Recovery

The recovery from the retrieval proved to be my least favorite part of the cycle. I developed a moderate case of OHSS and wasn't able to even stand up straight without a knife-like pain in my ovaries and side stitches in my rib cage for a week. I even had to cancel a job interview! Of course I was terrified that I would somehow end up in the hospital and have to tell my parents about the donation. Luckily, that didn't happen.

All in all, I was happy and proud that I had donated. There was something very gratifying about being able to give a childless couple hope that they might become parents after all. A day after the retrieval, I received a lovely thank you note from the intended parents, along with a gift card for a book store. I cherish that note and still look at it once in a while, nearly three years later. 

I enjoyed my first cycle and loved the intensity of the experience, although it was also stressful. I moved abroad for a job soon after the donation and did not think I would donate again. I was wrong....

My first retrieval

The morning of my first retrieval, I was nothing short of terrified. I sat in the waiting room at the clinic in cold sweat for a half hour before I was escorted into the surgical suite. 

From there, things improved. Once I was resting on the gurney in a fashionable surgical gown with matching socks and an IV drip on my arm, the nurse gave me a tranquilizer, which made me feel pleasantly fuzzy. I remember being walked into the surgical room and installed on the stir-ups. Then, suddenly, I was out in a sleep so deep and delicious that I was somewhat disappointed when the doctor woke me up to tell me they had retrieved 28 eggs. I was back in the post-op recovery room, with a hot bottle on my somewhat crampy belly and a blanket over my body. Next, the nurse gave me a glass of apple juice and animal crackers. I rested for another half hour, and then I was dismissed. 

A car service my agency had hired drove me home and I went straight to bed. Other than slight cramps, I did not feel a thing. "A piece of cake," I thought... 

Injections/Monitoring

I didn't exactly wake up excited the day I was scheduled to start my injections. But as I soon found out, these weren't bad at all.

My protocol was simple: 225 IU's of Gonal-F every evening, and a Ganirelix shot after Day 6. Gonal-F comes in the shape of a pen with a tiny, tiny needle to be attached, and I can't say that I ever even felt the needle go in when I did the injection on my belly. I was so relieved after my first shot that I laughed out loud. Ganirelix was not bad either. 

I was a somewhat slow responder so I ended up stimming for almost two weeks, a bit longer than is common. I didn't really feel anything going on in my belly until two days before the retrieval, when I started to feel like a big stuffed goose. My hCG shot was subcutaneous (in the belly), so it wasn't a big deal after 2 weeks of the other injections. 

I found the almost daily ultrasounds to be far more uncomfortable, particularly as I got closer to the retrieval date. During the last u/s, the technician noted that I had "tons" of eggs. I found that disturbing and at that point just couldn't wait to get rid of them!