TTC 10 plus months, part 6

[mrsden]

A friendly, supportive thread for those of us who are taking a bloody long little longer time than average to conceive.

Welcome to starlat

Thanks for the warm welcome!!

Good morning ladies!

Well today I have woken up to a lovely decent sized yellow spot on my arm, weird lumpyness on my face oh and some EWCM (go lady bits go!). This makes me think that there may be some merit in the brown diet and that the spots are signs of the detox working?

Anyway, arm exfoliation and personal observations aside, I'd like to welcome sarlat. All the very best for your IVF treatment, hopefully success will be yours soon. Sorry to hear of your bumpy journey so far. I've found so much support on here. It really is a very big emotional crutch at an otherwise very dark time.

Euro I have definitely been placed on the low GI diet. Just with some modifications to help with the cranky old hormones. After cleanse comes re balancing. However, during cleanse despite excessive pooping and yellow arm spots, I am definitely feeling good. Much more in control of my emotions / temper and can now differentiate between real stress / hunger anger / being tired / genuine irritability with my mum, OH and adverts. Before, it all kinda mushed together into the same irritable / teary / angry feeling making me think and possibly others that I was a little bit unhinged . I think it's just eating regularly rather than the foods I'm eating because I'm not sure I would see this change in 1 - 2 weeks. Still what do I know, eh?

Critter That's great that you're finding Dr G helpful. If you are investing in a juicer, I would go for the masticating (ooo sounds a bit rude ) type as they yield more juice and can cope with wheatgrass and leafy greens better (advice from the man along the road who makes juices in his health shop). My MIL brought me a centrifugal type and it's ok in that it juices, but not brill in that it's a bastard to clean and I don't think it gets the most out of the veg. However, she did say it was a cheapy one to get us going and to see if we liked juicing, so I'm planning to upgrade next week to a new, shiny one of these www.amazon.co.uk/Matstone-Ivory-Juicer-Labour-Warranty/dp/B005HVQ59M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1336033675&sr=8-1

Well I had a pig of a day with grumpy clients yesterday, so I need to brace myself for the day ahead. Waves to all :)

Just a quick hello from me and to say pout can't believe you've got a broid that they didn't remove . Hooray for speeded up appointment wine, a shiny womble will soon be yours!

I have my first appointment this afternoon, I'll report back later.

Sorry it's short, general waves to everyone

Good luck with your appointment this afternoon Nelly xx

Good luck nelly - be prepared to be asked if you shag 3 times a week

Detox will be worth it princess soon your skin will have post detox glow loveliness. Mine has a post retox feel today!

critter - i?m sure your little cousin is probably one of the most premature babies ever to survive. I find it extraordinary and amazingly uplifting especially as he is growing. I am sorry about what your mum went through. That sounds like a horrible journey but in a way marvellous that she can be there for you and at least be understanding of what you are going through. ?Eating her up? is such a good description of this process. so do you have insurance that covers you for all these investigations or do you have to fork out? I think it is very easy to kick yourself about not starting earlier or not coming off the pill sooner. I do believe though that we all would have gone through this anyway although i guess having that extra time to deal with it would be a bit more comforting.

And hiya sarlat - i meant to wish you all the best of luck with everything. Please do keep us posted as to how you get on. Have you had to down reg before you start stimming? Some of these phrases do send shivers up my spine but i guess i just have to get use to it! We are all here to hand hold with you

princess - am glad that your diet is making you feel better.

nelly - good luck with your appointment. Let us know how it goes.

Where has mrsd gone?

So does anyone know whether cheese can make you quite phlemgy? Really gross but i have been eating quite a lot of dairy this year ? yoghurt, cheese, butter but i have noticed for the past month i have been coughing up disgustingness. Sometimes so bad i start retching and i am wondering whether it?s cheese rather than yoghurt doing it - -also considered it?s TB from some unpasteruised milk i drank by mistake last month - - . I guess i should just give up and see what happens though but just wondering others ever had this problem.

Still here. There was a thread on MN about preemies a while ago, prompted be a tv prog I think that said it cost the NHS £10m/year to treat 23 week preemies. The prog was investigating (if that's a suitable word) whether it was fair/viable/reasonable. I read the thread which was highly emotive, and subsequently a blog of a MNetter who had 23 week olds that survived.

Made me cry a lot, but I don't know what I expected reading it!!

Googled. It was called "23 weeks. The price of Life". Didn't see the programme itself, just the MN fallout.

Afternoon everyone. Just popping in to say hi and see how you all are. Been reading along but you all dropped off my thread list so I thought I'd come post quickly.
Do you want a pg lurker still? Everyone over on the grad thread is doing well. Hope people here are too.

X.

Yes, joycep dairy is notorious for making you phlegmy. Interestingly since becoming dairy intolerant, I don't get geen snot when I have a cold, it runs clear.

Good luck nelly. wine bizarrely enough, I haven't been asked about swi at all yet. For all the drs know, we could be doing it up the wrong hole once a year.

Stacks I'm glad everyone on the grads thread is doing well. Hopefully some of us will swell its ranks sooner rather than later.

Joy dairy makes me snotty I think. Euro, if only that was where we'd been going wrong! Stacks please keep posting, often! I always feel very comforted by grad posts and like we are still in the baby making business together are you feeling pregnant?

Joycep I think dairy may be the new peas of the thread! I've heard that you should avoid dairy if you have a chest infection or cough as it encourages phlegm. Unless you have taken up smoking recently, I reckon your dairy is to blame for the lung bogies...
Euro at your comment about being asked about SWI. That made me snort out loud. My Nan made a comment a couple of years ago about how young people just don't have enough sex these days (I've no idea how she knows!). I would have been however, she's a bit of a saucy nan and we always used to find tights down the side of the sofa and lacy knickers and negligees hanging out to dry. Actually quite gross...
Stacks nice to hear it's all going well on the fertile side of the field How many weeks are you now? If you've been keeping up, it will be a while until I join you guys as I'm off SWI for the next 11 weeks. No 2ww for at least 3 - 4 months. You'll all have proper bumps and everything by then!
Nelly I have to avoid those sorts of programmes now. Too emotional! It must be v.difficult for the people making the decisions and horrific for new parents in a vulnerable and difficult place to challenge doctors to keep their baby safe and well. It makes me too worried about what may happen when if we finally do crack one out. Instead I watch Come Dine With Me and generally shout things like, "what a complete tosser" or "OH come here and look at this knob jockey" or we watch C4 stuff about nothing much ooh and Jezza K at lunch to keep it real and thank the lord (in a totally non religious way) that life is actually ok in the land of princess.
Well I have bought some of my outfit for the wedding at lunchtime. I've gone for a vintage yellow strapless jumpsuit (v.80s) with broderie anglaise along the top. I have a yellow jumper (in case it's cold) and just need a mask and some feathers to complete the wedding chicken look. I am already have pre-emptive regret about the pictures in years to come.........

nelly best of luck with your appointment. I just read some of the reviews of that programme online - wow, sounds like it would have been tough to watch. It is such a difficult subject, and it seems that every case throws up different challenges. The baby is actually a twin - the other twin was smaller and didn't make it.

joyce I too have heard that dairy encourages the production of mucus/phlegm a few times before. I love stinky, gooey cheese with a fervent passion, so it makes me sad that it's a culprit! I have a health insurance plan through my job that covers 90% of all medical costs, so I have to pay something, but not a huge amount so far. It also covers two rounds of IVF, should I have to go down that road.

princess thanks for the tip on the masticator and very interesting about the yellow arm spot! Great news about the EWCM too - that is fascinating. I'll be very interested to see how you get on. I am wondering whether I should take three months to take Agnus Castus and the other supplements, eat low GI, cut out dairy and just wait to see if my periods come back on their own, as Dr G suggests - and postponing the whole taking more progesterone, getting the hsg (not a lap and dye, I got that wrong) and asking Mr C to get his SA just yet. I feel slightly like I've leapfrogged the normal 'trying' period as I haven't been able to try properly because of the awol ovulation.

Waves to stacks - hope you're feeling chirpy and that all is going well with your pregnancy!

euro at the wrong hole!

wine I know what you mean about the thermometer. I wish I'd charted when I was in my late teens/very early twenties, pre-pill, so I had an idea of what a normal cycle would look like for me. I can't believe I didn't know anything about basal body temp rises and what EWCM meant until the age of 31. It feels a bit like when I was 7 and first heard about periods - the indignation and general feeling - as in, 'seriously? That's a pretty big piece of information, why did noone inform me about this earlier!'

Princess that wedding sounds, erm, wacky....

I don't want to pee on anyone's fireworks about non-dairy, but before you all start jumping on that bandwagon, remember I have been dairy free for the past decade! I am actually desperate to reintroduce it because there is a well known study that suggests that full fat dairy can actually be beneficial for some types of subfertility!
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6400171.stm

Critter I know what you mean! I can't believe that I had no idea that EWCM was a good thing. I used to be vaguely repulsed when I had strings of it. Now it has disappeared, I am desperate to see it again! I never noticed the pattern of when it came.

Hi all

I joined your thread last year and you were all so welcoming and supportive but I've fallen out of circulation for a while with work and medical overload. Hope you don't mind me resurfacing.

As it turns out the advice garnered on this thread was pretty invaluable - who needs Dr Google when you have the combined knowledge of MN?? it turns out that the group's assessment that my symptons sounded like PCOS even though I don't display all the classic symptoms (have low BMI, thankfully clear skin and my moustache is the same as the next girl's ) turned out to be accurate even though it took the medical profession a bit longer to work this out...although they did ask me about SWI and clarified about holes euro!! I'm currently taking estrogen to give me a 'perfect cycle' so they can do a post coital sperm and mucus test.. if anything was to put you in the mood for lurve it is that name...

Agree with wine and critter on the 'I wish I'd learned that earlier' point. The whole thing is like one great big physiology , chemistry and biology lesson but I'm 35 and a proper grown up and all that so I feel really stupid. During ultrasound this week the Dr had to point out my ovaries about 6 times before I could work out where they were " they are the things that look like a pomegranate chopped in half" was her final desperate attempt..." and the seed things...they are your follicles that are not behaving in an orderly fashion" who would have thought it?

Euro I don't think your peeing on fireworks. I've also read how great dairy is for most people. I'm just following what my nutritionist is telling me and there does seem to be a body of thought that dairy is bad for those with PCOS. Doesn't mean that everyone should go cutting it out tho!! Oo and there's plenty of dairy waiting for you in France. Le stinky stinky fromage!! Still v. !!

Flamingo nice name! We haven't been acquainted I've only been here since March (but trying for way longer). Hope all your tests etc go well.

Critter oh your poor cousin. They must be heartbroken. Some people get all of the rotten luck don't they.

Well, I'm off for a nice little Elemis facial now (let's try and see if we can't encourage more spoteroons!)

Have a nice evening y'all :)

I'm back. Some some and a bit

So had height/weight/bp checked. Then chat about history, periods, cycles, SWI (though not which hole!) and then they sprung dildo-cam on me. Was a bit shocked but pleased to get going. Not sore, tiny but of pressure at one point, but all normal, good lining, ovaries look good, he thinks I OV'd from RHS this month. All totally normal hence the .

So went to talk to the consultant who said he'll book in an HSG but so far it's looking like we will fall into unexplained. Couldn't see tubes on scan which is good cos you'd only see them If they were dodgy (inflamed?). So then he started talking about IVF which I expected, but dropped the bombshell that my FSH was 11. So that is obviously sub-optimal, no time to waste, and a couple of years worse than my age would suggest . The reason I am is my GP told me my results were all normal. That was last June. If I'd know I would have harassed Mr Nelly to get his second SA done quicker, and probably gone private. Meanwhile we've wasted a year with ageing eggs.

Am very and don't know what to think or feel. It's a beautiful evening so off out to hobble but will be back later to catch up with everyone properly.

Nelly mine isn't far off yours at 9.5 and I was also BUT I think I read every page on google about fsh and 11 isn't so bad LOADS of people conceive naturally on those levels and respond well on ivf with much higher. I've struggled with knowing my eggs are older than they should be especially as there is no history of early menopause and both grans had babies in their 40s and my mum had my brother at 34. It's an odd one. But most women don't know their fsh! It's horrible it becomes about numbers and agility of sperm etc it's like being made to do an exam that no one else has to do. It's that your gp didn't say. They said mine were fine too even though they are borderline. Hope hobbling helps blow the cobwebs away. You WILL get there. Hugs.

My gp said all my bloods were normal but when I saw the consultant she said my 21 day progesterone was low at 13 and could suggest I was not ovulating. I wish they would get their facts straight. The last thing we all need is false/incorrect information!

becks i think that is quite low for your progesterone, do you temp??

nelly the reason your GP would have said they were fine besides just being a git is that they fall between the numbers so as far as they are concerned its 'normal' although looking at the chart it is just above 10??? Were these day 3 or day 21 tests, my GP said mine were fine , I did wonder if higher or lower was better, my fsh on day 3 was 5.4 and on day 21 was 1.8, think i'm middle of the road would be nice if someone took the time to explain this all in a calm rational manner.
I chat to a lady on a different site and her fsh is way higher, nearer the 20 mark and she still managed to get preggy so don't worry. Hope you had fun hobbling

sorry sarlat i spelt your name wrong earlier

welcome flamingo i can never work out what is what on the scans, don't think i've actually seen my ovaries to be honest, I just agreed with the consultant at my last scan, I did say to the nurse that I didn't know what I was looking at behind the consultants back

well off to vote tonight, now which numpty should I choose.......

Muddy - I understand the awaful feelings associated with getting some new / bad news about results. I was devastated for weeks after learning about my bad tubes. But I agree with what others have said. People don't normally know these things about themselves. We do - and then dwell on it / take it out of context.. Big hugs!!

Joyce - I second what others have said about diary being mucus forming. But I do believe in balance and would be inclined to think that some fats / dairly do help with egg quality. What about swapping to small amounts of goats and sheeps milk products - the molecules are easier for the body to break down. Also, omega 3/6 is good for egg quality.

princess - hi and thanks for the encouragement. Your diet sounds fascinating. Do keep us updated with all the fun / gross bits!!!

I'm on the long protocol for IVF. Main issue is to bypass tubes but they recently spotted a slightly large right ovary which indicated borderline PCOS. No symptoms and they are not concerned (probably not my main issue) as bloods all ok but I think they take this in to account with monitoring hyper egg stimulation. Started down regging on 25th April - was 1 injection of prostap. My scan yesterday has shown that it has worked as the lining is non existant and ovaries asleep. Start stimmining tomorrow (menapur daily at 225 mil or whatever the measurement is). Expected to have egg collection week on 14th May.

So far no extreme side effects. I have suprised myself so far with how I have coped - but still time to lose it.

Waves to everyone!

sarlat Fingers crossed for you

lisa that is low. I don't temp and have never had a positive ovulation test. That's why the consultant thought I was not ovulating. But ...... On the scan this week I had a 20.3mm follicle and nurse said I was due to ovulate within about 24 hours???? Who knows. I'm thinking maybe I was better not knowing about the follicle as I can all ready feel that I'm getting my hopes up for this month!

becks my consultant told me that a follie needs to be around 18mm to have a egg that can be used in it so I would say that you do :) you might ovulate but just have a low progesterone level, temping is good although a pain in the bum literally. Have they offered you progesterone to take, I can send you some of my bullets