Fall IVF Support Thread

[Tear78]

Hi everyone. I stole this from MomtoAlexis, who did this last winter. Anybody want to share the stress and excitement of this process with me? We got another baseline with another high FSH (16) and it pushed us over the edge: it's time to see our eggies. School is starting, so we are going to wait until I get my period (I'm on CD8) before starting suppression, during which time we'll gather information. I feel positive and eager for the first time in a LONG time, because this process will at least give us information about my eggs: something I've been in a dark hole worrying about for many months. I'm also psyched and inspired to see how many from the old list are now pregnant, so I think I'll leave them on here, if that's ok. If anybody wants their name off, just let me know. Looking forward to meeting everyone and hoping we all graduate soon.

Fall IVF

Gathering Information/Money
blueyezz4 - Aiming for mid-October Lupron
Court - Aiming for October suppression
Keria - Starting suppression next cycle
Tear78 - Aiming for mid-October Lupron/estrace combo

enigo - Looking into an IVF promotion

Silverbird - consult on December 10th, but 18 month waiting list

missme - signing consent forms 11/26 - starting cycle at the end of January

Suppression
ratgrl
slylives
blueyezz4 - 10/16
Tear - 10/19
songtothemoon - 11/20

On Stims
slylives - starting 9/10
ratgrl - FET cycle: no stims, but started estrace 9/19
songtothemoon - starting around Thanksgiving
Maurine - starting 10/27
blueyezz4 - starting 10/29
Tear - starting 10/29
Keria - starting 11/7

sarahcecile - FET cycle: no stims, but starting meds the week of 12/6

Egg Retrieval
slylives - 9/20 12 eggs!
Maurine - 11/9 10 eggs - 6 fertilized!
blueyezz4 - 11/10 10 eggs - 7 fertilized!

Tear - 11/11 (hubby's birthday!) 9 eggs - 4 fertilized, 3 working on it!

Keria - 11/16 5 eggs - 2 fertilized!  Grow, little ones!!!

songtothemoon - 12/13 12 eggs! - 9 fertilized, but none transferred. 

Embryo Transfer
samkris123 - 9/10 2 embies
slylives - 9/25 1 beautiful blastocyst
ratgrl - 10/6 2 embie ice skaters
Maurine - 11/12 1 perfect 8 cell embie

blueyezz4 - 11/12 (her dad's birthday) 2 wonderful embies

Tear - 11/15 (her niece's birthday) 3 amazing day-four embies

Keria - 11/19 2 beautiful 10 and 12-cell embies

Kewpie80 - 11/18? 2 wonderful embies

sarahcecile - 1/4 FET

Test Date
samkris123 9/21 - may it be the first of many!!!
slylives 10/4
ratgrl - 10/16

Maurine - 11/23

blueyezz4 - 11/23

Tear - Thanksgiving Day (11/25)

Keria - 11/30

Kewpie80 - 11/30

Our Fearless Predecessors
FtMPapa 1/26/10
Paytonsmommy 3/3/10
New Mama 3/19/10
KellyTTC#1 3/27/10

Edited by Tear78 - 12/30/10 at 2:35am

[no5no5]

Hi Tear. We're not there yet, but we're getting close. We're going to do 3 cycles with clomid and then jump right in. I honestly feel like the clomid is just a bit of a formality, though. I'm not at all hopeful about it working. Anyway, I just wanted to say hi even though we won't be starting until late fall or early winter. Good luck!

[Keria]

Hi Tear I'm here as well, we have the results of Dh's SA and they are not good at all, we need to do IVF/ICSI or donor sperm you can put me down in gathering information, I have an appoiment next week with my RE and we'll decide the course of action.

[Tear78]

Hi no5no5! Good luck with the clomid! Have you done one of the cycles yet? I found injectibles to be much easier symptom-wise. I don't know if that's an option. Does your insurance require you to try clomid first? Just wondering, because I miss you and I want to know how you're doing. Thanks for popping in!

Keria, welcome! I'm glad to be going through this with a familiar "face," though I'm sorry things didn't look good with the SA. I would think that IVF would have a great success rate for that, right? I hope your appointment goes well! If you give me the date, I'll put it up on the first post.

[no5no5]

Originally Posted by Tear78

Hi no5no5! Good luck with the clomid! Have you done one of the cycles yet? I found injectibles to be much easier symptom-wise. I don't know if that's an option. Does your insurance require you to try clomid first? Just wondering, because I miss you and I want to know how you're doing. Thanks for popping in!

Aw, thanks. No, I'm in the 2ww on our last drug-free cycle. I'll start in a week or so, unless I'm already pregnant. It's not impossible, but 3 years of trying with one miscarriage to show for it has dulled my sense of excitement in the 2ww. Our insurance is crazy-good and will cover anything, just about, but the doc wanted us to do clomid. It's sort of funny because I feel like we're going to be jumping straight from the first-line treatment to the last-ditch treatment, but we're just going with it. I'm fully expecting that the clomid will make me crazy, but, then, so will IVF. Hey, 6 months of insanity won't be anything new in my world.

I miss you (and all the ladies from the Veteran's Club) too. Right after I left there was a bunch of good news in the VC, and I'm afraid that if I go back I'll jinx it for everyone. I know that's silly, and I don't really believe it, but so much of this is just blind luck that it's hard not to be superstitious.

[Keria]

I know, it's nice to see you here too, even though I wish you were not here. My clinic has a 60% success rate for ICSI for MFI, I'm still scared as hell, google is my worst enemy I'm trying to stay away at least until after my appointment which is on 9/14. Thanks for making this thread I need all the support I can get.

[Court]

Hey Tear! It's good to "see" you again. So glad you're going ahead with IVF. This summer has been super stressful in other areas of our lives (ahem crazy family members) so I haven't been able to check in, but I've been thinking about you.

[Tear78]

Ok, COURT, may I just say, that although I'm sad you have to be here, I was thinking about how you were looking toward IVF, and hoping it would be around this Fall, and I am absolutely undisputedly THRILLED that we will be going through this together!!! I think this is destiny saying we were meant to be pregnant together. (Ok, sorry everybody, it's just that Court was one of the first people I met on MDC and she's like, the voice of reason and kindness. Seriously. Ok, enough said. )

I'm sorry this summer has been so stressful. I've pulled WAY back from mdc this summer too, to try to heal a bit emotionally. I'm back, but only on two threads. That's MY story and I'm stickin' to it. It sounds like the SCSA gave you guys a lot of tough information to process, and I'm glad that there are steps to take to help your odds! We'll be starting suppression in late September/early October.

btw, is everybody taking the birth control pill as a suppressant? I'm struggling with that decision, since it sounds so weird. Can anybody explain it to me?

Keria, I hear you on google. While I think it has made me rather well informed, I think it's also caused my stress level to go through the roof on many, many occasions. Your appointment isn't so far away! I'm glad for this little group already, too. This process is just so daunting and it's nice not to be going through it alone.

no5no5, don't worry about jumping. Your journey needs to feel right to you. I'm in a group of ladies IRL who are pretty much all going through IVF, and they've almost all done somewhere around 7-15 IUIs. They think I'm a little crazy jumping to IVF after only two IUIs, but that's what we need. I get a little disgruntled that they would insinuate we haven't suffered enough to move on yet. Seriously? I think I've suffered. Anyway, everybody's story is different, and you have to listen to you heart. I'm glad your insurance is so great! And by the way, I'm going to redefine the VC events for you: all that crazy good news was residual good luck from your helpful, listening, and caring presence. Even though you had left, it stuck around for a while. But the reserve is getting low again, and we need you back. That's how I feel. Please don't stay away if you want and need the support. I miss you!

[Court]

Aw shucks Tear, you're always so sweet to me, thanks so much! And thanks for the compliments, although you're the one who's been everyone else's constant cheerleader when you yourself were feeling low. Yeah, I don't know what to think or hope about IVF, except for we need to feel like we've done everything and given it our best. I honestly feel sorta numb about it all at the moment. I ofcourse have HUGE hopes for you and am ready for your happy ending to your story, or happy beginning...whatever

As for the birth control - it's to suppress all the follicles for awhile so that when you start stimming, one follicle won't want to jump ahead and be bigger than the other guys. In other words, it helps prepare all the eggies to grow as a team. Anyways, that was my understanding. Maybe someone else knows something different??

[lesliesara63]

Tear nice to see you and hear your enthusiasm. I know what you mean about needing to pull back from the internet. Sometimes it just feel pointless and it gets painful to see so many others get their bfps. I cannot go anywhere near the other ttc forum. I'll be following your progress and wish you lots and lots of luck.

[no5no5]

Thanks for that, Tear. I really appreciate it.

Good luck to all!

[slylives]

Hi -

What a timely thread! After 3 losses and 3 unsuccessful rounds on Clomid, I am in my first IVF cycle. I am currently on suppression meds (Lupron) and I start the stims on Friday. Retrieval is scheduled for 9/20. My goodness, only a couple of weeks...

Because I am 33 and DH is 46, my clinic will be transferring 2 embryos, God willing. Fingers crossed for all of us.

[slylives]

..and we haven't done any IUIs at all. Our insurance covers nothing (!) and my RE agreed that the best chance of success was to go straight to IVF. In for a penny, in for a pound...

Please add me to the list above, Tear! Thanks.

[Tear78]

slylives, welcome! You'll be our ringleader so far, since you're ahead of the rest of us. I'll send you lots of good even follicle growth vibes for Friday---TOMORROW!

lesliesara, thanks for the good luck vibes, and for the pain of this process. Thinking of you, and stalking you too!

no5no5, always!

Court, thanks for explaining the pill to me. I had heard that, too. Plus it may help me prevent cysts (?) is that right? And by the way, the best kind of cheerleader is the one who says "log on less...and stop temping in your tww!" (YOU, and thank you.)

afm - school started yesterday. This is me: No...seriously. Lots of love and baby luck to you all!

[Carlyle]

Originally Posted by Tear78

afm - school started yesterday. This is me: No...seriously. Lots of love and baby luck to you all!

They will love you.

[blueyezz4]

YEAH for an IVF Thread!!!!!! I was wondering what happened to it?!?!?! You can add me to the list Tear under the gathering information area!! I'm actually suppose to start suppressing next Sat the 18th for our first IVF cycle, but we might have to postpone a month b/c there is a chance I might have to have elbow surgery. I have an Ortho appt. on Monday morning so after that I'll find out for sure. I guess if I have to have it done I'd rather have it done before we start the IVF cycle and before I have a little one to carry around and only the use of one arm for a bit. We will see. I have hope that it will all work out in the long run - fingers crossed!! Thanks so much for starting this Thread and it is good to see some familiar names, even though i'd rather not be seeing you all here at least we have each other!!!!!

[Tear78]

yay, blueyezz! I'm sorry you might need surgery, but I agree: get it out of the way! I'll be crossing my fingers for you on Monday!

slylives, how is the stimulation going? Didn't you start yesterday?

Carlyle: I LOVE YOU, SIS!

Court and Keria, how you ladies doin'?

I'm going to go watch Star Wars III with hubby. woohooo, free time!

[samkris123]

Please Add Me! 1st IVF in 2ww

Hi Tear!
I am 27 and going through my 1st IVF cycle. I have made it through the stims, suppressants, egg retrieval, finding out only 2 eggs fertilized, and just went through ET yesterday (Friday, 9/10). My doctor transferred both embies: one 8 cell rated 2 (1 being perfect) and one 6 cell ranked 2. Our doctor said that our embies were in great shape, even better than he expected. We did ICSI, as well as assisted hatching. We are paying out of pocket for everything. My husband is a pilot in the Air Force and although the insurance is free and great, it does not cover ANYTHING associated with infertility.

I have been on bed rest since yesterday after the ET procedure (had pre and post ET acupuncture in our doctor's office). Other than some mild cramping, I have felt pretty well up until about an hour ago. Out of nowhere, I began to feel extremely nauseous and it has not subsided. Is this something to be concerned about or is this a symptom of something? This is my first IVF cycle so this is all very new to me.

I am excited to be a part of mothering.com and would love to receive any info, advice, and suggestions. I would also love to hear about other's experiences and provide feedback about my own experience if anyone is interested. Thank you for starting this thread!

mommy to 2 --Cody (black lab) and Cooper (yellow lab)

[Tear78]

Welcome samkris! How exciting, you're in your tww! When is your test date? I'll put it in so we can all look forward to it anxiously with you. This will be my first IVF ever too, so I can't really say, but nausea sounds good, right? I'm so sorry your insurance doesn't cover anything infertility-wise. I have everything crossed that those embies are snuggling up in your uterus!

[Keria]

So exciting Samkris when are you testing?, nice to see our list has grown since I last checked.

I have my appointment on tuesday, I'm about ot start Af so we will probably wait for the next cycle to start supression, and use this cycle for the HSG and genetic testing, DH had his appoinment with the andrologist, he thinks Dh has a bilateral varicocele so we are scheduling more tests for him, he confirmed that with DHs counts as they are right now we would have to do ICSI, but we could try a few IUIs, that sounds crazy to me because if the numbers are not good enough for regular IVF how are they going to be good enough for IUIs, anyways we'll see waht my doctor has to say, at this point since I'm paying for everything I rather just go ahead and do ICSI.

This cycle has been really nice I had forgotten what is like to not obsess about ovulation and TTC in general.

How was the movie Tear?