Toot, Toot. Calling all dirty chicks! Jump aboard the charabanc with Barry & The Berries. Destination BFP" (thread 26)

[happylass]

The smallprint –
Berries have a strict entrance criteria (TTC #1, over 30, TTC for 12+ months, NO instadiffers, must have a special pot and definitely no mention of baby dust or baby dancing).
Those not abiding by the rules may be escorted from the premises.

Current passengers:

Happylass, 37, TTC since Aug 2012. 2 failed ICSIs. Time to defrost the spare.
Beaky 35, ttc coming up 3 yrs, 2x failed iui 1x long protocol ivf cancelled due to poor response. Awaiting follow up with FC and possibly short protocol IVF next.
Minx, 34, both tubes blocked, 1 buried ovary, appointment with consultant early March.
Nolly, 33, TTC 2.5 years, BFP Christmas Eve, MC New Years Eve. Awaiting "spontaneous conception" before IVF starts, August 2015.
Wild 40 - TTC for three years. IVF double-stimms freeze all embryos cycle started in February - due to complete May/June.
HampshireBlues 36 TTC 3.5 years, unexplained. Cycle 1 chemical pregnancy, cycle 2 abandoned due to cyst, cycle 3 failed. Plan thrombotic profile, scratch and short protocol.
Lumen, 35, ttc since Nov 2011, unexplained, two IVF cycles in 2014, both bfns, waiting for lap&dye and results of numerous bloods, aiming for one last IVF cycle in the summer.
Tigerdog, 34 ttc since Jan 2013. Unexplained. Starting ivf in March.
Gillster, 40, TTC since Feb 2012. Had IVF in Feb 14 and had 6 one cell embies frozen due to polyp. Cancelled FET cycles in Sept 14 and Dec 14 due to more polyps. Awaiting hysteroscopy before commencing natural cycle FET. Hoping to be at least PUPO on the 4th attempt!
Smidge, 38, TTC since Jan 2013. Unexplained. IVF#1 Short protocol July 2014 yielded 1 blasto, BFN. IVF#2 in process - Long Protocol Oct/Nov 2014
Kuma - 40. TTC 2 years. Low AMH high FSH - DH antisperm ABs. Failed IVF June 14 and two cancelled IVFs Nov and Dec 14 due to poor blood results. Hoping for another try at natural cycle IVF end of Jan.
Jelliebabe - 40, Threw the pills away 8 years ago. Unexplained but have a very low AMH, 1st IVF with clinic in Prague, 2 embryo's, chemical pregnancy. 2nd IVF in London branch of clinic - 1 embryo, BFN. BFP Feb '15

Thanks happy I will keep my fingers crossed for a couple more then. I have my flight to Prague booked for Friday with egg collection on sat or sun.

Hampshire I had a scratch as well, very unpleasant but will hopefully be worthwhile!

I presume if things don't work out tomorrow Spare then you can give it another try next month? It's probably no bad ting that you give yourself another month to recover and can get into tip top condition.

Nice wanging from Barking! We haven't had any of that for a while!

All sounds promising Lucie, I hope the other berries have set your mind at rest about quality v quantity.

I also had a scratch when I had my hysteroscopy 3 weeks ago. I almost leapt off the bed when I had it last year but found it more bearable this time round which was probably due to the heavy duty pain killers taken beforehand.

Went to IKEA yesterday (much to DH's dismay!). We made the mistake of thinking that everything we wanted was available at the end (it wasn't), so as well as having to cope with going in the opposite direction to everyone, we ended up walking through the children's area three times! Couldn't help but wish that we were in a position to be decorating a child's bedroom and filling it with fun stuff to play with

We went in for 2 x £7 wine racks and managed to leave at the £99.50 mark which is pretty restrained I think!

Just re-read the first para of my last post - think the "ting" typo makes me sound slightly Jamaican .

Well I seem to have a glimmer of hope... After the lining being 4mm on Sunday, it has shot up to 7.5mm today, so we might be back on track after all..!
They've sent me away with trigger shots, clexene ( horrible stuff], fanny candles and steroids. Yikes.

They'll call me this afternoon with the results of my blood tests and if the thyroid is low and LH is on the way up, I'll trigger tonight...

That is a huge relief, because we only really have this month and maybe next month to try, and then we have to take a break for 5 months because my brother is getting married in Africa next year, and I don't want to travel beyond 6 months pregnant, so this was our chance to get due date before the wedding.

Gill lucie How are things looking for you?
Hope that wine rack won't be getting too much use in the next few months, Gill

Yay that's brilliant news spare I'm really pleased for you. Your little embie will be nice and comfy in that!

No news here just waiting for my final scan first thing tomorrow and then hopefully we will be given date for trigger and collection. Exciting times for us all. Will update in the morning.

Lucie
It isn't a done deal yet - still need to wait for the dreaded blood test results first... But hopefully we'll be 2ww buddies!
Will you trigger before you travel?

I'm confused Spare - why do you do a trigger shot for FET. Good news on the lining, my FC says a minimum of 7mm so you'd be OK here. Hope the thyroid behaves itself and you get the go ahead.

I just have to wait for the call on Thursday morning to confirm that they've defrosted and divided OK ( the kids come out of the freezer tomorrow) so send good defrosting vibes everyone!

Think I'm coming down with a cold though which is just peachy timing

I don't respond to OPKs, so they don't know when I'll OV because they don't know when my lutal surge took place.
So to be on the safe side, they are going to trigger me. They did the same thing last time, because the month before, we'd done all the scans, and I was told to do OPKs twice a day and phone the clinic when I got a positive result so they could start the defrost. After 4 days of no result, I went for another scan to see that I'd OV'd days earlier. They said it is uncommon, but not unheard of, for OPKs to not work on some people.

I think ours will come out of the freezer tomorrow as well. I'm already cacking it...

Gillster Ikea is so good at getting you to spend more than you ever intended. I agree with Spare that your wine rack purchase deserves to gather some dust for a good nine months. All fingers and toes crossed for your kids to defrost ok from tomorrow. Keep us up to date. I'll be on tenterhooks for you.

Great news on your lining Spare (although I confess that the niceties of lining thickness are slightly beyond me). It just shows how fertility treatment can turn in a flas from miserable to positive. It's lucky that it will all fit in with your DB's wedding timings too. TTC takes us away from our real lives all too often. I'm glad that probably won't happen in your case.

Excellent wangling Barking. Sorry to hear that you are getting it from all sides at the moment, with your dad not doing too well either. It's completely understandable that you feel in a slump after everything you have been through recently. Waiting to put together a clear plan can really give you that plodding feeling. Hope it lifts soon and you get back to your rocket-powered self.

Lucie I think your follies sound great. Last time I had seven decent sized follies all the way through and ended up with ten mature eggs. Today I had my second scan of this cycle and they didn't seem hugely excited! The sonographer asked me if I'd been taking the full dose as instructed! It looks like I have around five doing ok and a few smaller follies. There's not much I can do about it at this point, just have to wait and see what happens at EC. It looks like you will be a day or so ahead of me for EC Lucie. Mine's likely to be on Monday, or possibly over the weekend. Should know more on Friday.

HB ouch to the scratch! How painful was it and did you have any anaesthetic? It just sounds like torture.

Ooo gosh! Good defrosting vibes for all of the frosties!

Spare fx for your blood results so you can def go ahead. What a nightmare you've had so far. I hope things work out this time.

Gill well done on keeping your ikea shop to a modest spend! Boo to getting stuck in the children's section.

I start the pill on 16th too, an auspicious day for lots of berries hopefully! Then will have short protocol after finishing it woohoo. Hopefully all works and I grow some follies this time!

Wild, Tiger how's stimming/down regging going?

Happy hope being back to work isn't too awful! When are you expecting to do your FET?

X post Wild that's strange re your follies, it just shows you can never tell eh. Fx for you for a last minute spurt though! Rooting for you over here

The others are still in there Beaky but small - about 8mm. It looks like some follies are racing ahead, so we shall see. All growing vibes welcome!

The 16th is going to be quite the day around here. Can't wait to see some good progress for the Berries.

Well fingers crossed it goes ok for you spare.

Really hope the kids defrost ok tomorrow Gil!

Thank you wild I hope we both collect more eggs than the follicles we have. My last scan tomorrow so shall update after that.

A bit late on this but stats and looked fine - Kuma 40 TTC 2.5 years, high FSH very low AMH. 2 failed IVF, 1 private, 1 NHS, hoping to do another private cycle in June 2015.

Gill, Lucie, Spare, Wild good luck with your various procedures, I'll be pompoming for defrosting embies and also more follies!

Barking big hugs, I was actually wondering how your dad was getting on yesterday morning, having seen mine over the weekend.

Gill well done on the Ikea restraint, I think they must have a marketing technique to get you spending £100 as I often leave having spent that - usually not on anything I had intended to buy when I arrived!

I've been on a bit of downer today - too many babies in my news feed, pg people on every corner and the upcoming 2nd birthday celebrations for my nephew. We starting TTC shortly after SiL told us they were pg, so to have him reach his second birthday really is a reality check.

We still haven't got a follow up appointment date with the NHS FC, after not getting a reply to my phone message for 10 days I emailed and was told I'd get a letter and hopefully an appointment in May. I could do with my paperwork to take to the private clinic, so hopefully it will be sooner rather than later. Have decided to go back to the original clinic, although have agonised over it given Wild's good experiences at CRGH. What has won me over is the early morning appointments at Lister as all the bloods and scans can be done from 8am meaning I don't have to take any time out of work, which I good seeing as I have used up my leave allocation already , so any EC, transfer days will have to be sickies....

Surely you should be able to get your recess from the FC without needing an appointment, Kuma. That's your information. Tiger will know visit works

Tiger will know how it works...

I'm really struggling with dates as well. Next week would have been the first birthday of the first baby we lost. DH's best mate is having a first birthday party for his baby this weekend. All our mates with their babies are going .

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Lucie and wild sending growing vibes, I'll start them early for you as well beaky. spare good work on the lining and sending defrosting well wishes to you and gill.

Ok ladies I'm really worried now. Just had my second scan at day 10 with a different sonographer and the results are really different. She has basically told me I will probably only collect 5 eggs and if I were her patient she would tell me to cancel this cycle and start over again :( Some of my follicles seem to have gotten smaller rather than growing and she said the cetrotide which I started last night can cause them to plateau or shrink. Please can anyone give me some advice. If we only collect 5 there won't be much left by day 5. Here are the sizes from day 8 and 10.

Day 8
Left - 17, 12
Right - 15,15,14,12,11,8

Day 10
Left - 12.7,9.2,6.8
Right - 18.7, 17.8, 14.2, 12.8, 12.3, 10.1

Thanks barking

Lucie, I'd be inclined to keep going, there may be more growth still and things can change a lot in a day. It's a horrible time though, waiting and hoping

Wild they are fine about giving me my notes but say I have to have the appointment, I guess they don't have much time to go through the file in my absence ... It's not a disaster if I don't get it, but would quite like my blood results particularly as I had so many false starts and don't want that to happen again.

Hope everybody gets a few moments in the sunshine today.

It's a bit that she said that to you Lucie. Wouldn't it have been more appropriate to have passed that observation on to your doctor to let him/ her form an opinion? You are not really in a position to make an informed decision, the doctor is. I would contact your clinic and ask their opinion.

The follies on the right look to be doing fine. It is weird that those on the left seem to have shrunk, but then scans are said to be quite subjective and reputedly vary from one sonographer to another. The only way to know for sure whether the follies are still growing is to wait and see.

Follicles grow between 1mm - 2mm per day on average. If your EC is on Saturday or Sunday and if the follies grow at that rate, then they still have time to reach a good size.

So much in IVF is unknowable Lucie - that's why it is so very tough to get through. You may end up with five eggs, or fewer, or more this time. And if you tried another round of IVF you might respond better or worse. None of us can know the results ahead of time. The best we can do is to get a professional opinion from a consultant and take it from there.

Oh well, Kuma - so long as it makes life easier for them....

I know it's so difficult wild. My head is in a complete spin now. The though of possibly cancelling is devastating as I don't know if I would be able to get time off in May to go again. I can't understand where the big 17mm follicle on my left ovary has gone. It all seems very strange. I am waiting for my doctor in czech to get back to me. It's such a risk now though, I really don't know whether to continue and possibly spend all that money for nothing or cancel.

Lucie exactly what Wild says, she is so right. Also fwiw I wouldn't cancel unless advised by the consultant and mine don't cancel cycles for less than 3. 5 follies gives you a great chance and you've no guarantee that you will get any more next cycle.

Kuma that sounds like a very flexible clinic! I'm pleased your able to do another cycle hopefully soon too.

Barking what a difficult time. Hugs and

Wait to hear what the doctor says Lucie. Unfortunately there are no guarantees whatever you decide, so it's a question of assessing the risks and going from there.

Let us know what the doc says.

This is what the Czech Dr has said. I'm wondering whether to ring my local clinic and see if I can get a second opinion with the sonographer I originally had on Monday who said everything looked fine and measured different sized follicles?

Dear Bethan
...yes you are right that results are different compared to day 8 but I´m reliable on those results because I cannot do scan myself.
Do you have any photos?
Definitively we have quite big folicules on left side and Cetrotide is completely indicated to use.
I don´t see reason for canceling your stimulation - we have 5 folicules of good size and we will see if smaller folicules will grow. You have already booked your flights so you will come and we will see.
We always say in Reprofit - we need 1 good embryo to implant to achieve pregnancy and it is difficult to know in advance if this 1 good embryo come out from 1 egg or 5 eggs or 10eggs. So I don´t really think that we will not collect any egg at all and that we should cancel your stimulation.