NOV/DEC 2009 -- Cycle Group

[julia_78]

rosario & kasey - i am really sorry for your loss.... looking forward to having a great cycle with you & everyone on the forum this time around.

2010 - what is AF? I am still trying to figure out the lingo on this board (is there an acronym glossary anywhere?)

[KJGrant]

Turtle0619: Thanks, we are very hopeful, as everyone should be!! I live in Western Mass, about 45 minutes south of Brattleboro NH. I have not heard of Fertility Center of New England, I use Baystate Reproductive. Good luck with your cycle.

2010:Don't you just love waiting on AF I spent nearly 3 years hoping she would not show up when we were TTC, and I thought it was funny that as soon as you start IVF you can't wait for her to show so you can begin.

Rosario: I am so sorry for your loss, you sound so strong, I hope you are doing/feeling well and the best of luck to you and your DH. We also have two frost babies, will you be transferring both this cycle?

Julia_78: Looking forward to a great cycle as well, I see you did your first cycle in September, are you doing a FET (frozen embryo transfer) this cycle. I joined these message boards in may (I think) and it is hard to figure out the acronym's, AF stands for Aunt Flo A.K.A your period I have not found a glossary anywhere (I haven't really looked) but the one's I could not figure out I googled and tried to go from there. Good luck with everything!!

AFM: We are getting my med's overnight-ed, so tomorrow will officially be day one, and our tentative transfer day will be November 11th. VERY excited and a little bit scared.

[motherhoodHopes]

Hello Everyone!

I'm sorry that I've been away for the past few weeks. It's nice to see Nov/Dec drawing near and things picking up for everyone. I need to read to catch up, but just wanted to get a quick Hi, Hello and Welcome in.

I'm still on BC pills to regulate my cycle and get the timing right. It looks like I'll do a Lupron shot on Nov. 4th to get me ready for a FET around Dec. 11th. Right now I feel like I've been waiting forever. I was so excited back in July when I started my first IVF. Things were going so well, but then I got OHSS and couldn't go through with the transfer on Sept 4th. So, I have 14 snowbabies that I have been waiting patiently to reunite with!

Baby dust and prayers to you all! We are all going to have early Christmas blessings this year!

[julia_78]

Thanks! English is my second language; I am French and moved to the US with my American husband 8 years ago, so even if I had seen a glossary for AF I would have never figured out who Aunt Flo was, some of these idioms you just don't get to learn at school... (on the flip side, this first IVF cycle has taught me more vocabulary on the female anatomy and reproductive technologies in English than I ever knew in French So thanks for decoding! We are hoping to do the FET in Nov or Dec but are waiting to see what our doctor recommends next week. We can't wait to get started again.

[Rosario]

KJGrant I am so surprised to see how I have been feeling especially being so strong. The only thing is that I am dying to be pregnant again. I am not sure if its the hormones but I felt the same way when I had my 1st m/c. I will be transferring my 2 frost babies if they thaw well. I am not scared of my IVF ending in a twin pregnancy. The only thing is that I will get a cerclage and frequent monitoring although my doctors might not think its needed. It is my body and they need to respect my decisions so whatever I went thru this time won't happen again.

[turtle0619]

julia there is a thread under the "general forum" section of the message boards with a list of all the acronym's in it (i think its like the 3rd one from the top...its "sticky" so it will always stay at the top of the board) hope that helps!! you are too funny about learning reproductive words...who knew we would be experts in all this stuff?? haha i talk to my mom about all of this and i forget she has no idea what i'm talking about haha

kjgrant its beautiful over there...i grew up outside of albany, ny so i know that area really well. isnt it great living in MA. for all of this IVF stuff...my comapny is based out of MA. so i get all the great benefits of the MA. ivf laws!! without it i'm not sure dh and i would even be able to try all of this...

2010 AF came here last weekend and i will send her right over to you....kjgrant said it best...you pray and pray for years that she doesnt show up, and then when you finally want her she never shows her evil face i hope the old hag shows up soon!!

rosario i'm so sorry for your loss...like other ladies have already said you are very strong to be trying again so soon, but we are routing for you..i cycled with ctmichele in sept/oct and she had us all praying for you during your bedrest! all the best to you and DH!

AFM i am going away for the weekend...woohoo...it will be nice to get away and get my mind off of all this waiting for a few days...have a great weekend everyone!

[2010]

julia - funny, english is also not my first language and i am also not always sure if this is why im missing some of the terminology, but it might be just the IVF language that we are learning, you are right.
turtle0619 - it arrived this morning, now i have us + blood work on wednesday morning (just scheduled!)... cant think of anything else right now... i was thinking that this past week was pretty good for me emotionally. i guess because the first step was made but now i am nervous about this appointment and everything else again .... it is really a journey and i am learning not to think too much just move from one thing to another... i hope im making sense
good "ivf worrying free" weekend to all of you!

[to_have_fun08]

Hey Ladies, Glad to see everyone is doing well and even have one already on stims. The first BFP is just around the corner.

Rosario - You go Girl!!! Can't believe you are already ready to try again. More power to you.

KJGrant - Sorry for you loss. Glad to also see you are coming back for more. I believe part of the grieving process in any of this is having a plan and trying again. It will be Christmas for both of us today, I am also getting my meds. YEY!!! I just love seeing all those little boxes. Good Luck...

Julia - It took me forever to figure out all the acronyms when I started on the IVF boards. I should have gotten frequent user miles on the acronym finder sites. Now I find myself trying to use the acronyms in everyday life and then come to realize that many people have no clue of what I am talking about.

Turtle - CHEERS to all the states that have mandates. I wish all of them did, it is just so unfair that so many couples have to go in debt to have a family. I wouldn't be doing any of this without insurance.

Lou71 - Sounds like your cycle is going well. You might still get some of those 7 to catch up. Sometimes the follicles just start taking off so don't try to stress over it. I know easier said then done.

AFM - Had my baseline u/s yesterday. Dr. says he thinks I might get 5 eggs, though I am not holding my breath on that. I took my first shot of Ganirelix today and then start Follistim and Famera on Monday. Has anyone ever taken Famera? This is my first time taking it and the bag that the drugs came in had a big warning "This is a Chemotherapy Drug". Kind of freaked me out at first. I have heard of others using it so I am not worried about it, just thought the bag was strange. After over a week going back and forth with my Dr. office and insurance, finally will have all my meds today. YEY!!! I guess in the end it was worth the hassle because 1-- I only have a small co-pay for the drugs, and 2-if I have to do another cycle, I won't have any drug coverage. Since I won't have any further coverage, I have been stocking up on Follistim. When my nurse was making out my meds sheet, I asked her to put 2 extra boxes of follistim on the request. I figured the insurance would catch this an not approve the whole amount. Well, they did catch it but with some other screw ups, the pharmacy is sending me all the boxes the the nurse ordered. Now, I will probably have enough Follistim to last me 2 cycles. Though, hoping I will get a BFP and won't need it. Then I will just give the extra drugs to other women that have to pay out of pocket.


Well Happy Friday to all!!

[washingtonda]

Hello all. I have been hesitant about joining this thread as I think I may be more of a December/January but I'll join anyway. I'll have to try to catch up on who everyone is and where they are in their cycle.

AMF - This will be my second round of IVF. DH and I got pregnant on 1st try in 2008 and had a beautiful DD on Sept 19, 2008. I have 3 older children (21, 19, 18) from a previous marriage and DH had none until our DD. The only reason I'm forced to do IVF was because in 1991 (last birth of my 18 year old) I had my tubes tied. Had surgery to have them reversed in 2006 and that didn't work so IVF was the answer. With DD I was a little more confident because we did the shared risk program where we were guranteed a baby or 100% of our money (22K) back. Because I am now 40 and no longer able to participate in that program, we will be paying out of pocket for each cycle. Our insurance covers alot of the med costs however, we have to pay full price for each attempt which is $11,500. I'm so afraid that if we don't get pregnany right away that I'll be breaking the bank because I won't want to quit. Right now I am in the mist of all of my prescreening testing. AF should be here tomorrow and once that comes I will have the 3 day FSH test and 5 days after that I will have the HSG and if all test look good, we should be getting our calendar. DH will also be doing his Semen analysis during thsi same time also. They are making us do all of these test again because it's been over a year and they want to make sure things still look good before we dump alot of money into this and something isn't right.

As you can see I've been on these boards for a long time and am hoping that this group is as great as some of the other groups that I'm with.

Good luck to all of us!!!!!

[10bear]

Dear all ladies,

So Glad to join this forum with all of you, and wish very best to all of you as well.

I just finished with my blood test and US this morning, I was told I have total of 4 seeable folicles. Not sure why this time drop to 4 since 3 weeks ago when I did my baseline U/S, RE told me total is 10,so.....something must happened in between. Now I am so worry about there won't be any left for frozen ones.

I will get an phone call this afternoon to see if I can start my stim medication which will be 300 Folistim and 2 units of menopur. I am so envy about the states which have IVF in all your insurance, I have to pay every single $ by ourself. It is a big cost to us but anyways I guess I can do nothing about it.

I also start to worry about catching a flu since lots of people in my office alredy sick and I feel this headahe and a little sore throat. Just so afraid the cycle will get cancel if the flu sustain.

Wish you all have a nice weekend.

[julia_78]

hi 10 bear - welcome to the thread! don't worry yet! i am not sure whether they can really see anything in there when the follicles are so small. my first u/s they told me they could see only 13 follicles and we ended up retrieving 21 eggs and we had a bunch more that did not catch up. you may have good surprises once you start the meds. hang in there & best of you luck to you...

have a great weekend everyone!

[10bear]

Hi Julia,

Thanks for comforting me, I was so down when I got the news since we join the package deal with one frozen cycle just in case fresh ones failed ( keep our finger cross it won't). If I have only 4 to work on, then I guess we won't have any left to freeze.... Anyways, like you said, I should wait till next US and see if the stim meds really give them a kick.

Have a great weekend to you and all the other ladies. I am going to have 3 shots today, will try my best to hang in there and keep you all update if any side effect happen to me or not.

Best wishes

[olim78]

Starwishes – thank you for your recommendation – I have ordered this book and it should be winging its way over to me soon – hopefully it will get here before this cycle ends – I’m sending you lots of calm, stress-free vibes!

Lou71 – Thank you for your message, it really helps hearing from someone in the same position as you – even when you’ve never met! I can’t really offer any helpful advice as you’re a bit ahead of me in your cycle and I’m totally new to this so it might be a bit of the ‘blind leading the blind’ however, all I can say is, do not think about the 7 smaller follicles, think about the 5 large ones, this is the positive. Think of any more than 5 as a BFB – Big Fat Bonus (might add this to the acronym board!). For me, I just have to completely shut out the negative and let those parts see to themselves – focusing on the 7 will not change ANYTHING, if you are taking your drugs and doing everything you are supposed to – there is absolutely nothing you can do. Not sure if that helps at all – I used to hate all this positive mental attitude stuff but think I am coming round to the idea that there’s definitively something in it. I am a total worryer myself and I can get really annoyed when people tell me to be positive but deep down I know, worrying will change nothing and you are absolutely right – it only takes one and it could be one of those 5.

KJGrant – Very sorry to hear about your m/c - that must have been very difficult. Lots of luck for your FET - I have everything crossed for you.

Julia_78 – Hello from one newbie to another. Very sorry to hear about your 1st cycle. Good luck for your appointment next week.

Will back online next week after my baseline scan to update.

Baby wishes to everyone

Me - 31 - Healthy
DH - 30 - poor morphology/low motility
1st IVF/ICSI - Oct/Nov

[lou71]

Hi Everyone,

Today is day 8 of stim and I went for my blood work and US this morning. I had been told I had 5 large follicles developing and about 7 smaller ones that may or may not catch up. Well, they didn't. The worse news is that the largest follicle is now mature, and it's the only one that is. It went from 14 to 19 mm in two days whereas the other 4 gained about 2 mm each. I stim again tonight and go back for another US tomorrow morning. RE is thinking my retrieval will be Tuesday and is hopeful for "3-5 eggs". I guess when the largest is 22 mm they have to do the procedure no matter what the others are. I'm slightly disappointed but not heartbroken as I haven't been told that we're a no go yet. I keep telling myself... "it only takes one."

Olim78- thanks for your advice on the outlook. I'm using today to stay positive and see what tomorrow brings. You're right, it's out of my hands and I have faith in science and my doc. Supposedly, he's got the best embryologists in the midwest working for him, so we'll see!

welcome 10bear - Our insurance doesn't cover fertility treatments either so we're on our own too. We opted for a shared risk plan where you pay for 3 fresh cycles (plus use of any frozens) and if you don't take home a baby you get 80% of it back. Luckily I qualified and we are on IVF #1. What I didn't count on is that if you have a cancelled cycle, then you pay for all the services up to that point PLUS a $500 cancellation fee. That happened to me last month. I'm praying this week ends with a transfer so I have a shot and don't have to fork out another few thousand. Meds are not included and I'm on 450 units of Follistim... ugh!

to_have_fun08 - I am a pharmacist and Femara is a medication that suppresses estrogen by blocking an enzyme responsible for its production. It's not really a chemotherapy but is used to treat breast cancer in women who have estrogen receptor positive cancer. Good luck this go around. You've been through a lot and this is the time you'll get a BFP.

Good luck to all.

[sharishu]

Rosario- so sorry about your loss! May this new IVF be filled with blessing, and a healthy pregnancy for you and for all of us .

Good luck to one and all!

Shari xo