Holy Crap!!!!

Hello from Nat's office in the basement!! For some reason I am wide awake at midnight on Friday, that's late for us, and I forgot the book I'm currently reading upstairs in the bedroom. I am not allowed to do stairs, well not a lot, so I am pretty much stuck down here with bad nighttime TV and a computer, so here we are.

I thought I would give you all an update on the transfer and the nightmare scenario that ensued leading up to the big event; yes it had to do with the water. As for right now I am doing really well. I made it through the 24-hour bed rest with little excitement and besides some miniscule cramping; I am doing better than I could have hoped. This has definitely been the easiest treatment thus far and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this is somehow relevant to the outcome.

But on to the water torture.

So my transfer was scheduled for 11:30am and they ask that you arrive at the office about 30 minutes prior so you can get into the fashionable hospital gown and they can go over the procedure. For some stupid, but medically relevant, reason they need you to have a full bladder for the procedure and they ask that you consume about 64oz. of water by an hour before the procedure.

Now you know how I tried to cheat last time and got caught, I thought water would travel through the body faster and quickly learned that I wasn't the medical professional in charge so making up my own rules wasn't so smart. I wasn't even close to having a half full bladder so I had to wait for all of the water I had mischievously finished only minutes earlier to find it's way down to the bladder. I felt rotten that I had to hold everyone up so I figured this time I would follow the rules.

I finished my water at 10:45am, I was 15 minutes late, but I was confident that it wouldn't matter. Nat and I headed to the Fertility Center and by the time we arrived, 10 minutes later, I was in pain. I was like a little kid trying to rearrange myself on the chair, rutching around as we say it here in York, trying to find a spot that would keep me from letting loose right there in the waiting room. Thank goodness we were the only ones there because with my little dancing it was obvious what was going on.

By 11:10am I was dying, I mean I thought I was about to blow a kidney. Jamie, the office manager, must have seen my routine from behind that doctor barrier wall in the waiting room and said that if I could control myself I could go to the bathroom, count to 5, and then I had to stop. I could have kissed her. I didn't even stop to consider that maybe I couldn't control myself, which I did, I ran to the bathroom and damn did that feel good. (Had to swear)

I came back out to the room, sat down with Nat and began to wonder what the hold up was. Nat and I chatted for about 5 minutes when that pain and pressure came back again. I stood up and walked around, sat down, fidgeted in my seat and then looked up for Jamie to tell me that I could go again, but she wasn't there. In fact no one was behind the desk. I looked to Nat for some guidance but he didn't know any more that I did, crap, crap, crap. It was now 11:25am and I knew there was no way, no way that I could hold it until the transfer.

So I went again, counted to 5, and snuck out of the bathroom before getting caught.

Once again, sweet relief, I still felt full but I wasn't in pain. It was almost that exact moment when Sue, the drug lady, came to take me back for the transfer. She stupidly asked me how I was doing, was she kidding?? I made it known that my transfer was supposed to be at 11:30am and here we are and I'm just being taken back to the tranfer/retreival waiting room. She apologized that they were running behind and had me change in to the wonderful hospital gown.

When I came out of the bathroom from changing I sat down in the chair they had set up for me and Sue went over the procedures and made me sign some stuff. About this time I realized that once again I was cramping up from the full bladder, can you believe this? I couldn't, I felt like a skipping record. I told Sue that there was no way they could expect me to hold a full bladder for any longer, they were running late and this was no longer an issue of comfort. She let me know that it would be another 15 minutes before I went in for the procedure so I could go again, this time there was no counting.

This time I was given a Styrofoam cup.

Oh yeah, I was given an 8 oz. coffee cup and told I could fill this up and no more. Boy was that fun. The cup looked so big and yet it turned out to be so small, but it worked for a little bit longer. I was now waiting only on Dr. Filer to show pictures of my embryos and for them to take me in the procedure room. About 5 minutes passed when Lisa, the ultrasound lady, came out of the procedure room to ask me how I was doing, hello?? Obviously she had been briefed that I was on bathroom break number #3 and was worried that I still felt so badly. She promised me that they were moving fast to get me in and as soon as they escorted me back she would do a quick ultrasound to check my bladder and then let me go a little more.

As soon as she turned around to leave the room Dr. Filer came in and showed me the 4, that's right, 4 embryos that we transferred. Two embryos were from this cycle, one a grade I and one a grade II, and two were thawed from my cryobank, both were grade II's. (Grade I is the best, IV being the worst.) I don't even remember what he said to me, or anything after that, until Lisa came back to take me over to the transfer room. To illustrate how much pain I was in I could barely get out of my chair and I couldn't stand strait, the pain on my right side was so intense I walked with a swagger.

I hobbled across the hall and into the special chair they have, Lisa reclined the chair and started the ultrasound. As soon as she started the ultrasound Michelle, the physician’s assistant, came in the room, looked at the screen and said "wow". A second later Dr. Filer came in the room and said the exact same thing, same tone and everything. "Ok", I asked, "that was two "wow's" is there something I should know?" Well Lisa turned the monitor of the ultrasound machine towards me and I immediately got the same wow feeling, my bladder took up the whole screen!

It looked like it had swallowed every available inch in my lower abdomen. I was then informed that the pain I was experiencing was my bladder pressing my right ovary, which was swollen to 4 times it's normal size, into my cervix. Awesome. At this point I didn't really care, although it was nice to know, all I cared about was my next bathroom break. Lisa said I was allowed 1 and a half cups this time, and with that I got up out of the chair grabbed the back of my gown so that my butt wasn't completely out and ran back across the hall. This time when I was done Michelle came into the bathroom, gave me my shot of Versed, and I calmly went back across the hall and the transfer finally was underway, at 12:05pm.

The procedure went well, I was relaxed from the shot, and I was back home around 1pm. Sorry that story was so long but I had to get this down so I won't ever forget it. I still can't figure out with all of the advancements in medical science why no one has figured out a better method of transfer than the "full bladder" method. I know there are female doctors that have gone through this, hasn't anyone complained?? Man, you have no idea, seriously. I really thought, and told Nat, that I was going to have to reschedule because there was no way I was making it in to that transfer.

Whew.

Ok well now I am tired, all that typing can take it out of you!! Tata for now, I'll be in touch soon!!!