Egg Retrieval Process: Day by Day

Here is a breakdown—the good, the bad, and the ugly—of how I was feeling every single day for the two week process leading up to the egg retrieval.

First things first, I DID NOT want to have to do this. I didn’t elect myself by any means. I’m happy I did do it but… 0/10 would not do it again. It was so uncomfortable and painful and not to mention the horrible mood swings. My boyfriend—jokingly—compared me to the hulk/Mr. Hyde on steroids on multiple occasions. I felt like it. Sorry Elliot! I know I was a nightmare. The whole process was not pretty or cute or fun. I wasn’t happy—like all the other blogs I read on the internet—I was doing fertility preservation, but I had no choice if I wanted the option to have kids in the future. Great, I guess I’m doing this. F— my life.

It’s also important to note that my type of brain cancer is NOT genetic. Otherwise, I would not have done the egg retrieval.

Ok, lets get started shall we?

Day 1:

Bummed and scared was all I could feel. I brought my nurse friend Hannah with me to the appointment at the fertility center. The doctors assistant kindly showed us how to reconjugate a vial of the hormones and how to inject myself and then prepare the pen for the other hormone. She informed me that I would feel bloated and “full” like I ate a huge meal in a few days—or was it a week? or at the end? I can’t remember. I made Hannah do the first one cause I didn’t want to poke myself in the stomach with a needle. Also, I felt like it was an awkward angle? I was instructed to do the first injections that night so Hannah and I had dinner over at my house and she showed my boyfriend how and where to inject me. Sounds so weird looking back on it. After the first injection I felt pretty anxious and energetic? But maybe it was just the anxiety of it all and having generally no clue how I would feel.

Day 2:

Thankfully, I didn’t wake up feeling any different. So I went about my day as usual. Elliot didn’t feel quite comfortable doing the injections himself just yet so we had Hannah come over and show him again how to do it. I prepared the injections and he dutifully watched how to inject.

Day 3:

I woke up feeling a little weird. Not sure how to explain it other than that. But not terrible, just weird. That night Elliot did the injections. We both laughed cause it was so weird. I quickly realized that after the injections I had a little bit of an adrenaline rush which I soon just attributed to having hormones dumped into my body and not just anxiety. It only lasted for a few minutes though.

Day 4:

I woke up feeling pretty bloated, uncomfortable, and cranky. That night Elliot did the injections again, I got an adrenaline rush, and I went to bed—still cranky.

Day 5:

I woke up feeling about the same as the day before which was annoying. I did a check up with the fertility specialist—hoo-ha ultrasound—and a blood test. Everything was looking good and I was sent on my way. They said they did the blood tests to check my hormone levels and I will most likely adjust to whatever they tell me. So, they called later with a new number to adjust to and that was that. Elliot did the injections, we ate dinner, watched a movie and I went to bed. I noticed I was going to bed earlier and earlier to avoid being in a bad mood.

Day 6:

I woke up feeling even worse. More bloated and uncomfortable and not just cranky but irritable. I noticed everything annoyed me. I tried to go about my day as normal. Elliot did the injections again that night and I went to bed.

Day 7:

I woke up feeling about the same as the day before. I had another check up at the fertility center and blood test and I told the doctor how I was feeling. He stated it was normal and just to try to relax. He also said that a large amount of follicles—eggs—were “developing” so I was experiencing more severe symptoms that normal. Great. I just went home after that and tried to relax but I couldn’t. They called me later and told me to adjust the amount of hormones I was injecting to a lower level. By now, Elliot was walking on egg shells around me, poor guy. I felt really bad for him but we both knew what was going on. The hormones were making me cray. He did the injections and I tried to watch a movie with him but couldn’t control my irritation on everything and everyone so I went to bed.

I feel like its important to say that all I was doing was thinking about how I would have to start chemotherapy and radiation right after I did this… and I was terrified which did not help my mood at all. I wasn’t doing this because I wanted to… I was doing this because I felt like I had no other choice.

Day 8:

Same thing as the day before. Shelby is full on crazy now. Elliot did the injections and I went to bed immediately afterwards so I don’t dig myself a bigger hole.

Day 9:

Ok this sucks. I was uncomfortable and bloated I wanted to cry. Not to mention the massive amount of hormones in my system also making me want to cry. And feeling terrified for the months to come of radiation and chemo. I remember feeling absolutely defeated. Another check up at the fertility center which included an ultrasound and a blood test. The fertility doctor told me everything looked “good and normal” and to continue doing my doses of hormones and that they’ll call with new orders for my hormone levels later that day. The doctor prescribed me a medication called Cabergoline because I had so many mature follicles he wanted to make sure I don’t get a rare condition called OHSS (ovarian hyper stimulation syndrome). I didn’t really know was cabergoline was but if it was supposed to help me then… okay. I started taking it that night.

Day 10:

Same feeling as the day before but more bloated. I hated it. I wanted to give up. I saw the fertility specialist for another checkup again and I felt like my heart was going to beat out of my chest and pass out. Fortunately, Elliot was there and he had to escort me to his car so he could drive me home. I thought I had a anxiety attack so I rested the rest of the day. Elliot did the injections that night and I went to bed immediately, otherwise I would pace around the living room thinking of “what if’s” about the months to come and… voicing them to Elliot while he tried to calm me down.

Day 11:

Same feeling as the day before but more bloated and agitated. I needed to pick up a prescription from the pharmacy and Elliot went with me. My heart started to race again and I had to sit down on the floor in the middle of the pharmacy which was… extremely embarrassing. Elliot had to walk me out while I leaned on him. I had no clue what was going on with me. Elliot did the injections again that night, I took the cabergoline, and I tried to watch a movie with him.

Day 12:

You guessed it, same feeling as the day before but worse. I went into the fertility center for a check up because the doctor said I could potentially do the “trigger shot” today or tomorrow but he deemed me not ready… fml. fml. fml. I told him about the heart racing feeling and he stated it was a—uncommon—side effect of the cabergoline… what? maybe he should have told me that before? I asked if I could stop taking it but he said no and that he wasn’t worried. I had a resting heart rate of 120-130bpm, but it would spike to 180bpm when I was sitting or walking around, I felt like I was going to die. Elliot did the shots again that night, I took the cabergoline and I went to bed, terrifed.

Day 13:

As it was getting closer to trigger shot day I was going into the fertility center everyday so they could make sure their timing was correct. I still had a resting heart rate of 120-130bpm. Periodically throughout the day it would just spike up to 180bpm for a few minutes then back down to 120-130bpm. I felt like my body was working on overdrive—which I guess it was. It sucked. Another ultrasound and blood test told them that maybe tomorrow would be the day. Elliot did the shots again that night, I again took the cabergoline and I went to bed.

Day 14:

I woke up —you guessed it— still feeling the same. Fast heart-rate, bloated, angry. Finally, I was cleared to do the trigger shot and not the other hormones. I got the time for my egg retrieval—4am— and the time for my trigger shot that night and went home happy it was almost over.

Day 15:

Bright and early—or pitch black—at 3:30am Elliot drove me to the fertility clinic. I was nervous but happy for it to be over. The doctor said it would take about 30-45minutes and I’ll be home before the sun comes up. I was in quite a bit of pain when I woke up afterwards and had to stay to be monitored. The doctor came in and told me that while they were shooting to get 8-12 viable eggs they got 47. FOURTY SEVEN. Which could explain why I was experiencing such severe symptoms. I was instructed to eat lots of salty foods, soups, and Gatorate/Pedialyte to make sure the swelling went down. I walked out of the surgery about an hour later to go home and rest. I was asleep almost immediately when I got back home. I was told to rotate between taking Tylenol and Advil as advised on the packaging. It hardly helped. I was in severe amounts of pain. My mom came and hung out with me for the rest of the day and Elliot made me soup.

After the Egg Retrieval:

I spent 3 days sitting on my couch in extreme pain. So much more than I had imagined. It was worse than my craniotomy if that helps you judge the level of pain. It got worse and worse everyday until I called the fertility clinic in a panic and was told to come in. Elliot had to drive me because I couldn’t drive myself. The fertility specialist did an ultrasound and said that I had OHSS (ovarian hyper stimulation syndrome) and that I should come in everyday for the next few days. Again, this probably happened because they got so many eggs. I looked like I was 5 months pregnant and I felt like my ovaries were the size of grapefruits and there was nothing they could do for me to ease my pain. I could hardly walk up the stairs or around my living room. I was completely couch bound. Going to the bathroom was I think the worst pain Ive ever felt. The doctor did state that if it gets any worse then I would have to go into the hospital to get the fluid out of my stomach drained. Fortunately, that didn’t happen but it was close. About a week after the egg retrieval I started to feel better rather than getting worse everyday. It felt like I was finally over the hell hill. I didn’t feel better for weeks afterwards and the bloating didn’t go down for weeks either. If this didn’t happen, I’m sure my experience would have been only mildly bad and not absolute hell.

I am feeling completely back to normal now and my “Shelby army”—as my brother jokingly calls it—them?—is safely kept frozen for future use.