Assisted Conception (and all the bits in between) volume 7

[Italiangreyhound]

Hi ladies Pumplinjoy, Shirley, Lissy, Keziah, Womanly,Val, Late, monkeybumsmum, tametortie and Rowing* - hugs to you all.

woowa of course you can join us.

Choco and Horton and londonlottie do you still look in on us?

Can you all find us?

Hi Lissy EWCM=Egg White Cervical Mucus. Sorry if I'm teaching grandma to suck eggs, but it is the most fertile mucus, which your body produces leading up to ovulation. I've been quite 'dry' recently but had loads this month....i have tried to give my body a helping hand on that front, so was happy that it was working... impressed with your 7 eggs. Good luck with ET on Saturday.....ARGC, I'm thinking of just walking in and asking for a nosy....

keziah I know travelodge do a deal if you book in advance and for a period that covers a weekend. There are some decent hostels in nearby neighbourhoods too and being London, you could look for a short term flat share. You might get away with £100/week.

italian £100 is a bargain in London...

womanly really sorry for your BFN.

rowing how are you?

I've got my pelvic US tomorrow. Will they tell me there and then what they see?

Hi Scrummy, they told me there and then, reporting on what they saw as they found it, and then I also got a follow up letter confirming what they told me. Apart from everything looking fine, I was told I was very photogenic internally. Hope that all goes well for you tomorrow.

It's a bit weird this limbo time. It was hard to swi this month with various bugs flying around and MIL staying, but we managed once or twice during EWCM. The thing is, I normally get ovulation pains and didn't this month. I know that my one ovary is far more active than the other, and that's the one I normally feel, so maybe the other ovary kicked in this month and I don't feel that one so much. Or maybe I just didn't ovulate, perhaps my body was confused after the drugs last month. Does anyone know whether if you don't ovulate, do you also tend to not get EWCM?

Scrummy what did you do to give EWCM a helping hand? I normally take evening primrose and grapefruit juice (not together I should add!) Am always up for a new nutritional/supplementary tip if you have one though

Keziah I'm sorry, I don't have advice on good places to stay in London. It must be frustrating if you're considering a London clinic and then having to work out the travel/work logistics around it. As if it isn't all complicated enough already.

Rowing how are your hormone levels now my dear? I hope they're still going down and that you're doing OK.

Hi to everyone else x

Hi all,
sorry I haven't been very good at updating you all! I went for the hcg on sunday and the levels had dropped more than the required 15%, so they are quite happy and I am scheduled for another blood test on the Sunday coming.
I am cramping and bleeding so it looks as if the shot has worked successfully.
However, of course I now wish I had gone for the surgical option and had the tube removed. There are all sorts of horror stories about women having ectopic after ectopic. Wah! So I have phoned the clinic to ask if it might be possible to have the surgery even though the shot is working - the nurse thinks I'm mad.

Lissy woohoo on the 7 little embryos, fantastic news!

Lucy not sure about the ewcm and ovulation, I would have thought it was possible. Are you feeling OK now or did the bugs get you?

Keziah how are the deliberations going? I can see you sitting there saying 'Yes London!' 'No London takes too long!' and so on until your head explodes.
Could you just have the immune treatment and do your next cycle at a 'regular', local clinic? It seems to have worked pretty well for a lot of women.
Quite a few go to Serum in Athens and Dr Gorgy, wherever he is and hit the jackpot. I have no idea what I am talking about, but I wanted to say something about using a local clinic so that you don't have to wait until Christmas 2020 or something.

Italian you back? [looks around for Italian]

Womanly sorry to hear about the bfn. Hope you are feeling OK?

Scrummy good luck tomorrow, let us know how it goes!

Hi rowing- Glad to hear levels have dropped. So sorry for what you've had to go through.

scrummy- Good luck for ultrasound! Hope everything goes splendidly! Thanks for explaining things...

keziah- Ultimately you have to make the decision that suits you. I know ARGC are well versed on treating women with immune issues. My immunes results came back on the high side of normal, but they gave me intralipids as a precaution anyway. I really feel that I've gotten an excellent level of treatment.

Italian- When are you outta here?

AFM, call from embryologist yesterday. All 7 eggs are still fertilizing nicely, so it looks like I'll be having a blastocyst transfer on Saturday, barring any complications. It could be today, at Day 3, but was told it was highly unlikely.

In the meantime, have gone on an absolute DIY tear. We were redecorating our lounge anyway, but I decided to do it all in the days before ET, as once I'm incubating there will be no heavy lifting. So yesterday I took apart this massive IKEA shelving unit, and once disassembled, discovered that the wall behind it needed to be painted, so off I went to Homebase to get paint. That one wall turned into the whole lounge! Did the first coat last night, second one will be this morning (soon, it seems, as DH is snoring away next to me), then putting together new shelves that were delivered on Tuesday. The idea is to maximize the amount of space we have, as DH is in a wheelchair, so the more room the better, and everything that was in our lounge was too big for the space.

I'm off!

Hugs and chocolate boobs to all!

Lissy great you are on for blastocyst - and hoping you get some to freeze too . Good to hear positive things about ARGC. I would happily stay where we are but the immune specialist dr is leaving end of August and we only see him for 1st time in 4 weeks so much depends on our results (know Factor V Leiden is an issue, Protein C from level 1's but not what treatment recommended yet or level 2 results or rest of level 1 results). Definitely not going to wait till 2010 but with my job London = staying there for duration and I can't choose when my hols are, grrrr.... so cost is but one consideration.

rowing hope things go ok for you in coming days.

Lucy - am afraid I have never known when ovulated by pain and ECWM is non existent so can't help, but each month is a chance in my book!!

Well good news here, physio has discharged me - still have exercises to do to improve balance and stamina for my left leg but she said "no issue for you to be pregnanat" - just need that in writing now if the clinic say "you can't cycle due to ..."!!!

Hi all,

Keziah, I haven't heard of Protein C, what is that? [interested face]

rowing - 2 tests I asked my Gp for are on Level 1 immune tests adn they are protein C and protein S and according to my results my activated protein C is below threshold - and I am just reading De Beer's book on it to find out more. Gp has no idea!! To do with implantation and "sticky" blood I think - but will find out in 5 weeks or so when see the consultant.

Have you had Immune tests?

Rowing hugs, thinking of you.

Lissy yay, yippee, well done, all seven. So fab, the magnificent seven. You could name them after the 7 dwarfs!

Keziah hope you make the best decision for you.

Me, I am off next month only for about 2 weeks, and only in a hotel for 2 nights, staying with friends rest of time.

Does anyone else think the new Adios (Strut your funky stuff advert) is carp! Anyone else watch the Apprentice and think the lads mag cover was crap?

Hugs to all ... too much ironing is calling me so
If you are symptom spotting - stop it!
If you are incubating a bubba -hugs and peace and no sickness
If you are two week waiting baby dust - stop nail biting and just get distracted
If you are trying, baby dust to you.

HUGS

Italian I agree. The cover to 'covered' was awful, but then again 'Hip Replacement' started out as the better idea but ended up being executed terribly too. If only Jim had negotiated better with the first advertisers they would have won I think (they should have).

Hi all, thanks for your well wishes had my scan today ( clearly had my days all mixed up) and it showed everything was normal. So structurally I'm ok, which is a relief. Had hoped to get a response on my progesterone blood test today, but the hospital hasn't yet sent a copy to my surgery. Let's hope they do so next week as I suspect I might have low levels of progesterone. I seem to have cycles with early spotting, like this one. I'm only 10DPO and I had my first instance of spotting this morning, accompanied by period headache. I read an article on acupuncture/chinese med today (posted on one of the other threads) and it lists quite a few symptoms that I can easily identify with that result from it. Same for kidney issues....

Italian Haven't seen the adios ad, but def agree with your sentiment on the apprentice cover! I have to admit to a small crush on the goofy guy....

lissy have you had confirmation that you will have your ET tomorrow?

Lucy I've been taking EPO, grapefruit juice and Robitussin cough medicine - all at the same time! I drank nearly a litre of juice every day too, but it was clearly worth it. Oh, and I don't get ovulation pains, but I clearly ovulate, so I wouldn't worry about it.

Sorry, forgot to say, glad to hear your results were good and it's gone to plan, try not to worry about the next round too much. The chance of anything going wrong again must be minimal.

...... rowing

Hi all,

Scrummy....thank you! The consultant phoned me today and kind of said the risk of another ectopic are higher after having one, but equally they are higher after having surgery, especially if the surgery is to remove the fallopian tube completely. He said there is an 'easy' op where they remove half the tube and leave a 'stump' which can then attract another ectopic. The 'tricky' op is to remove the whole thing and involved arteries and things [erk!] and causes scarring, plus recovery takes ages. So rock and a hard place really.
Just cross my fingers, that'll work! [delusional face]

Italian, I love your list! Are you getting ready for your treatment? Not long to go - nag nag!

Lissy what are you up to tonight? Good luck tomorrow, don't forget to buy a pineapple!

Keziah that's funny about your GP not having a clue. I am with the GP incidentally!
There seems to be quite a bit about it on the internet, but it's a bit mind-boggling.

Lucy when are you testing this month?

Womanly when is the next treatment?

Feeling a little bit more energetic today, but the pain down my leg is soo annoying. Wish this would all be over soon. Hope the next blood test is well down, that would be great.

hoping it keeps going down for you rowing - I always thought they operated for ectopics, so it is great there are other options now, if they work. I was told higher chance of ectopic with ivf, as they put the embryo near the top of uterus but that is my entire knowledge on ectopics. However, my knowledge of immune issues in pregnancy is now more than my gp's - which is not much more - but I hope to learn more when see the gynae next month.

rowing that is good news that your hormones are going the right way, and fingers crossed this won't happen again. I really hope you get back to normal soon and can get your next cycle started soon.

AF due to start next we and i am not expecting any surprises!

lissy exciting day for you! I hope it all goes really well. Do you normally produce this many eggs during IVF or was it more at argc?

scrummy I'm glad the scan went well and hope the progesterone gets sorted out soon. Are you feeling better now that you've set things in motion?

Hi to everyone else too

Hi girls! Sorry not to name check, but it's a "me" post...

Today I had two blastocysts transferred, one high quality, the other above average quality. I am officially on my 2 WW, although my OTD is June 28th. Docs put me on a cocktail of aspirin, clexane, gestone, and steroids...oy! And there's the possibility of another round of intralipids tomorrow.

As for the rest of the embies, two more were blasts, but not sufficient quality, and the last three haven't reached blast yet, so they have until tomorrow. Here's hoping!

Will do more personals next time, but right now I'm going back to bed!

Hugs, chocolate boobs, and baby dust to all!

Woo hoo lissy! That's great! And a slightly reduced 2ww too, less chance to descend into insanity (then again 10 days is probably plenty of time!) Truly have everything crossed!

lissy that is excellent news! You deserve that rest and here's hoping the remaining Embies keep developing into blast. FX. Really, really happy for you

Lucy noticeably so. AF def is on her way and I would normally feel really down by now, but as I have tests to arrange etc, I feel like I'm back in control a bit. And of course, every time it's good news, it feels like it's taking us closer to that BFP.

lissy - 2 good quality blasts, with all those drugs sounds excellent news. Are you able to have 2 weeks off for your 2ww? All the best for it xx

Hi all,
Lissy fantastic, fantastic, well done you for cooking those eggs and DH for his contribution! I'm crossing my fingers for those other, slightly slower embies to make it for tomorrow.
Don't forget the pineapple (you eat it apparently, not anything painful)

Lucy I hope everything runs smoothly and AF arrives on time, then...

Womanly are you feeling a bit pms'y?

Keziah how is your leg? I hope it isn't too painful to do the exercises. [wince]
There does seem to be a slightly raised risk of ectopic with IVF, the research is all over the place though. The doctor doing the transfer measured and said 'your uterus is 5.5 cm and I will place the embryos at 5cm - which is a lot more info than I have ever been given before. I will ask if it is better to place them lower next time, but I don't think there is any evidence that ectopics can be avoided by anything the doctor does - just bad luck really!

I've been feeling pretty rubbish, with lots of pains and cramping for the past couple of day - you know that thing where you are waiting for four hours to pass so you can take another paracetamol! So went into the hospital early and walked into the maternity ward where I had my DS and promptly burst into tears.
The nurse was so lovely and gave me a hug, I think she thought something awful had happened to DS. It just brought it all back and reminded me of the absolute slog that assisted conception has been (not that I regret it).
The good news is that the scan showed no sign of anything rupturing, no fluid/blood in my abdomen and my hcg has dropped to 400, from over 1000 last Sunday. So it's going the right way. Got to go back on Tuesday for a review because of the cramping, think it's to reassure me more than anything. Such a lump!

rowing - glad you found that nurse and that the numbers are going down. Reassurance apt's sounds good idea to me!

Hi to all VERY busy today and tired after a night out so not time to name check all but

Lissy WHOHOAAAAHHHH SO pleased for you, keep cooking the embies.

Rowing so sorry it has been so tough big BIG hugs to you.

Keziah get well and strong soon and all the very best.

Love to all.

STILL no donor for us, so not able to get drugs or get started. It take sus about 9 weeks so I know it will now not be finished until at least mid September, just want to get started!!

keziah- I'm back to work tomorrow. I'm glad, because it gives me something to do, and I miss the kids. (I'm a nanny)

scrummy- I felt the same way about getting my AF before I started treatment. It feels like something is finally being accomplished.

Same for you lucy, I hope AF arrives when she's supposed to!

rowing- Your comment about the pineapple really made me laugh out loud. But why pineapple? Is it supposed to be THE fertile fruit or something? I'm so sorry about the pain you're in, both physically and mentally. I think it's amazing how well you've had a handle on things, and if I were there I'd give you a great big hug too.

Hi Italian and Womanly!

AFM, I have excellent news! My three embryos made it to good quality blasts, and they're being frostbitten as we speak! WOO-HOO! That brings it to a grand total of four frosties. I was at the clinic most of the day for another intralipid infusion, and I have to go for another blood test on Tuesday. The lounge is most definitely taking shape, and my brother-in-law came over to hang up a very heavy mirror and our television, so that was helpful. Although I didn't really take it easy today, I didn't really do anything strenuous. I will rest more, I promise!

Tomorrow I'm going for a mani/pedi, come hell or highwater! (Or, you're darn tootin', in American parlance)

G'night all!

3 frozen blasts is amazing Lissy - so pleased for you. Enjoy the distraction of work. I took 2 ww off but think would work it next time, unless I had to be in London for treatment etc etc. Enjoy your treat.

rowing - the leg is doing really well, the physio said it is recovering much quicker than expected. Am swimming once a week on it too, used to swim and compete etc so know what am doing in a pool to get more flexibility - although swimming with a float in the slow lane is an interesting event, with only one leg fully working.

lissy - the good news just keep rolling in! That is just fantastic Pineapple's core contains bromelain, which ALLEGEDLY can aid in implantation. You can eat it in pieces or turn it into juice. But it is the CORE only. How it would react with the drugs you are taking, is something worth finding out though.....

rowing Ive looked into ectopic pregnancy now and realised that for medical treatment they will want to follow your progress for a while. Have they given any indication as to how long this may be? The cramping sounds quite nasty. Wishing you loads of strength and happy times in other areas of your life to compensate.....