TTC: Pregnancy on Prednisolone or similar part 7

[ChoccyPud]

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!

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/conception/1419032-TTC-Pregnancy-on-Prednisolone-or-similar-part-6

Part 5 www.mumsnet.com/Talk/conception/1391787-TTC-Pregnancy-on-Prednisolone-or-similar-part-5

Part 4 www.mumsnet.com/Talk/conception/1366323-TTC-Pregnancy-on-Prednisolone-or-similar-part-4

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

Welcome back Olives, just in time for the Jubilee weekend! :)

kittens I don't remember what laxative peeps were talking about but Fibogel works well, as does prune juice! (tastes foul, but it does work)

Well I saw Mr S today, who pronounced himself duly pleased with my follie scan, but while I was there I asked him again about getting OH tested and this time he agreed it would be worth doing, since I've just had another chemical pg. He's agreed to getting DNA fragmentation as well as SA; I also asked if we could get the chromosome testing between OH and me done and he's agreed that would be a good idea too. He thinks that insurance won't cover OH getting sperm testing done, but I'm going to ask them anyway since it is a possible factor in my having miscarried so many times. I'm hoping they will, since by the sound of it just the two sperm tests are £££ and OH won't go for it if we have to pay lots - Mr S said in the region of £1K, although he said they're currently discussing getting the tests done in Spain instead of here as it's much cheaper and he thought better. Those tests won't happen until I go to see him next time, so I still have upwards of another month to wait.

Hope everyone's looking forward to a nice long weekend.

Hey Ari, well that sounds like it might be at least some positive news. Follies looking good is a good thing. As is further testing in the light of what has happened to you recently. Hope your insurance covers it. My experience of insurance is that it has never covered sod all! Interesting about the testing in Spain.

Kittens I don't remember a specific brand but have heard about fibrogel. I had had it particularly bad at various times but it has always righted itself just before I have gone to see the doctor for any tablets or potions. Pre-pregnancy I did take Dulcolax (or similar) but these anything that might cause spasms is not recommended in pregnancy. So just in case you are probably best going for the stool softener types. Ah, the conversations we have on here...

Welcome back Olives! Glad to hear you had a great time. Am rather jealous of your lovely long holiday.

Hope you all have something nice planned for the weekend. I have rather a crazy one ahead with nipping down to Brighton for the Fatboy Slim party tomorrow immediately after my first NCT class. It ends at 4pm and then we have to get three trains to get to the stadium. Not sure if we will spend the night with friends in Brighton or get the three trains back to London yet but on Sunday at lunch time my brother arrives for 4 days. He and his girlfriend live in LA and want the huge - This is London Tour so I will no doubt be very busy. Luckily our upstairs neighbour (we are in a Victorian conversion) has kindly said they can stay in their spare room as we are sitting here amongst boxes and can barely swing a gerbil.

Anyway - so action packed weekend for one of my increasing size! Wish the weather was looking a bit better for all the jubilee celebrations.

Kittens - lactulose is what you want. You can buy it over the counter. It's a stool softener rather than a laxative so a bit gentler. (lovely!)

Absolutely zero chance of me being pregnant free. Wasn't allowed to be for the hysteroscopy. I have been munching prunes like nobodies business and I'm still making slow progress. I think what's happened is all that poking about close to my bowel has brought on my IBS and caused everything to go into huge spasm. I'm a bit scared to take anything else at the moment as I have a really early start making up 6 people in the morning with the bride suddenly deciding to turn up half an hour later than scheduled so I really won't be in a position to rush off and be absent for any extended period. Especially as it will involve using the one bathroom that everyone else will be wanting to use to get ready . Have just taken a Mebeverine so we'll see what that does. Yes, Lactulose was the one I was thinking of though. I've written it down in case I'm still suffering tomorrow.

ari, good that your scan showed some good follicles. Wow, that's a lot of money for SA tests! I think the one we had was about £100. I guess it's the fragmentation one that costs a bomb. Not sure why we've not had that one, especially with the two known chromosome pregnancies, and the possibility of that being the cause of some of the others.

Kittens hoping you don't have the double-purge effect with the prunes that I always have!
Its very interesting to hear about sperm tests, it never seemed very 'fair' that no tests were carried out on the men.

Free don't forget to send me the link to your photos, I'd love to see them. I thought about having some done when I was preg with DS but never got around to it. Don't be wearing yourself out too much this weekend - does sound busy!

Ari Appt sounds very positive today so that's good news - fingers crossed for insurance covering the costs!

Kittens Dried apricots help when I need to get things moving!

Hi ladies the sperm DNA fragmentation tests my DH had at the fertility and gynaecology academy dr g was £220 or something let me check x

£335 to be exact from the SCSA if u r googling it!

It is a strange state of affairs that I have logged on today to check on the state of Kittens' bowels!

igggi, i'm touched! All seems to be back to normal. Quite strange, I ate loads of prunes and nothing "dramatic" ensued, thankfully!

I always found prunes/prune juice to work quite gently for me. Wish something could be done about the taste though!

duggs interesting about the sperm DNA cost, Mr S was quite sure it was close to £1k :(. He mentioned it was a rip-off .. wonder where they're done for him then?

I actually love the taste of prunes. I'd eat them more if they didn't have "consequences".

I stocked up on prune juice when I thought it would be needed. Hope it has a long use by date... As you lot can take a fair bit of detail, for me things are still rather explosive in that department at the mo. Reckon the IBS has kicked off with all the stress and shite(!). I often have to rush off rather than having any sort of warning. Fortunately not at work so far!!

Had a lovely day at the Derby today. Saw HM etc. And had a couple of winners and an each way win. DH and I do it every year him in morning suit and all. Our Big Day Out :)

Hope everyone is well/as well as can be and that you're all having a lovely long weekend.

Hey Choccy, how was your holiday? (did I miss that somewhere further back?). How are you feeling at the mo? I know all about the various extremes of IBS. Not fun . I find that Coedine Phosphate works quite well. Better than Loperamide which blocks me up for days. You could try one co-codamol, which is only 8mg of coedine and see how that works?

free you may be right re thyroids, i just looked it up. will book appt next week and see. thanks

Hope everyone has great bowel activity over the weekend ! I was at an NTC class all day yesterday and then hot footed it down to Brighton to the Fatboy Slim gig. Wild n crazy pregnant girl up until 2am again. I guess I might as well do it now whilst I can. Dh and I were keenly vetting NCT group to see who might be potential 'baby friends'. Never had any of those before and don't really know many people nearby (apart from PQ now of course) either baby or non-baby related. Fatboy Slim was good, but it is a huge shame about the weather.

Pico glad you are going to get your thyroid tested. Make sure they give you the exact numbers AND also get the numbers from your last test if you can so myself (and I think there are a couple of other thyroid bods on here too) and any others can look them over.

Right, my brother and gf have arrived from LA so off to do some suitably London things in the rain. Hope everyone is ok xx

Holiday was great thanks Kittens - basically a week spent sitting reading by the pool! Day out on a yacht though one day when we saw a family of dolphins who swam along with the boat, riding the bow wave. Amazing.

I've hit a bit of a slump coming back though. Although it was a nice relaxing break, nothing's changed or moved on. I've had a bit of a cry in the car to and from work, weirdly, and a couple of meltdowns in the evenings. I haven't really felt I've got anything to say so will mostly lurk until I perk up a bit. Time will help I guess. dh says I should try to stay away from researching all the things we might be able to do, and give myself a total break from thinking about it.

Oh, I have an assessment telephone appointment with the counselling service so they can ascertain what kind of counselling I need. In three weeks' time .

Oh choccy sorry to hear that post holiday blues not helped by this ridiclious rain. I must say Jane knight at zita west clinic has been fabulous. I am also seeing the nutritionalists there. DH is off there on Saturday with his new fragmented sperm diagnosis to see what else he needs to do. His red wine drinking will have to be cut right down. I must say I feel better knowing dr s killer cells treatment did its job and got my cells into normal levels and the fragmented sperm at current levels I have less than 10% chance of pregnancy carrying to term. Even with chg normal
Embryos the fragmented sperm kicks in later after day 3 so we didn't stand much of a chance really. Hopefully lifestyle changes can help. I am a little miffed we've wasted almost a year thinking nk cells was our only issue when it was probably a by- product of the miscarriages caused by the damaged DNA sperm. We'll never know for sure but for £335 test I don't understand why it is not recommended more frequently. Anyway all retrospective now and I don't feel it is all my "fault". Bit of focus on DH and less on me for next few months. Can I gently ask choccy has your DH been tested ? Not just basic sperm test but DNA fragmentation? Is just a thought. Anyway watching the rain in London with the flotilla. Wow is it really June?

And forgot to say how fabulous and radiant you look free!

Hello Ladies!

I have just spent ages trying to catch up with you news.

Congratulations iggi, Comedy and Coconut! Hope you are enjoying your beautiful babies.

pebbles and ari I'm gutted for you and sending you my love and hugs. x

Sue Everything's crossed this is the one.

I have had first chemo 10 days ago and it was fine. Not too sick. The cold cap to try and save hair was bearable. Head a bit tingly so we'll have to see whether it's going to work or not. I really can't believe I have been so normal really. Just have to take a lay down every now and then. but life carries on as usual. i am jsut getting a couple of mouth ulcers now but this is the week that my immune system is v low. So hubby been injecting me to boost this for 7 days after chemo. I have a Picc line (small catheter) in top inside of arm for long term drug administration which I barely notice it's there now, plus with a elbow length top no one knows it's there. This is meant to be the worst the first cycle of chemo getting the anti sick tabs right so if this is it - it's doable. Although I think there is a cumulative effect as well but not thinking too far ahead. I'll just deal with what comes as it comes.

Oh don't know whether I mentioned it or not but I had a spot on pelvic bone after MRI, so had a "Nuclear Scan"!! (Isolation room for hour and half and injection of dye was in bomb proof box)!! Anyway all clear thank the lord so nothing in bones. Never thought I would be so happy just to have Breast Cancer!! Mad isn't it?! I cried all over the nurse with relief when she told me. I shouldn't have texted this info to family as half of them were either sobbing in traffic jams or bursting into tears in the co-op (MIL) with relief. It's a cliche but it's true, it's takes situation like this to put things into perspective, just the simple things are great.

Cycle 2 on June 14th for me, DH comes as he makes me and nurses laugh. DS doesn't even mention it much as I am fairly normal. Just bracing myself for the hair thing as that will upset him. But it may just thin I dont' know yet.

Hope your all enjoying the Jubilee weekend. We had a street party DS loved it!

Oh and I've totally fallen in love with my Snoops! They say pets are a real life saver in these situations and he certainly is. I can't get rid of him in fact. Everywhere I walk he follows and I can't move half the time for him curling up on me bless him. He is so sweet,

Sorry to not mention you all but I am thinking of all of you alot and wishing you all good news each month. duggs your research is amazing -you have to bloody get to the bottom of this, you have covered almost everything it seems.!

euro & Merc thanks for thinking of me. x

Hi Snoopy. You sound like you are coping really well. My mum had the cold cap thing and it worked pretty well for her. Her hair thinned and she reckons she lost about 1/5 of it, but she still had hair! Most of it went from the crown where the cap didn't fit very closely. It was important for her to try not to lose it to maintain some normality in amongst the craziness of cancer treatment. The catheter thing sounds handy. Drs have described her veins as comparable to those of a heroine addict after all the treatment she had. They now have to get an anaesthetist to do a blood test as her veins are in such bad shape. The catheter would have been very welcome!

Duggs I was telling my OH about the DNA fragmentation test today. I think we will give our NHS IVF round a go and if that doesn't get anywhere, we might go and see Dr G for the full shebang of other tests.

I hope you are all enjoying the long weekend. We were out in the wilds of Essex visiting some friends today. We had a lovely day, although the drive back was awful with loads of spray on the motorway.

You sound amazingly strong Snoopy - sending you very best wishes xx

euro The sodding cap better work, as when I took it off after 4 hrs I was picking off lumps of ice all over my head! Can't believe I stood it really - must be tougher than I think I am (grin)! I hope your Mum's recovering x

My mum said it was horrible too. I think you are a tough cookie!

My mum is recovering very well - she had her treatment back in 98! She hated the treatment and the follow up drugs but they worked very effectively and she is very well 14 years on. Chemo is nasty but it works.

Snoopy is so great to hear from you, have been thinking of you and hoping that everything was going in the right direction. Sooo pleased to hear the shadow on your hip turned out to be nothing and you sound incredibly upbeat and very strong. I hope your treatment goes well and please pop on and let us know how you are getting on as we are all thinking of you and miss seeing you on here. Glad Snoops is helping, I have two cats which are my fur babies. Will probably turn into one of those sad old women with lots of cats!! ;)