The Unnecessary Panic

13 May 2015

Being a first timer pregnant woman, I had no idea what to expect.. I did my homework and do the readings, but when I found a little trace of spotting, I immediately panicked and saw my obgyn. Dr Andi Hudono was not available, so I went to see Dr Robert Alief, despite the nurses saying that it's normal and is a common sign of pregnancy.

So I went ahead and see Dr Alief and after he scanned my tummy, he said everything was ok and I should have some rest.

The Pregnancy Test

7 April 2015

Our appointment with Dr Andi Hudono to check the programme was successful. I couldn't even get myself to buy a test pack because I was too scared to find out the result. So we did the urine and blood test at the doctor.

It was a positive. My BHCG level was 1250.

And on our next appointment, we found out that there were 2 yolk sac. We're having 2 babies! Praise the Lord.

OHSS

30 March 2015

My tummy was as big as a 5 month pregnant woman's belly and I had severe diarrhoea. So I went to see Dr Robert Alief. Dr CL's nurses recommended Dr Andi Hudono as he is their main contact in Jakarta, but he was on leave that day.

After he scanned my tummy, he said I had OHSS - Ovarian Hyper Stimulation Syndrome, which is a side effect of the hormone injections I was taking before the OPU. It is common for women who have undergone fertility treatments. There is no medicine for it, the treatment is only by eating lots and lots of protein... which means 5 egg whites a day and whatever other proteins of my likings.

OHSS was a bitch, I couldn't sleep on my side because I could feel that something is inside my stomach and I went to the toilet for more than 5 times a day. Dr Alief said the good news is that it is normally the first sign that the IVF programme worked. Fingers crossed..... and fortunately the OHSS inconveniences disappeared after about a week.

Embryo Transfer Day

It has been a while since I last posted, so to pick up where I let off.

24 March 2015 was the schedule for the embryo transfer. We were scheduled for 11 am but Dr CL was late. So we waited there, with my full bladder, without any information on whether we have any embryo(s) to transfer. Tried asking the nurse but no one would say a thing. So we waited... and prayed... until 3 pm the nurse called me up to get a shot, to prepare myself for the embryo transfer. YAY! Meaning we do have at least an embryo. At that point in time, they still wouldn't tell us any info on the embryo.

Came 4 pm and we finally saw Dr CL. Turned out out of the 15 eggs, we had only 2 embryos, one super good and the other so so good. Dr CL scanned my uterus, checked whether everything was ok for the transfer and whether I had enough water in my bladder... hello, i've been holding it in since like forever. Btw, I was allowed to pee as much as a cup, at maximum. (Full bladder was required to make it easier for the transfer)

So then I was prepped and we went ahead with the embryo transfer. It took around 10 minutes for them to clean me up and 5 minutes for Dr CL to put it them in. Waited for around 1 hour in bed then we could go back to the hotel.

More praying and waiting until another 2 weeks, when we know whether any of the 2 sticks in my uterus. We stayed in Damansara for another 5 days and we flew home. Asked Dr CL whether it's ok to fly, he said it's fine, but at least wait for 24 hours. On day 7 after embryo transfer, I was back to work.

D3 embryos

My embryos are 4 days old today and I was very eager in knowing how they were. I tried calling the Alpha Fertility Center yesterday but noone was there (it's Sunday, d'oh). So I called again today but the lady who picked up the phone said the embryologist was very busy and they would call me back, which they never did. So we went there and fortunately met the nurse that has been helping us all the way, nurse B. She looked reluctant when I asked her to check how the embryos were but she did it anyway. Apparently, out of my 15 eggs, only 4 made it to day 3. They could not touch the embryos again until tomorrow so noone knew what their status is today. 

The clinic offers this technology

Just FYI if you are keen in knowing live updates of your embryo. For me, that would be too stressful.

Embryo transfer is schedulled for tomorrow. We can only pray that we will be given the chance to be parents soon. 

Day 2 post OPU

I am happy to tell you that my bloating has gone away. Yesterday I still feel a little pain because of the constipation and gassy tummy, but today tummy is back to normal. 

Avani - day 2

Breakfast is available in sepoi sepoi and bila bila. They said menus are same in the 2 places but bila bila is more crowded because its location is nearer to most of the rooms.  So this morning we went to sepoi sepoi. 

The food varieties were not ample, the ones I remember are:

- egg bar; omelette and sunny side up

- noodle/kwetiaw soup; condiments are veggies and chilli to have with either chicken or tom yam soup - no meat

- pancakes and waffles

- steam egg

- chicken sausage

- fried noodle

- porridge; not sure what the condiments are but no meat either

- nasi lemak with chicken curry and sambal

- salad bar

- homemade bread with peanut butter and a selection of jams

- cereals

- fruits

Again, taste was so so.

The bread counter

Kwetiaw with chicken soup

For lunch, we again went to sepoi sepoi and had fish and chips. It was ok, the chips were nice; forgot to take the photo because we were too hungry already. 

In the evening I was craving for some skittles (bought some at the warung yesterday) so we thought we'd go out to get some. When we were near the entrance, there were few people walking in with plastic bags in their hands and looked like it was cans beer inside. They came from the left side of the entrance; so we thought we'd explore that side of the beach instead. 

The distance was further than the warung we went to yesterday, but there were more people at the beach. We walked passed by a warung similar to yesterday's called Bayu Malam which was bigger and we could see people queueing. We thought.. Nah, we wouldn't like it.. And we walked further and passed another warung called Senandung Malam which was even bigger with longer queue. A few tables have already been filled too. We were curious, so we checked out the food served on the occupied table. They looked and smelled good. So we decided to join the queue, which got longer and longer as the time goes. Here is what the queue looked like. 

We queued for 45 minutes to put in our order and waited another 45 minutes for the food to come. When the food came, the wait was worth it. We had kerapu bakar and sotong goreng tepung. The kerapu bakar was pretty spicy but the spices were sooo good and the sotong was one of the best I've ever tasted. However, I'd suggest to come earlier or order before you come. I saw two tables with food served on it but noone was at the table. Here's their business card. Recommended if you don't mind the place and cleanliness, but taste is much much better than hotel food. 

P.S.: I didn't get my skittles.. But I did buy some snacks :)