IVF Journey: 24w2d pregnant

This is my IVF diary. My husband and I have been trying to have a baby for four years now, and have a diagnosis of 'unexplained infertility'. We have finally reached the top of the waiting list for IVF - a form of assisted conception. I'm blogging about what happens as it happens, as a kind of therapy for me and as an awareness raising exercise of what IVF is all about.

After having had my blood pressure monitored at the hospital on Friday and being sent away and declared OK, the midwife from my home monitoring trial wanted to check in with me again today. I did my readings and she called me about 4.30pm and said she’d like me to go into the hospital to get monitored again.

I had a dentist appointment at 5pm, so we agreed I’d go to the dentist then straight up to the hospital. Dentist was uneventful. Good.

I arrived at the hospital about 6.30pm and this time didn’t even need to wait in the waiting room so the tests were done within the hour. Blood pressure, urine dip, fetal heartrate and some blood tests.

I just had to wait for a doctor to look at the results.

I waited and waited with no word and was extremely bored. All by myself and feeling overwhelmed. Was not wanting to cause a fuss but was starving hungry and it was getting very late to be traveling home. They hadn’t even dropped by my room in two and a half hours.

Eventually I pressed the buzzer and summoned a midwife about 10pm. She said that the doctors were all busy in an emergency and there was a backlog. They had no idea when a doctor might become free. The midwife brought me some toast.

I was finally assessed at 11.15pm, and the doctor said my blood pressure was too high (it was like 150 / 100) and I had a small amount of protein and keytones in my urine. The doctor advised that I take a pill to lower my blood pressure and that to do that they would need to keep me in overnight to check it had worked.

I had no idea I might need to stay in, when the blood pressure trial midwife told me the likely outcomes (including medication) this wasn’t mentioned. So I had no overnight things, no toothbrush or PJs, and my phone battery was about to run out. I text the husband to tell him I’d be in overnight and that I’d not be able to text again.

I took the pill.

A midwife then took me upstairs to a ward with three other women, gave me a gown, and settled me into a cubicle. My blood pressure was taken at 11.45pm and again at 12.15am and it seemed to have settled down to a more normal level.