April/May Cycle Buddies 2008

[Dri-Jim]

Hi Girls,

Sorry I haven't been on. I'm going to Amsterdam tomorrow for a few days of work. I just wanted to let you know Adriana's doing good, waiting for her 2nd set of beta and progesterone #'s. I was wondering what she should be looking for? Her first set was on 5-2 (Friday) when she had her prgnancy test. The beta was 210.

I promise to catch up with each of you next Monday when I'm back. Be well and be preggo!

Jim

[SDtrying]

quick post-

Yeah! I triggered last night at 11pm just 6 hours after signing my escrow papers for a house purchase and 7 hours after a conference call for my new job starting in July and 8 hours after finishing some brief studying for my boards coming up in June. what a day........I needed to swap my login name with stressball!


I'm on for ER tomorrow.

[sameera]

SD - dang you are on a roll! Well I hope all this stress is not gonna get to you. Just try to take one thing at a time.

Congrats on your house, Job and Trigger!!

Good luck tomorrow - I'm sure everything will go fine.

Sameera

[chelly180]

Hi yall-
Happy Tuesday-
As for me I still have the occasional cramping but no more bleeding. I guess it was either leftover from the ER or hopefully implantation bleeding. 3 more days till my beta, still haven't POAS yet, I am holding out!
Supposed to be working, so personals later!
Have a great day!
God Bless-
Michele

[DrJen]

Hi ladies! I took the day off--one more day of relaxation before my staff makes me crazy again!!! I went for acupuncture the day prior and post ET. Yesterday, my acupuncturist placed these tiny needles in my ears--one above the ear canal and one below. She said it helps with the viability of the uterus and embryos--I'm willing to try anything! Have any of you heard of this. She said if they start to bother me I can remove them, or keep them in until I see her next week.
Anyway, I'm definitely on the 2ww and studying the pics of my embryos. Trying to figure out if these are better than last cycle and asking my DH to compare--obviously we have no idea--just one more way to make myself crazy

Valerie-congrats on the BFP!!!! I'm so happy for you.

Chelly-so glad there is no more bleeding. I'm praying for your BFP Don't work too hard

Yellow-How are you? I'm sure everything went well. Let us know when you're up to it.

SDtrying-congrats on the trigger, the house, the job and good luck on the boards. Keep us posted on your busy life .

Jeanie-Are you doing ok? Please let us know.

I know I'm forgetting a bunch of you ladies, but again I can't view the topic review You are all in my thoughts and prayers.
Jenny

[jharris12]

Good afternoon all.

SD: Congrats on getting to trigger! I'm so happy that your E2 levels didn't get too high!

chelly: Glad to hear the bleeding has stopped. I know what ya mean though, who can work when we are too busy thinking about IVF?!

DrJen: Good luck with the accupuncture. Hope it helps out!

So my E2 yesterday only went from 92 to 127, which is still really low, so they increased my Gonal-f AGAIN! And I had to go back in the morning for my 3rd day in a row for BW, and I also got an US. I'm still waiting to hear my E2 levels, but during the US, the nurse also said my lining is thin, only 5.5. So she wrote me a prescription for E-String, which is a vaginal estrogen ring. Guess we will see how that goes. And she said I had follicles on each side, but they were still small. But she said hopefully over the next couple of days my E2 level will increase with the meds increase so this cycle won't have to be cancelled. I keep hearing everyone saying they took their Gonal-f (or Follistim) in the stomach, but my office said in the thigh or arm. Now I'm wondering if I should do mine in my tummy anyway?! This is so nerve racking! It doesn't help that these meds have made me an emotional basket case anyway! I cried when I got my E2 level, I cried this morning when she said there was a chance if my levels didn't go up that this cycle would be cancelled! I'm tired of crying already!!

OK, enough of my crazy rambling. How is everyone else?

[Yellow]

Ugh, I don't know where to start. We retrieved 36 eggs. The RE thinks the risk of OHSS is too high and we should freeze everything. My estrogen was around 5000 and there was fluid around my ovaries. DH and I are disappointed, but we agree we need to do what's safe. They'll call with the fert report tomorrow, and I'll keep you posted. Hopefully we can do a FET soon!

Valerie, congratulations on your BFP!

Michele, glad to hear the bleeding stopped. Looking forward to your beta results!

jharris, I know this process is killer. I hope your cycle continues!

SDtrying, wow what a busy day for you! I think it's a good sign.

[SDtrying]

Yellow- I'm so sorry for your frustration. But I do have something to share with you that might lift your spirits. So when I was discussing the process with my RE and we were discussing the different success rate of IVF. She said to me- "Sometimes donor egg cycles or FET are more successful for some women, because you don't have to expose them to as many medications prior to." Apparently all the stim meds can really mess things up for women and make there lining less receptive to implantation.

I know it doesn't make anything better for you, but I hope it might help you with being optimistic about the prospects of FET.

So is it already decided for sure that you won't be transferring or is there still a chance? Can't wait to hear how many of your eggies fertilized!!!

[Amberb28]

Hi Everyone... How r u aell doing... I am doing fine on BCP as of now... I am waiting eagerly to start my stims... i will be taking Steriods to better response of stims....I just hope and pray pray pray that everything goes well and I ahve lots of good follicles and eggs.....

Gpd Bless you all!!

[Amberb28]

Hi Everyone... How r u aell doing... I am doing fine on BCP as of now... I am waiting eagerly to start my stims... i will be taking Steriods to better response of stims....I just hope and pray pray pray that everything goes well and I ahve lots of good follicles and eggs.....

God Bless you all!!

[Yellow]

Thanks, SD. That does help. Somehow, I do feel OK about doing a FET. I feel so awful from all the stim. Maybe a FET would be that much better. I'm just trying to look on the bright side. I think DH is a little more upset than I am. He's thinking they should have lowered the dose more. Maybe they should have, but I do believe they're trying to do the right thing. It didn't work this time, but that's ok. We'll have more chances in the future.

I'll be thinking about you tomorrow. Hope they get a lot of eggs (but not too many )!

Amber, good to hear you're starting up again. I hope I'll be able to start again as soon as you did.

I'm still feeling really tired. I think I'll go to bed early. Even though there won't be a transfer, I'm still excited and anxious about the fert report tomorrow!

[turtlesonastump]

Well, went in for my first bw and u/s after baseline. I have been on stims for since Friday and my E2 was low at 39.2. My husband laughed and said this was the first test I have failed. They doubled my Gonal-f dosage to 300 a day and lowered my Lupron from 10 to 5. In a couple of days I will add Menopur to my protocol. I don’t go in until Friday to see if everything is going up. The good thing I guess is that my eggs are getting bigger. They saw 6 on the right around 11 and 3 on the left around 8. My lining was 4.6.

Yellow – Wow 39 eggs!! Hope they do well. Even if you can’t go now, you need to make sure body can handle them. Good luck.

SDtrying – man you make me tired just thinking of all what you are doing. Congrats on the house and new job. Hope your boards go well. I am tired just from my two classes and my 4 year old. I don’t know how you ladies keep up with all you do. Get some rest and good luck tomorrow. Lots of sticky dust to you.

Rubylee – I think that is so great that you might donate some eggs. I wish I could. If we do end up with some frozen embies after we are done, we will donate them. Good luck to you.

Well, better get to bed. Hope everyone is doing good.

[SDtrying]

hey fertile friends!

Chelly- you are role model of patience! amazing that you have waited this long (make sure you tell us if you break!)

DrJen- little needles in your ears, does it hurt? I'm glad your admiring your little embies, I'm sure they're just perfect little angles!

Yellow- thanks for the well wishes, isn't it frustrating what a delicate balance this whole process is. Well, I just talked to a friend who had OHSS and she said that overall success rates of women with OHSS are still as good as those without, so that's promising.

turtle- Keep us posted on your progress. glad your eggs are growing.

Jharris- Hang in there. I really hope that the adjustment will work for you, I'm glad they're trying lots of things and really hope that your level get up to where they need to be.

JesJes- thanks for keeping track of us still, is there a preggers thread for those of you who got there BFP! you guys should stick together.

sameera- thanks so much for your support. that u/s is just around the corner, isn't it. I thought I read 5/12- is that correct?

valerie- I'm hoping you see some big numbers on your next beta! I think its hard to tell, I know that low numbers aren't the most reassuring, but my understanding is that if they are going up appropriately that's what's most important. thoughts and prayers for you.

[shep181]

Ruby,
Glad to hear it's going better!!! It's a tough grind no matter how you look at it...
I think the fact that you're donating eggs is outstanding...given everything you are currently going through, that's a truly selfless act that could make someone else's baby hopes come to light. I live in NH, my clinic is in MA, and unfortunately in order to donate here, you have to have a battery of tests within 30 days of starting your IVF cycle...most insurances won't pay for those tests, unfortunately, and since we had to pay for our entire fresh and frozen cycles last year, we opted not to have the tests.
Good for you, perhaps this is a sign for your DH to feel better about the possible sperm donor (not that you'll need one!) as well.

This whole process is so crazy...I think I went into this cycle very non-chalantly, and the past week it seems to have come crashing in...I try to blame hormones (which I am usually unaffected by) but can SOMEONE please explain to me why, when you start an IVF cycle, the quiet life you recently enjoyed suddenly becomes a barrage of meetings, stresses, family crisis and other extremely untimely events that seem to plant themselves squarely on your important cycle days?????? It's like everyone knows (even those people you didn't tell, I swear there's a hidden camera somewhere in our kitchen...) and they have somehow been issued a challenge to try to monopolize your possible retrieval and transfer days. I am convinced we are all a part of some crazy new reality show "Frustrate the Infertiles, " $50,000 to whoever gets one of the Infertiles to finally crack and spill their guts about what is REALLY going on in their lives. I've never had to make so many excuses in my life!

Is it just me?
It's been a bit of a stressful week...

[SDtrying]

LOL Shep you are killin' me here! I'm supposed to be going to bed before my ER and you're out there makin' me laugh.

I'm convince there is a plot! Here's some more evidence:

1) the parking guy never takes down the chain for the parking lot of the building for my IVF appts so I can't even park for my appts!

2) one of my co-worker sent out an email recently hinting that "we all have our individual personal issues right now and we need to pitch in despite this". I know all of our lives are hectic, but come on, give me a break, I think IVF gives us double hard-life points.

3) All procedures seem to be done in the AM which is when it is most difficult for us to get away from work.

4) close to the time I was diagnosed with infertility- my dear sweet best friend gets "accidentally" pregnant with twins, and I had to separate my feelings and supportively listen to the difficulties of an unplanned pregnancy (i really do love my friend and she would have done the same for me)

final submission of evidence:

5) Somehow the purchase our house was delayed about 2 months due to some difficulties with the bank and all the sudden they want to close on the week of my ER/ET.

Case closed! Clearly it is a conspiracy to frustrate us all.