Long Term Assisted Conception - March 2008

[Loula]

Hi all

hopping you are all doing well at the moment.

i dont really know where to begin with my post. have been a bit distant from bb for many reasons - but mainly the fact that i had no internet for a while!!!

Megan - great to see that you are heading back into a fet with excitement and i am glad to see that your clinic is happy to track your natural cycle. i will be watching this space!!oh and don't forget the market offer - its getting close! GL for Saturday - will be thinking of you

Smartie - congratulations with your cycle so far and your fertilisation result is great. TF must be getting close. please keep us updated with how you are going. TWW is hell so i don't envy you there.

Mel - well it looks like you will be busy over the next coming week, i have made the trip to Sydney to see Dr S and i think that he is another option. i think he does tell it like it is and if anything found him to give me another look on what our options are. i have also seen Antonia and have been thinking about visiting her again but just cant afford her treatments. don't know if you have had all your BT yet but i wish you luck - its not pleasant having any blood taken esp that much- i tend to do them over a few days.

Shannon - im a bit lost as to where you are at at the moment.

Belle - your scan sounds interesting - i hate getting one as something unusual always comes up and that's not always a good thing during a cycle iykwim GL

Holly - good to see you back on line and i hope that you are able to make a start soon

Chez - not long til April and your appointment. hope DF is not away agin and that he is able to comfort you.

me - well im meant to be throwing myself into study but my head is in the wrong place to do that at the moment. Easter was not kind to us this year and have been dealing with several situations that have been upsetting. just been a bad week all together us and close friends. lets hope the next couple of months will pick up.

good to be back on line and wishing you all the best

[diva det]

Hi all
i am still here!!!! GRRRR- sorry no offence but been in this forum way too long i reckon
still doing A/P- going now fortnightly- he still reckons he has to do some clearing out before he starts building me up- i am getting so impatient as usual. Also, my angels due date is April 1st- so getting a bit sad about that- also my cousin who i was pg with at the same time is gonna be induced tommorow
ah well what can you do, but keep on trying!
glad to see some action happening in here.
I so badly want to do IVF again- cycle 8- but DH reckons he just can't do it, and we can't afford it- so hoping so much that this a/p works!
take care everyone and stay sane! If you can!!!!LOLOL
odette

[Loula]

Od - how funny i came in here thinking of you then didn't post

like i said im still getting my head back together!! interesting to hear that your AP is 'clearing you out'? whats his reasons for this?

ive started seeing a lady this week to help. but she is trying to balance my ying and yan as im always very cold!

so eating lots of warming foods at the moment which i really don't mind and am trying to rug up, even on the hot days last week i was walking around in a cardi - DH was so embarrassed that he refused to walk with me - hehe

[Shannon22]

Good Morning

Oh PP i am sorry to hear your Easter Break wasn't too crash hot and i really hope things pick up for you , and i had a giggle at you walking down the street in a cardie and DH being embarrassed.. wait til he has a screaming child
As for being confused at to where i am at... that makes two of us which can only mean i am going insane in the TWW. Had two blastys transferred the last week and the big blood test on Monday so yep totally insane!

And yes Odette you have been here way to long! Actually we have all been here to long we should have a mass exit!

Good luck with the acupuncture i hope you feel great and you are outa here before you know it!

Have a great day everyone!

Shan (from the asylum!)

[diva det]

ah so that is why my left ear was burning last nite!!!!
he reckons do not get enough blood into my uterus and therefore i am ovulating and fertalizing, but my endo lining is taking longer to be thick enough for implantation, so they are missing each other - i.e o'ing on day 14 but lining not thick enough till day 18!
also as the blood is trying to flow down there but can't its going upwards and thus causing my migranes and its has no where else to go!
sounds good in theory so gotta get it moving. When he puts the needles in- i do feel real warmth coming from my ovaries- so hopefully its working!
he said that it was probably the reason that i m/c as well as there wasn't enough blood flowing down to let the baby support itself at 12 weeks.

stay sane
odette

[melbel]

Hi guys hope all is well.

Well that was a stressful 2 days. I am so glad no one told how painful the biopsy was going to be otherwise i dont think I would have gone. OUCH!! is all I have to say.. One of those pains that make you catch your breath and go all dizzy and fluffy in the head.....had to lie there for a bit afterwards with hubby stroking my hand as I started to panic......fortunately it passes very quickly.

Had a win...... cos I had sent up the test results my melbourne IVF man had done, turns out he had covered most of what Gavin would test for anyways and I only had to have two vials of blood taken for the NK tests...YAY for me!!!

Now to wait the two weeks for the results...ho hum...nothing is ever quick in IVF world is it?!

Oh and Gavin is a wonderful wonderful man...very straight down the line but in the nicest possible way!!

[Loula]

wow mel

i didnt realise that your appointment was so soon!!!

glad that you were happy with Gavin - i get a sence he really empathises with what you are going through rether than just trying something new - if that makes sense?

sorry to hear that the biopsy was painful - i am greatful that he decided not to do it for me and that we just tried the drugs anyway, and im sure they had an impact on my result, much as my FS is avoiding the subject.

IVF is a waiting game for everything isn't it - GL with your results in two weeks - some times i think it would be easier if i just got a yes that's what you have and this is how we are going to fix it.

will be watching this space

[belle333]

Yep, waiting

IVF = ups, downs, pain, drugs, then maybe downs drugs ups and pain ... then wait ... maybe drugs pains downs then ups! To finish on an up would be nice!

waiting, waiting, waiting fet late April 08.

7 little blasts sitting in the ice
one is ready .. we say niiice
hopefully will glue
then we'll be 3 no longer 2 !

[Megan]

PP, good to see you back. Sorry to hear you didn't have a good easter. Is next Sunday the market? I'm up for it if you are!
Shannon, hope AF stays away. Keeping everything crossed for good results on Monday.
Mel, IKWYM about the waiting. There is ALWAYS something you have to wait for during AC...and never a couple of days...always a couple of weeks! The biopsy sounds nasty though, but at least you were able to have your DH there with you to hold your hand.
Odette, hope the AP manages to get everything in sync for you.
BW, how did your appt go wth your FS?

I have a little bit of good news...I made it to transfer!! They had to thaw all 3 of my remaining embryos to get one. The first 2 lost a lot of cells on thawing and never recovered. The third one was frozen at 10 cells and thawed beautifully apparently not losing any cells, and was compacting nicely this morning.
It was a stressful wait though. My nurse didn't call me until 3pm yesterday to book me in for transfer and give me our thaw results. Then of course she said if there is a problem overnight someone will call me in the morning. I didn't sleep very well half expecting the phone to ring and someone on the other end telling me there's no need to go in. When you've had that call once, it's hard to stress about it.
Transfer was more uncomfortable than usual for some reason. It didn't help that the embryologist took forever to come in with my embryo after he was called. I didn't realise until afterwards but I had dug my fingernails so hard into my arm during the wait that the dents I made have only just faded! DH should be lucky it wasn't his hand I had a hold of! Other than that, the ultrasound was really clear, probably the best we've had during transfer. Probably helped by me drinking the right amount of water this time!
So now, I just wait!

[tiggerlinda]

Hi Ladies been awhile since I posted in this thread hope you don't mind if I poop back in here. After 6 months and a Lap we are underway to start a long cycle on day 21 and hopefully end up with a BFP.

Question has anyone one been through a long cycle? This is my first and I am a little confused.

Thanks

[Megan]

Welcome back tiggerlinda!
I always start my cycle on day 2, so I'm not sure what kind of cycle you are doing. My down reg cycles are usually 5 weeks plus the TWW.
Just noticed your ticker... are you straight on the synarel on day 21?

[butterfly_warrior]

Thursday's appointment went mostly well. We're all sorted to start another stim cycle. this time I'm starting at 200IU and sticking with it right through to my first blood test. Relieved as 150IU wasn't enough, but 300IU was way too much, and there was no way in hell I was letting my FS talk me into doing 300IU again, not even for the two days like we did last cycle! He's also introducing a low dose of nizoral when I start puregon. It's an antifungal drug, but he uses it after EPU to help reduce OHSS, looks like he's trying to stop it before it even begins. He's also making DH take 3g of vitamin C daily, as well as folate. It's nice to see some tablets stuffed down DH's throat for a change - particularly as what he's got me taking for the particularly nasty, painful, heavy and clotty AF that just will not end (day 8 now) adds 14 extra tablets to my day if I take the full dose. Ponstan for the pain and cyklokapron to reduce the bleeding. I'm glad it's only temporary, I take enough stuff as it is! The important stuff is that lucrin starts Monday, I take my last pill on Wednesday and back to the clinic on the 11th, so puregon likely to begin on the 12th. They always do it the next day for some odd reason. EPU is estimated to be the 25th at the latest.

When it comes to those 13 vials of blood... the chromosome results aren't back yet (apparently they take 4-6 weeks), but the others are. As far as my FS is concerned, nothing of note.

But... my acupuncture lady has talked about me possibly being borderline for something. She said she wouldn't be surprised if my levels came back normal, but at the upper end of normal for some things. The most obvious one was the lupus anticoagulants. The weak positive range goes from 1.2 to 1.9. I'm sitting on 1.1. The FS isn't bothered at all - it's inside the normal range, but my acupuncture lady is bothered, and we've seen many times that my body sometimes has an exaggerated response to things (especially any form of inflammation). If she had her way I'd be on clexane with the next transfer, but the FS won't even consider it, so she's talking aspirin. There's going to be another email to my obstetrician friend before I make any firm decision on it, but corticosteroids and aspirin are one of the options to help protect pregnancies with this... I'm already on one, and the other is available over the counter.

Megan, I know what you mean about that dreaded phone call... I'm glad you got one back in there, and I'll be praying like mad that this one is the one.

Tiggerlinda, what my clinic calls a long cycle most others call a down reg cycle. They are what I've always done - some time on the pill, then start lucrin (or synarel for those more inclined to sniff than jab), stop the pill, have a period, more time on lucrin, start puregon, trigger, collect eggs, transfer (or stick them all in the freezer for later if you hyperstimulate like me!). Sound about right? Some get to do it without the pill part of things and just start lucrin 7 days after ovulation. I'm not so lucky.

BW

[tiggerlinda]

Megan - Thanks for the welcome yep we start the Syernal on day 21. Good luck with the TWW hope you have a heatly and sticky embie on board

BW - Thankyou I must be one of those without the pill. (I react badly to the pill cycles go haywire) So I am doing the Syneral 7 days post ovulation. They have me booked for a scan at 5 days and then starting injections then. (I prefer to jab but FS finds I react better to sniffing) Finger crossed this cycle works.

Thanks for such quick answers

[Shannon22]

Congrats Megan on your little embie on board! That's fantastic i hope the TWW flies by for you

BW - Glad to hear the FS was productive and you are comfortable with the outcome.

Welcome back Linda

to everyone else

2 Sleeps to go and i can't wait for this TWW to be over i am sure i have aged 10 years so far!

Shan

[briggsy's girl]

well, i figure i best be popping in here and updating after my appointment with the FS this week too - seems we've al been on the move so there's been lots of updating happening!

mel - so glad your getting some investingation (and maybe even some answers re DH!)

odette - i can soooooo understand the frustration with waiting - and finances - hope the alternative treatment works a treat for you

megan - so very glad you got to transfer - i've not had THAT phone call, but i know how stressful it is to wait on it!

lou - hoping you're doing much better after having such a bad easter week

me - well finally have the fs is agreement with me about how to do this next FET - no pill, just a BT and into HRT - woo hoo!! am so very much happier! he also said that, when we next go for a stim cycle (in two years when we're ready to add another kidlet to our family), he has a whole new plan for how to approach a stim cycle for less eggs, but more mature eggs - and we will use ICSI (which i wanted to do) - so it's all good for us! transfer will be in May (all going well with thaw) - so we're good to go again soon! yay

[butterfly_warrior]

I must be hiding my emotions really well at the moment! Am I comfortable with the new plan for this cycle? Yes. Am I completely comfortable with the fact that I'm doing another cycle? No. I'm scared witless about hyperstimulating again! There's a fair bit of ostriching going on - I'm doing my best to actually not think about the emotions attached to it and just stick to the cold hard facts. As I get closer and closer to the puregon injections... I'm going to get stressier and stressier. I was at first a little annoyed that my EPU would be at the end of the holidays - now I'm relieved! I can do all my blood tests and stressing and collapsing in floods of tears at the clinic in school holidays with no 5am starts and no trying to pretend to be a functional human being, let alone a competent teacher!

BW

[Shannon22]

Lol BW i conteplated what word to use i thought no, no ones ever happy with IVF treatment won't use happy.. maybe comfortable I guess we just have to try and find the positives its not like we get much control in this AC game so we make the most of what we have I am really hoping this cycle has no OHSS and a lovely BFP at the end

[Chez67]

Hi everyone

Just popping in to say hi and good luck to everyone wherever you are at with your cycles, TWWs, etc etc

Nothing much going on with me - just very busy with work and study. DF got back from overseas and quickly got sick with the flu. So I have been running around taking him to the doctor, picking up drugs (for him this time - most unusual ), and doing all the cooking and cleaning! Poor me And now I have just dropped him off at the airport - he is away for another 8 days for work!! Not much fun.

Anyway, just waiting til April for next FS appointment and hopefully more answers as a result of the lap etc. Hopefully there will be something - it has left us more than $1000 out of pocket. I can't believe how much Canberra doctors charge here! 3 times the scheduled fee? Highway robbery! And of course none of contributes to the safety net because it was done as an in-patient. So not happy!

Take care all and will pop back in as soon as I can.
xxxxx