TTC/ pregnancy on Prednisolone or similar part 3

[freelancegirl]

For those who are TTC/pregnant undergoing immunotherapy treatment. Current list as it stands, do feel free to come and join us, it's moving quickly round here!:

Tuesday 22nd November

TTC
Waiting to test
Snoopygirl - V High NKC TTC, will be Ist try with Pred, Intralipids on bfp Testing from 21/11
Havingkittens - Upgraded from High to V High NKC TTC #1 after 2 month break/testing 29 Nov -2 Dec depending on my resolve.
Waiting to ovulate
coleyoz - V High NKC. TTC #2 - ov 3 Dec (Pred and Intralipids at BFP)
duggs1976 - High/V High NKC - TTC #1 - Superovulation cycle1
batteryhen - High activation NKC, factor v leiden. TTC#1
Suemays - V High NKC TTC/ov 30th Oct. TTC#2.
Cherrycheeks - V high NKC, TTC#2/ ov 25th-26th Nov/ 4th cycle of pred
pureequeen - High NKC TTC #2 again from November (BFP cycle one but mc)
eurochick - TTC#1 awaiting first appointment (in Nov)/ov expected 28-30 Nov.
BFPSeeker

BFP
2nd Trimester
Stogan - V high NKC - BFP 9/7/11 cycle#2- 24+3 Due 10/03/12 next scan 30/12
Digitalgirl - High NKC - BFP cycle#2 -19+1 Due 16/04/12 anomaly scan 23/11
Coconutfeet - V High NKC, Factor II gene mutation, underactive thyroid - BFP pre-pred, started at 6 weeks ? 16+1 next scan 14/12
Comedy - V High NKC - BFP cycle#2 - 13+3 due 26/5/12 next scan 12/12
Iggi - High NKC & Hypothyroidism - BFP cycle#2 - 12+6 anomaly scan Jan

1st Trimester
BrownieGecko - High NKC, Hypothyroidism, & Glucose Intolerant. BFP on cycle 3 of Clomid - 11+4 next scan 28/11
Scooterchaser - V High NKC - BFP cycle1 - 8+1 Due 01/07/12. Scan 25/11
Freelance - V High NKC TTC#1 Hydroxchloroquine, Pred, Intralipids. Thyroid/hashimotos. MC 1st cycle. LMP18/10 - 4+6 - Scan 3/12
Arianhod - V High NKC, MTHFR homo, hypothyroid, TTC#2 BFP 2nd pred cycle LMP19/10. 4+5 Scan 7/12
Cheerfulcharlie - V High NKC, MTHFR/TTC 1/ (metformin, intralipids, no pred). LMP17/10(Ov'd 3rd Nov) 4+5 Scan 6/12.
ChoccyPud - V High NKC / TTC #1 BFP 4th Pred cycle LMP20/10 4+4. Scan 3/12.

Woohoooo! Fantastic news on here today! It has really brightened up my day!

free brilliant news on your scan and that's a really good hb.

Brownie wonderful news on your scan today too! Such a great time of year to be sharing your news with your friends and family too.

Cheerful good luck for your scan today too.

I got my kid fix over the weekend after my niece and nephews came to stay (9, 7 & 4). We saw Santa at Selfridges yesterday morning and went to see mummies at The British Museum in the afternoon. It was lovely having them to stay but it is very hard work indeed. I love them to bits, but they are so loud, messy and have so much energy! I have to admit I did breathe a sigh of relief when I handed them back my sister and came home to absolute peace and quiet!! Heaven!! Am I really ready to have kids??!!

Cheerful just seen your scan news too. Fantastic and hope the drip goes well!!

breezy ... your kids are different, trust me. Plus you've raised them from birth, so you're used to their ways (and energy rushes!). It's a completely different situation to having someone else's children, even if they are close family.

Well done to Free, Brownie and charlie - what an awesome day for positive news! Its really great to hear for us TTC girls.

charlie - can I ask? I see that you are not taking Pred, is there is reason for this? Its affecting me and my cycles badly and I'm wondering if I could get away with just Intralipids.

Coley, I was prescribed the pred plus intralipids by dr s but I decided to chance it just on the intralipids for at least one go as from what I can gather there are fewer side effects than the pred and more 'natural'.

I doubt dr s would particularly approve but I have only had 2 mcs so far and am 33 so after a few months of agonising whether to take them or not I realised I felt a lot more comfortable with just the intralipids. I honestly don't know if I've done the right thing and will certainly consider the pred next time if intralipids alone don't work this time. Maybe if I was to do this again I would do an intralipid around ovulation too. The thing is I'm no doc and kind of freestyling this a bit under the guidance of my specialist over here who freely admits she has never done this treatment before but is interested in it and open minded about it all. I am certainly not advocating going against Dr S, afterall he is the expert here.

For good measure am also doing acupuncture weekly too.

Great - thanks cheerful. I'm thinking along the same lines as you but haven't decided what to do next cycle. Still waiting on AF to arrive having stopped steroids 5 days ago!! Such a pain. I'm really glad it has worked for you so far!!

I'm also having acupuncture which is great:)

Wow so much to catch up on...

Big woohoo for free, brownie and charlie that's fantastic news all round. So heartening for the rest of us. Keep chugging up those lists!

free I know all about heartrates (my son was 500bpm at one point) so 167 sounds just perfectly in range to me. A good score :)

hi to buster and welcome, though so sorry to hear about your losses, sounded similar stages to mine. Were you asking about intralipids at home? I had it twice through 'Healthcare and Home' in November and Dr S signed off the prescription and had it faxed to them. I know that I got them at home because I'm an NHS patient (even though I pay £380 a go, I can't have intralipids at NLC - rules!) so think its strange that he's had problems with HAH yet still using them for NHS patients! Its worth getting the bottom of that, I will certainly be asking at my appointment in Jan/Feb/March....whenever it comes through.

Anybody coming on long journeys to NLC there are a few of us that live out this way and would always be happy for meeting up (I for one am proving to be a serial support group attender). Find its the only kind of social occasion I can still look forward to these days. Anyway, wish we had thought about this when iggi was coming from Scotland (!!) but with some notice of scan/intralipids dates we could always schedule something in, local to NLC or nearer London. Might make the long trip feel a bit more worthwhile?

I can make 28th by the way - oh I do surprise you!!

Waves to all i've missed, I will read back and catch up properly now.

Such a wonderful news day on this thread!

brownie so so pleased for you! And doubly excited that you'll be announcing to everyone. It's going to feel really weird at first, but you'll soon get used to being happy about it. What a lovely Christmas present for you both.

cheerful and hooray hooray for you too! If it's any consolation re: HB St Mary's dont bother measuring and the first time I had it measured was at my first scan with Mr S at 9 weeks.

kittens glad you managed to sort out your schedule. So does that mean you are having the HyCoSy next cycle (assuming no bfp this month) or do you need to have some blood tests first?

Rant alert - not pg related at all. For all my organisation and domesticity in the run up to xmas I've managed to somehow totally offend my mother by suggesting we invite my father and his evil ex-wife over for boxing day. She wasn't happy about it so I said I wouldn't. But she's now throwing an almighty strop and has booked herself extra shifts over xmas. This was the first year she wasn't scheduled to work over xmas and she's going ahead and working anyway. I'm really disappointed. Sorry, this must seem ridiculous compared to kittens and her poor mum. Just wanted the family to be together.

Hi digi. Don't apologise about your rant, I know how frustrating family politics can get around this time of year. Tricky keeping both or your parents happy around this time of year when they are divorced.

I am having my scan on the 3rd Jan. It's actualy HyFoSy, rather than HyCoSy I keep typing it wrong because I've read of HyCoSy so many times but never heard of HyFoSy until last week. I think it's pretty much the same thing but slightly different technology... or something. It was the earliest I could have it and may or may not be exactly within the time parameters recommended, depending on the length my cycle depends it's going to be this month. If it happens to fall on D11 then I have to abstain from TTC that month, but if not then I don't. It doesn't matter which order I have the scan and blood tests. I just have to have them all done before my next consultation with Mr S. The next window of opportunity for the blood tests will be around 18 Jan. If I'd have waiting until that cycle to have the scan too it will have fallen on the only week long slot I have that month to go to France so I'm glad to have sorted that out for early Jan.

scooter I'm with you on the serial meet up front! Is only time I'm truly hopeful and almost happy! If anyone fancies a meet up I will happily cancel my RL plans ( how flakey do I sound). But I've spent 30 odd years being there for my friends. They always have expectations for me to laugh and entertain! I'm kind of tired of it now so I'm all for bringing the happy times with you cocoon friends !

Happy thread day

hello! What a busy day - and a good day for scans too! I am thrilled to be hearing all about all these lovely heartbeats :)

I have news.

I was at St Marys today for my first appointment at the recurrent mc. So I confessed as soon as I got there that I was pregnant and at only 4 weeks they said it was too early to scan me but they would do my bloods for the TEG test etc. I asked if they would do a hcg too as my test was so faint. The dr said to do a urine test which i did and headed off to have my bloods done. Whilst in the blood chair he popped his head in the door to say the urine test was negative :( and to order a blood test and he would call me later with resutls. I saw the nurse then come up and show him the test ( I imagined showing him a faint line). So off I went, got a pg test from boots and had another faint positive. The Dr then called to say the blood hcg was positive, but he left a voice mail and didn't give me any numbers, so I have called back to ask but no reply yet. Also my TEG test came back positive too!!! So now along with my clexane I have to increase my aspirin to 150mg per day.

I am worried about the faint line, but will do another tomorrow with an fmu. I am now home and exhausted!

Just popping in to say wonderful news brownie, cheerful and free!

Battery, that sounds very confusing. I hope you're able to find out soon what's going on. Have you had strong lines on urine tests in previous pregnancies?

My 3 year-old son has just had to show me how to use dp's iphone. The shame...

Great news on all the lovely scans!!....there is hope for all of us trying!
Battery thats sounds really confusing you poor thing! I bet your brain is frazzled!....and least a positive was finally confirmed.
I didnt think much of St.Marys, it took ages to get all my results back from them. Cost me a fortune in the process!
Ive emailed Louise to ask her about appointments over Christmas re:lipids - just incase we have a positive - hope she says we dont have to wait.

xx

Great thread day - congratulations everyone involved!!
Sorry about your confusing one though battery hope that all becomes clear soon.

School all a bit challenging - the last week of term is not proving o be an easy one hence lack of any posts since the weekend - roll on Friday!

My scan date wasnt right and is actually tomorrow so just like everyone else am doing the usual worried 'is everything over?' but at the same time a bit excited because we could find out the sex ...

So, so pleased about the positive news today - a big hug to one and all (and welcome buster)

Thought you said that Comedy looking out for you tomorrow. x

I'm not very good at keeping up at the moment - but just wanted to say again so pleased for you free, and also brownie and cheerful.
Its so nice to read some good news on this thread.
Good luck for tomorrow comedy xx

battery sorry to hear about your gruelling day. Why can nothing ever be straightforward in this business! Rest tonight, and hopefully all will become clearer tomorrow.

battery sounds like doctor didn't wait long enough for the line to come up. Plus your pg test wasn't done with fmu and you're still really early days. Good that you had the teg test done and can dose yourself up accordingly. You are hitting this pg with everything now and we've all got our fingers tightly crossed for it to work.
I especially want this to work out for you as I feel like we've been trailing each other around the conception boards for far too long and it's high time we got to move to post-natal!

blue nice to hear from you, good to know you're still out there. Did you make a decision whether to go for the tests?

Sent an email to hr today officially telling them. My immediate colleagues have known since week 13, but i was put off telling hr as I'm on a rolling 3 month contract and didn't want them not renewing it. Bloody hell it's late what am I still doing up?

Have just done another test and still really faint. All my other pregnancies have had big bold lines by now. I don't like this . Will try and get the hcg numbers today. Rubbish .

battery sorry to hear the line is faint. Hopefully you'll be avlble to get hold of those blood test results this morning. Remember your hcg in your urine is a couple of days behind the hcg in your blood. I have my fingers crossed for you.

comedy good luck with your scan

coconut - laughing at your 3 yr old genius son teaching mummy how to use the iPhone!

Tried to post yesterday but I pressed the wrong button and everything disappeared - need coconut's IT genius son to help out.

digi - if you could bring your spare tests to the Jan meet up that would be great and we can divvy them up then. Thanks! And HR obviously haven't SEEN you lately as there's no hiding that you're pregnant now!

Battery I hate faint tests but if you can bear it try not to think about it until you get the hcg numbers.

kittens i can't even begin to get my head around all your tests and the timing nightmare when you need to be abroad and you don't really have a choice. It's so difficult isn't.

duggs - I know what you mean about people expecting you to be on form. I am still getting over last Christmas when it was commented on that I "didn't seem very happy" (same comment also made by the same loving family member at dad's funeral..hello! Can't be the life and soul of the party all the time). and digi - family dramas really are the last thing you need.

breezy I have exceptionally limited tolerance for my lovely nephews and nieces but can tune out cope with my own DS's demands for hours. Your own children will be a completely different story so don't ever measure your fitness to parent by other peoples offspring!

Battery hope you get your hcg number soon and that it tells you where you are. Faint tests are so confusing but a line is a line.

Yay Brownie and Cheerful for scans!! :)

Free how you doing after intralipids? Reminded me I'd have been there too this week... :( for me but for you. I'll get there some day I'm sure.

Free/PQ how long did it take for your cycle to get back on track after mc on Pred? It's 3 wks yesterday since I started spotting and (tmi) am def getting ewcm which was a bit of a surprise. But I guess that's because I'm taking the mc from when it was confirmed by the empty scan last Sat not the actual bleeding another 10 days before the scan.

Not that I feel like doing anything about it nor should I anyway I assume. emotionally never mind the hormonal/Pred fired mess I am atm!

May as well poas when I get home I guess out of interest to see if there's a smiley face.

Waves to everyone else.

Mmm I was thinking that too choccy, we'd both have been in there for intralipids this week. Oh well .. it will happen for us, just will take a little bit longer than we'd wanted. Just out of interest I checked my records to see when I OVd following each of my MCs and it seems to be between 18 and 25 days after, although of course 2 of the three previous MCs were ERPCs, so I'm not sure what will happen this time. I'm going to POAS from about 15 days after I started bleeding, and see what happens - not of course to try to catch the egg this time, but to avoid it! I know exactly what you mean about inclination ... give it time m'dear, you have some recovering to do first! Hope you're not working too hard, and you're giving yourself lots of TLC?

battery sorry to hear about your faint line ... have you managed to speak to the doctor from yesterday yet, about the hCG test? Will they want to repeat it tomorrow, so you can see the levels rising? Those tests are a bugger, I know what you're going through right now. Virtual hugs to you, hang in there.

igg how are you doing now, all settled down and ok?

comedy good luck for your scan today, let us know how it went, add to the good news!

battery hope your HCG results come back quick today and make things clearer. Faint lines have so much to answer for. Sorry you are finding yourself stressed and confused right from the start, a case of being fired off on the rollercoaster straight away. Hoping for good news x

digi sorry for your family dramas, keep talking to your mum and hopefully she will realise life is too short to hold a grudge. You have done nothing except make a suggestion, hardly a crime! If it helps I am also having family troubles because they all just want me to get on with life now (2 weeks on) and Christmas things and I am still not ready. Just in an everything's pointless phase. Mum asked me to organise DS and his four cousins into a show to perform for Christmas and expecting me to attend my nieces/nephew's nativity plays. I sent an email to tell my family I would feel better cancelling my birthday this year (on Sunday) and only my Dad has acknowledged it at all. How do they imagine it is helpful to completely ignore me! All I wanted is for someone to say, ok that's fine if that's what you need. I get so annoyed because I am pretty good at supporting people at difficult times and yet surrounded by people who are rubbish at it!!!
Another helpful comment from my sis yesterday when I told her DS had been crying about things all morning... Her response "I wonder where he gets that from" I know my fourth miscarriage is old news and boring now for everyone but I am still struggling to find a reason to get up in the morning. Why do people think it is best coping strategy to just carry on regardless? Ok rant over!

comedy lurking for your news today. Everything crossed for a good scan and finding out what you're getting!!

choccy ewcm sounds promising like your body sorting itself out. I am all over the place... still cramping and according to the scan still have more to lose. This is lasting so long, AF is going to turn up on the back of it. How are you doing on the weaning from pred? Im getting the strange buzzing feelings like free described, my lower lip vibrates occasionally - so weird!! And really prone to pins and needles. Also getting loads of headaches. With ironic timing I am also suffering from more of the pred side effects, DH helpfully pointed out a slight case of moon-cheeks and feel like I might be coming down with a cold. Could have done with the immuno-suppressant effect 3 weeks ago!!! Just goes to show that these steroids do take a while to kick in, certainly in my case. I am going to have to invest in my own little book duggs!

scooter so sorry you're having insensitive family troubles ... you know what they say, you can't choose your relatives! Maybe you have to put your foot down and say "look, I've just had a miscarriage, it's hit me pretty hard, I need time to recover and heal, thank you" ... and see what the reaction is. You'd hope that family would rally round and support you no matter what, wouldn't you - but sometimes that just doesn't happen. Your sister really didn't need to make the comment she did; to family, a miscarriage should never be "old news", a bereavement is a bereavement and deserves to be honoured as such. You rant all you like, you deserve to!

I just thought I'd mention, I'm not sure why but I seem to have no side effects with coming off the pred that I can tell? Maybe they will kick in once I'm completely off them. I'm down to 10mg, 5mg tomorrow (I've been a bit naughty and gone down by 5mg every 2 days instead of every 4; I want to get off them!). I'm hating the weight I've put on since taking the pred and hope to goodness it comes off again :( scooter you have of course been on the pred longer than I was, since I only got to 6 weeks pg before miscarrying (although of course as it turns out there was nothing there, so I'm not sure I actually counted as pregnant in the end?!)., so no doubt it will have taken a greater hold over your system. I hate these drugs, but whatever it takes will be worth it in the end I guess.

I just had the results of my repeated NK cell test taken last Wednesday, to see if the steroids did have an effect on them, and it seems they did. My activation level was originally 1.83 putting me just into the "very high" category; the test taken last week showed activation down to 0.83 which according to Louise makes me then "borderline". However, my absolute count is now 471 (higher than the original figure), which means although my NK cells aren't as aggressive, there are shedloads of them! (Louise said anything over 200 is considered a lot). Not sure whether Mr Shehata will change the "plan", will find out when we see him on the 4th Jan, but at least it does show the steroids have had some effect.