Well, I must confess that in order to post, I needed to read the last week's posts and take notes! I haven't figured out how to draft a message and review the posts at the same time without losing my 1/2 complete post.
It turns out that my 3rd "little follicle that could"...couldn't--it only made it to 11mm while the other 2 were 18mm and 20mm and ready for trigger. Since I only had the two mature follicles, I knew I'd never talk them into the IVF (since the minimum criteria was 4 mature follicles) so I didn't even try. I had the trigger shot yesterday and the IUI a few hours ago. As I said, I've had 5 unsuccessful IUIs in the past year but at least this time there were 2 follicles (and hopefully 2 eggs) and everything was monitored quite closely to ensure the timing was right. With the OPKs, I was never quite sure if I had the right day or was a day off. DH's sperm got top marks for "speed" and "forward direction" so he was quite proud of himself!
And on a financial note, we saved ourselves about $9,000 not doing IVF (but IUI instead). But...spending $7,000 on meds just to get 2 follicles rather then the 1 I could get naturally seems a bit extravagant. Oh, to be 25 yrs old and oblivious to the challenges!
My mum is still about the same--some physical improvement (no where near walking or continent but at least not near unconsciousness). Mentally, however, it's exhausting to try to engage in a conversation with her. My last visit on Friday (yesterday)she spoke of everyone being dead and why they had died. I told her I would file her nails (in bed) and come back Monday when she was moved to a chair (upright) to paint them. She said, "don't bother" and I said "why?" and she said "because I'll be dead!" Not sure whether to laugh or cry most of the time...
KiwiKat Congratulations on the 4 eggs retrieved on Friday and the 2 that fertilized. ET on Monday--how exciting! Have you done IVF before? Sorry...note taking was not as extensive as I thought P.S. Had a giggle at your "shooting up in the loo at work" comment.
Alba Glad to hear you talked them into some testing early. We have learned that if we don't advocate strongly for ourselves often nothing gets done and precious time gets wasted!
Rowing Sounds like a good strategy to get rid of the cysts. I think you are having your cyst scan the same day as TFLS's 13 week pg scan (Mar 26)--maybe you'll see each other at the clinic Though I'm not sure, I imagine everyone on the board all living in London or thereabouts and me being the only one from North America (oh to have signatures for every post that would help my memory out) Thanks for asking about my mum.
Jollster I hope all the bleeding and cramping has taken care of things for you. Will you still go for Tuesday's scan to double check?
TFLS Thanks for the fruitful follicles wishes. At least the 2 grew well and look promising. I know the odds of a healthy egg at my age are not great--but it does happen occassionally. Any chance of an earlier scan or will you wait for the Mar 26 scan?
GumBlossom and Italian Thanks for the support to proceed to IVF with 3 follicles. Unfortunately, as I mentioned above, I only got the 2 mature ones in time (after 10 days of stimming) and they felt to stim for a few more days was too risky to the condition of the 2 already mature follicles. I probably still would have been willing to try IVF with 2 follicles (had they let me) but every clinic I've ever seen wants at least 3 follicles, especially when eggs are old and less likely to be of good quality.
Thanks everyone for the well wishes and keeping fingers and toes crossed.