TTC/Pregnancy on Prednisolone or similar part 5

[suemays]

A positive thread for all those diagnosed with High or Very High NK Cells and looking to start TTC or already pregnant on Prednisolone and/or Intralipid treatment.

Newcomers very much welcome!

Part 3 www.mumsnet.com/Talk/conception/1348773-TTC-pregnancy-on-Prednisolone-or-similar-part-3

Part 2 here www.mumsnet.com/Talk/conception/1323594-TTC-pregnancy-on-Prednisolone-or-similar-part-2

Part 1 here www.mumsnet.com/Talk/conception/1236324-TTC-pregnancy-on-Prednisolone-or-similar

I've never been pg, duggs. Well, I might have had a chemical back in 2010 before we were trying properly (I had pinky blood and a weird dizzy feeling that I have never had before or since) but by the time I had pysched myself up and bought a pergnancy test I was bleeding and it came back negative. In 36 years I have never seen a positive pregnancy test! The only test that have come back abnormal is for NK cells. Otherwise blood hormone levels confirm ov, my tubes are clear and Mr euro is producing swimmers (although not at super sperm levels!).

Hello everyone. I'm new to this thread. I'm on my 4th pregnancy (5 wks + 2)after 3 MCs. I am with a private clinic (ARGC) who have been brilliant so far. My concern is that I had my natural killer cell count back on Monday and it was 24.7, which is double what it should be. So yesterday they gave me an IVIG. Has anyone else had experience of high a high NKC count? If yes I would love to hear from you.

My other question is about Clexane. I am on 1 injection a day and have done 6 days so far. Yesterdays injection really hurt afterwards and I now have a large horrible purple bruise. All the others bruised a bit but nothing like this. Anyone else have any experience of this? I just wonder if I'm having a crazy reaction or not!

hey dunnit welcome.. are you having IVF then as you are with a clinic? I am not sure about the answers to your Qs but one of us will know....euro I see so IVF starts in April then ?

Welcome dunnit! I haven't got an answer to either of your questions, but I'm sure others will be along before long with heaps of helpful info :)

Good luck mercator

Lurking for news from battery too.

Thanks for all your thoughts. I know I'm really lucky to be able to take more than a couple of months off - but for me I really really wanted to have 10 months at home with the baby. I started working when DS was 8 months and it was such a wrench leaving him. He wasn't fully weaned and I hated not being in charge of his feeding and sleeping routine, yet having to deal with the fall out at night. Also, I just feel so cheated that I've worked hard to save up this money in order to spend this time looking after the baby we've tried so so hard to have...anyway...I shall stop moaning for now as I don't want to seem ungrateful for what I do have.

oh and welcome dunnit I think battery is on Clexane, hopefully she'll report back soon with good news and be able to advise you on how to inject without so much bruising. Something about not rubbing the area afterwards I think. No experience of IVIG though - is that similar to intralipids?

Welcome dunnit it's a shame u find urself here with us but were a good group and will help with anything we can ! X

Just going NHS classes ari. Breast feeding class was fab I learnt so much !!! Plus was a few women there I knew and met a couple who are going to the class tonight so I don't feel as scared now !

Still lurking for scan news x

Welcome Dunnit, I haven't been on clexane but have been through a few rounds of ivf so have had plenty of bruising myself. I was advised by the clinic to warm the area up first and found this made the needle go in easier and therefore less bruising. Alos try putting some arnica gel or cream helps the bruising a bit

Diggi sorry about your dh's buisness and having to cut your maternity leave short.

Hello all! Waves to Pebbles too!

Just a quickie from the lobby, am trying to research and write an article whilst i am here. Typical - my work has been slow until I got here and now I actually have to do something!

Digi sorry to hear about your family work situation too. I know exactly what it is like being self-employed. Full of highs and lows. I gather you can't take any more time off as you will need your salary? I hope DH's business picks up a bit - you just never know what happens. I will have no maternity leave (ie paid) but hopefully DH's business (again self-employed) will be enough to keep us going. I will have to get back out and work though as soon as pos!

Dunnit welcome to the thread and sorry for your losses. I think most of us won't know what your levels mean as Mr S (who a lot of us are seeing) has different ways of classifying things. I do know however that I have some of the highest levels he sees, I am in the top 5% of people he sees is in the clinic, so that has got to be pretty high. I am currently 15 weeks pregnant and counting (and crossing fingers). IVIG is something he rarely does as it is expensive and also human blood products but I know Dr Beer's clinic do it and it might be something others can do (such as other new thread friend who has a soya allergy) and it is meant to have exactly the same success rates as intralipids. So you are probably in good hands!

Well, here we are - arrived at the light at the end of the tunnel. I got the doppler out after the flight just to check :) Got to go, probably going to spend the day by the pool :)

Big waves to everyone else xxxx

Afternoon ladies. Am hoping for a bit of advice. If trying to conceive whilst on prednisolone, do you also need to go for immunes testing? I don't really understand it all and have been told by my clinic that prednisolone alone will suffice - any shared experices would be hugely appreciated. Thanks in advance.

It sounds like you are having the treatment without the test first? As there is so much controversy over the testing (different drs test different markers, some think blood testing is rubbish, etc) I can see some logic in clinics going down the road of trying Pred without testing you if other factors suggest there might be an immunology issue. Personally I hate taking drugs of any kind and so wanted to be tested. I was and now have a reason for taking the drugs!

Hi pocket1 ... well I suppose it depends. What dose of pred are your clinic advising you to take? If you have immune issues, depending on how high the levels are often depends on what size dose pred you then need to take. For example, some of us who have been diagnosed with High NK cells may have to take 25mg pred from OV right through pregnancy until the point they wean off. Some of us who have been diagnosed with Very High NK cells have to take 25mg from OV then up it to 40mg from BFP until we wean off at however-many-weeks (9? 12? I forget!). So if someone had an undetected immune issue which may be (for argument's sake) in the Very High NK cells region), and were only to take 5mg pred, that may not be a high enough dose.

Like I say, it depends :)

There are also additional drugs/ drips etc that some of us take pocket1

Personally as euro says I wouldn't take anything or guess at what dose to take without medical advice. I'd say follow your clinic's advice or seek alternative advice or testing if you're not happy with theirs. HTH.

Any news from today's scannees yet??

I have scan news! Sorry it is so late in posting. I had a bit of a nightmare at the clinic - I waited an hour before I had to go and ask why I hadn't been seen yet - only to be told that according to their calculations I was only 10+5, and therefore would not be scanned today. I assured them that their dates were out and I was 11+5, so I did eventually get a scan. All was good, measuring 11+6 :) very active little one, and nuchal scan was good too. I was there for 3 hours!!

I also saw my consultant who wants to scan me at 16, 20, 28, 32 and 36 weeks. He also has referred me to the combined pregnancy/haematology clinic for my sticky blood. When I said I was on steroids and sort of laughed and asked when I was weaning off, and then said the steroids were 'neither here nor there'. Whatever. So I am happy but exhausted. I was a nervous wreck by the time I was scanned.

dunnit I inject with clexane. Sometimes I really bruise and sometimes not. Tips - don't inject on the trouser line, don't rub after and put the needle in quickly and inject slowly. Sometimes it stings and sometimes it doesnt .... it's luck I think!!

Hello one and all, I hope you are all ok - any news from mercator?

Great news, battery. Really happy for you. Sounds as though you've had a nerve wracking day.

Thanks for all your wise words. I was prescribed 5mg of prednisolone - I had IVF so i took it from the early days through to my BFP. Sadly at 7 weeks there was a problem so i'm back to square one. So i'm doing a bit of homework before i go for round 2!

I havent had any immunes testing at all, was told by clinic that prednisolone would help with immunes - but it doesn't sound like i'm on a high enough dose IF i need it.

Thanks so much for all your help - i clearly need to invesitate further!

Best of luck to all of you
xxx

Hello Free hope you are not working too hard and having a lovely time putting your feet up by the pool. Wish I was there with you as is b**y freezing here!!

Fab news about your scan Battery

Excellent news battery! Very very pleased to hear it all went well.

I must be the only one on here who has no further scans after 20 weeks.

pocket sorry to hear your last pregnancy didnt work out. Good luck with your next ivf cycle. You may not have immune issues and it could be that the argc just prescribed it as a routine part of their ivf treatment. Steroids are a wonder drug and have many great benefits (just a shame there are also many downsides to them).

free in case you're lurking - as a freelancer you are entitled to Maternity Allowance. Look it up on the directgov website - but you get £123 a week for 9 months I think. It's what I'll be claiming. Not much to live on compared to a working wage but it's better than nothing.

duggs good luck with the iui this month, when does the turkey baster happen?

ari any progress on the spotting?

Mercator hope today went well - thinking of you.

Great news Battery! Sounds like an exhausting day. It sounds like you?re on a similar scan programme to me. I have to say I felt quite reassured when they told me I?d be having so many.

Dunnit ? I was on Clexane until this week and found, like the others, that sometimes I bruised really badly and sometimes not. Likewise with the pain. I suppose it must be something to do with the nerve-endings. Apparently there is a Youtube video giving advise about how to inject, but I was advised by the pharmacist to do it like Battery says, so haven?t actually looked. I think I gradually got more confident with the injections as time went on.

Digi Sorry to hear about your mat leave situation. It must be really frustrating when you?ve been saving hard. Will you be going back part-time or full-time?

How are you Mercator?

Free ? hope the pool is gorgeous!

Yay battery, absolutely fabulous scan news!

Still waiting to hear from merc, and wildly jealous of free's wonderful holiday :)

Spotting continues apace, and cramps indicate AF should probably hit me tomorrow. Much as expected.

fantastic news battery im so pleased for you, good news about the extra scans as well, the more often they do it the better it is for the mentalling !

i was thinking about natural killer cells the other day and what free was saying about the uk seems to be behind the times, does anyone know if we are born with this ? and how come some women had a baby without help and then couldnt? my mum had 4 miscarriages one between each one of her kids, she remembers her doc giving her injections when she spotted for a few of us but not what was in the injections . also i was thinking back on the time i had a vaccine for heb b, i was told you are supposed to have 3 boosters but after 1 i had high levels of antibodies and didnt need anymore, this was at least 15 yrs ago, and when i did nursing ( only did a year ) my professor told me i had very high levels of white blood cells when we were testing our own blood. was a teenager then.

YEY battery great news

You raise a fab point pico , r we born with this condition??? Something I'm surprised I never thought about but am now intrigued !!!

Sorry about AF Ari, Jan is a crap month for anything though hopefully Feb will bring better news.
Hooray for Battery's scan, what a relief! And a good follow-up system in place too.
Lots of stuff on news about pregnant women and babies needing vitamin D supplements. I stopped taking mine at 12 weeks as per protocol, wondering if I should have now? (There is some in pregnacare too I know)

Great news battery
pico Mr S told me killer cells are something we acquire - like arthritis.
You do wonder what triggers it though?!
Happy holidays free

xxx

Morning ladies -

pico It seems pregnancy/giving birth can trigger raised NK cells. I asked Mr S how come I had had my DD with no problems, but I did notice within a week or so of having her my psoriasis had got worse and appeared on my knees where I had only previously had this on my elbows (and this has never gone). Psoriasis is an auto-immune condition, it seems. Mr S said that being pregnant with my DD almost certainly triggered the raise in NK cells, and also triggered my hypothyroidism - again something very common when you've had a baby. He told me (and I've read elsewhere since) that this is why you hear of a lot of women who have had one child with no difficulty, but then cannot have a second. My problem exactly!

igggi well my due date for the baby that died in July would have been next Tuesday, he/she would have been a sort of 50th birthday present for my OH on Thursday, so I'm rather thinking February is kinda cr@p too although I'm trying not to be sad about it. Still, trying to be positive, maybe that little baby that never got to be will send me the baby that will be, this month, instead. Gotta try to hope, right?

/waves to everyone