Immune/NK issues - aka Pred Thread no. 21!

[Tee4me]

Roll call for all moony faces!! 🌝🌝🌝

Waiting for our rainbows 🌈❤️💛💚💙💜

Tee4me
Age: 34
TTC DC#2 since December 2015
x2 MCs (second was 'missed')
DS turns 5 this month 😱
Seeing Dr Shehata - diagnosed with Hypothyroidism and aggressive NK cells
Currently on cycle 2 of Pred and week 6 of Thyroxine
CD10, expecting to ovulate at the end of the week 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

Thank you so much Kakaboo Luna and Bala for the information and so sorry to hear of your losses. I will ask the doctor if I can about perhaps starting earlier and will ask for the tummy-protecting drug too. So useful to know about.
Drttc good luck for tomorrow!

It's so great so many of us are having such great success with Dr S. xx

Welcome to the new members xx wishing you all lots of positive baby news x

Welcome to the newcomers! This is such a lovely positive gang, you are in good company.
As for the team @ Epsom CRP Clinic, well they are bloody marvellous, every single last one of them 😬👍🏻

Couldn’t agree more, Dr S and his team are simply marvellous and worth every penny! xx
Sending positive vibes out to all of u 😘

P.s @LunaB right back at ya babe 🐗❤️

Implantation should be 7-10dpo @LunaB... what day you on?? Getting twinges?? 😬🤞🏻

Hi all,

So much has happened on here since I last caught up. On the road at the moment and have rubbish wifi so I'm bound to miss some points out, but here goes.

Welcome newbies! Sorry for your shit journeys so far but cheers to your future success. This group has been immeasurably helpful to me and I also recommend the Facebook group.

@drttc I'm appalled at your SIL's attitude. After all you've been through, the horror of MCs and TTC/early preg anxiety and having to put on a brave face through everyone else's joy, you should not be made to feel bad about your wonderful news. Don't you'd dare let them ruin this for you, Hun You deserve this xx

@Bala thanks for asking. I'm in my fertile window now but Sod's law DP has been very ill with a tropical disease he picked up on a work trip and he's on nasty meds that we are not sure we should be TTCing after. Might be next month for us now. Bad news is the Pred is really piling the weight on me, including the dreaded buffalo hump at the back of my neck. Good news is my cycles are getting more regular, my progesterone levels are higher and my luteal phase has slightly lengthened. How are you feeling today Hun?

Lots of love to the rest of you who I've missed out. Will be more responsive by mid October when I'm home againxx

Hopping on to day hi!!! I've missed a lot so will spend a while catching up!
Have quickly scanned through - congrats Bala! Don't worry too much about mild cramping, it's very normal - just imagine it's your womb getting all cosy for little bean!! I hope the next 8(ish) months are very straight forward and boring!!

Welcome to any newbies, sorry you find yourself here. But please feel encouraged by the success this thread is having recently. We all have similar dianonsis' with a few individual issues thrown into the mix but there are lots of preggo, the thread has seen a lot of babies born since I first jumped on board 2 1/2years ago. And I'm onto pregnancy 2

Now I will go back and read properly ..

Drttc - I can't believe you're already at nuchal stage! That's flown by!!! Good luck darling, I hope all goes well! I remember the drama from SILs last time!! Can't believe you're having to go through the worry of their reaction again!! They should be happy for you, they're family!! Sorry but they sound like arse holes!! Family are the ones that you should be really excited to tell!

Harriet - do not shave your hobbit toes!! Wax!!

Snoopy if you're reading, I hope you're doing ok and enjoying perfect little baby moments and snuggles 💕

Oh drttc good luck today!! Mine is tomorrow!

It's such a shame re your SILs - are they your/your DH's bros' wives? DH and I really dislike his bro's GF and just know she's going to be the one person not happy for us when we tell everyone. But it will reflect badly on her so I'm actually looking forward to her showing herself up!

bala glad to hear all is going well! Don't worry about cramps - totally normal.

tee you are hilarious!!

Unlikely then @Tee4me as I’ve had cramps for 2 days (from day 4! Too early!)

Ah thanks so much for the support ladies!

Luna I agree implantation pains can start around 7dpo. When they stop is up in the air though as general cramping is pretty normal throughout pregnancy!

Harriet good luck on your scan tomorrow! Guess I'm not the only one who got an early one in!

Well I think today's scan went pretty well. The baby was being an absolute monkey though and I had to do lots of jumping around and almost got sent away to come back later because they wouldn't cooperate with positioning! They've dated me an entire week ahead which I'm pretty shocked by. It's physically impossible for me to be 13 weeks today- but I guess baby has just grown quickly! Nuchal told measures 1.3mm or 1.4mm which is in the normal range. And no phone call this week will be good news indicating the blood test has come back normal and will arrive in the post in a few weeks.

This all feels so surreal. I half expected them not to find anything in my belly!

Oh and harriet my husband's sister is married to a woman so that's why I say SIL's jointly to refer to a one couple. A bit confusing I know haha. Honestly they will compete over ANYTHING. Once we suggested eating at a pub we love and they went online and found another pub that was the same distance away, the same prices, but that they'd never been to or had any idea about - and demanded we all go there otherus they were staying home! I could give so many examples- We feel like we're in the twilight zone sometimes!

Amazing news @drttc!!! Yay!!! Are you doing the harmony then? Will you find out sex?

That’s a real shame that his own sister is the problem - would be easier to stomach if it was just two random bitchy wives... I’m sorry you have that stress

Thanks Luna ! No I've gone nhs this time so only the routine checks for trisonomies.

Definitely want to find out the gender and considering getting a private gender scan at about 16 weeks!

Bah I know. We've tried absolutely everything to get closer to her. But we think she may have some other personal issues bothering her and she takes things out on others in an attempt to vent.

Fingers crossed for you this cycle Luna! How are you feeling about it?

Also, Seeking how are you feeling? How far long are you? Do you know the gender? Have you announced?

Yes she must have other issues... I hope shes a good Aunty at least?

I was feeling v positive, but my period pains are getting worse - which is weird as not due until next Wednesday 🤔

BUT did O late... which if I hadn’t would have meant I got my period on Sunday... no idea what this all means - but not feeling as positive now

Yes I just had the regular NHS scan with DS, don’t remember any blood being taken tho?

I had a private gender scan at 16 weeks too! Well worth the money

She's good with him when they're together!

Hmm that does sound a bit early for AF pains! Let's see what happens :-)

Yeah they take bloods and then combined with your scan you get your official 'risk' factor. Maybe it's changed in recent years or varies by area?

Have booked in for gender scan on October 21st!

Harriet how did your scan go?!

drttc I've been thinking of you!

Scan today went really well - baby looking perfect and big! Measuring 4 days ahead (which isn't possible), and low risk.

Just had a look at my blood results and my hcg was really low. He didn't even mention it as an issue so I'm not worried, but wonder if anyone else has had this?

Yay congratulations!!!! Wonderful news.

Had you taken your bloods previously? That's so quick! Not even thought or heard about looking at hcg at this stage in pregnancy- and I've heard a lot of ttc/hcg chat! I think the hcg levels kind of plateau though? I really wouldn't even give them any thought now you're this far along x

Yes got the bloods done on Monday (was a nuchal scan at the clinic, not the NHS one).

It's beta-hcg which is one of the things they factor when calculating your trisomy risk. High hcg (with low Papp-a) is an indicator of downs. I've googled and apparently low hcg suggests it's more likely to be a boy (though lots
of anecdotal exceptions on the internet!) and can be indicative of growth issues in 1% of cases late in pregnancy. He didn't even mention it to me in my appointment, so hopefully not a big deal, but I might ask about it at my NHS one. All the babies in my family have been born early and small, so wonder if it's hereditary?! I should prob step away from google now and just feel happy!

Can I tentatively join? I'm a long term lurker but this is my first post for ages. I was sporadically on pred thread numbers 5+ under another username for my DS's pregnancy (he's 5 years old now!).

I'm 34. Pregnancy history:

Missed miscarriage (10 weeks)
Miscarriage (6 weeks)
Miscarriage (7 weeks)
Three successful pregnancies (DD, DD = took prednisone, aspirin, folic acid, progesterone; DS = took everything except pred)
Missed miscarriage (7 weeks = took progesterone, aspirin, folic acid)

The medication was initiated empirically by the first consultant I saw in my first DD's pregnancy and I've never had my NKC tested. In my next pregnancy I will definitely go back onto pred, but I'm considering whether to get my uNKC tested at Coventry first in case I also need heparin. Of course I might not 'need' any of it and the problem might be something entirely different.

Any advice (including to just stop and count my blessings) very much appreciated.

Huge congratulations Drttc and Harriet, wonderful to hear about your scans.

Schnitzel, great to hear of your three successful pregnancies and so sorry to hear about your most recent miscarriage. I'm currently on a Coventry protocol and have had an excellent experience with them so far. At the very least, the endometrial scratch biopsy that they do to test for NK cells is also proven to aid implantation in the following cycle, so might be worth it for that alone.
Good luck.

Welcome @SchnitzelVonCrummsTum – what a cracking name lol!
We love our lurkers but we really love our joiners, so glad you’ve stuck your head out babe!

I’m really sorry for all your losses and delighted for your successes!! Can you tell me, did you go on to have the three babes in succession? Any MCs in the between? Any issues re ovulation being affected by the Pred? Or did you fall preg bang-bang-bang with the three?

So, DS is now 5 years old, and how long have you been TTC this time?

@Drttc, how’d it go with the SILs?

I'm still cramping a lot.... boobs are sore - but this is all bullshit as had the same last month and it was AF.... The only difference is AF isn't due until Wednesday and I've been having these feelings for a week...

WISH I had X-ray vision into my body!

Testing on Sunday... I guess all will be revealed