Fall IVF Thread: Let's hear it for the BFPs! - Page 8

[renavoo]

Belly, you can DEFINITELY go to Austria for me. haha. I just found out my trip to Switzerland was canceled today! yah! haha I HATE to fly and while it may sound glamorous (I have a few international clients, so sometimes I have to fly to different countries) I end up working 14 hour days and barely sleeping because I never sleep well in hotel rooms. Add to that the fact that I almost never get the time to go and play tourist because I'm working and I end up having to entertain clients as well and you guys can see why I hate traveling. :o) Also, traveling is so much more stressful when TTCing because timing is so important. I'm so happy they cut down my traveling.

I'm glad you finally have a day set and that your week should fly by!! You'll be ONE WEEK CLOSER! WHOO HOOO! I can't wait until we both get BFPs in the next couple of months. haha better to be positive right?

But I'm so with Belly and Aura about the POAS. I will probably still do it this time around because while it was painful the last time, I think it would have been more painful on the day of my beta if I hadn't been prepared. I know we all still hold on to hope even when we get a negative POAS that the beta would be positive but I feel like I would just feel even worse to be completely surprised. So I'll probably POAS 9dpt. If it's negative then, it probably will be negative for the beta and I'll be prepared. At least that's my plan for now!

Aura, I'm so happy for you that it's almost time for retrieval!!! I hope that you get a lot of beautiful, fertilized eggs and gorgeous embies!! It's your time...I can feel it!

Tenzin, I hear that clomid is a monster for many women. I actually tolerated clomid quite well...I felt just a little nausea but otherwise, no symptoms. My first RE was a jerk...when I told her about the nausea, she dismissed it and said it was all in my head. I should have found someone else right then. grrr. She seemed to think that NO ONE should suffer from any symptoms with clomid. *shaking head* I then did a search and found that it was not a well tolerated drug for many people. Anyway, off my rant...I hope that your stim cycle is relatively easy! I think that you should be prepared for any side effects but I hope that hearing that most of the women on this board tolerated the stims well makes you feel better.

AFM, cyst going down. By the way, the derm said that the cyst probably came because of the hormones that are going crazy in my body. sigh. I just keep thinking that it'll be worth it one day! Last night, my jaw really hurt so it was difficult to eat (although, of course, I still ate...hehe) but today, it's much much more tolerable. So hopefully, that is a sign that things are going well. SO excited that I don't have to travel so I'm going to write to my doctor and see if he would prefer I take the injections. He said it doesn't matter which I take but it gets me nervous that the injections were his go to treatment...

[aprilmom]

Belly - What do you do that makes you travel so much?  I traveled when I got pregnant with DD but not internationally.  Nationally was enough for me.  I was gone about 80% of the time - which is a LOT of travel.  While there are aspects of it I liked, it is not always as glamours as it seems.  I was a financial educatior so I loved what I did though!!

InWaiting - I hope your clot clears up and you can enjoy the rest of your pregnancy and not worry!! 

renavoo - I am not shocked it could be from all the hormones, that just stinks! I hope that it goes down fast so you can get some relief and that you get your BFP that made this all worth it!!

AFM - Had day 3 (of stims) b/w done this morning. I didn't get to talk to the nurse when she called so I don't know what my e-level was (might email her so I can compare to last cycle) but she said everything looks fine and to keep on the same doseage I am on. What a relief as I was afraid I would need more...
 

UPDATE - so my e2 levels were at 140.  At this time last cycle they were at 40 so seeing progress but still guarded.

Edited by aprilmom - 9/13/11 at 12:29pm

[InWaiting]

Thanks Lynne!  Your e2 levels are off to a great start!!

[julieven]

April - It was my question. Kinda same boat here, except DD pieced together the shots/appts with my pregnancy on her own. She began telling her teachers/friends at school around the time I started having symptoms, even though we were super careful not to say anything in front of her. She even asked if that baby dying (her explanation for the mc/d&c) was because of all the shots. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

[auraleigh]

hello ladies!

april, you started on 375?  last time or this time?  it's always interesting to see what the REs prescribe.  my clinic starts everyone at 225 gonal and 2 vials menopur and adjusts accordingly.  last time i went a bit slow so this time i started at 300.  it still is taking 10 days, so who knows?   it was possibly me who mentioned the qcaps, i think i said something about them recently.  i LOVE them.  it just makes it so much easier to get the bottom of the bottle.  especially when i was on 300 of gonal and there was exactly 600 in there.  i made it work!  it broke my heart what your DD said, so i'm glad you're talking with her more about the process.  it's got to be scary to see you with all the needles and vials and shots... i can't even imagine what she was thinking!  hopefully this will be the lucky time and she will soon have a baby brother or sister.

belly-  good luck with the tank!  hopefully it won't be so big.  i assume they'd warn you if you had to do heavy lifting.  also, you start so soon! i'm very excited for you.  please remind me in a week about the poas.  and how terrible it felt.  you're right, we will never get those five days back.   not worth it!

inwaiting-  that must have been so scary!! i am glad it wasn't a miscarriage, and i'm glad there's someone else on the board who has gotten through it successfully.  i didn't even know what SCH was, i'm so glad you got through it okay.

afm,  sadly tonight is not trigger night.  i am on another night of 375 gonal and 2 vials of menopur, plus one cetrotide.  i'm done! no more meds in the house, so i better trigger tomorrow.  the follicles ranged from 17 to 10 this morning, and there were about 17 of them.  i can't imagine they will make me wait much longer.  i am so bloated, and other than the headaches, i've been having these terrible aches in my legs.  my acupuncturist said it's something about my tendons due to the hormones, i wasn't 100% sure of what she was saying, but it would make sense.  i've never had anything like it.  all i want to do is curl up with a heating pad.  if i trigger tomorrow, that sets my retrieval for friday.  which means a long weekend and time to rest!  fingers crossed.  hope everyone is feeling well...

[aprilmom]

??  Has anyone ever stimed for less than 10 days?  

auraleigh - last time they started me in the low 200's for the gonal F and never increased it.  This time he started me off at 375.  So, I a kinda hope I don't have to go for 10 days.  I hate trying to plan and figure out when I will need off work, find someone to take DD to school or pick her up or take her to soccer... etc.  I thought I was the only one who was having leg pains.  It is kinda near my knee on the back side. It feels very strange, I can't really explain it....

[TenzinsMama]

Inwaiting, I echo April's comments about things hopefully clearing up soon so that you can go on to enjoy your pregnancy without all that extra worry.

Renavoo, I can't believe that one RE you had would say such a thing, about the symptoms being in your head.  Good thing you live in a big city where you could get a differerent one!

Aura, Here's hoping you trigger tomorrow!  Boo to leg pains!

Btw, What are e2 levels?

AFM, I picked up my bag of meds this afternoon from the clinic pharmacy.  Starting to feel like it's really happening now.  I'm feeling really positive about things-- I can't wait to start snorting up the spray and pricking myself with needles, haha.  I was suprised to find out that during suppression, I'll still get AF... and then I start with stims, and get a trigger, and then it's ER and then ET.  That's how it goes, in a nutshell, right?  Look at me, with all the lingo.. tee hee.

Can't wait to rejoice in the bfps with you all over the next while.  I'm sending all of you positive energy and I'm rooting for all the embies to grow and take hold as they should.  I think some really great things are going to happen soon!

[blueyezz4]

Tenzi - e2 is your estrogen level.  They will normally test it every time you have an U/S when you are stimming. I think they just want to keep a watch on it and make sure the number keeps going up as you go farther on in your cycle.  Yep, you've got it girl!!!  Now just sit back, or maybe I should say lay back and enjoy the ride!!!  LOL  Oh, and don't forget to put your feet in the stirrups!!!  You will do fine and we are all here to help you out.

April - My first cycle i did exactly 10 days of stims, my 2nd fresh cycle I did 12 or 13 days i think it was but that was the one that went too long so this one my RE already said no more than 11 days so we will see.  Sorry to hear you are having pains in your legs.  Did you tell your RE or nurse about that?  The whole process is enough we don't need other symptoms along with all the other fun stuff.  Keeping you in my thoughts and hoping this will be your cycle!!!

aura- fingers crossed for you to trigger tomorrow so you can rest for the weekend.  I hate trying to figure out when things will happen.  I finally just gave up on trying to figure it out and just go with the flow. 

Renavoo - HOpe the cyst goes away all together. It will be interesting to see if it grows bigger once you start stims again.  I know my RE told me he thought the polyps i had removed were caused from all the meds i'd been on w/ these cycles.  Yuck!!!  Glad to hear you don't have to travel now.  I think traveling just kinda adds more stress when you are trying to stim and do all the other stuff so that is good you won't have to deal with that too.

belly - glad to hear that you got the whole transfer of the freeze babies figured out.  I hope it all goes smooth.  Keep us posted.

Inwaiting - hope things clear up for you and you have a healthy pregnancy from here on out. Keep us posted.

rcr - where are you??????  You okay???

Sure i'm missing some more people, but i just always try to look back on the page above to do my post most of the time.

Edited by blueyezz4 - 9/14/11 at 3:06pm

[BellyBean]

Oh my gosh, what a crazy day!  I am just mentally, emotionally and physically exhausted!  I'll come back tonight for personals :)

First of all, I had to take DD with me for the move of our frosties.  So we went to the new clinic to pick up the shipper.  At first they came out with a really small box, I was like "wow, I was expecting much bigger".  Then the nurse started telling me how to freeze it and then brings up a blood draw.  I explained I was transporting embyos not blood and they said to wait while they cleared up the confusion.  About 20 min later the lab director/embryologist comes out with a small tank and explains how it opens/closes and we were finally on our way.

We get to the old clinic and the nurse there says the tank is too small.  Their embryologist wasn't in, and she didn't want to take them out of the protective case to put them in the smaller tank.  I totally agreed, I was worried sick something would happen to them.  So then they call the new clinic and the embryologis says it's fine to put them in the small tank.  Well, the old clinic wasn't happy with that plan, so they filled up their large portable tank and we put the frosties in that.

Now I am carrying a large tank, a small tank, and I have my toddler DD trying to make it through the building, parking garage, and back to the new clinic!  We make it back there and cars are zooming around us in the parking garage.  We wait for the embryologist to "receive" them and get the tank back....now we have to go back to the old clinic to return their tank.

3.5 hours later the move is complete!!!  I really hope they are doing well in their new home :)  I know the new embryologist was a little confused because their grading is completely different and she wasn't sure what their shorthand notes on the tags meant.  Like EB could be early blast or expanding blast...ect.  I got copies of all the tags and it looks like the remaining quality is better than I thought.

I can't wait to hear how they thaw and grow for my upcoming transfer!!! 

[TenzinsMama]

Belly, what an ordeal!  It's kind of like yesterday for me, but X100!  (I had picked up my meds from the clinic, a whole big bag of them with Sharps container, info package, etc, and had DS in my other arm-- my DH had texted me and made a joke about me having my hands full.)  I'm glad the move is over, and they received a nice welcome at their new home! 

[auraleigh]

april- i was bumped up like you, and surprisingly it STILL took 10 days.  today is the 11th day and i am triggering.  finally!  i would be curious to see if you get away with stimming less than 10 days.

also, i am glad i am not going crazy.  my legs hurt in the exact same spot!  i've tried heating pads but it doesn't totally help.  not that i'm glad you have pain, but i'm glad i'm not alone! have you found anything that gives you relief?

tenzin- you'll be a pro in no time! hopefully you'll be done after the first try, but i'm on try 2 and i already feel like they should hand over my honorary RE degree.  i love research, and i wanted to know why the doctors treat us in the method that they do.  it's kind of fascinating that science can do this for us.  i wish you luck! we are all here for you.

belly- that sounds crazy! i'm glad it's over, i'm glad your embryos are safe and sound, and you definitely get a gold star for balancing all those tanks, your dd, and your sanity.  this is has to be a good sign for what is to come.  

afm- this morning the RE thought my eggs *still* looked a little small (a bunch of 18s and the rest go down until 10s, about 17 total).. so she made me purchase a day's worth of meds.  it cost $1100!  dh was with me (he needed the car today and was dropping me off at work) and almost fainted when we got the bill.  of course i'd have to order more and then once i returned the meds to the office they'd reimburse us, but still.  then at 8:30 the RE called and said that she actually wanted me to trigger tonight at 8:30 pm and not to take the meds.  of course i was SO excited, but what the heck?  why make me buy more meds?  also, they bloodwork isn't sent to the main office until after 9:30am, so it's not like she had new info to consider and make up her mind.  i am hoping that she did the right thing, but they did a great job last cycle, i have to trust that they know what they are doing.  my egg retrieval is now scheduled for friday morning at 8:30.  fingers crossed.  i hope i have enough eggs to do a good 50/50 split with my dh's sperm and donor sperm.  we both agreed that if there aren't enough eggs to give each a chance, we would skew it so the donor sperm gets more eggs to fertilize.  at this point we are just ready to have a baby, that we don't really care anymore whose genetic material is going into it.  it's baby making time!

[BellyBean]

Aura, how exciting that you are triggering tonight!  Too bad they made you go buy $1100 worth of drugs first!  But it sounds like you can take them back?  So excited for you!!!!

Inwaiting, I hope everything goes smooth from here on out!!

April, I can't remember how long I stimmed but it was probably right around 10 or so days.  When is your next b/w or u/s?

Tenzi, when do you start with the needles?  Glad you got everything picked up and balanced DS and all that stuff.  My DD was very curious about our pharmacy's pill bottles that they keep beneath the clerk window.  They were all mixed up by the time we left, and she tore open a box of contact solution (we don't even wear contacts).  They were nice enough not to charge me for it, but I felt horrible by the time we left :)  They were probably thinking this lady doesn't need another baby!  She is normally so well behaved, I didn't think twice about letting her down by my feet.

How is everyone else doing?  (blue, renavoo, julie, rcr, kewpie, keira, tear, laggie, mamacolleen...and all) 

Taxlady, are you stalking us?  I miss you and think about you often :)

[TenzinsMama]

Aura, that is so exciting that you are ready to go for tonight!  I hope Friday goes well for you.  I guess all clinics operate the same way, where they give you IV sedation and then go in through the vaginal wall to the ovary to retrieve the eggs?  What is the set-up like, are you laying down in stirrups and all that?  (Ha ha, Blue told me to get ready for being in the stirrups, so I guess I am thinking about it already!)  Can you feel anything while it is happening?

Belly, that's funny, you saying that about the staff wondering if you needed another baby... When I was at the clinic, the pharmacist commented on how cute my DH was, and then she said, "Is he from here?"  I said, "Yes, through IUI".  I thought that was kind of a cute comment, I wasn't offended-- but if someone from the 'outside' said something about us having a kid (hopefully that will become plural) I don't know how I'd react.  In answer to your question, I don't know exactly when I start with the injections-- all I know is that I start suppression (the Suprefact nasal spray, one spray in each nostril, 5 times a day) as well as 81 mg of ASA on September 22nd (ASA to be taken until the time of my pregnancy test), and then on October 6th I have bloodwork and an u/s.  If everything looks good, then I'm assuming I start the injections and at that point I go down to 3 times a day with the Suprefact, and DH and I start taking an oral antibiotic.  So, 7 more sleeps and then I start!  Pinch me, I can't believe we are doing this!  I'm so excited-- I'm not even nervous about what it is going to take to do this, I'm more curious than anything.  Well, I'm not looking forward to side effects from meds, but yeah, I can't say I'm nervous about it.  If I have any issues like leg pain, tenderness, etc. I'll just come on here and see what tips you all have for dealing with it.  DH isn't looking forward to going to get a current SA done-- he's going on Friday at the same time that he pays for all our IVF stuff.  I find that interesting, because he's had a SA done 2 years ago and then he's gone in 5 times in addition to that for the IUI procedure... but he says it's always anxiety provoking.  I've never gone in with him, but I figure that I go through enough stuff and that he just has to go in and get 'er done.

[renavoo]

Hi everyone!

Belly, WHEW to being done with that! And yah for good looking embies! :o) I can't wait for you to get started and for you to get your BFP!

Aura, YAH for triggering!! It has got to be a load off to know that you're progressing to the next step. Now, hopefully, you have a lot of nice eggs and eventually nice embies to transfer! i really do hope that you get to return the drugs, by the way. That would be really annoying if you couldn't. I wish that they actually had free drugs for you to take...I know that some clinics will do that because other people donate their drugs back to them. But whatever...as long as you get your money back. I know that they look for the follies to reach around 18 to trigger. And then, you'll have today to have them mature some more so I'm sure that they will be ready. Hopefully, everything works out. Can't wait for you to be in the graduates section!

April, I'm in marketing so I travel a lot, including internationally. I should say that I USED TO travel a lot. Travel has gone down significantly as cost saving measures and we do webex conferencing (ie conferencing over the web) or teleconferencing a lot more. Which I'm totally happy with. I love my job too but I hate traveling so during those years where I do heavy duty traveling, my love of my job steeply drops. Yah to having a great e level!! I hope that you don't have to stim for too much longer either. I think that if I have to do a second stim cycle, they will also probably start me off around 300 IU for Gonal F. I was a slow responder to the 225IU dose and my stim cycle took 12 days. I don't want it to take that long the next time but I guess I just have to learn to schedule it well enough that I limit the amount of time I'm forced to be near my clinic and thereby, not at work!

Tenzin, whoo hooo about your schedule and almost starting. Hopefully, soon, you will get a nice calendar of events...they usually have it pretty well timed out, where you know around which day you start stimming, when they expect you to go in for retrieval and the span of days for potential transfer. I got my schedule right before i started my BCPs for about 2 weeks and it was nice to have something to look forward to for each step. In fact, that's what i'm looking forward to now too!

Last 2 days for BCPs and then I wait for the withdrawal bleed. i start the estrogen day 2 of my bleed, assuming the US and blood work come back ok! And then it's off to the races. I'm a little wigged out about using suppositories during a heavy day of bleeding, by the way. Doesn't that just mean that the estrogen will just be pushed out? Oh well, I guess they know what they are doing so I am just going to go with it. Anyway, jaw still hurts a little. Cyst has gone down significantly but it annoys me about the jaw. It only hurts when I open it a certain way (like when I'm yawning) so if I don't feel painless in a couple of days, I will go to the dentist.

Happy Thursday, everyone!

[BellyBean]

I got to run, but Renavoo, I wanted to say that my old RE would have me take the estrogen orally for the first couple days while I was still bleeding.  I would check with your RE just to make sure!

[TenzinsMama]

I just happened to come across this, so I thought I would post for those who might be interested.  It's books for children about ART.

http://babydustdiaries.com/2011/09/14/a-beautiful-work-of-a-r-t-books-for-children-about-alternative-conception/ 

Hope everyone's having a great day so far!

[auraleigh]

hi ladies!  got a lot to do tonight to prep for tomorrow morning's retrieval, but i had a funny story to share...

i was sneaking a nap in my car at lunchtime and the phone rings, so i jerk awake and see that it's the IVF clinic calling.  One of the nurses asks me "what shot did you take last night?" with caution in her voice.  i was confused, and she asked, "did you take HCG or Lupron?"

I've never taken lupron for either cycle, i have no idea what she's talking about, and i'm starting to panic that i took the wrong medicine.

i told her HCG, she breathed a sigh of relief, and explained that the lab was going over my paperwork in preparation and somewhere someone had written something about lupron... probably an accident somewhere along the line, and they assumed i had such a great response because of the lupron.  i was really glad that the lab thought i had such a great response that i must have used some other drug combo.  however kind of freaked out that someone had entered the wrong info in my records by accident!  my stomach is so bloated i am sure i have a ton of  eggs in there.  i'm an egg making machine!  

dh and i had a long talk tonight about how many eggs we want to give to his sperm, and how many to donor sperm.  in the end i think we are going to give dh five eggs to work with (with ICSI) and the remainder (hopefully over 10, as i had 19 mature eggs last time) to the donor.  we had such a fatal response last time when all our eggs arrested, that dh is pretty realistic about the odds of this working with his genetic materials.  one of his friends had posted something on fb about the joys of fatherhood and he said he actually wept at his desk at work because he wants this so badly for us.  it breaks my heart, but i'm glad we're both in agreement that a baby is more important than a baby that is directly a product of each of us.  it will be our baby either way, so we want the best odds possible.  

i really really really really really hope it works this time.  

[Keria]

I'm lurking around here rooting  for all of you.

We had a scan today and I'm joining kewpie in team one of each baby A is a girl and baby B is a boy. They are both  perfect and so beautiful.

[TenzinsMama]

Aura, I really really really really really hope so, too!  And, what a story... phew!  Glad everything is good.  I have to say, I welled up reading that bit about your husband... What an emotional time, heh? 

Keria, that's wonderful news!

[Tear78]

Congrats, Keria! How exciting to know!