~*~ Spring 2009 IVF Thread ~*~ - Page 9

[ladylaura]

Originally Posted by wtg4miracle

AFM--AP was alright. The girl who was doing the AP was really nice. She mostly did the needles in my tummy area, only my left ear, forehead and top of my head. I think I feel little better, not sure if its the AP or her positive talk. She asked me if I was doing IUI. I told her no I was never given the opportunity to do IUI. I told her I had surgery and they found out about my tubes. She was shocked wondering why they were blocked when I never had any infections or endo. She had no words to say. Then she went on to say IUI is only 20% chance. I told her I only have a 30% with IVF. Thats it. She wants me to cut out the coffee, I drink way to much for a human being. I need to relax more hmm not when I am suffering of IF, and stop eating junk food. Eat more fruits and veggies. She did tell me my pulse was very weak. What does that mean?

I also need to cut out caffeine. Not looking forward to it, not sure how I'm going to function in the morning!

I'm getting NERVOUS about tomorrow... starting Lupron! First injections... AHH! :::

[luckyIVF]

Thanks everyone for the support about BCP insanity! Im on day 2 of lupron and already gettting those nagging PM headaches. Not awful, just annoying. : Mood is still a little low but manageable.

WTG - thanks for sympathizing. I think we'll be feeling similar things since our cycles will be close. Hate these BCPs.

Julias Mom - I feel for you stimming during big events. I did last time on a family reunion in the bahamas and this time on my daughter and moms bday weekend with 8 relatives staying at our house! Oy. But, they all know, so maybe I'll get a little sympathy from them and rest from entertaining my 4yr old.:

Boojas Mom- I begged not to take BCPs too! My RE said that without BCPs and lupron the chance of getting a lot of mature follicles was too low.

ABC - thanks for the encouragement. sometimes your mind sends you to crazy places!

Pookie - Good to see you back and with your BFP doing well.

[Julia'sMom]

Laura - Good luck with the lupron! You'll be an expert at it in no time at all. : Good luck on cutting caffeine, too. Luckily, I never got accustomed to it, but I hear it is so addictive.

Wtg - Yeah, I've never really been a drinker, but these times when I really shouldn't drink do seem to be the ones when I crave one. However, my tolerance is not about that of 1/2 a wine cooler See what ttc does to me.

Poet - Did you do the trigger shot? Hope it went smoothly. One more day : Here's some more peaceful vibes :

[poetgirl]

Thanks for the nice vibes everyone! OMG, I can't believe it's almost here!
We triggered exactly at 10:30 last night. We got it all ready to go, then at 10:27 he got nervous...so I grabbed an apple and gave him an empty 22.5 gage needle and told him to practice. The best part was not knowing when he would do it. The needle was huge, but I never felt it go into the skin. Once it was in there, I was anxious for it to leave, then after it was really sore, but we were so relieved.

So, I'm super happy my eggs get fert. on the first day of Spring but we just realized the 14 dpo blood test is on DH's birthday and he will be out of town 13 and 14 dpo.

ER is tomorrow at 10 am EST. The only thing I need to take tonight is a valium. Great med day

Okay I'm going to catch up and do personals on a diff. message.

[wtg4miracle]

Poet--I can't believe tomorrow is ER. ::: I am so excited for you. You have to let us know how it goes. We will be thinking of you.

[poetgirl]

J's Mom, GL with your Social Stim Weekend! Doesn't it figure? Hope you have a lot of fun at the wedding, maybe take your mind off it a bit? And yes, 450 iu was a lot. The whole cycle has been high dose. I was only on 50-75 during IUI cycles. I think the Lupron made it hard. I took 300 iu day 1-7, 375 day 8-9 and 450 day 10-11. $$$

Wtng, Glad you got in to see the AP. Keep that up. As for the coffee, try drinking 1 cup of half caf/half decaf in the morning. If you need a second cup try a decaf or another half caf, so you only have 1 cup/day. Spring for the organic decaf so it's not flushed with chemicals. Drink lots of water, and also drink nettle tea and ginger tea. Nettle builds the blood, is filled with iron and B vits and is good for quitting coffee. Ginger tones and supports the kidneys which get overtaxed with all that coffee. Also in TCM the kidneys govern the reproductive system and it's common to have weak kidney pulse, Kidney Yin or Yang deficiency. You don't have to understand all that, but those should help strengthen your system.

Laura, How did the Lupron go? If it's hard at first, it will get better. You were asking before about days to take off work, I would say if you have a standing job, take off the day or two before ER as well if you can. I am wanting to sit, a lot.

Lucky, Sending I hope you have some extra time to do some nurturing things for yourself.

Clara, Did your check come back alright? I am hoping a very smooth cycle for you. It must be hard to go down this road again. HUGS.

Pookie, : So nice to have an update from you!

[Pearl1]

j'smom - good luck starting the stims tomorrow! we should start a list of all of the crazy places we've had to shoot up. it's so hard to juggle a social life during the stim phase!

jen - congrats on the heartbeat!! we just heard ours too, isn't it amazing!?

clara - rant away, totally understandable! ive got my fingers crossed for you that this try ends in a bfp for you and you dont have to make decisions of what to do next. :

wtg - glad the accu went well. my dp works with an accupuncturist, i'll ask her about the "weak pulse" comment...

laura - giving up caffeine was SOO hard for me! i still have dreams about diet coke (seriously). good luck starting the injections!

poet - GOOD LUCK!!!! i cant wait to hear how the ER goes!

~sarah

[ladylaura]

Thanks for all of the encouragement, all of you! : :

I had blood drawn this morning and have been given instructions to start Lupron this evening - my dosage is 10. My suppression check is on March 30th, so 11 nights of Lupron.

I've been pretty down today, despite the fact that I'm finally starting to DO things, but my students (I teach English as a second language) just made me laugh SO HARD in class (they had to act out a short comedy scene - absolutely hysterical!!) that I feel much better now.

Definitely taking extended amounts of time off with this cycle to deal with the stress - I keep beating myself up about not working, but the stress combined with the fact that I have been ready to quit my job for a LONG time now is getting to me. I mean, we started TTC in May 2007, at which point we assumed I'd quit my job in January 2008. :

[by-the-lake]

Poet- Fingers crossed. Best of luck.::

Wgt- I'm you stalking cheerleader!!! Poet gave some good coffee advice too. Hope you can make it throug the caffine withdrawl successfully.

[BellyBean]

Poet - GOOD LUCK TOMORROW! : : Can't wait to hear how it goes!

[ladylaura]

Poet! I'll be thinking of you tomorrow morning! GOOD LUCK!

:::
:::

[booja's mom]

Hi All,

Hope you are all doing well...

I got my test back from the baseline and they were all with in range. My progesterone was 9.5 which the nurse said was normal for me, Estrogen was 36 and FSH was 10.8 which is higher then it's ever been and that combined with my estrodial level makes my eggs quality really poor.

I've been on BCP's & baby ASA for the last 2 days and have had a migrane for that time. : It was like this for me last time too. That is why I have not been posting it hurts to much to look at the pc screen.

I am hoping the nurse calls me back to see if I can take some pain meds so I can function. I've had a huge cup of caffeined tea which usually helps it but i know it will not last long.


Poet- How was the retrieval? I which I had valium too

TGIF

~Clara

[wtg4miracle]

Poet-how are things? I have been thinking about you all day. I hope everything went smoothly for you. Oh btw thanks so much for your info about the kidney ying/yang thing. Very good information you gave me.

Boojas mom--those levels look fine to me. The fsh is borderline but well in the range for good stimming. Your estrogen level is right where you want it. Perfect. If it was higher I would be very concerned about your FSH. Anything below 60 for estrogen is great. I wish my estrogen level is low. This month my estrogen is 114. Not good. It can me signs of ovarian failure when estrogen is elevated on cd3. I am on bcp and I am getting some headaches from them. I just hate to see what I go through when Lupron and Bravelle hit me. I might be a raging hormonal lunatic.

ladylaura--how was the lupron inject?

by-the-lake--thanks for reiterating that I need to stay away from coffee.

AFM--I have to say AP worked on healing my sore in my belly button area. Its been really red and raw after the surgery. Now its almost healed. I know its from the AP. Wow. I only hope it can help me retain my embryos or my baby. What else do I need to do to make sure I have a positive outcome?

[poetgirl]

THANKS EVERYONE!!
The day was totally cool! I am normally a very nervous person when it comes to all the fertility intervention, but they want you to be as relaxed as possible, so first I took a valium last night at nine and had an amazing night of sleep. Never had a valium before and I am a fan! lol Then an hour before the retrieval I got to take another valium. I was soooooo relaxed. (If you have this choice, take it!!!) I just felt happy, excited and ready. They gave me an IV with pretty strong pain meds. DH got to put on scrubs and sit at the head of the bed. We were in a super warm room to keep the eggs happy. I didn't feel much and was very out of it. Once in a while, I had some sensations but then I'd drift off again. They retrieved 9 eggs, I think they also got a lot of the smaller follicles too but I don't think they had eggs inside. Not the best # ever, but hopefully it's enough to find 2-3 good eggs in there. So now we're waiting to get a call tomorrow to find out how many fertilized and what the quality was. We got home and I got a PIO butt shot from DH. The pain meds were so strong for me, I have literally been sound asleep until now. A little crampy, a little spotting, but nothing traumatic. I've got Chinese food and movies now!

On Sunday, I will have acup. before the transfer. The transfer is more like an IUI, though I get a valium for that too because we don't want any uterine cramping at all. Then I'll have acup. after the procedure as well. Then I'll be on bedrest the rest of Sun-Tues. so you might not hear too much from me.

Good Luck to all those beginning stims and Lupron shots. Channel your inner Joan of Ark. You can totally do this!

Wtng, I've had a chronically weak pulse too. It's more of an indication that chi is not flowing strongly in your body. AP def. helps make your pulses stronger, but I would also recommend doing yoga (Yoga 4 Fertility with Brenda Strong is great), some breathing exercises (Andrew Weil "Breathing" cd). If you can convince your DH to give you massages with sesame oil now and again, that would be great too. Limit the coffee and processed foods, drink nettle and ginger tea and maybe Kombucha if the taste is ok for you. I have 1/3 bottle a day.

Clara, I'm sorry about the headaches. I get terrible headaches, though AP has really helped. Also, two non-med things: one is called the Neck-Ease and the other is a migra-stick (avail. at Whole Foods). Hope you feel better.
Link for neck-ease:
http://www.brookstone.com/sl/product...k-support.html

[Perdita_in_Ontario]

Well done, Poet! I'm a fan of the ER meds too. First retrieval I didn't get enough and was in a bit of pain, but the two subsequent times were just fine. In fact, I prefer ER to ET!

Rest up now.. and thanks for the Yoga for Fertility recommendation - I am going to look for that (I start regular old yoga classes on Monday too).

[wtg4miracle]

Poet--great news! So happy to hear they got 9 eggs out. This is avg amount that REs usually get. this was a successful retrieval. Thanks for explaining the whole procedure. I read slowly word for word what you wrote as I will be following your footsteps soon. You know I will definately take the valium if I am offered. It sounds like it made you calm and happy. You have given alot of us great advice on preparing our bodies. I have to go shopping and get some tea. Have a nice peaceful evening and enjoy the chinese food and movies. Oh yeah chinese food is great since its loaded with salt. Hey a way to prevent OHSS. Stay hydrated. Take all your time you need. Relax and you can breathe now.

[ladylaura]

Yay Poet! Glad you made it through without any issues!

I also appreciate you writing it in such detail... helps me to know what to expect in a few weeks!

AFM... Lupron shots are going well. Nothing to worry about

[poetgirl]

Thanks Everyone for all your Wonderful Support.

Here's an update: the wind was taken out of our sails a bit when we got the call with the results today. Only two of the nine fertilized (they used ICSI where they manually fert. them). The others weren't "mature" despite they're being over 14 mm, one was a cyst and one had its shell ruptured upon retrieval. So it seems the problem is that I don't produce mature eggs. We don't know the quality of the two we have. We are a bit worried about that, honestly. But regardless, tomorrow we will transfer those two and keep our fingers crossed. More than ever, I am glad we're doing this acup. before/after the transfer.
I think we could use all the help we can get. I guess I know why we never got preg. to some degree. I think this is our only option from now on.
We'll just cross our fingers here.

[BellyBean]

Poet - Congratulations on your successful ER. I am sending lots of good vibes to your 2 little embies! : I have heard lots of positive stories here from people with similar situations. Although, it wasn't good news, I think it might be reassuring to know what the "problem" has been, and that IVF was the best possible thing to do. I feel a little lost still, not knowing what was causing our problems. I think the Chinese food is a good sign, everyone on the last thread that had Chinese food after ER and ended up PG (including us). I know it's not scientific but it still made me smile.

Thinking positive thoughts for everyone else!

[Pearl1]

laura - woohoo for getting started with the injections!! how did the first lupron shot go?

clara - hope you are feeling better. i had a few migranes too and caved and took the meds. i tried for a while to suffer through, but just couldnt.

wtg - glad to hear the AP was helpful. i hear it has a great effect on ivf success rates!

jennifer - i was so sorry to read the fertilization report was disappointing. i'll be thinking of you and your two rockstar embryos tomorrow, hope the transfer goes smoothly!

afu- we are still high from seeing our baby's heartbeat earlier this week. we go back on 3/31 for a follow-up. i feel nauseous and exhausted all day long and am trying to enjoy every minute of it.

hope everyone is having a good weekend!

~sarah