March/April cycle buddies??

[millie 09]

hi girles great to hear theres other people going through this aswell. i am on my first go of ivf. at the moment i am on my6th day of gonal f injections and have my first scan tommorow after starting them.i have to say i am a little bit worried because apart from feeling a little bit tired i really dont feel any different. the main worry when i was starting the cycle was that i might overstimulate because i am only 28 and have pcos but at the moment i am hopeing that there has even been some change in the folicals. they said last week at my baceline assment that my lineing was a bit tick but that was prob because i had my periods so i am hopeing that has thined a bit since then.the whole thing is soooooo confuseing hopefully if all going well i should be ok for egg collection next week.. goodluck girls and hope all goes well with you. will let you know how i get on at scan tommorow..

[wishfull27]

cynthia - i think it may just be a blood test to check levels - in my 2 previous cycles i have never had an internal during AF - so hopefully not for you too !!

I have just put my details into the calendar - first attempt failed - 2nd time lucky - that is soooo useful to keep us up to date - well done on that find !!

Hope all goes ok for you tom and then it will be full steam ahead!!

i need to go to bed before I eat anymore crap - i actually feel sick from chocolate overdose - mmmmm cream egg twisters are gorgeous has anyone else tried them - mind you I can est 3 normal cream eggs and not even feel sick

night ladies - and good luck to Lee/cynthia/kim for tom and hope your DH enjopys his birthday bash !!!!!!

[Sisi1]

Welcome sbr, faiths, kline and Millie

I am stimming day 3 today a bit nervous about tomorrows B/U cause I got canceled last cycle on day 3 due to slow response. This time I am trying everything, talking to my follies, using hot bags to improve circulation to the area at night and praying-hard!

I am a bit upset wit DH, he watched some show on IVF last night and informed me this morning he is only willing to transfer ONE embryo!
I hate when he does this, he takes some statistic out of a show and makes it apply to me (42). I tried to tell him about the stats for my age but he does not want to listen. He is terrified of twins but I would welcome it! No matter what he says we ARE transferring at least 2 IF we get so lucky to get 2 blasts. There are times (like now) when I feel like why bother having kids with him in the first place if 2 kids would be such a bother to him? But then I know it is just his anxiety talking and he will be fine no matter what happens. It just pi--es me right off when he starts to "interfere" in the middle of the process, where was his head when we discussed this?

Arrrrg I don't need this now!

[sbr]

It seems like a lot of you on here are going through your first ever IVF. That is very exciting! I'd like to offer a bit of positive hope for you! I got pregnant with my son through IVF in June of 2006 on my FIRST try!!

I had gone through several years of TTC. I suspected something was going on with me because I never had regular periods, but I also had the factor of my husband. He had a heart transplant in 1996 (when he was 19) and his immunosuppression drugs were causing low everything in his sperm. We found out in 2005 that we'd need "interventions" to get pregnant. I was checked out and found out that I had PCOS and then my husband's sperm analysis showed he had low everything. He had a choice of altering the drug that was causing the deficiency in his sperm, but we chose not to rock the boat. He's been very healthy since his transplant and didn't want to test fate. So, we started out with clomid first then quickly moved to IUIs. I did two and the doctor said that we were basically flushing money down the toilet. (We did not have any kind of health insurance coverage for infertility treatments.) We decided to save up some money and go for the big guns--IVF!

I started the process in January of 06 with the preliminary tests, etc. I started my drugs in May and then proceeded with the ET on June 23rd, 2006. I responded very well to the drugs and had 18ish eggs with 14 fertilizing. We transferred two, left one out to try to make it to a five day blast, but it didn't make it. (Somehow we're left with 7 embryos now; I'm not remembering the exact math on some of this.) Unfortunately I got OHSS really bad. Surprisingly the OHSS didn't really start presenting itself until after the ET, so that's why my cycle wasn't canceled. I didn't even have to dread the 2WW because I got so sick so fast that I was hospitalized. The docs would come in with huge smiles on their faces because my misery often meant a pregnancy. I'm embarrassed to admit this, but if pregnancy was that miserable, I didn't want to be pregnant. I was in the hospital for 8 days, having fluid drained out of my stomach several times. When I left the hospital I was wearing maternity clothes!! It was very crazy; I had gained so much weight--all fluid.

I started throwing up during that time in the hospital and the doctors didn't know if it was from the OHSS or if it was morning sickness. Come to find out it was morning sickness because I was pregnant with twins and my betas were really high. Once I started feeling better, I became so excited to have twins only to lose "Baby B" at 10 weeks. Thankfully "Baby B" didn't take down "Baby A" and I went on to have a healthy baby boy in February of 07!! It was a pretty rotten pregnancy, but I tried to keep in mind how lucky I was to get pregnant on the first time with IVF. I swore I'd never do it again, but here I am nearly three years later prepping for a FET!

I'm hoping that if I get pregnant again, I'll have a much better pregnancy. I think I got off on the wrong foot with the OHSS. Nonetheless, I was so lucky to get pregnant the first time and I'm hoping that happens for you ladies going through your first cycles! I so desperately wanted stories of women getting pregnant on their first try, so that's why I offer up my story!

Now I'm seeking good stories of women getting pregnant on their first FET!! I know I probably need to pay my dues and take a BFN at some point, so this cycle we're keeping from our friends and family. They *think* we're doing a cycle in June when in reality we're doing it now! I'm a huge talker and talk to my mom daily, so this is impossible to keep quiet. So this forum gives me my outlet!

Good luck everyone! And thanks for the hellos!
~Sarah

[cymplicity27]

Wishful, I sure hope you're right! I read some other boards and women talk like the "internal" ultrasound during AF is normal! Yuck! Guess i'll find out tomorrow.

Sisi1, sorry you're having to go through that with DH I'm sure he'll come around. Sounds like he's just scared.

So Millie, you have a u/s tomorrow as well? If everything goes well you could trigger soon you think? Can't wait to hear how it goes and what your next step is I can't wait to start stimming on Saturday! One step closer.

Melanie, glad you're feeling better I've been feeling very bloated the last few days myself. It's not usually this bad with AF...wonder if it was the BCP? Maybe the Lupron? Whatever it is, I hope it's better tomorrow. The worst thing is being bloated while RE is poking away at me

Well goodnight ladies. Good luck to everyone with appts tomorrow and I can't wait to hear from everyone!!

[cymplicity27]

BTW, glad you ladies are finding the calendar useful!!! I'm loving seeing it fill up!

For the newbies, in case you didn't see my original post about the calendar here's the link: http://freecal.brownbearsw.com/IVFCycleBuddies

Just click the date, put your name and the event and try to pick a unique color to distinguish yourself. That's it!

[melanie_100]

Cynthia- Hate to tell you, but RE did do a vaginal ultrasound for baseline scan on my first day of AF! I was embarressed too, but he says he sees it all the time. I believe it probably is old hat for them at this point.
He said they look at the ovaries to make sure there's no cysts or any problems going on prior to starting stim. and that their small and there's no fluid in them.
So as they say, leave your modesty at the door
Theres a bunch of you doing some really cool stuff tomorrow, good luck and keep us updated!
Babymex- I'm excited about your upcoming beta- mine is on the 18th, so your first-Good luck
Have a great night everyone

[kimbob]

Hi ladies,
I hope some of you are still up to read this. I forget that most of you are so far ahead of me in the time zones!

Sisi - I'm excited about your upcoming BW/US days. I am sending you lots and lots of PMA and "follie dust!" You have prepared your body well and this is your time! As for DH… is he related to my DH? He does the same annoying thing. Shows no interest or a nonchalant attitude about something until he reads one thing and then thinks he’s an expert! I feel for ya! Hopefully he’ll listen to the wisdom of the Drs.

Milly did you have your consult yesterday? How did it go?

babymex isn't you beta only two days away now?? How exciting. Have you given into the evil HPT's or are you toughing it out.

Michele only two more days until the polypectomy - at long last! I hope that your MIL, your BP and you are all doing well.

Sari - I hope you're feeling much better now. I'm glad it was something as simple as your stomach. Good luck at your orientation. At mine they surprised me by making me inject some saline into myself! It was good, though. I felt very confident and empowered afterward. I hope you feel the same after your experience.

kline I hope your nose spray is going well for you. I know it seems like everything else is so far away, but the time will pass before you even now where it went!

Faith (can I call you that?) - I'm glad you're here. We look forward to helping through your 2WW. When do you do your first beta? Were you able to freeze any embies?

sbr I'm sure that there are people who have success twice in a row. In fact I think that a friend of my BFF had her two children that way. I'm glad you had success the first time. Now I can look up to you and Michele as inspiration. Good luck with your FET!

Lee with the time difference between us you will be having your thawed out embies installed just as I am leaving for the clinic. I will have you at the top of my thoughts!! Sticky baby dust to you!

lionoe good luck at ER tomorrow! I hope we both have a good experience. I can't wait to compare notes! Happy Harvest!

Millie welcome aboard! I hope we can all help you through your journey. Good luck at your scan tomorrow!

Melanie thanks for the support. I had listened to a visualization cd at acupuncture once and I think I needed to be reminded of it. I listened to it again today and I think I will use it as much as possible.
I don't know too much about the bloating but I do know that some people say to drink Gatorade after ER to reduce the bloating. I'm sorry about the bowel issues, but thanks for the warning! BTW I had a dream that you got your BFP! Can't wait until you really do get it!

Cynthia Good luck at your scan tomorrow. I did not have any day one or two scans, but I have wondered if they were internal. I just didn’t want ask. I’m glad you did ask though, that would be a great shocker to have that unexpectedly!

And for everyone else…

…I hope you are all doing well!

Take care,

Kim
xx

[hjw]

Just wanted to say welcome to all the newcomers! Wow, our thread is getting really big now, that is so great. Sorry Michele, we are all going to be keeping you really busy with the list of where we are all are in our cycles - you will have to shout if you need any help from us!

I'm only going to do a few quick personals, as I did personals for most people yesterday afternoon and things haven't moved on much since then!

Faithiseverything - I'm so pleased you found us. I don't know what I would do without this forum to share my thoughts and listen to other people's experiences, I really would be climbing the walls by now. Just you talk to us as much as you need to. I'm a first timer too, so I can't comment from personal experience, but I imagine the fears you had at ET are fairly common. This is such a huge thing we are all doing, I think for me at least it is easy to focus on all the little details of the drugs etc and every so often the bigger picture slams into my brain and it takes my breath away a bit. Like you, DH and I are not sharing what we are going through with other people. Similarly, we haven't shared our TTC struggle with people, other than in very general terms. I have found that people who haven't gone through it simply don't know what to say to comfort me, and what they do say just sounds a bit cliched. Does that make sense? So you have come to the right place because you are now surrounded by lots of lovely ladies who all know exactly what you are going through. And I for one believe that great things are going to happen for us all.

Millie - welcome to you as well. Good luck with your scan today, let us know how you get on and what your expected dates for ER/ET are. I wouldn't worry about not feeling any side effects - everyone's bodies react differently and I think from everything I have read about the drugs you should consider yourself lucky! And you have still got some stimming left so I'm sure as those follies get bigger you will feel them soon enough.

Hi Sisi, nice to hear from you. Good luck as well with your scan tomorrow and good luck as well working on DH. You may remember that my clinic is very keen on people only transferring one embryo at first because of the increased health risks of a twin pregnancy, but of course the statistics are different depending on what age you are. I imagine the documentary your DH saw maybe didn't make this very clear - what is right for a woman in her 20's does not necessarily translate for a woman in her 40's. Hope you can make him understand - I'm sure he didn't mean to upset you, he's probably just anxious about this whole process himself. Sometimes I forget that it's not just me who is going through this, it is DH as well.

Carolyn - thanks for the enquiry! I'm still sniffing, my nose is starting to get sore now though! My baseline scan is not until 2nd April so I've got a long way to go yet! Are you getting excited about your scan on Friday? What is likely to happen after that for you? Are you managing to resist some of the crappier food today? It's not easy, I know, I am also a bit of a junk food fan.

Cynthia - good luck with your b/w & u/s tomorrow. I hope for your sake that it isn't an internal scan if AF is in the house, but if it is I'm sure it won't be the first time for your clinic, even if it is for you! Your description of your two dogs made me laugh, mine are exactly the same mixture. My yellow labrador ***** is a fantastic early warning system of anything outside the house (she's too good sometimes, as she also barks at non-existant noises!) but she isn't that tactile. My red setter cross dog is useless as a guard dog, he isn't scared of noises outside but simply too lazy to get up to bark, but he just loves strokes and cuddles and would curl up on the sofa or the bed with me all day if he could! Bizarrely, he is scared of the noises the dishwasher makes though - lol!

Sarah - it's so nice to hear your story. What a success story you are (well, other than the nasty OHSS bit). You and Michele give us all great hope! At least you won't have to worry about OHSS again this time if you are doing a FET. And why shouldn't you get pregnant on your first fresh and then your first frozen cycle! It's great that you have seven embryos left, although I'm sure you won't need more than you transfer for this FET cycle. PMA... And I loved the bit about telling friends and family you are doing IVF in June. There are very few people who know about our infertility struggles. Some have asked where we are with our treatment - I've told them that the next step for us is IVF, which we will "probably do sometime later this year". Well that is technically true, it just happens that "later this year" is in about 5 weeks time!!

Kim, Nicole and Lee - I'll be thinking of you guys all day. Happy harvesting or, in Lee's case, nesting!!

Michele - you're still in my thoughts sweetie.

Well look at that, I only meant to do a couple of personals for the new arrivals and the people having stuff happening today and I wrote another mini essay again! Sorry guys, I'm going to be cluttering up this thread with my ramblings...

Everyone have a good day, take care.

Hazel

[melanie_100]

Kim
Good luck today with your ER!!! How exciting
I'm dying to hear more about your dream of me getting a BFP
I hope your dream does come true.
I am kinda worried because all this GI stuff I have going on can irritate your uterus. Hopefully my embies are strong and hang in there for the ride. My belly has finally settled down (did acupuncture yesterday and he helped it along with some points on my belly) but I am still very bloated. Haven't called doc yet, maybe I will today. I still never got much response from the girls who have done IVF before as to how long they were bloated
My husband asked me this morning if I thought I was pregnant. I said "I don't know." My belly has been so upset from severe bloat and GI stuff I can't tell much of anything. My breasts usually start to get sore shortly after I ovulate, but their not sore at all. I'm kinda worried about that too because they are my progesterone indicators. Hopefully my prog. is high enough at this point to support a pregnancy if the embies do decide to implant.
Well in case you haven't guessed I am over thinking everything. My beta is only a week away now and that will settle it all. Have family coming to town this weekend, so that should keep my mind busy.
Good luck Cynthia, Lee, and Sisi today. I am using the calender that we are posting on, so if I left anyone out, I'm sorry. I'll just say good luck to all of us

[CT_Michele]

lionoe - Stimming! ER - Mar 11 ET - Mar 16
kimbob - Stimming! ER - Mar 11
Wishing4Baby - Stim start Mar 6, estimated ER Mar 18
millie 09 - Stimming!
Sisi1 - Stimming!



babymex - ET Mar 1, Beta Mar 12
melanie_100 - ET Mar 7, Beta Mar 18
faithseverything - ET Mar 9, Beta???
Sara30 - FET Mar 11, Beta???


Trying for another angel – IVF early March
SunMoon&Stars – DE w/icsi, ET Mar 16
Latinosunshine – Last BCP Mar 16, ER around Mar 30
Sari - Start stims Mar 18, ER Mar 30? ET Apr 2?
Waiting For 4 - Consult w/ RE Mar 13
dys24 - on bcp's, waiting for af to start stims
sprouthaus - ganirelix/antagonist cycle - Apr
milpagan - BCP start Mar 7? RE consult Mar 9, ER/ET early Apr
tabatha1975 - on lupron
cymplicity27 - Lupron start Mar 2, start stims Mar 14
sbr - FET Apr 2
biancajb - Last bcp Mar 20, stim start Mar 25
wishfull27 (carolyn) - ET around early April, ICSI/DE
Hjw – down-reg start Mar 5, baseline Apr 2, ER around Apr 13
kline - down reg start Mar 8, stim start mar 26?
CT_Michele – Polypectomy Mar 12, Start stims 4/10, ER/ET/fresh TESE week of 4/20

Calendar site -
http://freecal.brownbearsw.com/IVFCycleBuddies

[CT_Michele]

Wow- I can't believe how much our list has grown. It is so nice to have so many wonderful ladies to talk to!

Mel- when I had my first ivf, I felt bloated all the time! That was my biggest side effect, during stims, during 2 ww and early pregnancy. Maybe even the whole 9 months. I hope you get your gi stuff figured out and only a week until beta....I can't wait.

hazel- thanks for keeping me in your thoughts. And thanks for asking about mil, wish I had better news about her. Dh and I went to go visit last night and she is not well, physically or mentally. She is very weak, has trouble walking, I guess she fell in the bathroom last night, and has all the classic signs of someone withdrawing from alcohol. For some reason she thinks she is coming home soon and that is not the case. She will hopefully be deemed medically stable today so she can be transfeered to the psychiatric area and they can start working on the depression and alcoholism. We had a dr come in last night and talk in front of her, she is being held against her will right now for up to 15 days, could be more or less depending on behavior, and she was not happy to hear it. We will go back today during the day to talk to her team of dr's and try to find out more about what happens next. We are so lucky to live so close to Yale, one of the best mental health hospitals in the country, I can't imagine how bad this would be if she still lived in that tiny country town in Georgia.

Whew- sorry to rant and vent...ok, back to personals...oh, and happy sniffing still to you hazel...apr 2 is closer than you think

Kimbob- good luck with ER, I can't wait to hear how many eggies you have! Let us know as soon as you feel up to it. Thanks for thinking about me and mil.

cynthia- I put a link to your calendar at the bottom of our tracker, so people can find it easy, thanks for such a great idea. Have fun at your internal u/s, I remember thinking that was weird to, but get use to it, you will have a lot of them, and yes, re's have seen it all!

sbr- Welcome! So we are in similar boats. I had a successful first ivf and my beautiful baby girl is now 6 months old. We don't want to wait and are trying for number 2 now. But we are doing another fresh cycle. Insurance covers us twice, so last time, we did not freeze embies due to finances and knowing we could try one more fresh cycle. We will freeze this time and if it doesn't work, will pay for an FET out of pocket. I feel the same as you, in the sense I was so lucky it worked first try and I am bound for a bfn at some poitn, but I try not to think that way and just pray I everything will be exactly the same. In your case though, I hope you have a better pregnancy, it sounded horrible what you went through!

Sisi- I am sorry to hear about dh's revalation from the tv show he watched. I agree with you, that you should transfer atleast 2, I know some people choose one, and it is their personal decision, but even me at my "younger" age of 27, I would never transfer just one. Even with a little one already at home, I would still do atleast 2, if I get twins, so what? Then I will have the big family I always wanted. I just know last time, everything, all odds were in my favor, and I still barely ended up with one, so I would never risk just transferring one. I hope he will realize this and you guys can be on the same page.

Millie- Welcome. We have another milly here too, but she spells it different. Good luck on your first ivf, I wish you much success and happy stimming! Let us know when er will be.

faith- you have come to the right place. Hopefully we can help keep you sane during your 2 week wait. I also found this ivf board by googling everything about ivf. I am so glad I found it, it has been my life saver when I have had no one else to talk to, and I spend way too much time on here everyday.

Everyone else, hang in there, it is almost your time to start...

afs, polyp removal tomorrow. The hospital called last night to do the pre-registration. The lady on the phone told me I have a $200 co-pay....urg...co-pays stink! But atleast the procedure is covered. I have to be there by 7:15 tomorrow for an 8:30 surgery and the hospital is about a half an hour away, even though I am minutes away from the best (Yale), my RE uses a different hospital closer to him. It would have been great if it were at yale b/c dh could have sat with his mom while I was recovering. Of course I am nervous, I hate being under anesthesia, feels like I have no control, but I will be glad to just get this over with and move on. Hopefully I will feel ok and be able to post soon after it is over.

Thanks for all your support ladies. Sorry for the long post, I just wanted to try and say hi to as many of you as possible.

[Sari]

Hi girls:

So many ladies here, everyone so supportive and positive. I'm glad to found you. To those stimming, wait for me, I am only one week away. I feel like is christmas eve, tomorrow is my orientation and I think "finally this is happening". I have goose bumps. Who would though there are people who get excited about stimming for weeks, get u/s, blood work every other day. We really may be a liiiitle crazy. But just to think this time next month I would know I'm expecting. See, finally PMA my way.

Melanie, you are the first to go. I hoping to see your BFP on the 18, so relax and don't let anything bother you.

Michelle - I am praying for you, so everything will go as a breeze tomorrow.

Melanie - I really going to try visualization, its a beautiful thing. Just imagining the uterus receiving the embryo. I told my sister about the treatment because I needed someone to share it, and she ask me "when is the Dr. going to put the baby inside of you". It was nice. I never though of that. It is not an embyo, it is my baby. I almost cry. She is really excited, she said she wanted to be the aunt of triplets.

Well, sorry, I don't know how the other girls do it, address to everyone. You really are something. So to everyone, a really big virtual hug.

[cymplicity27]

Well I'm back from my baseline u/s and bw! Luckily after only 3 days AF wasn't flowing much...actually, not at all! I usually only have a 4 day cycle anyway and I think the BCP made it even shorter. So the u/s wasn't gross at all...much to do about nothing

As for results, everything looks good! I have 7 early follies in my right ovary and 9 in my left for a total of 16. I was also told I have a "nice" thin lining. RE expects a good response from the stims I start on Sat. They wouldn't give me ER/ET dates and only told me if things go well it is usually 10 -12 days after the start of the stims. RE predicted I'd be closer to the 10 day range, so I'm thinking tentative dates of 3/24 ER and 3/27 ET. Yaay!

Oh, I'm still waiting on a call for my b/w results but RE seemed optomistic about those as well.

[Sara30]

Hi I am going to do a short me post and will catch up properly tommorrow. Thankyou all for your good luck thoughts and positive vibes, I am officailly PUPO, they transferred 2 grade 10 embryos so now in the 2ww..............................

Going to lie on my sofa now with my legs in the air!!!! Only joking but would do it if I thought it would help HaHa!!!

Okay going to lie on the sofa now with my legs in the air!! See you guys tommorrow

Lee XXXX