21 March 2015 (Sat)

The pain was intense. It felt like gastric pain, except I still had the bizarre appetite of a hippo.

I was supposed to do my very first fresh cycle embryo transfer today.

The lower abdomen was all cramped up, while my torso was attacked by knives. The impact of every step would send a searing pain to my abdomen. I walked like a granny, face twisted in pain, close to tears.

And several people in the waiting area of the KKIVF Center stared at me aghast. I could so hear their petrified thoughts screaming: "Oh my god! Which procedure did she just do?? Am I gonna suffer that pain too??"

Sure the queue there had always been long. But I really suffered physically at the painfully long and my patience tethered. I  was at risk of OHSS due to the sheer amount of eggs harvested (36 eggs), and was supposed to get a blood test done at 9:30am to clear the risk and the procedure at 10:30am after the blood results are out.

I never saw the point of an appointment time if coming on time meant having to wait an hour at least. But that's apparently how Singapore hospitals work.

The doctor couldn't wait past 11am though, so I was ushered into the procedure room soon after my blood was drawn, before the results were out.

I popped on the same operation gear from the Harvesting. Hubby could join me this time and he put on a simplified version of the gear too (a pullover gown, shower cap, and shoe covers).

Dr. Jerry Chan confirmed that the pain I was suffering was not typical of the pain induced from the egg extraction. Yet, from his quick ultrasound, it didn't look like OHSS as there was no abnormal liquid quantity in my lower abdomen.

He decided it was not sensible to go ahead with the Embryo Transfer in this mysterious pain. I was devastated and relieved at the same time. The pain was getting hard to cope and I wasn't sure if I could deal with the transfer at the same time.

So the new plan is a Blastocyst Day 5 transfer. He'll give me gastric medicine and hopefully the pain goes away, and we go back for a transfer next Tuesday.