it would not go away after the procedure. As it turns out, when they retrieve the eggs, the follicles swell up with fluid. Not only that, but then I had to deal with being sore from all the agitation to my ovaries - even more uncomfortable than before! In fact, I swelled up more after the egg retrieval than I was before. I even called the doctor the day before embryo transfer for them to tell me they expected that and they expected me to look 4 - 5 months pregnant by the time I came in the next morning.

5) I was not told that it was completely normal for it to be painful to use the bathroom after the egg retrieval. I seriously thought something was wrong with me. But as it was explained to me, my ovaries were so tender from everything they had gone through, any movement in my body that changed pressure on my ovaries would be painful. And I had to pee far more often the 2 weeks after egg retrieval than I did for the rest of the first trimester. Too much in my bladder meant too much pressure on my ovaries and it hurt!

6) I knew that as long as IVF was successful and I got pregnant, that I would most likely feel crummy, be tired, nauseated, etc. But I didn't know that I would start feeling super terrible within a week of the embryo transfer. I couldn't sit up for longer than about 15 minutes without feeling light-headed, I couldn't stand up from sitting without getting winded and talk about having trouble going upstairs - it took me a good 5 minutes to breathe normally after very slowly going upstairs. Plus I got super nauseated. I know that for a lot of people these things happen when they get pregnant as their HCG level climbs, but this was seriously just the side effects from IVF. I didn't start feeling the effects of being pregnant until about 3 weeks after embryo transfer (once I started feeling better from IVF).

7) I got about a 3 day break from shots in between the egg retrieval and embryo transfer, but when you do IVF, your body doesn't know to produce the progesterone the way it is supposed to in order to support of pregnancy (something you don't have to worry about when you get pregnant naturally) which means that a few days before embryo transfer I had to start getting injections of progesterone. These were also in the back of the hip, which means that Justin had to give them all to me. I had heard horror stories in the waiting room at the doctor's about the injections - how your hips were so sore you could hardly move, how a lot of people had trouble figuring out where to give the next injection because welts would form, etc. Although I didn't like the injections, they weren't as bad as I thought they would be - in fact even though my hips were getting tender I never felt the soreness that I got from the HCG shot. However, a couple days after the last one I got hives all over my backside. Once again, this was considered normal and the nurse said it was good they took me off of them when they did - because if you develop hives the longer you are on the progesterone, the worse your hives can be. Luckily I only had to deal with the hives for about 2 weeks. And even now - about 7 weeks after I finished the injections, my hips are still sore if I press against where I would get the shots.

Because we were so blessed to have embryos frozen, next time a lot of this I won't have to go through. In fact - only the progesterone injections at the end, but no injections in the stomach, no swollen ovaries, no egg retrieval and the recovery from that. Which means that unlike this time - I won't have to start wearing maternity clothes when I'm not even "officially" pregnant yet!