Lou,
I was coming in to post that same article. :)
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Lou,
I was coming in to post that same article. :)
hi mel - welcome to the madhouse!!! i think the discussion between BW and myself last night was pretty apt - it seems to be more about the attitude of everyone here at the moment "fitting" the way we're feeling - and i'm sure you'll fit in nicely too! where are you at with your cycle - last time i read anything about you, i'm pretty sure you'd just had the major running around cos you had to get your meds NOW when they only gave you a few hours notice to get started...
Lou - i too heard something about this a few months back but cant recall if it was on BB or not - i hadn't read anything substantial about whether it was working or not - it's lovely to know that there are lots of little bubbas running around out there, and that there may, in future, be a way to avoid OHSS (and it doesn't look like it's a long way off either!)
now, which team in AU will be the first ones brave enough to take on the job of introducing it here...?
ETA: Ellie - another red standard that has been suggested is Oklahoma - now off to post in sushee's thread...
Thanks BG...will google them!!!
there are a couple of good rose sites online if you want just pm me and i'll send you the links
Hi girls.... I've decided to make the big move too. :)
Three stim, 2 FET cycles but only 3 transfers. It's been a rough year, but lately I have just been trying to concentrate on the fact that I did achieve implantation on two of those transfers. I think that is the thought that is going to get my through the next few months while we take a break.
DH and I bought a house a few weeks ago and we're moving in 4 weeks, then we've got the crazy month of december. So, we figured January will be here before we know it and we will hopefully be able to do a FET if they manage to successfully thaw an embryo!
So, even though I am not going through AC at the moment I feel this is probably the best place for me right now. :)
Hi Megan...congrat's on the new house! Here's hoping 2008 sees all your dreams come true...bub in armsxxx
yay on the new house megan! fabulous news hun!
i can understand the need to take a bit of time out with everything you've got coming up -hoping the new home and the new year brings you the fulfilment of all of your dreams - thinking of you hun
Thanks girls :) I'm amazed I am feeling as good as I am about having a break. I must really need it I think. We're also excited about the house obviously (as renting since we sold our last house a few months ago has been a crappy experience!) and is something to really look forward to.
I also started weight watchers to get rid of the kgs I've gained since starting IVF. Almost 3kgs gone in 2 weeks and trying hard to get 10 off before our FET.
It's all go in here at the moment...a few stims coming up! I can live vicariously through all of you girls for a while! ;)
Thats great that you have found a house again Megan...I so get what you mean about renting it is just not the same.
Well I had my down reg scan yesterday and all is quiet on the western front so I start on Gonal F tomorrow night. Have a scan booked for next Friday morning at sparrows fart and then working towards a pick up maybe towards the end on the next week so anywhere from the 6th Nov - 12th depending on how the eggies progress. Based on the last stim cycle it will prolly be in the midle somewhere I would say. I am hoping it is then because Geoff has his boss on hols the next week and getting time off to do his bit is going to be a real PITA
Wow! It seems things sure have got noisy in here all of a sudden! It's nice to see so many familiar faces coming out of the woodwork. :) I guess we were all thinking the same thing, really.
I had someone send me a link to the article Lou posted the other day... Certainly something I want to keep an eye on! If it ever comes available in Australia, I'm going to be doing my best to have a go. Interesting that it works best for women with PCOS - they get more eggs this way than they can from a woman without PCOS. Looks like there's finally something where this is an advantage! But I guess it's a trade-off with the OHSS risk we face under normal stims.
I'm still plodding along with the pill. Seems the worst of everything has finally passed, I've thought that twice before and things got rough again, but seems to finally be done now. Weird how emotionally I'm ok this time, but have gone through physical hell. I guess because it was over before I even knew it had begun... I was more upset over the two that didn't thaw than I was over this one. In a way I think it's finally brought closure to the first miscarriage as well. The ill-fated embryos of the 2nd of April are now gone. One in emotional pain, one in physical pain, and two that just didn't make it. I have a weird image of the slate being wiped clean and starting over... without all the dramas of bleeding and lack of response then too much response that we had last time. Embryos produced with drama and problems all around did nothing but create drama and problems in the end. Hopefully our next lot will be created with no problems and will themselves create no problems. I think I've spent far too much time alone with my thoughts today - too many philosophical ponderings!
Looking forward to our appointment next week, and just hoping that we can get the Dr S perspective on things before we get there.
BW
hey all
whoo hoo we have been busy chatting in here
I am with you BW and hate the pill when i was on it - my body just felt outta wack- but it kick backed in and i felt really good on the gonal f
Very interesting article, but don't think that it would work for me as it take me maxium dose of drugs to get me to produce three or four follies!!! Plus i do ISCI
Just finished giving my private parts their public haircut- IYKWIM- gotta look nice for the doc!
so another step closer-lolo
scan count down is Monday- i know what they are gonna say but- ages away from o'ing come back end of the week and test with seratac as well. I tend to o around day 15 to 18- so i reckon i am at least a week off- but best to be sure than miss the boat!
Hope all is good and keeping sane
odette
Lou, I can confirm that Dr S is definitely not away... an email from him just landed in my inbox. Sadly, he says he doesn't have enough information on the cycle to comment (trust me to forget to tell him we had a blastocyst transferred on a natural FET cycle, 6 days after ovulation - remember this for next time, BW!) more fully, but does think that luteal phase support could be a good idea for next time.
He suggests we wait and see what David says... and now I'm suddenly panicking that he'll try to pass it off as nothing more than a failed cycle and will try to tell us the embryo didn't take at all... Here I go with the predicting disaster and trying to prepare myself for all possible outcomes thing. I am getting much better at seeing it and stopping it... but I'm not getting any better at the waiting game. Can we fast forward to Thursday, please?
BW
hey girls
had scan today and o'ing on my left side with a nice 13mm follie- which is my quicker side. Start o tests tommorow and looks like i will o on thursday so tranfer at this stage looks like this Sat- so quick!!!!
got b/t on wednesday morning to see how its going and scan again on friday to double check that i o'ed on thursday
OMG i can't believe that i will have another embie on board by this time next week!!! whoo hoo!! so wrapped that my body is doing what it is suppose to as this is only the second cycle after my m/c and it looks like it is behaving!!
not many more sleeps now until your F/S appointment BW-
its gonna be a busy week in here i am tipping!
odette
hi carla
so sorry about your BFN- it rips your guts out- doesn't it!
when is your next tranfer?
apparentally they are getting good results from FET- at my clinic at the moment my F/S that most of his successes have been from FET lately. It is so depressing the weight side as well. IVF blows you up so quick- a least with the weather fining up, it gives a bit more motivation to move!
good luck
odette
Hey Odette
THanks for that info. Just now waitingfor AF which should be 2nd week of November I HOPE!!!
Then take it from there. I am just worried that I only have 3 embies left....dont want them all to be wasted as I really dont want to go through the EPU again......
I pray for all good news for you sweetie.......
They should be well and truely cooked by then!!! Yippeeeee
Im kind of enjoying the break but amstill anxious to get back on board and transfer another embie to have a nice Xmas suprise.....
I just wish I had a reasonto be fat!!!
Odette, seems like your transfer is coming up really fast! I think you're the only one lucky enough to be going with a FET - the rest of us appear to be facing up to a stim cycle. Although, I think Lou might be FETing as well?
Strange how things come back to bite you - I remember when going into our first FET, I commented that I sort of missed the injections. Guess that comment came back to bite me big time. I appear to be really, really lucky with all the IVF drugs - I haven't gained weight with them yet! But I have with the post-miscarriage chocolate consumption! Even with the OHSS, I had 5kg pile on over night, and when it eventually all disappeared, it took a friend with it. I've found that extra kg again. I'm starting back on the low-carb, low-GI eating plan David put me on before, not as obsessively, but I'm finding that I'm feeling really good with just making a little extra effort to exercise more.
Only two more days and it's appointment day! Kinda excited, kinda scared...
BW
yeah it feels a bit too easy doing a FET, but i reckon i have done enough stim cycles to last me!!
This is only my 3rd FET and done four stims - i think off the top of my head!!!
so this lucky 7!!!!!
Carla- three embies is great to have in the freezer- i only get small numbers this will be the 3rd time i have only had one to put back. It only takes one!!! This cycle is my last Frostie so hoping it survives thaw!!!!
take care
odette
Odette, what about the price of the FET drugs though? Pessaries and the other tablets (if you're on them). It's been a real eye opener seeing as this was supposed to be the cheaper part of the process! Not happy.
Sorry, not my thread I know, but I still read :)
Ok, now I'm really appreciating the fact that my FS has us do natural FETs! One pack of letrozole does three cycles. Then it's just the $995 to the clinic, and petrol for driving into the blood tests... Dreading another stim cycle with the lucrin on top - $150 or so, and I'll need two vials!
Perhaps it's better not to think about the numbers...
ETA: Rols, I'm really loving the fact that you read and follow up on us! Don't feel like you're intruding, please.
BW
Slyder - its great to see you in here! I can understand where you are coming from with regards to the coat of drugs for a FET, for me the only good thing to come out of the last stim cycle being canciled was the fact that i still have two boxes of the gel P4 which i perfer anyway! i usually get the P4 pessaries though as they are cheaper and work just as well although you may have to insert then twice a day.
Bw - i think you need to remember that letrozole is not available to all fertility paitents, in aus and you are able to get a drug that isn't widely available.
i must be lucky as its a natural FET so no drugs whatsoever! it is a dream cycle in that instance - plus if the drugs are on the PBS i get cheap as i have a HCC, and i get $160 off my FET for having a HCC as well.
The only drug or thing that i have ever had to pay for separately doing IVF has been Synerol and my private health insurance gave me 30% of the cost of it back. They give me all my meds, creams and testing kits all inclusive,as well as all my docs appointments, pickups and transfers.
So my FET is $875 and i get 80% back as reached my threshold! So all up at the end i should be only under $200 out of pocket!! I love the threshold!!!!
What about you guys- whats the costs?
take care
odette
for me the gel is usuall $190 or the pessaries are $60 hence why i choose the pessaries !!
i usually have to go on some kind of HRT (not fun) usually about $60 for one cycle
Than the cycle itself FET $800
driving to and fro - parking in the city ect, but i too have gone way over our there, thats not including all the natural herbs that i take too.
Still it'all be all worth it
Hi everyone...sorry been a bit quiet...so much going on here I don't know where to start....
In a nut shell...DH has landed the dream job prospect in a small country town about 4 hours from where we are now...so I'm busily applying for work and looking at houses etc...have appointments with accountatm and finance guy in the next week...so BIG life changing stuff. Think I have someone lined up to rent our house so at least that's taken care off...the downer...all this change is going to happen in the next 2 months...so forking out $4500 for a stim cycle is starting to look like a no go...if we could get the money back from medicare straight away it would be ok but in the past I've found it takes months...just don't know if it's even worth spending the money with all the stress of relocating...maybe I'm just looking for excuses...this oportunity is DH's dream and we can't not do it...so....I'll keep you posted!!! Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated...oh...and for the first time ever CM CD14 and heaps of ovary pain...I'm convinced I've ovulated...so guess what we've been doing?????...LOL....
I dunno Ellie, what have you been doing? Knitting scarves? :)
Well done to DH on his new job. You certainly deserve some luck and living in a small country town is awesome in my opinion, and probably BG's as well. As for your stim cycle, it just depends on whether you think you can juggle all the balls at once. It certainly wont be the end of the world if you delay it by a couple of months until you're settled. Depends how anxious you are to get on with it, but by the sound of your post and some of the other things we've all discussed before, it doesn't sound like you feel the burning need to do it immediately IYKWIM? The other thing to consider is the logistics of where you live in relation to your clinic, but I'm sure you've already thought of that.
BW/Lou, thanks for the welcome, I wont hang about obviously, but like being able to comment! To answer your question Odette, the pessaries are about $5 each so when DW is using 3 a day it adds up. Plus these other pills they're making her take are about $50 but you get a fair few in the jar. Just the other day we had to buy another $180 of pessaries to give us about a fortnight's worth. It really irks me because DW isn't the one with the issue and it is wrong, I think, that she should be taking drugs just so it makes timetabling and logistics easier for the clinic (and us).
If this cycle doesn't work then I'm really going to be pushing the point next time. As for the actual cycle cost, it should cost about $300 out of pocket once we get our rebate. We were also able to claim about 50% of the pessaries from PHI in the first instance, but bugger all for the second lot because they will only cover up to a certain $$ figure per receipt. So if we'd bought them on two receipts, we would've got twice the amount back! It's not the end of the world, but it's cost a few hundred more than you are led to believe. Oh, and plus the $200 hospital admission excess.
Rols,
I am the one in my relationship that has the fertility issue, and I know what it's like to feel guilt about what the other person has to undergo in this IVF caper, but I thought I'd urge you to not let the guilt influence your treatment. Yes, the drugs is more for the timing for the clinic's convenience, and the pessaries are probably unnecessary, but even though I'd carried 3 children to term previously and had absolutely no luteal phase issues, I was still required to take pessaries, simply because they usually want to take all the guesswork out of the cycle. Something I read called it the 'hamburger with the works', where they throw at you all the medications required to rule out any possible thing that may go wrong. Even the most fertile woman can have the odd anovulatory cycle. :) And with clinics that don't open 7 days a week (mine did) they want to make sure you don't O on a day that will make transfer happen when they're closed.
I'm at my mum so I shouldn't even be on the puter :P, but wanted to just add my two cents worth, Rols hun. You can ignore me if you like though.
Rols? Who is Rols? Oh you mean me! :) :) God, I'm so funny.
Seriously, thanks. That's the best explanation I've received and helps makes things a lot clearer and makes me heaps more comfortable about the whole thing. The explanation DW got from the clinic was a bit vague. You're a legend.
Bloody hell! I meant 'slyder'! D'oh! Lol!
I bet if I changed my username to something else you'd all still call me sushee too! ;)
i could be having a face to face conversation with you, and you'd still be sushee (do you even HAVE a real name??)
Ellie - woo hoo on hubby's new job - living in a small town has it's ups and downs (especially when you live across the road from the town gossip :lol: ) but i'd never give it up to live in the city - or even a bigger town to be honest! we have about 1300 people under our postcode (according to the ABS after census night) and more than half of those live out of town - so it's nice and cosy - and i love it! i can' understand your thoughts on holding off on the stim cycle a while - medicare are notorious for taking months to get money back to you so it's a tough call - to be honest, i'd be waiting it out, dealing with the upheaval of moving and resettling yourself first - and making the most of the O pains you've been getting! good luck hunny
as for the costs for my cycles - i think i'll have to pretty much say "ditto" to Lou's comments re FET costs (if we get to that point) - seeing she is through Monash as well - although i'll be on a medicated cycle (i don't O at all) so there will be the added expense of an iui-type "mini-stim" i would assume (but i don't know at this stage) which would probably add a couple hundred to the mix!
It's Janice, BG :) It's not a secret, but no one uses it. Even the other mods took ages to get used to it, and even then many still call me sush.
hehehehe - you emailed me about the santa fe hun, so knew your name - was just being a smart ar$e! :lol:
you will ALWAYS be Sushee to me!
I'm not having a good day am I? PMSL!
don't worry hun - we all have days like that!
they're just more common for some... :lol:
Hi Ladies
Just thought i would sneak in, i have been wiating for this thread to heat up :)
Dh and I are scarily going to reach the 3 year mark TTC on Nov 1st, i know its no where near as long as some. But its scary to think how long the journey could take. And after 2 years of AC i am a little over it all :) We are CD 33 today and waiting on AF to start another boost cycle. Not really very excited or optimistic... just feeling like we have to do this to get another step closer, i think its because im a bit scared about the extra heperin and asprin and they scary feeling of nowhere to go from here. If this doesn't work there is nothing we can do to improve our chances except keep doing the same thing.
Sorry for the ramble and crashing your party :)
Shan
Shannon you're definitely not crashing come on in and pull up a chair!
Slyder...the PHI trick is one that I learnt many years ago with medications for my diabetes. I always sit down first and work out how many tablets etc to get on each script to get hte maximum rebate. For example my health fund pays anything over the PBS price of $30ish up to amx of $100 per script and one of the drugs I take is $50 a box so for me it worked out best to get 2 boxes on each script making the second effectively free.
You have to do the maths all the time in this business....
Well you'd think after 28 years and close to 40,000 injections I would have it down pat....but no....I managed to nick a blood vessel last night with my lucrin injection and now have a whopper of a bruise on my tum tum. Havent done that in a long time. Ah well, life goes on...no bikini modelling for me this week.
Mel - Oh what a shame i find bikini modelling the only way to support my IVF addiction! :P
I am having the same issue at the moment huge black bruise on my stomach i think from acupuncture last week, which ironic considering i never bruised in my life until i started acupuncture and now im facinated when i get one!
Shan
Very happy tonight! :)
New stim cycle is underway. I'm starting lucrin tonight, take my last pill on Saturday night, blood test to start stims on the 12th (may actually start on the 13th, though).
Doing things differently this time - starting on 10IU of lucrin straight off, instead of 20IU. Starting puregon with 2x300IU, 2x200IU, 2x150IU... starting high and stepping down quicker. Hopefully this will help avoid OHSS (although the FS says that has more to do with my diet and exercise or lack of than anything they do). We're also using a polscope with our ICSI this time to hopefully give us less fragmentation.
Feeling good about things right now.
BW
woooo hooooo!!!
thats fantastic BW!!!
glad to see that its all systems go and you have a plan!!!!
nothing news here
off to clinic tommorow again for scan and b/t to see if I have o'ed yet
i reckon that I am pretty close as i can feel my ovaries bloated last night and today
will know more tommorow!
odette
Sounds great BW.
I'm off at sparrows fart for a scan to see how many follies are growing in the morning, hoping for the high teens as we will lose a few to the PGD at the other end. Feeling so tired today went back to bed and woke up at 4pm when the next door neighbour rang the doorbell.....nothing like the embarrasment of answering the door in your jim jams at that time of the day!! espesh when its the guy from next door!!
Fantastic news BW, hoping the new process is just what you need, im glad David has put a smile on your face today, wishing you all the very best with your cycle hun
Mel - im hearing you - i have been up at 5.30 every day this week and today didnt get home til 9.30 pm very very tired and we are off on a little holiday this long weekend - fishing, not my thing really but DH has a boat and loves fishing so it will be nice to spend some time together
Od - thanks for the number - i left the bit of paper at home but will put it in my bag NOW.lol Happy oing dat too
Bg hoe you are well ?
me - well got the call today to tell me that my bloods have not changed and so i can start the dreaded HRT tomorrow - if they arrive in time. then will go for a scan in 10 days to measure lining and if all goes to plan we will have two little embies on board by the end of the year - yay