I haven't seen too many posts on this directly, so I wanted to start one since I'm experiencing OHSS now. I thought other people could share their experiences as well, and any tips.
I really wasn't warned about OHSS and it is not fun at all. Here has been my experience so far:
I took my hcG shot on Sunday 2/13, egg retrieval on Tuesday 2/15. By that night I was feeling very bloated and had a hard time standing up straight. The next day it was worse. I read about the symptoms of OHSS and didn't have any shortness of breath or urine discoloration, so I thought it was just constipation from the anesthesia. I went to see my RE on Thursday (the day before the egg transfer) because I was extremely uncomfortable. He performed an ultrasound and found a little bit of fluid, but nothing major. He told me that he would examine me on Friday before performing the transfer.
I woke up Friday 2/18 feeling so much better and was very excited to receive my two-embryo transfer. Unfortunately, upon examination, I had developed more fluid in my abdomen and my RE didn't think it was wise to do the two-embryo transfer. The reason is because if I were to become pregnant, and with twins, my ovaries would be working double-time to produce hcG, which is the culprit of OHSS. He suggested that we freeze my six embryos and wait one month, which would pretty much eliminate the chances of getting OHSS upon pregnancy.
I should have listened to him, but I'm sure you all now how it feels after you go through weeks of injecting yourself and preparing for this moment. So he agreed to transfer one embryo. The days following, I continually got better. By Thursday of the next week, I was feeling 98% better. Then Thursday night, I started to get that bloated feeling again. I went to work on Friday (the expected implantation day) and I felt like I was going to explode. My husband kept telling me to call my doctor, but I just thought it would pass. By Saturday, I could hardly breathe. I finally called my doctor and he told me to come in first thing on Sunday morning. He asked if I had taken a pregnancy test yet, and I hadn't. My husband brought one home and sure enough there were two lines! Went in to see the doc on Sunday and the first thing he said when he started the ultrasound, "Wow - you have a lot of fluid." He scheduled me for a transvaginal fluid draining the next day and drained 3 liters of fluid! They also ran a blood test and I had a beta of 52.
Here I am today, the day after my draining procedure and I feel so much better. When you have OHSS, it's very hard to breathe, you can't lie down (I didn't lie down for 3 days straight), you can't stand up straight, you feel like your belly is going to explode. My doctor kept saying I was fortunate that my belly button didn't push out, but boy did it feel like it was going to.
So, now I'm pregnant and there is a good chance that the fluid will come back. There's a chance that I'll have to go back frequently to be drained, possibly for the entire first trimester (until hcG production slows down). My doctor also says that I should not work, even though I have a desk job. This really makes it very difficult (since I am the breadwinner in the family). It's hard to celebrate my pregnancy when I'm facing this situation. On one hand, I wish I had listened to my RE and waited a month and gone ahead with a frozen embryo transfer. But then again, I'm pregnant now and who knows if the FET would have been successful?
Well, I know this is a long story, but only my husband (and now my parents) know what I'm going through and I really wanted to vent. If anyone else has an OHSS story they'd like to share, please do. Has anyone had an abdominal paracentesis for draining? Or has someone had both a transvaginal draining and an abdominal draining, and if so, is one preferred over the other?