It Lives!
This post will not be pretty. There will likely be too much information and too much honesty. If you are easily offended by either, I suggest you don't continue reading.
Honestly, I have no idea where to begin this story. I wrote a short entry awhile back about gonig through the IVF process over the summer, so I suppose I should pick up where I left off.
We picked a donor, and she did her thing. We were ecstatic with the results. 18 eggs harvested, 15 fertilized, 10 high quality. 1 to transfer, 9 to freeze for later. We'd have 10 tries at making a baby. The results could not have been better, really. We went in on the day of the transfer, and thirty minutes later we walked out, hopefully on our way to being pregnant.
I knew, 5 days post-transfer, that it worked. I was at work, checking my email, when a strong wave of nausea came over me out of nowhere. No big deal. I got a Sprite, sucked it up, and went and worked with some kids. 5 days post-transfer would be about 3 weeks 3 days PG. I wasn't suppoed to get a home PG test, but I couldn't wait. I tested positive that afternoon. The line was pretty faint though, and I didn't tell Andy that it was positive with any cetainty. I figured I'd try to wait for the blood test on Friday. Yeah right. I peed on a stick the next morning - big fat positive! I was knocked up!
I couldn't believe it. I don't think either of us could believe it. National statistics don't allow for this working on the first try. Thankfully, our doc is GOOD at what he does. Really good. For the next few days I learned to manage the pretty mild nausea with constant eating. I peed on about 10 more sticks. Still pregnant! Friday FINALLY rolled around. My doc's office called that afternoon and told us the good news. It was official. Still, we were shocked, but excited.
I wish I could relate how exciting those first two weeks were. I've already forgotten that feeling. Walking around, knowing that aall the hard work by us and the doctor paid off. That we were on our way to making a family. It almost felt too good to be true. Like, wow, this is really freaking happening. How did this happen?! How did we get here?
Something changed the next week.The nausea was more pervasive, a constant fixture. I knew that was completely normal, buut it was getting a little difficult not to look green at work. I had to run out of the classroom a lot. Not to puke, but just to get aa breath of fresh air and put myself back together again. By Wednesday, I was exhausted. The nausea in the evenings was wretchedly bad, and I wasn't sleeping at night because I was too busy throwing up. Andy convinced me to take Thursday off just to get some sleep. I spent all day vomiting. I spent all day Friday vomiting. I don't mean just a little bit. I mean every hour, every thirty minutes. I was living on the bathroom floor. On Friday, after going 8 hours without peeing, we decided to call the OB. By that evening, I was in the hospital.
It's nice being pregnant when you walk into an emergency room. You're instantly bumped up to the top of the list. I was within triage within 5 minutes and on an IV within 10. It took 3 RNs about 15-20 tries to find a vein. They were all shriveled up and dead, dehydrated. As soon as they got me hooked up to fluids, they pushed in some IV Zofran, which is a drug used to combat chemotherapy-caused nausea and vomiting. That didn't really work. I was still throwing up in the ER. My blood pressure was low - 80-something over 40-something, and my heartrate was in the 100s. My heart was overly stressed by 48 hoours of vomiting and the dehydration. I was spilling ketones, which are a byproduct of starvation and malnutrition. My body hhad already started eating its own fat in order to get the energy it needed. The doc sent me to ultrasound to make sure the fetus was okay. I was exactly 6 weeks that day - October 5th. I didn't get to see the monitor, but Andy could see the baby in there. The tech didn't do a doppler, but Andy said he could actually see the heartbeat on the fetus. Baby was still there.
The doc came to see us after getting back from ultrasound. After looking at my blood tests, he told us it was textbook hyperemesis gravidarum - excessive, uncontrollable nausea and vomiting during pregnancy. WHAT?! At this point, Andy and II were still not quite sure what was going on, but okay, at least we had an answer. Now what? The doc wanted to admitt me since my body was trying to shut itself down and I needed continuous IV fluids and meds. The nausea was still not under contrrol, so they pumped in some Phenergan. Once that took effect, it was nigtht night time. I barely remember being wheeled to a room and set up in the bed. I was out until the next day, when all hell broke loose.
To be continued...
Honestly, I have no idea where to begin this story. I wrote a short entry awhile back about gonig through the IVF process over the summer, so I suppose I should pick up where I left off.
We picked a donor, and she did her thing. We were ecstatic with the results. 18 eggs harvested, 15 fertilized, 10 high quality. 1 to transfer, 9 to freeze for later. We'd have 10 tries at making a baby. The results could not have been better, really. We went in on the day of the transfer, and thirty minutes later we walked out, hopefully on our way to being pregnant.
I knew, 5 days post-transfer, that it worked. I was at work, checking my email, when a strong wave of nausea came over me out of nowhere. No big deal. I got a Sprite, sucked it up, and went and worked with some kids. 5 days post-transfer would be about 3 weeks 3 days PG. I wasn't suppoed to get a home PG test, but I couldn't wait. I tested positive that afternoon. The line was pretty faint though, and I didn't tell Andy that it was positive with any cetainty. I figured I'd try to wait for the blood test on Friday. Yeah right. I peed on a stick the next morning - big fat positive! I was knocked up!
I couldn't believe it. I don't think either of us could believe it. National statistics don't allow for this working on the first try. Thankfully, our doc is GOOD at what he does. Really good. For the next few days I learned to manage the pretty mild nausea with constant eating. I peed on about 10 more sticks. Still pregnant! Friday FINALLY rolled around. My doc's office called that afternoon and told us the good news. It was official. Still, we were shocked, but excited.
I wish I could relate how exciting those first two weeks were. I've already forgotten that feeling. Walking around, knowing that aall the hard work by us and the doctor paid off. That we were on our way to making a family. It almost felt too good to be true. Like, wow, this is really freaking happening. How did this happen?! How did we get here?
Something changed the next week.The nausea was more pervasive, a constant fixture. I knew that was completely normal, buut it was getting a little difficult not to look green at work. I had to run out of the classroom a lot. Not to puke, but just to get aa breath of fresh air and put myself back together again. By Wednesday, I was exhausted. The nausea in the evenings was wretchedly bad, and I wasn't sleeping at night because I was too busy throwing up. Andy convinced me to take Thursday off just to get some sleep. I spent all day vomiting. I spent all day Friday vomiting. I don't mean just a little bit. I mean every hour, every thirty minutes. I was living on the bathroom floor. On Friday, after going 8 hours without peeing, we decided to call the OB. By that evening, I was in the hospital.
It's nice being pregnant when you walk into an emergency room. You're instantly bumped up to the top of the list. I was within triage within 5 minutes and on an IV within 10. It took 3 RNs about 15-20 tries to find a vein. They were all shriveled up and dead, dehydrated. As soon as they got me hooked up to fluids, they pushed in some IV Zofran, which is a drug used to combat chemotherapy-caused nausea and vomiting. That didn't really work. I was still throwing up in the ER. My blood pressure was low - 80-something over 40-something, and my heartrate was in the 100s. My heart was overly stressed by 48 hoours of vomiting and the dehydration. I was spilling ketones, which are a byproduct of starvation and malnutrition. My body hhad already started eating its own fat in order to get the energy it needed. The doc sent me to ultrasound to make sure the fetus was okay. I was exactly 6 weeks that day - October 5th. I didn't get to see the monitor, but Andy could see the baby in there. The tech didn't do a doppler, but Andy said he could actually see the heartbeat on the fetus. Baby was still there.
The doc came to see us after getting back from ultrasound. After looking at my blood tests, he told us it was textbook hyperemesis gravidarum - excessive, uncontrollable nausea and vomiting during pregnancy. WHAT?! At this point, Andy and II were still not quite sure what was going on, but okay, at least we had an answer. Now what? The doc wanted to admitt me since my body was trying to shut itself down and I needed continuous IV fluids and meds. The nausea was still not under contrrol, so they pumped in some Phenergan. Once that took effect, it was nigtht night time. I barely remember being wheeled to a room and set up in the bed. I was out until the next day, when all hell broke loose.
To be continued...