If you want to contact me directly

It's really exciting to me that a couple of egg-freezing planners have contacted me through comments. I live in NYC, and I'd really be glad to meet anyone who wants to have a support buddy in this process. There really isn't a lot online that isn't commercial, and as far as I know, my blog is the first step-by-step blog documenting egg freezing. As this grows, there's no reason we can't have a broader community for egg freezers the way IVF'ers do, etc. Could be good to keep up through the years.

If you want to contact me and are willing to share at least some information (even if just an email address you create for the purpose of contacting me) you can email me at eggfreezer@gmail.com

I think it would be cool to help people with their HCG shots or if they need someone to pick them up post surgery. I mean, at least until requests get out of hand .... I'd love to get to know more egg freezers. So if you're using my blog as a reference for your own process, send me a note!

Completely back to normal

My skin is back to normal. My weight is exactly what it was before I started this adventure. I have no side effects or any lasting anything.

The weight gain/loss is really odd to me - 2 weeks ago I was 10-11 lbs heavier and not believing that could all just disappear and that it was just water weight. Especially since I used the shots/process as an excuse to eat whatever I wanted.

I did interrupt and ongoing diet to do the egg freeze. Now that that's done, it's back to the diet, and I'm back to where I was for my 2008 goal .... 6.5 more lbs to lose before year's end, which isn't all that scary. This might be a year where I actually meet most of the goals I set for myself (move to NY, freeze eggs, lose 25 lbs ...)

Goal for 2009 - make these frozen eggs an unneeded insurance plan :)

Almost back to normal

So I'm on day 3 of my period, and it's still bad, but it's almost like a "normal" day 1 (where, for the boys amongst you, day 1 is typically the worst - so I'm about at a normal day 1 whereas day 1 and 2 this time were far worse). Usually by day 3 things are almost wrapping up. Definitely not this time.

Weight wise: I was up about 10 lbs at one point, and I'm now down to about 3 lbs up with still potentially more water weight to go. This is without dieting, so it's good to know that most (if not all) of the weight gain was fake and temporary.

Skin wise: I think I'm not getting any new breakouts. Mind you, I've been wearing makeup, so it's not like most poeple could tell I was breaking out, but I was. As far as I can tell, new breakouts have stopped and I just need the existing breakouts to heal up.

I started shots a little over a month ago, and perhaps symptoms about a month ago. I would say I'm almost back to "normal" in all senses - skin, weight, bloating, etc. So all in, it was a month worth of side effects.

I have an appointment Dec 2 as a final post-retrieval consult. This is where I'll discuss the results formally with the doctor (as opposed to just the nurses reporting to me) and ask any questions I have about statistics, second rounds, and chromosome normalcy of the eggs retrieved. I'll probably also get a prescription to go back on the pill - I haven't been on the pill since around 2006. But since I just had a full gyn workup, I'm sure this doc can just write it up for me.

2 Aleve, 4 Advil

And I still think I'm going to be sick. They weren't kidding about this being a really bad period.
How much more can I take before, you know, I risk stomach pumping. I'm essentially at 4 times the dose as it is (2 times Aleve doseage, 2 times Advil dosage, and you're not supposed to take BOTH) ... and on all of that I'm still so crampy that I do think the odds of my getting sick (vomiting from the cramp pain) are somewhere north of 30%

I wasn't sure how long it would take from egg retrieval to getting my period. I thought 2 weeks give or take, but never really got a fixed answer. So it was 11 days almost to the hour. I already feel a huge reduction in the amount of bloatedness, and I'm down another 3 lbs of the bloat wait just since yesteraday. Overall, I'm now just about 4-5 lbs heavier than when I started this whole process. Some of that may still be water weight, and some of it might just be because I really threw caution to the wind when it came to eating while on the shots :) If I end up only, say, 3 "real" lbs up, that's fine. that's 1-2 weeks of dieting. No problem.

A little confession

I still think it's too good to believe that I've really preserved my fertility. And of course, officially it's not a guarantee, but with NYU's stats and with 28 eggs, my odds should ~95%. But so far, I'm glad I've done this, but I'm not really convinced that this is one less thing to worry about. I'll still have my post-retrieval consult with the doc, and maybe that's all I need. But while I can sit here and calculate statistics (NYU has a 60% pregnancy rate with frozen egg transfers for women under 38. Assume they defrost 9-10 eggs each time and I get 3 tries - that should be 94% overall) I still hear my biological clock ticking. Do i really have a 94% insurance policy? That's what the calculator says, but I don't feel that level of safety.

It's funny, I was at a party on Saturday night, and I met a lovely 35 year old women who I didn't previously know. Somehow the conversation turned to us being single in our 30's, and she started telling me about how she researched all about egg freezing and went to a seminar and everything. I was kinda stunned and looked at her and said "are you kidding?" - it was really trippy to have someone in a social setting evangelize egg freezing to me right after this whole adventure, when I hadn't said anything to let on that I had just done it. I let her talk and then said "9 days ago I was in surgery getting my eggs retrieved and frozen." Anyway, we then talked about Extend fertility (see this post) and she had had the same thoughts that I did. "I was really offended" she told me. Anyway, I told her to head over to NYU.

Which reminds me. My favorite nurse at NYU, Jennifer, was really awesome to me - helped me with needles, answered my endless questions, drew a big circle on my butt so I could give myself a shot ... I want to send her a gift. I think flowers are trite and who really cares .... so ... chocolate, right?

On another rambling point ... My boobs are huge right now. I don't have anything to fit them. It's PMS times 31 I guess. I've almost gone out and bought a new bra just to last me through this week.

One Week Post Retrieval

I feel great. No more pain or soreness.

It aches a little when I stretch or yawn, but that's it. Back to my normal self. Waiting for my skin to clear up and for the last water weight to go away. But otherwise I feel fantastic. I think I'm in the clear for any post-retrieval complications.

Feeling Great

4 and half days post retrieval - I feel great - no symptoms of OHSS setting in. Took my last post-retrieval antibiotic pill tonight. I'm still a little bloated, but beyond that, I feel fantastic - much better than I did while I was on the hormones.

I was putting away some of the injection stuff I still had sitting around (packages of needles and such) and my needle aversion is definitely much higher than it ever was. I'm so glad I have no more shots so give myself - just looking at the needles made me want to flee. Some sort of aversion really did build up over time. But that's not important anymore. What's very cool is that this whole thing is done - I feel great. The eggs are on ice, and it looks like I'm escaping without any measurable post retrieval complications.

So now what? Here are the remaining "milestones"

Tomorrow (5 days post retrieval): I can start taking advil/aspirin again
Sometime in the next week or two: I get probably the worst period ever
Thurs Nov 13 (2 weeks post): Restrictions on baths, tampons, sex, etc no longer in effect
Yearly: $1,000 annual frozen storage costs due until such time I use/donate/dispose of the eggs

3 days post-retrieval

I'm feeling substantially better today - the first day that I've felt decent in a while. Tomorrow will be 4 days post retrieval. OHSS is supposed to kick in 4-5 days after, so I guess the next 48 hours will be telling. I will be so glad if no symptoms kick in. I'm looking forward to picking my social life back up. I feel like it's been on hold for a couple of months.