TTC for 10+ months, part 5

[MuddyWellyNelly]

Filled up our old one, I'll put our updated list on a separate post so that it's not a huge chunk of text at the top of every page.

Old thread here. Newbies always welcome, much as we'd like to hope nobody ever gets to this stage of TTC!

Fatima is this for the heparin ??

lisacn I'm just starting ivf short protocol so last night was my first stimulating injection

Fatima how many do you have to do, fingers crossed for you x

lisa hopefully only about 10 days depending on how well I react to them. I've just done my second, then it's the same again tomorrow then depending on my blood test on Tuesday I should be doing two injections a day from then.

Today's injection hurt a bit more but was ok

pout - I'm glad it's not just me whose mind works in mysterious ways. I bought a lovely dressing gown yesterday, it's a lovely deep pink colour and in no way did I choose it because pink is a good colour for fertility It was in the sale too

I'm not sure what your blood test means, sorry, but I hope it helps with getting things looked into further.

Oh, and definitely no offence caused here - you need a bit of black humour to get you through all this!

fatima - glad you've got the first couple of injections out of the way and they weren't too bad. You'll be an expert in no time!

I had my last injection this morning at 2am, as it has to be 36 hours before egg collection. It was very odd trying to keep ourselves awake for no other reason than an injection, I'm usually in bed and asleep by 10.30pm!

Hope everyone else has had good weekends.

Oh god that's really late ladygee she said mine might be late at like 11pm. I'm normally in bed by 9:30pm
Did you have any side effects to the fsh at all?
Good look with the egg collection, that's really come around quick!

Wow Fatima thats really exciting! Hopefully all goes well :)

ladyg lots and lots of good luck for tomorrow. V exciting. Hope it goes really well and they get lots of lovely eggs.

fatima Pleased to hear the injections are going well. It will be your turn for ec really soon!

kitty Your friend sounds incredibly insensitive. This whole long term ttc does separate out those who are kind and sensitive and those who aren't!

mrsd so sorry you weren't able to avoid the scan pics. Does sil know you've been trying? It's all so difficult.

izzy Hope you pounced in Mr Izzy and made the most of the +opk

pout Lol at pee sticks in top pocket! Hope you get some answers from your gp about the blood test results.

Bit of a mixed weekend for us. Went to the open day at Create, where they do mild ivf. I actually really liked the centre, which seemed small and friendly. I also like the sound of mild ivf. We had a quick chat with the dr, who confirned icsi would be the only option for us. Scarily, they tried to book us in for a consultation and scan in the next couple of weeks, meaning we could start the treatment during my next cycle!! Stalled them, as would like to see some other clinics first before deciding on where to go. But it was great to see a clinic.. Also nice to see other barrens in real life and that we all looked fairly normal!

However, then spent today arguing with DH about how we're going to find the money to fund the ivf... I'd like him to ask his parents and he thinks we should take a loan. It's not helped by the fact he hates talking about it all, as it makes him feel shit about it. I was wondering if there were charities that might give out grants - there are some in the US, but can't find any here, presumably as we have funded ivf, pah.

Anyway sorry for the moan. Hope you all had good weekends and hi to everyone I've missed.

Morning lovely ladies!

All is ok here, still in a fair bit of pain and bloody AF arrived on Sunday, which is a challenge with just a left hand in use... I knew it was coming as I POAS before my check up X-ray to exclude the possibiliy of bein pg.

Miss you all, but am reading to keep uptodate.

Good luck to lady today, hope they find plenty of beautiful eggs!!!
Waves to all and special welcome back to mrstrout!

Hi lemon

I sympathise with the one handed AF....very tricky! I had a cast on my wrist for 13 weeks a few years ago...nightmare!

I had my day 21 bloods done today. They said they weren't expecting me! Useful! I will get results wed. I got a smiley face on clearblue yesterday tho so it was a bit of a pointless exercise!

Morning all!

lemon the one-handedness sounds tricky!

I'm on CD10 here and about to start peeing on ov sticks. I have a busy week ahead. As well as it being sh@g week, we have an appointment at King's tomorrow morning, which I hope will be discussing treatment (i.e. IVF) and then a monitoring scan with private gynae on Weds to try to time my trigger shot (3rd time lucky hopefully, as the scans have been mistimed the last two cycles).

ladygee I've heard of other people having to have their final shots at weird and wonderful times. Injecting yourself at 2am is not very restful is it?

The IVF seems to have come around v quickly for a few of us.

Morning everyone, I've had a quiet few days on the TTC front, just been waiting for shag week (which is starting today), and to see if we'll get an appointment through with the fertility consultant now. I'm not sure if we should do every 2 days this month, or try the abstaining method again. I feel a bit more pressure after the HSG to get a BFP, but also aware that this could be a dud month just because the egg is on the wrong side.

Fatima very exciting for you, I hope the injections get easier each day.
Lady good luck today with EC, it must have been very strange staying up so late for an injection, though I think I'd have just set an alarm and gone to bed at the normal time.
Gin sounds like the clinic really wants sign ups without competition, I think it's a good idea to look at a few other places though, even if you end up going back to them. I hope you get the money plans sorted out with DH, I'm sure his parents wouldn't mind helping, and you can always pay them back with similar interest as you would a loan. You may get lots of questions and expectations from them though, so it's worth thinking it through, and maybe talking to them about it.
Lemon oh no! I hope you feel better soon. You shouldn't really be in pain should you? I thought you'd have enough painkillers to stop you from feeling it. Being in constant pain is a real drain on your energy.
Izzy is this your first day 21 bloods? I thought they were meant to be done at about 7DPO? Maybe book another appointment for the end of the week to make sure you get a useful result?
Euro I hope the appointments go well, fingers crossed you get the right timing this month!

Hi everybody

izzy I had my 7dpo blood tests this morning. Results on Wednesday like you.

Shame you think the timing is off though. How far in advance do you have to book your blood tests - can you wait till you get the smiley face and then book it for a week after that? Ours is a walk in centre luckily so I can just wait for the +ve opk and then go a week later.

The clinic somehow "lost" my progesterone result from the last lot of 7dpo tests (so still don't know if I am ovulating) which is why I am doing them again. And I looked at DH's SA results properly the other day, turns out his "normal forms" are v low (3%). So feel a bit like we've taken two steps backwards since GP said both of those were fine .

fatima well done on the injections, I know I would be a total wuss. lady good luck for the egg collection!

Gin your post made me look up mild IVF. It sounds great especially for "unexplained" infertility where in theory there is ovulation etc. Hope you get funding sorted somehow.

lemon poor you! It sounds miserable, especially with AF to boot. Sending you bone knitting thoughts.

euro sorry for my ignorance but what is a trigger shot? is it related to the clomid/letrozole? [sp]

mrsden did your SIL call in the end? Bizarre behaviour to email and text a scan pic... even if she doesn't know you're ttcing.

pout I like the pee stick in pocket identification idea! I tend to have an OPK somewhere on my person during ov week, maybe that will do...?

hello, I don't post often, more just lurk. Good luck stasi I am also wondering how many times I should try to get in this window. Another pregnancy annoucement from a couple who only got married last year. Thankfully by email so no one was around to see my distinct lack of joy. I think I am going back to the doctor if no BFP this cycle again. I am desperately in need of a job and we have have zero liquidity buffer. Surely sod's law dictates I get pregnant now?

Morning and a quick welcoming wave for freedom.

How did EC go lady?
How is stimming, fatima?
And how was your IVF appointment, euro?

How's the rest?

Pain is generally fine, just learned that now it is much better during the day, I still need to remember to take plenty pain killers, as the nights are rough, if I have not enough in the system . Lesson learned and that helps.

Big wave to all of you!!

Morning ladies.

My IVF appointment was fine. We start next cycle, all being well.

mini the trigger shot is part of the superovulation programme I am trying. Basically it is clomid/letrozole for 5 days at the start of the cycle, then a monitoring scan to see how things are doing just prior to ov (which we have managed to mistime both cycles so far) and then a trigger shot of hormones which should force all decent sized eggs to be released. The idea behind it is to get out 2 or 3 eggs to give the sperm more targets. It doesn't have great results in women who ovulate by themselves but I was happy to try it for a few cycles prior to IVF. This will be our third (and probably last) cycle of it.

ah, that makes sense, thanks euro.

fatima ? no real side effects with the FSH, just pretty bloated and uncomfortable. The day before EC was the worst. It came round really quick but I only had 9 days of stimming, which I think is the minimum.

stasi ? my original plan was to set my alarm but I panicked and had visions of the alarm not waking me up!

gin ? sorry you had a mixed weekend, I hope you and DH sort the money side of things out.

lemons ? hope AF is easing and you?re coping ok with just one hand in use. Take it easy and keep stocked up on the painkillers - I learnt that same lesson last night as the drugs from the hospital started to wear off in the middle of the night. Luckily DH had put paracetamols by the bed!

euro ? Good news about your IVF starting next cycle. It sounds like you are ready now? I only spotted your other post about the appt this morning, sorry I wasn?t quick enough to be of help. Do you know if you?ll be on a long or short protocol?

Hi freedom ? not sure if I?ve missed posts from you before, sorry if I have. How long have you been trying?

Thanks for all your lovely messages for yesterday. It went as well as it could. They collected 8 eggs and hubby?s sperm sample was vastly improved - so much so that the embryologist was considering not doing ICSI but she stuck with the plan. That in itself has given us both a real boost.

So today they called to say that 6 of the eggs were mature enough to inject and 4 have gone on to fertilise normally. Now hoping and praying that those 4 continue to grow into healthy little embryos by tomorrow and they will then let me know whether transfer will be Thursday or Saturday. More waiting!!

I was so nervous about EC and did start to panic about it yesterday morning as I've never really been in hospital as a patient. But I have never been treated so well. The staff were fabulous all day. And I highly recommend sedation, I didn?t feel, hear or know about a thing. The last thing I heard was the rather nice looking anaesthetist saying he was going to give me a nice cocktail of drugs. When I woke up, apparently I?d been chatting away to the nurse about my sister?s baby and shopping for shoes and handbags ? very random indeed!!

ladyg i'm glad all went well yesterday and fingers crossed for your lucky 4!! It does help if the staff are good looking :)

euro it is good news about your IVF starting next cycle.

I hope all you other ladies are well, I've finally got some antibiotics and I'm waiting for AF to show up so we can get back to it :)

lady 4 fertilised is a really good result! I'm glad the EC wasn't too bad. how did you feel afterwards? Did you take the day off?

I'm on long protocol. My clinic usually gives you the Pill from the beginning of the cycle and then the downregging drugs from day 21 but I am skipping the Pill part because I have suffered migranes on it in the past and although I was happy to take it, they said it wasn't necessary.

I just felt really groggy yesterday, it took me a whole to come round from the sedation. Now that the drugs have worn off from the clinic, I feel bruised and battered down below but nothing that paracetamol and a hot water bottle doesn't help with.

We both took the day off as the clinic is over an hour away - we set off at 11.30am and were there until after 5pm in the end. They also say you need a 'responsible adult' with you until the morning after and there's a whole list of things I can't do until Wednesday, including working, driving and, bizarrely, lifting a kettle?!?

So, on doctor's orders, I'm not working today and I'm glad because my head is still foggy. I've technically got the rest of the week off too but will be doing bits and bobs from home, just couldn't face doing anything client facing.

By the grammar and missing words in my post, I think it's safe to say there's still some of that cocktail swishing round my system!

Also forgot to say thank you lisa and euro

When will your day 21 be euro?

Lady I remember being told to use nothing electrical after my sedation, including the kettle. I just saw it as an excuse to be waited on by my DH, who takes these things very seriously.
I think it's something to do with old people, their coordination and strength can both be affected by the drugs, so they just ban it for everyone.
4 fertilised is a good result I think, though I don't know much about IVF really. It's amazing news about your DH's SA improvements, have you been doing anything specific to improve his results?

freedom thanks, I think we're going to do the every other day method again. Really I should be doing even more than this, as I currently wait until CD10/12 before even starting, as I've got a fairly consistent ov date of CD16. We're both just being lazy though, so next month we'll be SWI from right after AF till right before she arrives or just until a temp change. I don't want to stress DH out, but he still seems to enjoy SWI so it shouldn't be too hard for him. Just means he has to come to bed at the same time as me, which is unusual for him.

Euro wow, next cycle. Are you looking forward to it, or feeling nervous?

lady day 21 of next cycle will be in late March, probably. I can't start this cycle as I have already taken Letrozole and am approaching ovulation.

stasi I felt a bit emotional this morning when we had to say whether or not we would go ahead with IVF. It felt a bit like admitting failure, if you know what I mean? Which I know is crazy, but I just feel disappointed in my body. All of the signs are there that I should be getting PG (ovuating, hormone levels good, tubes open, hubby's tests fine) but it is just not happening. I find it very frustrating. I wish there was something to fix, if that makes sense. And I am concerned that if my body is chucking out embryos how is IVF going to help me? I asked that at the end of our appointment (phrased slightly more delicately!) and he answered that IVF gets good results for people with unexplained subfertility.

That aside, I do feel ready for it now. I didn't when we were referred for IVF last November, but time has helped me get my head around it, and we have had a chance to try Letrozole combined with the immunology treatment for my NK cells, and that hasn't worked, so I feel like I have tried other options. We are also a few more cycles down the line and two more of my friends are pregnant so I just want to get on with it now.

I've just realised this could be our last cycle of pointless shagging swi. Crikey. It'll just be drugs and petri dishes doing their thing from here on in.