Wowed by Sunfert

I survived my egg retrieval, or oocyte pickup, procedure today! Yay! Well, my greatest worry was that I would be all dizzy and be overwhelmed with nausea because of the anaesthesia. But no such thing happened!

And I had 23 eggs in total! Indeed, a mother hen I am :)

Before I launch into more details, let me backtrack a bit. I suppose I would have to backtrack on every one of my upcoming posts till I catch up to the me now.

Feb 7 2015
Today was my first consultation with Dr Wong Pak Seng of the famed Sunfert Fertility Centre, newly opened at Bangsar South. Because I wanted it to be on a Saturday, I had to wait almost a month to cinch the appointment. At the last minute, the hubs had to be in Singapore for work so I dragged my older, much-more fertile sister to suss out the place.

Sunfert gave off a very pleasant first impression. High ceilings (I love high ceilings), more than enough seats for couples to cozy up on and friendly staff. In fact, they were so many seats, and comfortable sofa-like ones at that, that couples could choose to sit in their own corner and not have to worry about looking anti-social at all. I spotted a coffee station, with those one-click buttons for cappuccino/black coffee/caffe latte and noted to my self that hubby would be pleased.

The appointment was at 10 I think and we waited for about 45 mins to an hour before my number was called and we headed into one of the five counselling rooms to meet with a nurse.

I thought it was ingenious that we had the nurse's intervention to recall my medical history, instead of having to do the routine verbal vomit only when we saw the doc, which would hold up the already long line of patients outside.

After about 15 minutes of giving the nurse a lowdown on our past (at which point the nurse even noted in the document file that my hubby was away in Singapore, "just so the doctor would know at a glance." How efficient!), we were told to wait to be called in to see the doctor.

I think that probably took like two hours, and by then my sister was already hideously impatient.
I would say that Dr Wong couldn't have been a better fit of a doctor for me. He looked extremely calm, very patient, and incredibly decisive (perfect for the indecisive me!).

I was ushered into an adjoining room for a scan from below (the dreaded magic wand scan), and was told that I had a small cyst on one of my ovaries, and a larger unknown blob in the other. Doc says it could possibly be a leftover egg shell from a previous ovulation. To determine what was what, I was given some progesterone tablets to induce my period (hadn't had mine in almost two months anyway). I don't think I had ever taken one of those before and thought they were the most useful things ever! I was asked to be back on Day Two/Three of my period, which is standard procedure for fertility scans, but this time, because I could count on the pills to bring on the blood, I could instantly set a date for the appointment. A week later, woohoo!

Doc diagnosed me with PCOS, decisively, and surprised me by asking if I've ever been on Glucophage, a type of diabetes medication. Apparently, women with PCOS do better in fertility with the meds, which encourages better quality eggs and reduces instances of miscarriage. How interesting! No serious side effects too.

He also said that some women are born with a harder-than-usual ovarian shell (I hope I got that right), which makes it difficult for a mature egg to break out of. Hence, ovulation only happens four to six times a year, instead of the normal 12.

Doc said if I had come to him two years ago, he would've suggested a laparoscopy drilling surgery, which would enable me to conceive naturally, easily. "But I'm sure you're tired of all that surgery stuff by now," he said. True enough, as planned, I bypassed the IUI option and said we were serious about IVF.

Doc nodded in a very understanding manner and within minutes, had charted up an IVF plan for me. In all, he said it takes about 16 days from treatment to embryo transfer, which is when I would be unofficially pregnant. 16 days! It could all happen next month!

But now, to make sure that I wasn't carrying a cyst...

And so we left with a happy heart at about 1.45pm, but only after waiting around for the nurse to get my meds and seal the appointment date.

My sister then treated me to an icky rabbit-food (raw cucumbers, carrots, quinoa sushi!) like lunch in Bangsar, but that's another story altogether :)