Haisla's Adventures in Endoland

Having gotten over my little needle rant of last week, I actually had quite a successful IUI on Friday.

One Weds I had two x 18mm follicles on the left side 1 x 18mm on right and a couple of smaller ones floating about.

My uterine lining was at 12mm on Weds (I think that's good and hopefully not ridiculously thick?) and apparently my cervical mucus on Friday looked 'great' (thanks Nurse Nelly, I think).

So, it just seemed like the stars were finally aligning for us. I got a bit of cramping and spotting from the procedure but all in all things were looking good. I even had the progesterone suppositories sitting on my bedside cabinet patiently waiting for Saturday evening.

And then Saturday morning came. I had some gluten-free toast for breakfast and ever so gradually all hell broke lose in my stomach. I have not had such abdominal pains since my worst IBS years. I was convinced that I'd eaten something glutenous or forbidden, but couldn't find any reason for this from my dietary choices. It had been a particularly stressful week at work with a number of aggressive incidents with clients, so I wondered whether my bowel was finally reacting to the stress..

My belly literally ballooned, but the pain was high up, like what felt like literally in my intestine. I was in agony most of the day. I felt shivery and weird and had mild temperature. Walking hurt, so I shuffled around doubled up.

I felt ridiculous. I'd had five follicles, there was no way that I could have been suffering from OHSS. And yet, what was this? A well timed stomach bug of some sort? Stress? My endo flaring up due to all the hormones that I'd pumped into my body?

My plan was to go to the walk-in clinic the following morning if things had not calmed down.

In the morning I had a bowel movement (sorry for TMI!!!) and afterwards I felt right as rain again. So I decided to wait it out. The symptoms returned but in milder form once I had eaten again.

I spent the day shuffling around again, sitting around and feeling sorry for myself (and watching things like Say Yes to the Dress) and am happy to report that by Monday (which thankfully was a Bank Holiday, i.e. non-work day - yay!) I was feeling much better and no longer had to walk around doubled up. I still had some level of pelvic discomfort (which has continued to this day) but nowhere near as bad as Saturday and Sunday.

I'm kind of kicking myself now that I didn't take myself to the walking clinic to get this checked out. Because now I'm just left with questions. I guess I was worried that they'd laugh me out of there and give me a diagnosis of 'strong wind' or something. So now I'll never know what's brought this on. Is this just the way I respond to having more than one or two eggs produced? If that's the case what's gonna happen during an IVF cycle when we're meant to maximise the egg count. Will I explode?!

I just feel like my pelvis is continually inflamed now and I can't see that being a great environment for an embryo to try to build their nest in.. Also I feel like I need to wee constantly (and this started before the progesterone). I think the closest to these sensations was the lap I had last year and this time no-one's been rummaging in my innards.

Is this normal after an injectable IUI cycle? I know some of you ladies have been diagnosed with mild OHSS so I would gladly compare notes.

Anyway, for now I am just dutifully shoving progesterone up my hoo-haa every night and hoping and praying for the best for this cycle.