Egg collection
During the course of taking the daily injections (around 13 days) I went to the clinics to have scans to ensure the eggs where growing as they should be and I wasn’t at risk of over stimulating them, causing Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome (OHSS). But all scans showed my ovaries were stimulated just right and the follicles, containing the eggs, were maturing well. It was really exciting having the fertility consultant count the number of follicles in each ovary and mark which ones were which size.
I’d been warned that there were possible side affects from the stimulation drugs which included feeling bloated, having hot flushes, feeling overly emotional or PMT type symptoms. I think I got off pretty lightly really! For the first week I felt completely normal and there was only one episode in the second week, where I thought I’d run out of the medication I needed to inject, called the nurses line and when no one picked up, I burst into tears and felt like it was the end of the world! Then I realised that it was probably my hormones making me very sensitive and that the nurse would return my call shortly, which she did.
By the day of egg collection I felt pretty bloated. I’d taken to wearing baggy tops for work and loose trousers… I actually thought that this is what it maybe felt like to be pregnant as I did exaggerated waddling around the office!
On the morning of egg collection I wasn’t allowed to eat anything, because I was to have heavy sedation for the operation. But I was that excited that the big day that we’d been preparing for for 9 months had arrived, that I wasn’t all that hungry anyway.
At the hospital I had a whole host of people come speak with me including the doctor, the embryologist, the nurse who had been giving me scans, and the anaesthetist. I felt calm as I went into the theatre room to find around 10 people smiling at me! After the anaesthetist gave me the heavy sedation, the next thing I remembered was coming round in a different room and feeling very drowsy. Within a few minutes the drowsiness had lifted and I felt fine, a little tender, but in no pain. The doctor explained that they’d collected 14 eggs and this was a good result, so I was very pleased.
Egg collection was the only day I took off work, so my friend took me home from the clinic around lunchtime and I put my feet up for the rest of the day. The following day I was back at work, feeling fine. I couldn’t help but think that for such a relatively small amount of time and effort on my part, what I’d done had given hope to a couple who’d longed for a child for many years, which felt completely worth the 9 month journey we’d gone through and left me feeling really pleased with myself.