IVF Feb/March 2

[SpyroC]

A new thread to carry on supporting each other as the old one was full.

Thank you to everyone for your kind words. It means a lot. I am happy with my decision. Ivf really is an emotional rollercoaster-can't say I wasn't warned! I'm so glad we have this thread to talk on. We're dealing with The hardest of things at the hardest of times. X

@confused107 ah that's a tricky one with work. If going to work involves contact with others do what you have to to stay off. I hope they are understanding.

That's great news! @confused107

That's fantastic news @CarbsAndCheese ! At least when cv passes you have 3 potential babies ready to go. It's funny how the triplets all ended up with triplet blasts in one way or another! Good idea for an update.

SpyroC = tww

Just catching up. @SpyroC you've made the right decision. Don't ever doubt yourself.

@ChatWithMe good look for tomorrow.

@Rumtopf great update!!

@CarbsAndCheese Well don't on your 3 embryos frozen!!!

yes collection tomorrow at 9am. I'm actually really scared. I'm scared because i don't want any pain during it as i don't think my husband is allowed in with me. Iv had sedation before for a different procedure and i felt everything. I'm also scared cause this is the moment of truth to see how many eggs i get.

They haven't told me much about the procedure just to take slippers?

xxx

@CarbsAndCheese *Well done!

(i hate autocorrect) xx

@luby89k I was absolutely terrified about the egg collection procedure. In the end it was totally fine and I would do it again if I had to. For me they took me into a cubicle and made me change into a gown and slippers before the nurse, surgeon and anaesthetist all came to speak to me. They made me take some paracetamol when the first lady went into theatre. My husband was ok to be with me in the cubicle, after he had done his job of course! Then they took me into theatre and asked me to get onto the bed where the anaesthetist put in a cannula and gave me something that made me feel a bit drunk and like I didn’t have a care in the world, and then gave me another medication to drift me off to sleep. I woke up back in my little cubicle not knowing anything about it. I will say that I was in pain when I woke up and wish I’d asked to have the voltarol whilst I was asleep. Instead I had to ask for it in recovery (it’s given rectally!!) and when that didn’t work I also had some oramorph- I think I convinced the nurse I was some kind of opioid seeking arse flasher 😂 Surgeon and embryologist came to see me afterwards and let me know how it had gone. I went in at 7.30, procedure at 9ish and home by about 12.30. Don’t be worried! Let us know how you get on x

@CarbsAndCheese was that anaesthetic then or sedation?

Thank you for telling me your process. It's calmed me down slightly. lots of love x

@luby89k it was sedation- you still breathe for yourself but are completely asleep. I’ve heard of some clinics where they do conscious sedation and some where they do a GA but I think most do heavy sedation like I had. Ask the anaesthetist when you speak to them beforehand and I am sure they will be able to reassure you and answer any questions. Mine was great!

@luby89k oh and don’t worry if you feel totally miserable when you wake up. I felt so ridiculously low for a good twelve hours afterwards, but I’ve also heard of people who wake up really happy. Just make sure you have someone with you to take you home and stay with you and attend to your every need afterwards!

@CarbsAndCheese Thankyou. I feel like i'm going to bed a bit less of a psycho now. I think when i have been sedated for another operation it was a partial one.

Will let u know how i get on xx

@luby89k Good luck tomorrow morning!

Fwiw I don't remember a thing about mine. I met everyone in my cubicle prior to going in, went in, laid on the bed, they wired my chest, put the bp cuff on my arm, the sat thingy on my finger, put my legs into the rests, the chap injected into my cannula and that was it until I came round in my cubicle again. Felt right as rain, was up and dressed in no time and having a cup of coffee and some biscuits with dh while waiting for the embryologist to come in. Ridiculously tearful since, very sore breasts and I'm a bit bloated and uncomfy but nothing a couple of low dose codeine can't help.

My mind is getting away with itself today. I've been having some strange heart palpitations this evening, and some cramps, I seemed to have convinced myself something is wrong. I'm hoping it's just baby settling in but my mind is in overdrive and I'm worrying more now. I've not had as many pregnancy symptoms today, not much nausea, boobs are still sore though but I'm on progesterone pessaries so could be that.

Can someone please stop me from worrying?! My scan isn't till 2 and a half weeks yet, God knows hows I'm going to make it to that date.

I think it's pretty normal to feel anxious @Pinktruffle. These are pretty extraordinary times. Nothing that you described means that anything has changed for you though. Just relax, be kind to yourself and sit this out. Lots of love xx

Good luck @SpyroC - and good news @CarbsAndCheese on the frozen ones.

Afraid I can't keep tabs like @CarbsAndCheese did other than to say thinking of everyone still walking through the process. Like @SpyroC said, strange how
We triplets ended up with 3 in one form or another. I keep thinking hopefully that means our little person is in there in one form or another. One day there will be a ivf March April 2 - frozen animation thread!

@luby89k good luck this morning! Thinking of you. My experience was similar to @CarbsAndCheese except for I consented to the voltoral whilst asleep. By the sounds of it that was a good call! I had no pain at all and was pleasantly surprised by the whole experience. Xx

@CarbsAndCheese "opioid seeking arse flasher" 😂 that made me lol!

@Pinktruffle everyone who's been through ivf seems to be highly anxious in early pregnancy. Which is of course totally understandable. The current climate is no doubt heightening this. I hope things settle.

@granddesigns yes I can see this thread being rather long-standing. Let's hope the waiting isn't too long!

@PinkTruffle
Everything you've said sounds like early pg symptoms to me. Niggly little cramps are probably your womb aclimatising to it's new little guest. Palpitations are probably your anxiety over everything and your hormones. Fwiw I didn't have a day of sickness with my dd. Try as hard as you can not to symptom spot and over analyse everything (easier said than done I know) sit outside in the sun for 10 minutes with a cup of tea and just breathe.

Thank you all for being voices of reason, think I just got myself in to a real panic last night. I've slept and feel calmer this morning. I'm going try and stick to positive thinking. Little bean is in there and will be ok.
Thank you all again, I needed to hear that xx

@SpyroC congratulation on having one on board! my clinic says pregnancy rate for day 5 blasto is 49%!! That's not bad isn't it!

@PinkTruffle sorry you had a nervous night. I had one of those a few days ago. As said in the other thread, my coping strategy is keep up with blood testings (I know). I really don't think i can manage keeping sane without doing that. Also think about we are not doing the little bean a favor by stressing ourselves out which produce unwelcoming hormone, maybe that could help you relax a bit (as keep ourselves relaxed helps the little bean;). I know it's bloody hard work. However there s really not much we can do till the scan. I was reading about developement during 4-6 weeks, there are so many things going on there, that embie develops into fetus and all the essential organs are developing this week, including neural tube, spinal cord and nerves. "On average, the brain grows by more than 250,000 nerve cells per minute during pregnancy." It really scares me thinking that anything could go wrong and the difficult thing is there is nothing I can do to hep, other than taking folate (and other suppliment)!!! I am reading Rebecca Fett's Brain Health from Birth: Nurturing Brain Development During Pregnancy and the First Year and finding which helps me.

Hey guys, just an update

EC was worse than i anticipated. I was fully awake, kept giving me more drugs but could still feel everything. As i have a tilted uterus my right ovary is deeper set and because of the pain the couldn't try to get any eggs. So after all this i got 5 eggs from my left ovary with no attempt on my right. I'm abit angry and abit disappointed. They were suggesting it was my fault as i was in the pain and they didn't want to inflict any further pain on me (they didn't explain this till it was finished, i feel i would have let them continue through the pain to get more eggs) I also had a completely different Dr to who i was not expecting.

I'm still waiting to hear if the 5 eggs are even mature.

@luby89k gosh that sounds awful! I think you must have had conscious sedation rather than the heavy sedation the rest of us seem to have had. It’s a shame that they made the decision to stop without asking you. You absolutely mustn’t feel like it is your fault! To reassure you, I didn’t get any eggs from my left ovary at all but have still managed to get something in the freezer. I know how disappointing it is though when you have a set number in your mind and then you don’t quite get that many. Are you having ICSI? Even if the original plan was for IVF I might be tempted to ask the embryologist which would be better now you know how many eggs you have?

Please just focus on getting home and looking after yourself today. I would also write down all these thoughts eg why was I not sedated more deeply or given the option when I was in obvious pain? Why did they not attempt to access the other ovary? etc and then ask them in your follow up appointment.

Do you know when you will next hear from them?

I’m thinking of you x

Thanks @avocado2019 like your clinics % better than mine. Mine said for a grade D it is 20% but that's still a lot better than my chances of natural conception. Plus, as you said, a blasto is a blasto. Hopefully it's nestled in now.

Oh @luby89k I'm sorry you had such a horrible ec! As @CarbsAndCheese said it is 100% not your fault and I think it's terrible they've made you feel that way. It is really common for ovaries to hide, my left one does about 30% of the time. They are still there, they just have to rummage around for them with the probe. Try to focus on the positives for now, you have 5 lovely eggies. Taking the update calls is quite nerve racking so I think writing questions down is a really good idea. When they call you, you then have to process the information they give you so if you find you don't ask everything don't worry and call them back. (I did this with the bad news call.) Please take care of yourself and try to relax thus afternoon. Sending hugs xx

Hi @luby89k. I'm sorry you had such a terrible time at EC. If it makes you feel any better for my first round the sedation was great, felt nothing but drunk and actually quiet enjoyed the experience. This time it was painful and I felt I was awake the whole time. My husband said I looked in shock when I came back round.

I just want to say that this is nothing to do with you. The thing I hate the most about this is that us women are made to feel so shit about the whole process. I'm so angry that they have made you feel like it's your fault they couldn't access the other eggs. It's their fault you were in pain and nobody else's! 5 is still a good result and I have everything crossed that they continue to develop well xx

@confused107 @SpyroC @CarbsAndCheese

Thanks all for your support. I think i'm going to complain though. There has been afew things that i am unhappy with.

Firstly with something they missed originally on initial appointments.

Secondly the Dr i had my consent forms filled out with and who every nurse mentioned on the run up what's nowhere to be seen

and Thirdly i don't think i should have been in that much pain. I didn't feel 'drunk' or any different when they gave me the drugs. I'm not tired now nor was i after the procedure. I think judging by the fact i involuntarily kept moving away from the Dr with the probe and she asked me about 10 times to move back down the bed suggests i was in a lot of pain and it was my body's natural reactions to move away.

The fact i only have 1 free cycle on the NHS and i don't think we could afford a cycle any time soon with low AMH i am pretty gutted.

I am feeling optimistic with the 5 eggs we have. It only takes one so hopefully one will become a blastocyst. Maybes i'm just being dramatic but i would be absolutely petrified to ever have another EC again.

@luby89k I'm sorry to hear you had a bad experience. It sounds a lot like what my retrieval was like. You still have a good chance with 5 so keep your hopes up and I hope you recover soon

Thanks for the well wishes luby89k. Sounds difficult. I think you may have only had local anaesthetic in your pelvic area rather then systemic sedation through a cannula in your arm right? It must be exceedingly hard to numb the whole area so I'm not sure why they do this method sometimes. Fingers crossed one of those 5 eggs is your baby.

My update: had my embryo transfer today with a 4AB blast. They're going to freeze my other one which is a 3AB. I had to have a lengthy conversation about coronavirus risk with the doctor first which made me a bit nervous but got through it ok. My test date is April 5th. I'm 100% testing on that morning and not even one day early because I only have one first response pregnancy test left and don't wanna mess around this time! My clinic said this is the last week they're doing transfers so I feel really lucky...

@luby89k that sounds dreadful, you poor thing. I'm not surprised you feel the need to complain, that sounds like absolutely the right thing to do. I hope you're not too sore now. However 5 eggs is great, fingers crossed you get a good news phone call tomorrow morning.

@chatwithme how brilliant that you squeezed in before they stopped!

I'm on tenterhooks for our day 3 phone call tomorrow. I feel a bit sick about it and my moods are all over the place. Hormone come down I guess.

@luby89k that sounds dreadful, you poor thing. I'm not surprised you feel the need to complain, that sounds like absolutely the right thing to do. I hope you're not too sore now. However 5 eggs is great, fingers crossed you get a good news phone call tomorrow morning.

@chatwithme how brilliant that you squeezed in before they stopped!

I'm on tenterhooks for our day 3 phone call tomorrow. I feel a bit sick about it and my moods are all over the place. Hormone come down I guess.