Ohhhhh HSS

On Friday, Sept. 23rd, I laid around, watched Netflix, and slept.  I only got up a couple times to pee - which by the way was painful again this round of IVF.  It seems that a fuller bladder was rubbing against something that did not like being touched right now.  I was pretty sore from retrieval and wasn't in the mood to move much!  Hubby stayed home with me, fed me every few hours on my demand, and was good to me.

I was relying heavily on Tylenol, which I was taking every 2 hours to keep the pain to a minimum.  The Dr. said that was all I was allowed to take - so I did!  Hubby gave me a Tylenol at 3pm and then went to coach his high school soccer team.  He came home around 6pm and I fell asleep almost immediately.  At 7pm, I woke up with terrible pain.  I figured it was just from meds wearing off and a full bladder, so I quickly made my way to the bathroom.  While I had to pee, the pain did not subside.  It actually got worse.  By the time I wobbled back to the couch, I was in tears it was so bad.  What in the heck was happening?  This didn't happen with IVF Round #1.

Hubby shoved 2 Tylenol into my mouth and we waited for it to take effect.  It did not.  After an hour, the pain had reached a level that even scared Hubby.  The Tylenol hadn't begun to even touch the pain.  I laid on the couch and writhed.  I seriously thought I was giving birth to my ovaries.  I was worried and confused.  Hubby called the Dr Office's after-hours answering service to have the Doc on call get ahold of us.  She called and before Hubby could even finish explaining what was going on, she explained that I had developed Ovarian Hyper Stimulation Syndrome (OHSS).  She told him that they had only needed to go after the larger eggs this time instead of fishing around and taking everything like last time.  The smaller eggs were still being stimulated by the trigger shot that I took on Tuesday.  They were getting large and bursting, causing pain.  They were also leaking fluid into my abdomen causing me more pain.  She explained to Hubby that the pain associated with OHSS was excruciating.  She told him that if he had any heavy duty pain meds left from his sperm retrieval in March - find it and give it to me just to knock me out and get me out of pain.  And here I was only supposed to have Tylenol!?  Unfortunately he couldn't find the meds, so she instructed him to give me 4 Advil ASAP.

After another 30 minutes, the Advil worked and I was finally able to lay still and relax.  There was still pain, but it was bearable.

I told Hubby that it was a good thing that OHSS hadn't happened the first round of IVF or there might not have been a 2nd round!