The Risks of Invitro Fertilization

Anyone that knows me is probably thinking to yourself after reading this title, “you do not have seven kids Candace!!” If so, where the hell are the other six because I’ve only met one? Well, you are partially right. I’ve never met the other six myself. Haha! Now I’m know you are like, WTF!

When I went back to college to get my bachelors degree, I decided that I didn’t want to work so I donated my eggs to women going through in-vitro fertilization. I was considered an A+ donor because I was extremely fertile. The medication we had to inject into our stomachs was designed to make us produce more eggs but the doctors would joke that I could inhale the meds and it would have the same effect. I over produced eggs when I took it so I was very full each time.

The process of donating your eggs involves a lot of evaluations and testing to make sure you don’t have any serious family history of illness the child may inherit whether it be medical or psychological. You also agree to sign over your right as the biological parent to the child and to never make contact with them in any way. This is to reduce the risk of kidnapping by donors who became attached. You don’t get any information on the receiving family so I’m not sure how people try to take the children later but I was told it does happen.

Once you reach the final stages of producing enough good sized eggs for donations, you prepare for an outpatient surgery to have them removed. You’re put to sleep, they take the eggs and it’s all over before you know it. Other than some cramping you really don’t feel any pain. I hated injecting myself in the stomach because those needles hurt but it was so heart-warning to donate my eggs to families that couldn’t have children on their own. It was also nice that we got paid to do it which is how I supported my son and I during and after college without working a job.

The pay for donating your eggs started at $7000 per donation if I remember correctly and every donation after compensation went up $500. All expenses incurred during the process were reimbursed as well. I did five donations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and one in Oklahoma. My fifth donation was where things went bad and I actually died.

I was working at my now ex-in-laws family daycare and on one particular day I was not feeling well. I walked into my aunts office and she took me to the doctor that I was working with for my up and coming donation. I was maybe within a week or so of the retrieval and my ovaries were very full! By the time we got to the office I could barely walk. The nurse had me prop up on my hands and knees but shortly after I couldn’t hold the position because I was in extreme pain.

I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs, my aunt was hysterical, the nurses and doctors couldn’t help and after the pain became unbearable all I remember was telling myself is, if I lay on the floor and close my eyes the pain will stop. Not remembering in all the movies that they tell you to keep your eyes open out of fear you’d die, all I knew was I needed to close them so it would stop! The nurses and doctors had walked out to get a stretcher and call 911.

My aunt also stepped out to get one of them back in the room to help me. That was the moment I slid down the chair I was sitting in, to the floor, laid my head back and closed my eyes. I remember being awakened by the ammonia thing (I don’t know what it’s technically called) that’s placed under your nose when you are unconscious a couple of times but passing right back out every time.

The out of body experience from my so called death showed me that I wasn’t going to hell lol! I saw a light. I didn’t see anyone and I couldn’t hear anything. I just saw a light but it didn’t seem like I was going to be entering it. Just that I needed to see it. I don’t know how long I was out, I just know by the time I woke up I was on a morphine drip in the hospital prepping for surgery. I was experiencing torsion of the ovaries. The most extreme pain I’d ever felt in my life. You know it’s serious when you are on a morphine drip and still feel the pain!

I was very close to my ex-husbands family so his father, who was a preacher, came in to see me. His sister was my aunt (ex-aunt in law but I still love them all like family) that took me to the doctor so I’m sure she called him to pray for me. I was barely able to focus on what was happening but I remember seeing him for a brief moment and that he put his hand on me and talked to God on my behalf. As soon as he touched me, something shot through my body like I had gotten shocked and the pain was gone!

The doctors came back ready to take me to surgery and I told them I no longer was in pain. They couldn’t explain it. My ovaries just untwisted on their own. But for all of us that know God, we know He untwisted them. My father in-law came in like an angel, touched me then left. It’s like he was never really there but he was. I was released from the hospital like nothing ever happened. My aunt was a complete mess after seeing me basically die on the floor but thanking God when she saw me walk out. She told me to never do another egg donation ever again, rightfully so. But I did.

Not only did I agree to have the procedure to retrieve the eggs that almost killed me done, I did another donation some months later in Oklahoma for another couple. I had no complications and the retrievals went very smoothly.

So now you see how I have six more kids in addition to my first born son. I of course don’t know them but always hope that one day, they would find out that the mother they know is not their biological parent and want to find me. If not all of them at least one. I think it would be so amazing to meet them. Especially the one that almost killed me lol!

-xoxo

Candace ❤️