What a difference a day makes

When I last checked in, things were looking the way we wanted them to look. My body wasn't going crazy, we had follicles but a modest number, we were almost there and I was happy. Saturday brought another monitoring appointment. Follicles had increased to about 12 - 13 mature. I returned home and eagerly awaited the phone call that would give me my trigger shot and retrieval instructions. The phone rang, but instead it was my RE calling to explain that my E2 level had unexpectedly jumped from the day before and was now in an uncomfortable 4000+ range. Our options, he expained, were as follows.

1) To cancel the cycle completely - no trigger shot - and let my body simmer down. However, as we had been conservative and hadn't pushed too hard with stimulation he couldn't guarantee that the same thing wouldn't happen on a subsequent cycle.

2) Trigger as planned and retrieve the eggs, watch me closely for symptoms of OHSS and if they are mild or if none develop, transfer one embryo.

3) Same as option 2 but if symptoms are moderate or severe, freeze all embryos and do a frozen embryo transfer at a later date when I am back to normal.

After some careful thought we decided to go ahead and trigger, with the understanding that we would take all preventative measures possible to mitigate OHSS: rest, fluids, protein, and something in my IV during retrieval to start the protein/fluids situation moving in the right direction. Retrieval was yesterday at 8:30AM. Everything went well. I was, however, shocked to learned that they got 22 eggs. We don't yet know how many of them were mature...I'm guessing that several probably weren't but I also know that my guesses really mean nothing when it comes to this process. We will hear tomorrow from the emryology lab to see how things are going. I have been a good little patient and have camped out on the couch drinking protein shakes and "resting my pelvis." I was told the less friction the better. I'm not sure exactly what causes friction but I am limiting any and all movement just in case. It wasn't in my plan to take several days off of work after retrieval, but I am more than determined to stay feeling good if at all possible. Our RE has recommended a day 5 transfer from the beginning due to our recurrent losses and this is still the plan if we end up transferring at all. By Friday we will guage how I'm doing and make a decision. I guess we could call this a detour on our route but still with the hope that we will eventually reach our final destination.