Anyone starting IVF soon? Join me (3)

[purplemeggie]

Ha! I was just about to post the last message in the old thread linking to this, but I'm too late, we've already filled it up! I'll do the same as last time and send PMs to everyone who's been on the thread recently, but everyone's welcome

Shell I'm not going to swap to the new clinic yet as it's harder for me to get there and would need to fly out a lot earlier. They do sound very good though and really know their stuff. I just completed a questionnaire on their website and they were happy to chat with me by email about my cycle and treatment and have given me some good pointers. Why don't you complete it too and see what they have to say about you and then you can ask them about dominant follicles. Here is a link www.ivfserum.com/questionaire/
Purple, good luck, sounds like you have 2 brilliant blasts on board. Really hope it works for you this time.

Hi Ladies.

Been for my Fay 10 scan today. They're growing but left side a little behind so got two more GF & Cetrotide injections to go at least. Biggest follicle was about 17mm? Also saw the stem that produces the egg so hopefully I'll have at least one...

Feeling bloated like a whale and really tired. Time to have a natter with my follicles.

Out of interest I presume EC/ET can happen on a Sunday? If EC is Friday we'll prob only do a D3 transfer so I'm presuming it'll be Sunday.

Purple, great news, everything crossed for you.

Hi everyone, hope you're all having good Bank Hol weekends.

waiting - my nurse mentioned to me that in Spain all donated eggs are frozen, and so all donor egg cycles there are FET. I asked if that made any difference to success rates and she said it didn't.

Purple - so glad you're back with two on board, even if you hadn't planned to put all your eggs in one basket (sorry, terrible pun) any plans for how to keep your zen-like composure for the next two weeks? When's your test date?

ranch - Sounds like things are progressing nicely. I'm totally with you on the bloated and tired. I was so glad to be not going to work this morning as it meant I could wear something loose, and do relatively little all afternoon.

I had my 3rd scan this morning; day 13. The nurse said that my follicles still needed to do a bit more growing, and so made an appointment for me to come in for another scan on Wednesday morning. However, I have since received an e-mail saying they've tried to call me, and that we're going ahead with egg collection on Wednesday, so presumably my bloods suggested that actually the time is right. I've tried calling the clinic back, but it's gone 5pm on a bank holiday so it just goes through to hold music. (The e-mail was sent at half three - I'm wishing I'd checked it sooner, but there's no changing that now.)

The only thing I'm sort of uncertain about is that they say in the e-mail 'No more Gonal-F to be taken, today was your last dose (Monday 25th May).' But I've not taken today's dose as I was doing it at 7:30pm. I'm to do my last sniff this evening, and then my HCG injection is 9:15pm, so I'm assuming I don't need to do the Gonal-F this evening as I'll be doing the trigger shot. Then I have a glorious drug-free day tomorrow (well, except the Metformin and conception vitamins!) before it all happens on Wednesday.

Yikes, good luck Blue. I've not had bloods done since I've started, it all seems to be on the size of follicles. But it was Chief consultant who saw me this morning so I guess he knows what he's doing! I'm in tomorrow morning though so we'll see what they say.

Meeting a friend for lunch. Wonder if it's acceptable to go in my lounge pants?!

Karou, assuming you've spoke to the clinic by now, but my clinic does not have me take the FSH med (in your case - Gonal F) on the day of trigger. So sounds like you've done the right thing.

ranch, at my clinic if EC is Friday, then day 3 would be Monday.

Thanks for that website lucie. I will definitely contact them.

purple thinking of you.

Good luck today, Ranch and tomorrow Karou - I've got butterflies on your behalf!

Thank you Shellster .

My zen is evapourating just a little. Crazy dreams last night (I had to pass a geography exam - I gave up geography when I was 11! and play the violin in public - I know where that's come from, as my school just got in touch to say that my lovely violin teacher is retiring and inviting me to a concert/celebration of her 40 years at the school. Many of her former pupils have gone on to be professionals and I'm, er, not. I still play, but I'm very rusty, so the thought....) Symptom-spotting like there's no tomorrow - very crampy tummy yesterday - that's got to be good, right? Day 21 is waaaayy too early for it to be AFy-type cramp?

I planted flowers in the garden. I can at least ensure that my garden blooms...

BlueKarou I'm taking my last does of GF and Cetrotide tonight as well as my trigger injection but I've still got some follicles to catch up so I guess everyone is different. I asked about the Sunday and they said if they need to use Sunday they will so one less thing to worry about.

Got one at 19mm and a some just a few mm behind so it's all go for Thursday. Gulp. Just hoping we a) get some eggs b) get some sperm c) they fertilise and d, e, f,... this IFs go on & on...

Feel really bloated still and didn't sleep very well last night. Thankfully I'm not at work this week and am taking some leave next week for 3 days. I know you're supposed to carry on as normal but I have a stressful job so am going to stay out of bed but not go into work and have my head explode. I think some shopping and light ironing will do for 'normal' activities!

Ranch and. Karou FX for you for the next few days. It's nerve-wracking isn't it? But very exciting too...

Purple you'll be thrilled to hear I had my second appointment with DildoMike this morning and all is well. I've been officially handed back to my GP by the clinic. Cramps are good! So are vivid dreams. How are you and Mr Pessary getting on? I will also be gardening today, that's definitely good for the TTC brain. I will keep my pom-poms at the ready in hope... How's your POAS resolve? Will you test early?

Ranch I had a great vision of you turning up for lunch in your pjs.

That should have been DildoMike and Ranch

Shellster, I am disappointed on your behalf, sounds sensible to wait until next cycle though. I have my baseline scan on 15 June and then my treatment plan has post stim scans on 19, 22, 24 and 26 June with proposed egg collection on 29 June.

Lucie, I'm not sure re doses and medications. My treatment plan says 'start Cetrocide 0.25mg' but there is no date and then start stimulation from....with no drug or dose, I guess that they will see how things are looking on 15 June.

Karou, Bed and Ranch, will be thinking of you tomorrow/Thursday - good luck!

Ranch I also have a stressful job and plan to take some time off, have been saving my holiday allowance and trying to get on top of things as much as I can. I want to be calm and zen and that is hard to do at work...
I think this time of year is great for IVF as we are all generally happier and more positive with the lighter mornings and evenings and warmer weather. I am hoping for a sunny June/July so I can enjoy relaxing in the garden with a book/walking around the local park.

Purple love that photo! So excited for you having two excellent quality blasts on board, crossing everything for a double BFP for you!

Ah, the symptom spotting starts purple! Zen purple has left the building.

And you are not far behind making it to egg collection ranch. Glad they will do a Sunday transfer. Any reduced stress is a good thing in IVF.

Thanks for your condolences Trixie. I especially asked for a day 2 scan before I went ahead with IVF and thought it would be no big deal to postpone IVF for one cycle if things weren't optimal. But it's as emotionally tough as a failed IVF. I still got my hopes up that this would be the cycle I got pregnant and it still failed. Just because it failed at day 2 instead of day 28 doesn't reduce the pain. And the fact that it was because of very few follicles and hence reduced fertility and the fact that I am about to turn 38 just makes it more depressing that not only did it not happen this cycle, but the likelihood of it ever happening is getting less and less. Okay, rant over. Have to find where I lost my PMA before my next cycle.

So trixie, are you currently down regging for them to be in control of your cycle and know the exact date of things ahead?

Oh Shellster, I really hope that you have more follicles next cycle. It is so hard when things don't go as you hope they will. I have been telling myself that I will go with the flow and then I went and had a bit of a melt down about having to delay my cycle by two weeks. It is good to rant, better than bottling things up.

I am due to start taking Norethisterone on Thursday until 10 June so the clinic will be in control of my cycle (they only do egg collections/transfers at certain times of the month).

Gardening makes a lot of sense, Purple and Cat. I'm not particularly gifted with a green thumb, but I do like this time of year, all green and verdant - I've managed to put an evening's plant-watering into my daily drugs and animal-feeding routine. I've got a couple of not-dead roses to show for it (one didn't make it), as well as some promising sunflower seedlings.

Is your clinic fairly small, Trixie? Mine seemed to be ready for cycles starting at any point in the month.

Exciting times, Bedouin and Ranch - it's all about to kick off! Looks like you're a day behind me Ranch. I've spent today definitely aware of my ovaries - not agony, but fairly regular twingey aches, so that trigger shot is definitely doing something. I'm nil by mouth from 4am, so am packing a couple of breakfast bars into my handbag so I can eat something when it's all over. I've also taken some time off work. Partly because there's things which need doing around the house, and partly because I'd rather keep this to myself as much as possible.

In a bid to keep zen, I took the dog out for a long, gentle walk this afternoon - the weather was perfect; warm but not boiling, and we got out before the post-work rush, so we got the route mostly to ourselves. There were calves in a field beside the path, so I got to chat to some of them, which was soothing. (the path was outside the field, so it was all nice and safe - no chance of an angry mumma cow taking umbrage at our presence) and I've spent this evening sorting out my iTunes playlists so I've got some music tomorrow in case there's any bits of waiting time I need to pass.

Now to bed, is a fairly early start tomorrow; I want to be on the road at 8:30 as Mum's driving and she doesn't go as fast as I do, and I have to remember the voltarol before I set off. Not to mention we'll be travelling during rush hour. Will be hard to maintain a state of zen!

Karou - sounds like a more peaceful dog-owning experience than mine. Just had to drag him in from the garden because he was shouting at a helicopter! Good luck tomorrow, and may you carry your little bubble of zen with you where you go

Trixie - definitely a good idea to take time off work if you can, especially if work is stressful. I'm lucky, my job is very flexible and my boss knows what I'm up to, so I have been able to slow the pace when I've needed to, but if I was trying to do this in my pre-ds job, I would be climbing the walls. And thank you for your kind words.

Cat - snorting about you tagging Dildomike. Glad all is well .

Yup, Shellster, Zenpurple is proving unreliable right now. She's around, but she's a bit flighty.

Had a moment this evening. Took DS over to my parents' house, and DM presented me with a bag of hair accessories that she'd found, from years ago. I picked out a couple of things and said that I wouldn't wear the others, and she was saying that she'd take them to a charity shop, when DS piped up with "I'd like to keep those ready for my baby sister". Neither my parents, nor DS know about the IVF, so I just kept neutral, but I was thinking "I really really hope this is DS being prescient...."

(and I'm fascinated to know what Aloemum said...)

Hi everyone. I've not been on for a few weeks. The clinic called me this morning to confirm we have funding! Finally! We only get one cycle but it's better than nothing. Appointment booked to start the process in mid-July. I'm feeling very nervous now!

Fab news, Osirus - congratulations and good luck

Congratulations Osirus. Now watch how time suddenly goes glacial slow now that you have mid July to count down too! Waiting is the worst part where all you can do is think and build up nerves. It's better once you finally get on with things. Hope you've got a busy June planned to pass the time :)

So DS is still hooked on the idea of a sister then purple, if you don't mind! Perhaps I've stolen some of your zen as after the disappointment of this failure, today is the first day where I am gaining moments of it back here and there. Such a roller coaster hey - as long as yours ends in a high please. Do you have a date arranged for a blood test or any plan to POAS?

Trixie, I understand totally about telling yourself to go with the flow then have a melt down. I have been busy reassuring people on here that they don't need lots of eggs and that its the first to mature eggs that are most likely genetically normal and studies show it doesn't matter if you produce an extra 2 eggs or 20 after these quality eggs. Yet when I only have 7, I have a melt down! Hypocrite me. You are right, I felt so much better after my rant here. Thanks for listening.

Karou, can't wait for your next update after egg retrieval. Your zen will definitely leave you now while you nervously hang by the phone waiting for updates

Purple sounds like the progesterone dreams have kicked in! I always get those. Very weird indeed.

Karou, Bedouin and Ranch - sounds like everything is going well. I'm excited for you.

Not much going on with me, super busy at work so haven't been on here much. Also haven't got much to report on the IVF front so my posts have dried up a little bit! I had my AMH blood test last week, should get the results this week. I'm a little nervous. I had 2 different results last time....1.8 and 8.6. Rather a large difference as you can see. I still have no ideas which is the 'real' result (guessing 1.8 based on my track record). Oh well, I guess it won't make any difference - we're still planning to get started in early July. Shellster, will you be cycling at the same time as me? That would be nice x

How sweet, Purple. Hopefully you'll be able to prove your DS right!

Hi Osiris, how exciting to be right at the beginning! Good luck!

Glad to hear your zen is returning, Shell, even if it's in bits and pieces.

As for me, I went in for my egg collection this morning - such a bizarre experience. Am home now and have had a long nap to make up for not sleeping much last night. I'm actually feeling ok - was very tender and achey for the drive home, but since my nap I feel surprisingly normal.

They retrieved 12 eggs, so I'm guessing some of the smaller follicles didn't mature in time. This means 6 have gone off to my recipient, and 6 are currently getting to know my donor sperm. I'm expecting a call tomorrow morning to let me know how many fertilised. Apparently the sperm looked in good condition so there was no need for ICSI, which is a relief as I only bought the one vial of sperm and have had a lurking dread that it would be dodgy.

Am chilling out on my own for another hour, then off to my mum's for dinner, and to get my dog back. The house feels all kinds of weird with him not here. I'm not yet completely de-zenned, if only because waiting until tomorrow morning doesn't seem too unreasonable. My clinic do transfers on day 2, 3 or 5 depending on how things go, so it could potentially be a case of getting the call to go ahead on Friday or Saturday morning and having to jump in the car and get going.

I start the Cyclogest pessaries tomorrow. Joy(!) I almost miss the sniffs and jabs.

12 is pretty respectable, Karou - was it a disappointment after the big build up? Fingers crossed for good fertilisation rates. So you were conscious for EC were you? I always had mine done under general anaesthetic, so no driving afterwards. How are you feeling now?

Good luck for tomorrow, Ranch - and are you going tomorrow too, Bedouin? Thinking of you and hoping it all goes well.

Hello Blue - yup, progesterone dreams, well and truly!

How are you doing, Shellster?

I've had an interesting evening. DH is still working away and my brother, who lives abroad, came over for the evening as he's in the UK for a business trip. I thought that since he'd be driving, I'd get away with offering him a G&T on arrival, and I could quietly drink a tonic water with lime in it and he wouldn't notice...but he brought a bottle of wine with him and declined the G&T in favour of a glass of wine...so I poured myself one and sat with it all night. Wonder if he noticed?

12 eggs is awesome Karou most of us can only dream of such numbers...

Purple I admire your studious avoidance of all our questioning about your OTD, POAS urges etc.

Shellster glad to hear you are getting some PMA and zen back. It must be so frustrating

Good luck Ranch and Bedouin

Blue, 12 is a brilliant number I would be really happy with that! Hope you get good fertilisation rates.

Well I have sent off for an infection check via serum clinic in Greece. It's a bit ewww as you have to send a few drops of your AF but they then screen it for 8 different types of hidden infections which don't normally show up on routine tests at the gp but can have a big effect on chances of getting pregnant. They thought it was worth looking at due to my short cycles which haven't always been that way. If they come back positive for anything then DH and I will need to take some strong antibiotics for a few weeks. I thought it was another thing to cross off the list! A lot of ladies recommended it to me and seem to have got their bfps after having it done so who knows!

One good thing that seems to have come from the ivf so far is that I have had 2 afs now and they have both been a lot heavier than they would normally have been. I would normally have only 2-3 days of fairly light bleeding but now it's more like 5 days and a lot heavier which I'm quite pleased about as seems a lot more normal. I'm not sure if it will last or go back to the same as before. Next im going to try and work on extending my luteal phase a bit with b6 vitamins.

blue, I'll either mid June if I start with my next cycle or 2nd week of July if I start the cycle after. So either just in front of or just behind you. I'm getting a DHEA blood result tomorrow to see if my levels are low and that was a possible reason for only 7 follicles this cycle. I;ll collect my more expensive pharmacy made DHEA tomorrow and wait another cycle for that to take effect if the DHEA result is low. If DHEA is high and internet cheapies were doing the trick, I will go ahead next cycle hoping that this was just a one off bad month and I'll have more next cycle. Did you start the DHEA blue? I know you mentioned that you planned to.

Karou, I hope those 6 eggs are now well acquainted with the donor sperm and doing their magic!

cat, I hadn't noticed purples studious avoidance of all our questions re POAS until you pointed it out! But seriously, I totally get it purple. It's very different doing IVF for the first time and being all excited after transfer counting down to when you might get a positive. Instead, we are both doing it for the last time and I'm doing a few things differently too. So you just do whatever is right for you including avoiding our nosy well meaning questions!

Well I've had my call from the clinic and of the 6 eggs, 3 have fertilised normally. This has ruled out a day 2 transfer, so I'm to wait until Saturday and it'll be then or Monday.

It wasn't a disappointment exactly, Purple, a bit of a surprise that it was lower than expected, and then just a heap of anxiety that the chances now feel slimmer. I guess this is the bar - if I have to go through this all again then there'll be more in the way of expectations, but for now I think I'm just trying to go with it.

I plan on spending today and tomorrow in relative denial - watching some trashy films or reading and drinking all the water - anything to be not thinking about it until Saturday morning.

Looking forward to hearing from you, Ranch and Bedouin