Strib photographer Kyndell Harkness takes us on her IVF journey…this time, Kyndell lands unexpectedly in the hospital… 

So where was I? Oh yeah, the big day, retrieval day. Jeff and I go in and he’s feeling a little sleepy and I’m feeling a little bloated. Remember my ovaries (female testicles) are the size of lemons. While I was getting properly drugged and prepped Jeff was headed for what he called “The Least Romantic Room in the Twin Cities.” It’s a small room with no décor a dark black naugahide chair, grey walls and an old TV with a little hand written sign on top that said “adult dvds available upon request.” Wow that’s attractive.

For my part - the retrieval - I was thankfully out. All I remember was that they put me into an uncomfortable position and I started breathing oxygen. Then all of a sudden I was done. I’ll let Jeff tell you what happened.

The retrieval takes about 30 minutes and there’s TV.

Well, not actual TV. Everyone in the room is watching an ultrasound monitor as the doctor grabs eggs from Kyndell’s ovaries. It’s dark, quiet and there are about a half dozen people in the room all focused on their particular task. My job was to sit there.

The doctor retrieves the eggs with a long needle that’s hooked up to a pump. When he finds eggs they’re sucked out pumped through a tube to the room next door and counted off by a person in the lab who’s looking through a microscope as they come in. It was odd hearing the voice counting the eggs out loud, our eggs. This was the first time we had any kind of real confirmation that the process was working, and was a big relief.

We were feeling pretty good. They retrieved 20 eggs and enough sperm to help Chris the Love Doctor make healthy embryos. That was a Thursday. Friday comes and I’m feeling a little weak and a little dizzy. Like a crazy person I agreed to work the night shift. I figured I’d feel better by then. That was not the case. I roamed the pathways of the MOA with a parent and reporter looking for unaccompanied teens and feeling miserable. Sweaty, nauseous basically in a word… yuck. Saturday came and I was worse. I stayed home all day still feeling nauseous but now I’m in pain. 

Before I go any further I should tell you something about pain and me. My mom tells stories of me falling off things and hurting myself and not really caring. Doctors warned her to watch me because I tended to deal with pain a little too well. So yes pain and I, well, we’re not friends but if he has to stick around for a while I can put up with him.

Sunday morning comes. Hot diggity! This is the day we get to see the embryos and they transfer them back to me. Mostly that morning I was happy to take to valium prescribed. Man, I was in pain and just feeling bad. I was still excited though. We get in early. They prep me and bring me to the procedure room. The poor doctor tried and tried but couldn’t find my cervix. Since that was the entry point for the uterus there was no transfer. We’d have to wait. What happened was my little balloon of fluid had returned and had completely pushed the cervix into its hiding place near my pelvic bone. Impossible to get at. Damn.

We go home a little sad but mostly I was sick. Real sick. The pain was increasing and so was the nausea. Here’s another aside. I hate puking with a passion. Before that weekend I could count how many times I’ve gotten sick on one hand. It’s only a last resort. Sunday there was no other course of action. So all day Sunday I couldn’t eat or drink and couldn’t get comfortable for more than 15 minutes because I was in so much pain. I called the clinic in the afternoon. The nurse left it up to me if I wanted to go to the hospital. No No No! Obviously she doesn’t know me. Of course I’m going to tough it out at home than deal with the emergency room crazies. So there I was stuck at home watching bad movies at 3am waiting, praying, for 6am to come and the clinic to open.

5:30am comes and I tell jeff it’s time to leave. He pours me into the car and takes care not to run over potholes. My anticipation of relief was overwhelming. I’m practically giddy. We get to the door and it’s locked. Oh the humanity!!. I’m in shock I can’t believe I have to wait longer. There was a chair in the hallway. I knelt down in front of it and rested my head on the seat. I could see someone coming out of the corner of my eye. Fuzzy hat, fuzzy scarf and a voice, “Uhh ma’am? Are you okay? Wait Kyndell is that you?” Salvation. It was my doctor. Sweet little Johanna, it was good to see her. “I’m in a lot of pain can you give me some drugs,” I said.

She brought me in. I explained my weekend while she and the nurses got me ready for another draining of the balloon and admitted to the hospital. Apparently I had Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome (OHSS). This means that drugs I used to create more than the normal amount of eggs made my body go wacky. The symptoms can be mild to severe and it will run it’s course in about 6-8 days.

So I got the medication I desperately needed and admission the hospital. Ahhhh! I had a nice morphine drip, bad TV to watch, and a nice view. It took three days for me to feel like myself again and another week for the fluid I collected to work its way out of my system.

I felt lucky. Okay I know that sounds a little looney but it was a lucky thing that the doctor couldn’t find my cervix. If the transfer of the embryos happened I would have had to wait out the OHSS without drugs and that, my friends, would have been nearly impossible.

Well how’s life been treating me? Pretty good. I went back to work, working out, and having fun while we wait. This break enabled me to try for a new milestone, a martial arts black belt. It was something I had postponed indefinitely that I now get to do. I like the sound of “Black Belt Mama.” Hee hee.

The new IVF cycle has started at the clinic and our big transfer day will be in less than two weeks. We are excited to get things rolling again. I’m back on the oral drugs and soon Jeff will be using his darting skills for the butt shots. Friends and family have started counting down the days along with us. Are we ready? YES!!! Bring on the swollen feet, the back aches and little sleep, Bring the mood swings, labors pains, and all the things that go with pregnancy. But first we have to wait and remember patience is a virtue.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 8th, 2007 at 10:17 pm and is filed under Guest Bloggers, Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.