Hyper what?

So I haven't been blogging much during the last two weeks. One reason was adjusting back to the time change, I have been way to sleepy to write. The other reason is because I have been on strict bed rest that past week. Total bummer and I will tell you how this bed rest started:

On the flight back home I started to get some very minor cramps. Totally freaked me out but I had my Mom with me and just having her hold my hand made me feel a lot better. I also started to get some other symptoms that are very common with the medication I am taking and very common after putting your body through an IVF cycle. So I didn't worry to much about them. I talked to my coordinator and all the things I was talking about like being bloated, fatigue and minor cramping were all normal. Well, normal took a turn off the path about 4 days ago. I woke up with most painful feeling in my lower abdomen. It was like a cramp but a cramp has more of a twisty feel (if that makes sense) this pain was like a giant dull knife was stabbing me in the ovaries. The pain lasted about a half an hour and then stopped. In the morning I told my hubby and showed him that tummy had basically expanded overnight. And then right when we were walking down the stairs to start the day it started again. It's a crippling pain and I just had to ride it out right there on the stairs. We both decided that this wasn't normal and called my OB/GYN nurse and she basically told us that we needed to head to the ER. Oh, great!

I get to the ER and have to explain about 15 times that I had IVF done in Europe and I was experiencing severe cramping. It's amazing to me how little some nurses and doctors know about IVF. Some didn't even really know the abbreviation. You would have to say in-vitro before the light bulb would go off. Then you would have to explain the process. Hubby thinks this is because IVF is an elective procedure but I still find it odd.

As I am checking into the ER the administrating nurse begins to tell me her fertility struggle. How she was told she was infertile in the 70s and how there was nothing to be done back than. Then she told me how she accepted her fate as being a childless woman and went on with her life. So at this point in the story I am starting to get a little mad at her, like she is telling me to accept my fate kind of thing but then she drops this bombs on me. She told me she finally just relaxed and now two kids later she's over the moon happy. She literally told me to just relax and nature will take its course. Here I am in the ER getting checked in for complications due to IVF and she is telling me to just relax and it will happen naturally. OMG, I almost lost it. I understand people's good intentions when telling about their struggles and how they over came them but when someone is having IVF done there is no amount of relaxing they can do to get pregnant. IVF wasn't some choice made because we weren't getting pregnant in the time frame we wanted, it was because I have bad tubes!! I can relax the rest of my life and my tubes will remain the same lady! And you better believe I told her that.

So after that fun encounter I get put into a room but not just any room I get put into the psychiatric room where they put crazy people. The ER was out of beds at the moment and that was the only option for me. It was a bed and nothing else in the room, no sharp edges or windows. And the door locked when they closed it...so awful yet so fitting at the same time. After 45 minutes of 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest' they were able to get me a room.

One full body ultrasound and 8 pokes later looking for blood (damn my bad veins) they have figured out what is wrong with me. I have fluid leaking into my abdomen and around my kidneys and my ovaries are about the size of grapefruits. The fluid is leaking from my giant ovaries and the reason they are doing that is because they have a condition called Ovarian Hyper-Stimulation Syndrome. Yippee!! Basically about 10% of women who have IVF can get this condition. Since my condition is in the moderate range there is nothing to be done except wait it out. If it was a little more severe they would take a large needle and extract the fluid out. They basically put me on bed rest and told me to see my OB/GYN on Friday for a follow up blood work.

So I was doing the bed rest thing to best of my ability. I did cook dinner and do a load of laundry but both things took me all day so I figured that was okay. Thursday night I lay down to go to sleep and I hear a lot of wheezing in my breath and could also hear crackly in my lungs. I knew that the liquid had spread to my lungs and should probably tell the nurses that in the morning when I am giving my follow up blood.

Friday morning I get my blood work done and then ask to see a nurse about my lungs. I tell the nurse the situation and she gets this real panic look on her face. She basically told me to go across the street and check myself back into the ER. Oh great! I call the hubby crying and then call my Mom crying. The nurse basically told me I was at a high risk for a blood clot and there were no second chances with a blood clot. The hubby meets me in the ER in seconds flat, thank goodness his office is only a block away. I get checked back into the ER and the tests start again. First with a chest x-ray, blood work and then an ultrasound of the blood vessels in my legs. I must say the ultrasound of the legs was very interesting. The doctor was able to do all the tests he wanted except one. The hubby and I agreed not to the one that had an extreme amount of radiation involved because if we are pregnant it would end up terminating that pregnancy. After the 3 test the doctor thought my risk was low and the fluid in my lungs was minor enough to just be monitored and that my bed rest needed to be a little more extreme. So, I am basically confined to my bed. I can walk to the bathroom and the couch. It's only been a day of this extreme bed rest and I am going crazy! I have to remember when the crippling pain comes and overwhelming boredom sets in it will all be worth it in the end. So for the next week you can find me here, master bedroom, king sized bed grumpy lady in the middle.