Recovery

Sorry I’ve been so slow in telling this story, I’ve just been utterly exhausted and a bit all over the place so it’s been difficult to set my mind to writing. 

As I said in my last post I was discharged from hospital once my swelling started to plateau – I was about 94cm round and 70kg when I was discharged.  Here’s a picture of me the day before I was discharged from hospital.   It’s difficult to really do the discomfort I was in justice with a picture because it just doesn’t look as dramatic and painful as it feels when you’re experiencing it.  All I can say is that normally I’m a size 8 to 10 and have a nice slim tummy and this swelling had  come up in a matter of days with no time for my body to adjust.  I found it a little frustrating when people kept comparing it to be heavily pregnant even though I myself might have slipped into doing that occasionally.  Unfortunately I’ve never been heavily pregnant to compare the 2, hopefully someday I’ll be able to, but I’m pretty sure that in pregnancy though uncomfortable and sometimes painful you’re body does at least have time to gradually stretch rather than just being swollen over a couple of days which puts an immense amount of pressure on your internal organs.  It felt almost like when people compared it to being heavily pregnant they were belittling my pain a bit as if somehow if people manage being heavily pregnant what am I complaining about.  I felt like I had to try and get across to them just how painful, distressing and scary the swelling was.   Also it wasn’t just that my abdomen that was very distended at the front, my hips were also extremely swollen, my back was swollen and the day after I was discharged I woke up to even find my groin was swollen, I won’t go into the details of that but needless to say it wasn’t  a pleasant experience. 

Home from Hospital 

My Mum took me home from hospital about 4 pm and the plan was for her to stay with me for a couple of days.  I’d just got myself settled and resonably comfortable with lots of pillows and everything at hand that I needed when my Dad rang to tell us that my Grandma had had a massive stroke.  On hearing the news it took me a while to pull myself together, I felt like I was hyperventilating because I just couldn’t deep breath properly and I just couldn’t believe the timing of it all.  What was even more upsetting was that I’d been meant to go for a meal with my grandma the previous week for her birthday but I hadn’t been able to as that was when I started getting unwell so I was very upset that I had missed that opportunity.   My Grandma was 94 and living in a care home and previously documented her wishes not to be taken into hospital in the event of anything happening to her and the care home kept to her wishes and planned to nurse her therefore her final hours/days though we didn’t really know how long that might me.   

 

I was desperate to see my Grandma but knew I had to pull myself together and make sure that I looked after myself as well as the last thing my Grandma would have wanted was for me to make myself more unwell in the process of going to see her.  So I made sure I had something to eat, took my medications and organised myself properly before I went but unfortunately when I went to get dressed I realised that other than an old pair of jogging bottoms I had no trousers that fitted me and only one my tops fitted,  I couldn’t wear a bra because the swelling was really high up and it was too uncomfortable but luckily I had some tops with some inbuilt support that helped a lot.   I didn’t know what to do.  I put on some jeans but couldn’t even do the zip up let alone the button.  Luckily a friend of mine who has recently had a baby lives on the way to visit my Grandma so I phoned her on the way and she found me some maternity trousers and tops.  I turned up on her doorstep with trousers that wouldn’t do up and no shoes on because it was so painful to bend to put my shoes on I couldn’t bear to put them on only to have to take them off again!  Her husband got home from work just as I rang to doorbell and I can just remember saying “There is a reason I’m on your doorstep in my socks with clothes that don’t fit”  I was almost in hysterics at this point it kind of felt like if the situation wasn’t so awful it would be funny.   The maternity trousers were amazingly comfortable and it was such a relief to have something to wear.

I managed to go and visit my Grandma that evening and I was very glad that I did despite the massive effort that it cost me.  As this transpired she went on to live another 10 days so I had other opportunities to go and spend time with her but of course we didn’t know that at the time and I wouldn’t have been able to rest that night without seeing her.  Fortunately Matt was already in Cromer picking up our dog who’d been staying with his parents while I was in hospital, so my Mum took me over and Matt brought me back.  By the time I got home my mind just felt completely and utterly fried, like I couldn’t possibly take in any more information.

Gradual Recovery 

The next few days were spent gradually recovering. Luckily a very good friend was able to come and sit with me the next day and keep me company as I didn’t feel my Mum could now stay with everything going on with Grandma.  I was discharged on codeine and Paracetamol and I found that over the days the amount of pain I was in gradually improved so I could ease down first on the codeine and then the Paracetamol.  I was still incredibly uncomfortable but it was gradually more discomfort and less pain, I guess this was because my body was able to adjust to its new size a bit and accommodate the amount of fluid I was carrying.

I spent a few days at home but Matt also shipped me off to my parents for them to look after me for a few days as he needed to sand and varnish our floors and wanted me out of the way of the mess and the fumes. One note – I wouldn’t advise starting a big DIY project in the middle of a round of IVF, but of course at the time we didn’t realise I was going to get so ill.  

This is a picture of me a few days after discharge from hospital when I was staying with my parents.  This wasn't the swelling quite at its worse but perhaps deomonstrates just how swollen it was a bit better than the other picture.  you can see I was even carrying a lot of fluid round my back as it had nowhere else to go!

I came to dread the night times, I absolutely couldn’t lay on my sides because that was really painful, I think because all the fluid moves and pulls everything to the side. I couldn’t lay flat because the fluid would press on my diaphragm and make my breathing even worse. So I slept proped up on a folded up duvet and lots of pillows but even so, laying down meant the fluid shifted and every time I stood up I got this horrible feeling in my abdomen as all the fluid redistributed itself.   I had to keep getting up to go to the toilet and every time I did it was an enormous effort.   Getting going in the morning took me a good hour of psyching myself up to get up, gradually going through the effort of moving, having a shower, getting dressed and attempting to find something I fancied for breakfast.

Monitoring 

 

I went back to the hospital for blood tests a few times after my discharge, I wasn't safe to drive myself so kindly a friend from church came with me for the first lot and my Mum took me for the second.  The first lot of bloods showed that my liver function was deteriorating slightly though my other parameters – kidney function, blood clotting etc. were ok.  I wasn’t overly concerned about this as I felt that this would soon improve as my symptoms improved.  So they sent me off again and I went back after another 3 days for more blood tests (though this time I was sensible enough to get them to give me the form in advance so that I could get one of the phlebotomists to take the blood, go for a cup of tea and they had the results by the time I got there).  By this time my swelling was beginning to decrease and the bloods showed that my liver function was beginning to improve.  This time however my blood clotting was a bit off and my platelets – involved in clotting – were raised.  This was a bit of a concern as you have a increased risk of blood clots with OHSS, I’d been discharged on blood thinning injections but these were coming to an end and the Drs feeling was that despite the platelets going up I could stop these injections.  I wasn’t entirely happy with this and pushed her to ask her senior again whether I should be on aspirin or something, on the second time of asking she came back and said her senior has said ‘why not’ to aspirin. I didn’t find ‘why not’ particularly reassuring but didn’t feel I could push them any more.  They didn’t want to see me any more at the hospital but said I could come back if I had any concerns.  This lack of further monitoring combined with the issue about the blood clotting worried me so as soon as I got back I made an appointment with my GP.

'Oh you're that person' 

 

You know you’ve got something unusual when you go into you GP and say ‘I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to read my discharge letter but I’ve recently been in hospital with Ovarian Hyperstimulation…’ and the GP says ‘OH, you’re that person!’   My GP was a little bit put out that the hospital had handed things back to her and I could see her point as they’re the experts in managing this condition.  She was excellent though and advised continuing the blood thinning injections, repeating my bloods and reviewing again in a week and she was going to speak to the consultant at the hospital to discuss further management.   I was reassured by this and it was a good job I continued on the blood thinners as the next day my bloods showed my platelets had gone up even further.   

Gradually Improving 

So to sum up the last couple of weeks since my discharge from hospital;  My swelling is gradually decreasing, I can actually just fit in one baggy pair of my own jeans now though I still have a hard painful lump on the left side of my abdomen in addition to intermittent pains of the right. I’m not sure why my left side is worse because my right was the initially more problematic side and was the one that had bled slightly.  My pain in much better and I can now manage with only an occasional dose of Paracetamol, for a while I was still getting the intermittent really debilitating pains which I think were to do with my bowels but those gradually got fewer and further between.  I’m still sleeping terribly though for the last couple of nights I can now lay on my side which does help. I was a little concerned for a while that I might develop a chest infection as I got a cough and was beginning to bring up, with difficulty, a bit of sputum, I think this was the result of being unable to deep breath properly for about 2 weeks – I spend a good part of every day telling my patients how important it is to deep breath and now I’ve experienced if first hand.   I’m still on blood thinning injections – just when I thought I was free of injections after the IVF and wearing my compression stockings to help prevent deep vein thrombosis at night.  My energy levels are gradually improving though I still find basic tasks exhausting.

My main ongoing issues are the blood clotting, this painful lumpy area on the left hand side of my lower abdomen, energy levels, sleep (oh for a good nights sleep).  I’m hoping that I may be well enough to get back to work before too long but need to discuss that with the GP tomorrow as I don’t want to risk doing any damage with heavy activity if my ovaries are still enlarged – there’s just a small chance of rupturing one!  The other concern of course is whether the IVF has worked which of course I’m being deliberately vague about because with everything I’ve had going on it’s really too early to know exactly what’s going on in there so we’ll have to wait and see and hope and pray.

A few days in hospital with Ovarian Hyperstimulation

When I arrived at the hospital they put me into the assessment room on the gynae ward fairly swiftly.  The Dr came to see me but had to go off to a delivery briefly so it was about an hour before he came back and got me admitted properly.  I was able to get myself a bit calmer by this point because I at least knew somebody was going to take me seriously. When the Dr came back he put in a cannula, took some bloods and started a bag of IV fluids to begin getting me rehydrated.  I was still trying to hold out and not take anything stronger than Paracetamol so they gave me an IV dose as I was still quite nauseas.  Just as long as a clutched my pillow and stayed on my back with my knees up I could manage. 
 

Before too long the senior Drs – Registrar and Consultant – came round and confirmed that they would be admitting me and that they felt that it was likely to be Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome (OHSS).  The plan was to do an ultrasound, rehydrate me with a few quick bags of fluid and keep those running overnight, get my pain under control and monitor my fluid balance closely as one of the complications of OHSS can be kidney failure.  I never thought I would be that glad to be admitted to hospital but by that point I was just so relieved to be somewhere where they could help me.   Unfortunately they weren’t able to organise the ultrasound for the same day as it was a bank holiday Monday, obviously it would have been done if it was urgent but since the scan wouldn’t have changed the management then it was reasonable to wait until the next day for this.  My blood results at this point just showed that my white blood cells had gone up but my CRP – inflammatory marker – which I though was usually raised in OHSS was normal, the Dr informed me however that this isn’t always raised.

I forgot that sometimes Drs don’t communicate everything with nurses so despite the fact that I had told the Dr I had diarrhoea I was move to a bay with 5 other ladies.  By the time I’d got my head together enough to inform the nurse that I had had diarrhoea however I was then faced with a long wait for a side room.  In the mean time I was fairly settled in the bay.  Matt went home to walk the dog and pick up a long list of things that I gave him.  While he was away a couple of the sisters from the ward where I work came down to visit me. At that time I was still resolutely trying to stand the pain for fear of taking anything stronger than Paracetamol in case I was pregnant.  When they got there however they basically told me that I was being silly, that the Drs wouldn’t have prescribed me anything that would be harmful to any potential baby and that I should have some proper pain relief and anti-sickness medication.  This was of course excellent advice and within half an hour of giving in to some oral morphine and some IV anti-sickness (ondansertron) I was feeling an enormous amount better and was almost acting like a normal human being when Matt and my sister arrived.  I think I’d just become so tense and terrified that I didn’t realise just how much pain I was in until it began to ease.  I consoled myself by knowing that while taking morphine wasn’t ideal, being super stressed wasn’t going to do any potential pregnancy any good either.

The rest of the first day was spent being rehydrated with 3lts of IV fluid, keeping a close eye on how much urine I was passing to check my kidneys were ok and trying to keep myself calm and comfortable.  They weren’t able to move me to a side room until 11pm but once I was in there I was able to get settled down for the night and get a few hours sleep.  I woke again at 1:30am and got myself into a bit of a panic.  With all the fluid I was having I was just getting more and more swollen, my tummy was getting tighter and tighter and even my back was swollen.  I was terrified I was going to go into kidney failure and just couldn’t imagine how much more swollen I could get.  I went to see the nurse at the desk and just had a bit of a meltdown I was so terrified.  She was lovely and somebody made me a cup of tea and she got the Dr to come and see me a reassure me that I was having all the right treatment and being closely monitored.  I knew exactly what she would say but sometimes when you’re in such a state you just need somebody else to tell you it.  This helped to calm me down and when she’d gone I had some more morphine and managed to get a solid 4 hours sleep which is the most I’d had in days.

The next morning is a bit of a blur, I passed the time just listening to radio, dozing and playing with my phone and hobbling backwards and forwards to the toilet.  I managed a very brief shower which made me feel a little better but really took it out of me.  They’d weighed me when I first came in and I was 67.3kg, 3kg over my normal pre IVF weight.  The second day they came to weigh me, the plan was to weigh me and measure my girth around my belly button every day to monitor how much fluid I was retaining – and I’d gone up to 68.4kg and 92 1/2cm round the middle showing just how much fluid I was retaining.  I hadn’t been weighing myself at home because I don’t have scales but I knew this was now 4.4kg more than normal and my girth was getting bigger and bigger, I don’t know what I measure round normally but I’d measured myself a few days earlier when I was already quite bloated and I was 86cm so this was definitely increasing significantly.

The Dr popped in and took some blood but there wasn’t a lot for her to add other than carry on with the IV fluids and wait for the ultrasound. I went down for the ultrasound at about 1400 and wasn’t allowed to eat or drink for about 4 hours before (I think it was meant to be 6 hours before but they didn’t tell me until a bit late).  I made sure I timed some decent pain relief before I went because I was sure that somebody pressing on my abdomen with an ultrasound was going to be painful.

 

Diagnosis

They did an ultrasound of my abdomen and pelvis.  The ultrasound of my abdomen showed extensive ascites – fluid in my abdomen – with quite a lot of fluid either side of my liver.  They also did an internal ultrasound which showed my ovaries were significantly enlarged, they did tell me how big but I can’t remember now I think they were about 8cm.   I felt quite distressed after the scan, in some ways it was good that it had confirmed the diagnosis but at the same time it was quite terrifying to wonder what they could do about it.

When I got back to the ward I was rather frustrated as I’d been nil by mouth for the scan but because the Dr hadn’t specifically said in the notes ‘can eat after scan’ the nurse wouldn’t let me eat, of course as she said I could have ignored her but I didn’t want to blatantly go against her instructions. It was very frustrating because it was the first time I was beginning to fancy eating anything in days, the day before all I’d managed was some jelly and a little bit of shepherd’s pie. What was even more frustrating was that the catering staff aren’t allowed to treat you like an intelligent human being so they wouldn’t leave me some dinner for once I’d spoken to the Dr.  The consequence of this was that I had a complete meltdown in front of a student nurse and the catering staff.  It wasn’t so much about the food itself, it was more that that was just the final straw, I felt so awful, I was getting bigger and bigger, I wasn’t sleeping, I couldn’t get comfortable, I was terrified about whether the condition would start to affect my kidneys and now I couldn’t even eat or drink.

I managed to pull myself together and the Dr came to see me and explained that the results of the scan confirmed moderate OHSS and that the plan was to stop the IV fluids now that I was rehydrated, carry on monitoring my fluid balance, carry on with the pain relief, continue with anti-coagulants – blood thinners – and compression stockings to reduce my risk of blood clots and if things steadied out I could potentially be monitored as an outpatient. I had mixed feelings about this information, while in some ways it was good to be reassured and I knew that in the logical part of my brain it was all the correct treatment the thought of being sent home was really scary as I just didn’t know how I’d cope with the pain and discomfort.

 

Not So Restful Night

That evening they moved me again to another side room as the one I was in really belonged to the obstetric side of the ward and they needed to move me back to the gynae side.  While this was a bit of a pain I didn’t really mind as I know what it’s like trying to juggle beds and the new room was actually nicer than the first.  That night I was a bit stressed as I was worried that the Dr would turn up the next day and send me home.  I managed to get a bit or sleep to start off with however when I had a couple of very unsatisfactory tiny wees of only about 30mls of dark urine the nurse, and me, got a little bit worried about my kidneys. Since they didn’t want to start any more IV fluids they kept waking me up every hour or so and making me drink a few glasses of water.  As difficult as this was it did work quite nicely and onne they were happy things had steadied out I got a solid 4 hours or so sleep.

The next morning they weighed me again and I’d gone up to 70kg and 94.5cm meaning I’d put on a total of 2.7kg since I was admitted, 6kg (nearly a stone) over my normal and grown 2cm since the day before.  This was of course all the fluid that I was retaining in my abdomen – when I looked at my fluid balance for the past few days it showed that I was 4lt positive over 2 days, this means I’d had 4lts more in than I’d passed out and it was all sitting in my abdomen.  The problem with OHSS however is that you still have to keep drinking really well because the fluid is all in the wrong places meaning that if you don’t keep well hydrated the fluid leaves your circulation and goes into your abdomen leaving your circulating volume dangerously low and meaning your blood can get very thick and sticky and at risk of blood clots. 

As they’d hinted about managing me as an outpatient I was terrified all that day that they were going to just come and tell me I could go home.  I really didn’t want them to send me home when my size and my weight were still going up significantly, I just couldn’t see how I could get any bigger and was still scared I might start to get more complications if I continued to expand.  As it happened however the Drs didn’t come round to see me until about 5:30pm which suited me quite well as I didn’t want to go home that day and they couldn’t send me home that late.  When they saw me they informed me that my bloods were still ok and that I still fitted into the ‘moderate’ category of Ovarian Hyperstimulation as I hadn’t developed any of the nasty complications.  This was good to know however believe me, nothing felt moderate about me situation, I was enormous, a stone over my normal weight, in pain, short or breath and unable to take deep breaths.   

The plan from the Drs was to keep me in one more night, continue to monitor my fluid balance for the moment, see if I could manage going from the oral morphine onto codeine to control the pain and if everything was steady in the morning to send me home.  I was happy with this by this point, still scared of going home because I’d been in such a mess before I came in but I knew I was starting to get things under control now.  That night I slept quite a lot better, I think I got 2 solid blocks of about 4 hours which was the most I’d had in a long time.  The next morning when they weighed me I’d stabilised at roughly the same weight and girth which was reassuring.  I managed on just codeine and oral anti sickness medications overnight which was good so I felt ok about being discharged home and the plan was to bring me back in 2 days later for further blood tests. 

All in all my experience of being in hospital was not one I’d wish to repeat but at the same time I was so thankful to be in hospital and being looked after and monitored after having such a horrendous few days at home.  So Thursday I packed up my things which took an enormous amount of effort and waited for my medications to take home with me.  Matt was at work so the plan was for my Mum to come and pick me up and stay with me for a few days.  We got home by about 4pm and got settled in, there’s more drama to come but I’ll stop this post for now for fear of sending you to sleep with my rambling.

To be continued…

Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome – My Experience (Part 1)

The thought of writing this blog post is rather daunting  as the last couple of weeks of my life have been an absolute whirlwind.   If feels like a hundred years have passed since I wrote my last blog post on 27^th April.

In my post ‘From Egg to Embryo’ you might recall I wrote this about my experience between egg collection and embryo transfer,  “The main problem I had over the weekend was that I was extremely bloated and uncomfortable. Every time I ate something I felt uncomfortably bloated, full and a bit sick.  I was beginning to get a bit worried about ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome – which until I looked it up I didn’t realise generally starts around 4 days or so after egg collection”.    By the day of the embryo transfer however the bloating had gone down somewhat and though I mentioned it to the clinic they didn’t seem overly concerned as all my monitoring blood tests and scans didn’t highlight that I was particularly at risk. Since the bloating had improved and I was feeling more comfortable I didn’t push the issue. I had no idea what was to come…

The 2 Days After Embryo Transfer

I had the embryo transferred on Monday 27^th April.  On the Tuesday and Wednesday I felt OK, I spent my time just trying to relax and wonder how I was going to pass the time until test day constantly wondering whether I was pregnant or not.  I had the natural instinct to stay as still as possible as if somehow the embryo could fall out if I moved too quickly or sneezed but I just tried to focus on relaxing and taking it easy. It’s a very strange feeling sitting there wondering what’s happened to that little embryo inside you, wondering if it’s even still alive and wishing you could just do something to make it stick! 

3 Days After Embryo Transfer

On the Thursday, very bloated but it was going to get a lot worse

 

 

On the Thursday after the embryo transfer I started to feel unwell, I had diarrhoea when I got up in the morning (sorry if it’s too much information but I feel it’s important to tell people about all the symptoms to help other people be aware of what to look out for in similar circumstances) and generalised abdominal discomfort and felt mildly bloated.  It was worse in the morning but settled a bit throughout the day though when I walked to dog I didn’t dare venture too far from home.

 

4 days After Embryo Transfer

On the Friday morning I woke up with severe pain in my upper abdomen, I was doubled over by the side of the bed, sweating, clammy and distressed, it would go off for a few minutes and then come back worse than ever.  I felt so hot and dizzy that I opened both the curtains and both the windows in the bedroom not realising or caring that it was 5.30 am.  I had more diarrhoea and felt nauseous although I wasn’t actually sick.  I thought for a while Matt was going to have to take me to A&E straight away and I made him get up and feed the dog so we were ready to go.  After a little while however the pain started to settle and I was able to get back into bed and rest for a while.  By the time I got up a few hours later I was feeling quite a lot better, mild abdominal discomfort and bloating but I was a lot less worried than earlier.  

That morning I decided I’d ring the clinic. I haven’t mentioned which clinic I’ve been having my treatment at in this blog and I won’t mention it now, there care during treatment was excellent but their advice at this point was absolutely useless!  I appreciate that they can’t diagnose over the phone but I would have expected at least some basic questions on what my symptoms were, what I should be looking out for, what I should do if they got worse etc.  Instead they looked at my bloods from before the egg collection, the amount of follicles I had and eggs collected and just said ‘it doesn’t look like you’re a risk, it just sounds like a stomach bug.’ At the very minimum at the point I would have expected them to get give some basic advice on Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome (OHSS) – i.e. drink plenty of fluids, if you notice any of these symptoms seek help, etc. However all I got was being told that it didn’t look like I was at risk, well here’s some news for you, you can definitely get OHSS even if it doesn’t look like you’re at risk!  As it happens I'd posted something about being really bloated on the Fertility Friends forum and somebody had said it sounded like OHSS which was lucky because I had thought that if you were going to get OHSS you'd get it a lot earlier, i.e. during the stimulation injections. Subsequently I'd done some research myself so I knew the right things to do and what to look out for so I made sure I looked after myself for the rest of the day.  I was still managing to eat reasonable amounts at this point although it took an awful lot of effort and I was incredibly uncomfortable for a long time after each time I ate. I continued to have intermittent diarrhoea  but it wasn’t a consistent symptom which made me think it wasn’t a stomach bug.

The Weekend

On Saturday the pain really started to kick in – the main areas I has pain were in my lower abdomen on the right and high up in the centre of my abdomen.  I couldn’t stand up straight as it was too painful, if I deep breathed it was painful and if I coughed or sneezed it was excruciating, like being stabbed in the stomach.  All I could do was curl up on a chair with a pillow on my stomach and groan and I could barely eat now, all I managed all day was a little bit of fruit and a cup-a-soup and even this made me feel painfully full. By the afternoon I didn’t know what to do anymore and I’d had enough so I made Matt take me to A&E.  This was a difficult decision for me as it’s so drilled into me that you don’t go to A&E unless you REALLY need to, so you know how bad I must have felt to go in. I just didn’t know what to do with myself anymore I was in so much discomfort and pain.

In A&E they were quite efficient, I was seen by the triage nurse and sent through to get changed into a gown and put on a trolley to be seen.  When the Dr saw me I was at least relieved that they took me seriously enough to take some bloods, put in a cannula and put up a litre of fluid because I was feeling very dry by this point.   They offered me pain relief but I’d already taken Paracetamol and I was so nervous about taking anything stronger in case I was pregnant that I refused anything else.  I could just about get myself to a manageable position when laying down but when I had to walk to the toilet I was in a huge amount of pain again.  The Dr examined me and felt my abdomen and at this point it was distended but it hadn’t gone really hard and tight and though it was painful the pain was very deep so on a reasonably gentle examination it wasn’t that painful.

While waiting for my blood results they gave me a litre of IV fluid which made me feel somewhat better.  The only thing my bloods identified was a raise in my white blood cell count, my other bloods were normal.  The blood result I was particularly interested in is called CRP – C-reactive protein – a marker of inflammation, as I’d read that this is usually elevated in OHSS, however mine was normal.  This normal CRP and just raised white cells supported the Drs assessment that I was suffering from some kind of gastroenteritis.  I was never at all convinced of this, I had had diarrhoea but it wasn’t consistent and whenever I went to the toilet it didn’t seem to give me any relief from my bloating symptoms.  In lack of any other evidence to keep me there however they discharged me, in hindsight perhaps I could have pushed to see one of the gynae Drs as I don’t think the A&E Dr really knew anything about OHSS however the fact that my CRP was normal kind of put me off the sent and made me think that perhaps they were right and I was overreacting.  So that is the second thing I’ve learnt, you can have OHSS and your CRP be normal.

Off home I went with Matt. I spent the rest of the evening curled up in a chair trying to eat a little bit and drink as much as possible and groaning intermittently. I slept badly that night as each time I tried to reposition myself I was in a lot of pain and had to keep getting up to go to the toilet.  Sunday was an awful day.  I spent the whole day curled up in a chair in a lot of discomfort and pain, I was getting even more bloated and couldn’t fit into any of my clothes other than pyjamas.  My sister was visiting and we’d planned to chill and play lots of board games but I couldn’t even bare to do that, I managed one brief round of a very simple game but that completely took it out of me.  All I managed to eat was some plain rice and some super noodles and each time I ate I felt so awful afterwards that it took me about 4 hours to recover. All I did was keep trying to reposition myself to minimise the pain, I was most comfortable slightly curled up and couldn’t stand up straight at all, the pain was particularly bad high up in the centre of my abdomen and occasionally would really catch me and I’d feel like somebody was stabbing me.

Breaking Point

Sunday night I was in bed at about 10.30pm, I felt like I needed an earlier night than that but I couldn’t quite muster the energy to get up to bed and I knew I would struggle to sleep. You know it’s going to be a bad night when you go to sleep and wake up and it’s not even midnight yet. I woke up at about 11.45 but managed to drop off again despite having a lot of pain in my abdomen.  I then woke up again at around 01.00am and tried to turn onto my other side but immediately started feeling nauseous and began vomiting, luckily I’d been expecting this to happen for about 3 days so I had a bucket handy.  The pain in my abdomen when I was vomiting was dreadful and I felt like it would never end. I spent the next few hours trying in vain to get comfortable, I couldn’t lay on my side but was so uncomfortable sitting up, every time I moved I was terrified I was going to be sick again, the pain in my upper abdomen was getting worse.  I dozed just a little bit between then and 4am but the half an hour between 4 and 4:30 seemed to go on forever. I was completely at my wits end, I didn’t know what to do with myself to get comfy, I was constantly thirsty but every time I moved to get a drink I felt terribly nauseous and didn’t dare take more than little sips. I kept waking Matt up just for some support.

By 4.45 I was at breaking point, I just could not manage any more. I woke Matt up and told him that I thought I’d have to go back to A&E but decided to try to the NHS non-emergency 111 number first and they were brilliant. I phoned at around 4.45am and once they’d gone through all the checking I wasn’t having a heart attack etc questions they told me a Dr would call me back shortly.  I still started getting myself ready to go to A&E because I wasn’t sure that the Dr would be able to do anything. They phoned back within ½ hour at around 5.15 and once I’d explained my history they said they’d make me a Drs appointment, they offered me one at 9.30am in my closest town but I said I wouldn’t make it that long as was on the verge of going to A&E so they had another look and found me one a little bit further away at 6am.  I couldn’t quite believe how good it was that they could make me an appointment that quick.  

I collected together a few bits, I actually already had a few essentials in a bag as I’d been wondering if this might happen for a few days and once Matt had fed the dog we were straight in the car and off to the on call Dr.  I cried the whole way there, I can’t remember if I said it out loud much but all I could think was 'somebody please help me'.  The GP examined my abdomen which had me crying in pain and took some obs which showed my heart rate was 120bpm.  When she said she was going to send me to the hospital I was just so relieved that somebody was taking me seriously and going to help me.  The good thing about going to the on-call GP rather than A&E was that she sent me straight to the gynae ward at the hospital.  

To be continued (don't worry it gets better)...