Kristen Amato Egg Freezing Blog
Day 1—Monday
I have a nervous excitement today as I am starting my egg freezing process with OVA. My first appointment went well. I met my nurse Whitney at the office to go through all of the shots and instructions. She has such a calming way about her so any nervousness I was feeling has been replaced with a sort of calm. My boyfriend, Mike, also went with me to show his support and also see what was involved. We sat in a conference room and started learning about all of the different shots I would be giving myself for the next 10 – 14 days depending on how my body reacted to them. I feel a little overwhelmed right now, but I am taking notes and making sure to pay attention closely. For the next 5 days, I will be giving myself 2 shots each night in the stomach….one called Menopur and another called Follistim. I leave the appointment with two large bags filled with medicine, syringes, a sharps container, and alcohol wipes. As the day goes on, I start to get a pit in my stomach. I am dreading 6pm as I know I have to give myself these shots. There is no going back at this point. 6pm passes and finally at 6:45 I decide I cannot wait any longer and need to get it over with. Thankfully, my boyfriend, Mike is there to help. I lift my shirt, we clean the area, and mix the medicine with the directed amount of water and here we go. The first one was not bad! It lasted a few seconds. I had my eyes closed and now just want the second one to be done. The second one (the Follistim) hurts a little more than the first one….or maybe it was all in my head. We’ll see tomorrow. Overall, it was not that bad, but I am still dreading doing this for the next 10 – 14 days. Day 1 done!
Day 2—Tuesday
I woke up today not knowing if my body would be bloated or what would happen. I feel fine. My stomach is now sore but overall, I am fine. I am on my way to the grocery store to stock up on Essentia Water and Smart Water. I was told to keep hydrated and make sure I drank things with electrolytes. I decided I wanted to do everything I could to make these drugs work and now will probably overthink everything. At any rate, I stocked up on the electrolyte water and bought a ton of salty snacks and soups. As 6pm approaches, I feel the nervous pit in my stomach start again. Not sure why as I know the whole process will be over within a few minutes. The time comes to do my shots and I line everything up. Mike is home (thankfully) to give me my shots again and this time they hurt—really badly. If you do not pinch your belly and grab a good section, the shot will hurt—a lot. Lesson learned and this will not happen again. We adminstered the shot in the next area of our circle around my stomach. I rub the area to get the pain to stop. This is not fun and now I am dreading tomorrow already. It is crazy how your head can focus on tomorrow and not just be happy that this part was done for the day.
Day 3—Wednesday
I feel fine again. No bloating, no tenderness. This is going to be okay. I go through my day and drink my waters and eat my salty foods. This time 6pm comes and I get the nervous pit again, but only because I do not want it to hurt as much as it did yesterday. I make sure we grab a huge section of my belly and squeeze it pretty tightly and the shots go in much easier and I felt no pain. This is getting easier. I am not as afraid at all and it did not hurt.
Day 4—Thursday
Again, I wake up today and do not have any bloating or moodiness or tenderness. I feel good! I am starting to think this is going too easily. I go through my day again and it is time for the shots. This time, I am home alone and have to administer them to myself. Everything changes. Now I am nervous again and cannot close my eyes. I have to be the one to do it. I mix all of my medications and get everything laid out and just stare at the needle. Why am I nervous? I debate calling Whitney, but then I decide to just grab it, pinch my skin hard, and stick myself. Wow, not so bad at all. I grab the Follistim and inject that one. Done. I have a very proud feeling now as I actually did it myself. It is getting easier and easier as the days go by!
Day 5—Friday
This is my first monitoring day to go back to meet with Whitney and have my blood drawn and get my first ultrasound. I am nervous as I hope everything is going smoothly. I meet her and she draws my blood out of my arm and then we head down to get my ultrasound. We get into the room and the technician checks my ovaries to see how my follicles are forming. My left ovary is progressing a lot quicker than the follicles on my right ovary. Overall, I guess the results are good as my body is forming follicles. I was told I need to wait to hear about my blood work and let Dr. Kaplan look at my ultrasound before giving myself any shots tonight. I was also told to come back again tomorrow morning for bloodwork and another ultrasound. So, I leave and wait to hear back on my dosage for my shots. My dosages increased and I give myself both shots again.
Day 6—Saturday
I go back early in the morning for another round of bloodwork and ultrasound. The left ovary’s eggs are still larger than the right. I get a little nervous as I was told about hyperstimulation at the very beginning of my journey so I am hoping everything is okay. I am told that I am fine and again to wait to hear back for my dosage, but I was going to have to come back again tomorrow as they need to keep a close eye on my ovaries. I actually want to come back everyday….as strange as it sounds, it makes me feel better to see the eggs myself on the ultrasound screen as a double check so I know I am okay. I wait to hear back and give myself the two shots once again. I have now gone around my stomach in a clockwise pattern and I am feeling a little bit of tenderness from the shots. I am hoping it goes away so it won’t hurt for tomorrow night’s shots. My stomach has not really bloated yet, which I am told is definitely not the normal situation. I am starting to lose my appetite a little. Not sure if that is normal or not, but I am not very hungry. Other than that, I am fine. This process is not so bad.
Day 7—Sunday
I start my day with a drive to my monitoring appointment at OVA again. I am starting to get the hang of this drive. My only hesitation this morning is that my arms are bruising really badly from all of the bloodwork everyday. I definitely have to wear long sleeves as both arms are black and blue. I sit through my bloodwork and go in for my ultrasound. Everyone seems to think I will go early for my retrieval and not wait the full 14 days.
I leave again and wait to hear back that evening. I find out my dosage and am also told that I need to add a 3rd shot starting tomorrow morning. This one will be given each morning. Right now I try to find a non-tender spot on my stomach and administer the two shots. I feel fine—not a lot of bloating and still don’t have a huge appetite.
Day 8—Monday
I start my day with my new morning shot. At this point, I am so used to it that I wipe the area down on my stomach and administer it like a pro. Easy! I don’t even think about it. My stomach is still tender, but again, I pinch my skin pretty hard as this is the best way to avoid any pain. Everyone at the OVA office is so nice and accommodates my schedule so I can run into work for a meeting and then head to my bloodwork and ultrasound appointment. I get there and sure enough, the left ovary is producing eggs that are almost an inch in size already. I am told this is where they want the eggs to be in order to get the best results. My right side is starting to catch up, but not to the point where they would like it to be yet. There is talk that I might have the procedure on Wednesday and might be giving myself the trigger shot tonight. Again, I leave the office and wait for Dr. Kaplan to look at the results. I finally hear back and no trigger shot for me yet. I administer my two shots of Menopur and Follistim again and am told to do the shot the next morning and to come back one more time for another monitoring appointment.
Day 9—Tuesday
My poor arms is all I can think of right now. I started the day giving myself a shot—again, it feels like a normal part of my day now in a weird way. I am on my way back to the office for bloodwork and another ultrasound. I am really hoping this is my last day….for no other reason than I am starting to get anxiety about the retrieval procedure and the trigger shot. I give my blood and get my ultrasound and head home to wait for my daily call. I really do love working with Whitney as she is on top of things and I know by 6pm I will have some answers. I get my call and am told to administer my last 2 shots tonight and then at exactly 11pm, I need to have my boyfriend administer the trigger shot. I am sweating bullets about this trigger shot. It is all I can think of all day. It is a larger needle than the others and I know that someone else has to give it to you in your butt. 11pm hits and we start the process of mixing the medicine. We run into a few bumps as we do not know how to get the mixture into the needle so I call Whitney as she did say to call her with any issues as this is the most important shot. I call her and she walks us through the process one last time. I am given the shot and it hurts a little more than the others. Again, I am glad it is over. I am told not to come back to the office tomorrow but to head into the office by 10am on Thursday.
Day 11—Thursday
It’s retrievql day! I have a nervous anxiety. I want to get it over and also am trying to calm myself as I know I am going to be put under twilight anesthesia. I again have bloodwork and am taken back to a waiting area. I get dressed in my gown and get prepped for the procedure. Everyone is so sweet. I have my boyfriend with me and we sit in the room until Dr. Kaplan comes in. He greets us and makes us feel comfortable. Whitney goes through all of the things that will happen and all of a sudden it is time. They wheel me back to the room. I meet my anesthesiologist and Whitney is there with me the entire time. I get tipped back onto the table and put my legs into the stirrups. The OVA nurses are all so nice and keep me calm. The anesthesiologist asks me a few questions and I drift off. I wake up and am back in my original waiting room. It is over. I am told they retrieved 9 eggs and will know how many of those can actually get frozen. I wait a little while and then get dressed. I am told to take it easy for the next day or two. I go home and sleep for a bit but overall I feel okay. I relax as told and wake up the next day feeling okay. I just feel a little bit of pain but nothing too bad. I do take the Vicodin, but only 2 of them total as I really am doing okay. I am proud of myself and happy that I froze my eggs with OVA.
Aftermath perspective- Looking back
During the whole process and after the process i almost felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders, just knowing that i have a little bit more time because of that looming age of forty years old. now that i am done with the process of freezing my eggs, looking back on it, it was a lot easier than i had expected.
The best part of the entire process for me was the last part, the retrieval and just knowing that i was still able to produce eggs. I still have options, now they’re sitting there and they’re waiting for me when i am ready to use them.
Freezing my eggs as a 40 year old was empowering. It was definitely not an act of desperation by any means. To me it felt like buying an insurance policy for myself. And just buying myself a little bit more time. I actually felt that a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders just knowing that i have more options out there in case i should need to take them.