NOV/DEC 2009 -- Cycle Group

[me2009]

http://www.fertilityplus.org/faq/ivfhints.html

i found this site and it had some good tips on each stage of the process.

some was good advice and other was just common sense.

hope this helps?

[lou71]

me2009 & lulu668 Thanks for the advice on the progesterone injections. I used the Emla and ice and it wasn't too bad. My muscle involuntarily contracted during the injection which was a bit painful and weird. I massaged the area myself... tonight I'm turning that over to DH!

me2009 Your Ambien story was hilarious! Thanks for sharing.

A few people have asked others about their protocols and side effects from the drugs. Although I don't know all the protocols out there, here's what my RE had me do.
Initially was on BCP's for 9 days & started Lupron 10 units on day 7. Baseline US showed a cyst so Lupron increased to 20 units. US 1 week later showed a bigger cyst. Cycle was cancelled. My clinic uses 10 units Lupron for anyone under 170 lbs. I'm 125 lbs so the 10 units made sense.
For my second try, I took BCP's for 19 days and started Lupron 20 units on day 17. A week later I went for my baseline US and it showed no cyst! My E2 was 32, LH and PG were both around 1.0. I started Follistim 450 units day 1, then 400 units x 2 days, along with 10 units HCG and 10 units Lupron, & an aspirin 81mg daily. I went back on day for for a US and blood work. Things looked good, I had about 12 follicles developing. Half were 4-6 mm and the rest were smaller. E2 level was supposed to double, and it went to 112. RE increased Follistim to 450 units daily. I continued the 10 u HCG and 10 u Lupron. Two days later, the six follicles were bigger and the others seemed two small to catch up. E2 level was 480. I continued the same meds for two more days. The six got larger and the E2 continued to rise ~1100. I stimmed a total of 8 days. The 8th day I was told to give 250 units of Follistim in the afternoon and then trigger 10,000 units HCG at 10:30PM. My ER was scheduled for 34 hours later. 6 eggs retrieved, 5 mature, 4 fertilized. Awaiting transfer instructions. I started methylprednisolone 16 mg daily the day of ER and progesterone 50 mg IM the day after ER. I'm supposed to start estrogen patches 3x0.1mg on 11/3. My beta will be 11/10 regardless of if my transfer is tomorrow or 11/1. What is everyone else doing.

As for side effects, I was lucky and really felt pretty good on the Lupron. A couple of hot flashes and a few minor headaches. Once the Follistim started I definitely got more moody and had some abdominal twinges. The strange side effect that I had was "flu-like" symptoms. I found several reference to confirm it too. At first I thought I was coming down with something. I would feel achy and run a temperature around 100 F for about 4 hours in the afternoon. Then it would lift and I would be fine again. The timing coincided with the peak effect of the drug.

Hope everyone is doing well out there. You're all in my thoughts. I'll keep you posted on my ET. I'm at work and need to get going now.

[10bear]

Hi Everyone

I just came back from RE office, I did 2nd round US after stim. medicine. I have overall 8 follicles with 4 in same size group and 4 others smaller same size. Hopefully the 2nd group can catch up soon, is anyone knows any tricks? I guess now all rely on God's hand.

Regarding my medicine, I start my PCB on 10/3-10/16: (14 days)
Lupron 10 unit from 10/12-10/22 ( 11 days)
Lupron 5 unit +Follistim 300+Menopur 150 starting 10/23- 10/30 ( 8 days)
My first blood test after stim medication was 172 (10/23)
2nd blood test (10/26) 278
3rd blood test (10/29), will find out in afternoon, so if everything right on track, they will put me on the same medication for another 2 days. Will find out in the afternoon.

Regarding side effect, Luckly I don't have any major ones. only now feels little blow at my tummy. I got sore throat, and sometimes headache. Not sure that is cold symptom or side effect.

I asked my RE regarding sore throat, he told me I can take plain Robertism ( without cold medicine) Just would like to share with you in case.

Best wishes to all of you.

[Riley baby maybe]

Well...I'm officially overwhelmed! DH and I just started this entire process. We have been TTC for almost 3 years, with no success. Come to find out, he has a low count (9-14 million so not too low) and RE decided we would not really benefit from IUI, so IVF - here we come...I think. Our consult is next Thursday, waiting already!

We are in Texas and I'm just wondering, without prying too much, how do we pay for this? Is there financing available or are we expected to hand over cold hard cash? What about the meds? Our insurance covers all diagnostic but nothing past that point, so we are on our own from here!

I'm pleased to meet all of you. Just reading your 'old' posts reveals a wealth of information and hope...looks like the previous cycle had 26 out of 39 with BFP's! I feel lucky to be a part of this group to lean on during all of the waiting and offer my two cents when applicable. I look forward to sharing this journey with all of you!

[10bear]

Hi Riley baby maybe

Welcome, I am located in CA, and I believe only two states do not have insurance coverage for infertility is TX and CA. So, unfortunitly, we falls into this group

My clinic has package deal, like you can purchase 1, 2 cycles or 3 cycles with risk sharing. you can ask your clinic's financial counsel what they offered. I think the package deal offerred some kind of discount than regular price. They also offered finance for the treatment, but interest rate is really high @ my clinic like 9% with good credit. They will let you know and you can start from there. You should also check out your company's Flex spending account (if any) so that at least you can benefit from some tax savings. Besides, check out your credit card's cash bonus points if qualify, you can save some from that as well. But all of the above just consider penny to the big lump sum of 15K+

Best wishes to you

[jandm]

Hi everyone,

10Bear - I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you and sending tons of energy your way hoping that those 4 follies catch up!!

Lou71 - Thinking positive thoughts for you too!! - I can't wait to hear the good news for ET!

Sorry - I don't have personals in me tonight (I have got a killer headache - ironically the first day without Lupron injections, lol). For all of the newbies welcome!!! Everyone here is amazingly supportive and it has been such a help having the support of everyone on the board this time around.

AFM - had my baseline appt today and everything looks good, E2 was 25 so right now I continue on with the Ganirelex until I start stims on Weds.

Hope everyone is doing well - sending out tons of PMA!!

[LuLu668]

Riley baby maybe--- Welcome to the board. I live in MA, my insurance actually covered IVF. But the clinic I go to has a package deal. You pay 20K to try it for 6 times, they will refund 80% if you don't bring a baby home at the end. Ask your clinic if they have something like that.

[justwannabamom]

Hello everyone,
Sorry it took me so long to get back on here. I have been working all the overtime I can to try to pay for this expensive journey we are all about to take. I am in Ohio and we also do not have insurance coverage for IVF. I just wanted to say thanks to all of you who had responded to my questions. Sharishu, Lou71, tohavefun08, me2009, olim78.

supergenius special thanks for the work you have put into keeping us all aware of each others progress!

me2009 Hello and thanks so much for the information.I am a nurse as well (ER and ICU). This APS you are talking about, no one ever mentioned it so I have to do some reserch on it, but what kind of tests do I need to have done? My RE did do some clotting tests like factor 5. I don't have the results yet though. We have our baseline water ultrasound and labs on Wednesday, so I plan to have a list of questions for him. Any additional info you have would be great.

I also wondered if you guys ever have trouble with the RE office not returning calls or just plain not doing what they tell you they will do. I had a big problem with the first RE and after the unsuccesssful IVF I went elsewhere. But the first place messed things up terribly. The nurse filled out the script for my drugs and faxed it to the pharmacy for me then later she was the one to instruct me on how much meds to take, well in the middle of my stim, I realized I would run out of meds so I called them. The nurse had told me to take 2 times the repronex I was supposed to. So, they just had me space out my drugs take more of the FSH and none of the repronex which makes me wonder how it affected my BFN. The Dr of course, says it didn't. That was just one example of problems I had with them, there were many more. You don't want to hear about all that. Anyways I switched and have a new Dr. who I absoulutely love but the problems with the new staff has began again. They are only in the office I go to on Wednesdays but i was told I could always talk to them in the other offices if I had a problem or question. Well I havent even started anything but my BC and twice now when I have called I was told to call back on Wednesday to talk to my nurse. I don't like that. Also my nurse was supposed to fax my script last Wednesday and didn't. I had to call her this Wednesday of course and remind her, then she did take care of it. Am I just getting anxious over nothing here? Maybe I just expect too much out of people? It seems odd that I have had problems like this with 2 different offices. Maybe they are all that way? I am just afraid that they will forget to do something important or forget to tell me something important and cost me another BFN. I guess the kind of money we pay for this I expect them to be very on top of things and they never seem to be. Any advice?

Sorry to ramble on and on. I just have so many questions and haven't had time till now to ask you all. Got all that on my mind plus I have to have my husband to the hospital in about 4 hours. He is having carpal tunnel surgery today. I jus couldn't sleep. I am a nightshifter!

Thanks again to all of you and good luck to all!
Gonna try to sleep a couple hours before we got to surgery!

[me2009]

justwannabamom:

OMG...what a nightmare of a clinic! that's cool that you're an RN as well. Not to take from all the other ladies on here But if you're anything like me, you're super anal. You know how they (the are susposed to treat you). Yeah there are alot of good clinic in my area. Im on the west coast, but not Cali. But It was down to two of the more popular clinics. I did my research & went with the small one. And super glad that i did for many reasons.

When i first went to them i went for my newly dx thyroid. I knew i didnt have the coverage with my health ins. So i went to see them about my "thyroid" and then plucked their brain & got as much info as i could before my husband and i got married. I told them about my mom's histroy of multiple m/c #4 (including a 7 mos m/c and my sister was an emg c-sec of placenta issues) and i knew she had thrombocytopenia (low platlets)...

SO my now husband and I had been together for over 6 years, and lets just say. We never got prego! Not that we were ever "trying" but we we not preventing..... Needless to say I was questioning my fertility, but were just waiting until we got married and i got on his coverage ins.

So i went to my clinic and told them..hey "my mom had issues x,y, & z back in the 70's and told them my history with my Dh and said i just have a gut feeling that something is wrong"

Based on my strong family history with my mom, they totally opened my eyes up to the APS. I just figured all of my mom's m/c were relateted to her being a mom of the 70's and not having the best meds due to the times.

Also, I have a l5-s1 herniation and a scaralization of the right side of my pelvis. Hence, my neurosx concluded that i had a mild case of spinda bif in-vitro. Come to find out that my mom has the same issue with her pelvis... My RE put all of my past issues with my mom's pregancy's and my back issues, and not getting prego he did said he didnt want to wait until i had a m/c to do all the APS /thombo testing. And the MTHFR testing


So my RE was spot on with ordering all the 4k plus in tests. I do have MTHFR (just one gene mutation) Im on the cerfolin. Which would **might explain my spine issues. (and my mom's spine issues as well). I have Some of the APS antibodies. This ** might explain alot of my mom's previous m/c. Not to take away that i am fully aware that chrom could have caused my mom's m/c back in the day. But she was pretty young when she had me and my sister. (under 25)

So yeah, perhaps im *crazy* and my clinic thought so as well. and they had, $$ with my crazy history, but they gave me options to do or not to do all of the test. I could haven gone and just had ivf and taken a chance if i was to m/c or not, to treat w/ heparin or not.

I just gave them the INFO and they put the pieces together for me and my DH!

There are only 2 RE in the office and 2 np and 2 ma. I know each and everyone in the office. They know my name, my DH...ect.

They are great, they return phone calls there is a nurse's line and you leave questions or get them on the first try.

Im sorry, i do understand that it is a DOCTOR's office, BUT IVF is a CASH CLIENT world! Most of us don't have Ins or its limited. So they should return our calls the day we call, they need to get our RX correct the first time. Not saying that we shouldn't hold all of our doc of all kids with such high bars. But we are paying, not the ins companys!!! So yes, i would rather go to a smaller clinic vs a big high clients and multiple doc's anyday and just wonderful numbers.... !! that's just MHO!!


Ok sorry for the long semi-rant reply


on a lighter note, that sucks about nights. ive been on nights and i hate it! lol

I hope you're hubby has a good sx! I hope he will be better by the time its "sample" time

ps. its just my opinion that i think every IVF clinic should do all of the Auto immune/ASP test when we're all dealing with IVF. We spend too much heart and soul on this whole process.

All women need to have all the FACTS FIRST so they can't have the most sucess. Perhaps if these test were standard, we wouldn't have so many ivf cycle with BFN time and time again??? Its just a small piece of the puzzle, but i do think it's an important one.

[me2009]

justwannabamom:

OMG...what a nightmare of a clinic! that's cool that you're an RN as well. Not to take from all the other ladies on here But if you're anything like me, you're super anal. You know how they (the are susposed to treat you). Yeah there are alot of good clinic in my area. Im on the west coast, but not Cali. But It was down to two of the more popular clinics. I did my research & went with the small one. And super glad that i did for many reasons.

When i first went to them i went for my newly dx thyroid. I knew i didnt have the coverage with my health ins. So i went to see them about my "thyroid" and then plucked their brain & got as much info as i could before my husband and i got married. I told them about my mom's histroy of multiple m/c #4 (including a 7 mos m/c and my sister was an emg c-sec of placenta issues) and i knew she had thrombocytopenia (low platlets)...

SO my now husband and I had been together for over 6 years, and lets just say. We never got prego! Not that we were ever "trying" but we we not preventing..... Needless to say I was questioning my fertility, but were just waiting until we got married and i got on his coverage ins.

So i went to my clinic and told them..hey "my mom had issues x,y, & z back in the 70's and told them my history with my Dh and said i just have a gut feeling that something is wrong"

Based on my strong family history with my mom, they totally opened my eyes up to the APS. I just figured all of my mom's m/c were relateted to her being a mom of the 70's and not having the best meds due to the times.

Also, I have a l5-s1 herniation and a scaralization of the right side of my pelvis. Hence, my neurosx concluded that i had a mild case of spinda bif in-vitro. Come to find out that my mom has the same issue with her pelvis... My RE put all of my past issues with my mom's pregancy's and my back issues, and not getting prego he did said he didnt want to wait until i had a m/c to do all the APS /thombo testing. And the MTHFR testing


So my RE was spot on with ordering all the 4k plus in tests. I do have MTHFR (just one gene mutation) Im on the cerfolin. Which would **might explain my spine issues. (and my mom's spine issues as well). I have Some of the APS antibodies. This ** might explain alot of my mom's previous m/c. Not to take away that i am fully aware that chrom could have caused my mom's m/c back in the day. But she was pretty young when she had me and my sister. (under 25)

So yeah, perhaps im *crazy* and my clinic thought so as well. and they had, $$ with my crazy history, but they gave me options to do or not to do all of the test. I could haven gone and just had ivf and taken a chance if i was to m/c or not, to treat w/ heparin or not.

I just gave them the INFO and they put the pieces together for me and my DH!

There are only 2 RE in the office and 2 np and 2 ma. I know each and everyone in the office. They know my name, my DH...ect.

They are great, they return phone calls there is a nurse's line and you leave questions or get them on the first try.

Im sorry, i do understand that it is a DOCTOR's office, BUT IVF is a CASH CLIENT world! Most of us don't have Ins or its limited. So they should return our calls the day we call, they need to get our RX correct the first time. Not saying that we shouldn't hold all of our doc of all kids with such high bars. But we are paying, not the ins companys!!! So yes, i would rather go to a smaller clinic vs a big high clients and multiple doc's anyday and just wonderful numbers.... !! that's just MHO!!


Ok sorry for the long semi-rant reply


on a lighter note, that sucks about nights. ive been on nights and i hate it! lol

I hope you're hubby has a good sx! I hope he will be better by the time its "sample" time

ps. its just my opinion that i think every IVF clinic should do all of the Auto immune/ASP test when we're all dealing with IVF. We spend too much heart and soul on this whole process.

All women need to have all the FACTS FIRST so they can't have the most sucess. Perhaps if these test were standard, we wouldn't have so many ivf cycle with BFN time and time again??? Its just a small piece of the puzzle, but i do think it's an important one.

[me2009]

Suppresion Check: Green Light GO!!

All was good in the land of suppresion today! So I start dex tomorrow night and onward with my injections on monday!

OK, today i really hit me. Im so doing this IVF!! Ahh scared, excited, and scared... and did i say excited!

My Hubby asked again if we can do a practice run on the injections on me! ( ME: So gonna milk this for what its worth) lol j/k




10bear: playing catch up is better than NO follies

Lou71: I'm waiting & very excited for you!!
thanks for the info on your protocol. its sorta sim to min, but im taking 300 fil twice daily & menpru, no lupron though...

Riley: welcome!!! BFP here you come! My clinic does a seperate meeting w/ the fin advisor in the clinic. They give an line, by line break down. Kinda Ala-Cart. they only do it if they need too...

turtle: my hubby does some scary sleep stuff too.. he is a big log sawing factory !! I have many yellow earplugs and a zune with music every night. or thank god for ambien (when i do use it)

Kerribell: HI I should be a turkey day person too???!!!


If i forgot anyone, Im sorry! We are growing!!

[olim78]

Hello everyone –on day 4 of my stim injections now. Only took me 10 minutes last night to sort my meds out, mix them and inject myself – a significant improvement on Tuesday’s performance – took me about 45 minutes to sort myself out and was getting in a right flap! Will be injecting like a pro soon I’m sure.

Supergenius – you are truly supergenius – the tracker is great! May next u/s is on Monday 2nd Nov so I will update you for the tracker then.

Jenice –you poor thing – I really feel for you, that all sounds miserable and just what you don’t need – get well soon.

Babyhopes – am glad you have a date for the start of your meds. It’s good to have something in the diary to work towards.

Tc4474 – You are definitely not alone during this process and don’t worry about the injections – I started mine three days ago and after the first couple, it’s fine.

Sarah_ruth79 – Hello – it’s great to have another person with us. I do acupuncture and would definitely recommend it – if nothing else it helps with general wellbeing and feeling calm – which can only be a good thing in my book.

Lulu668 – I go to acupuncture once per week, as does my DH however, there are certain times around ER and ET when you need to avoid it/do it more but I’m not sure exactly what these are yet. Will find out from my acupuncturist on Monday when I see him.

Riley baby maybe – Hi there – welcome to our club. Good look for your consult next Thurs hope you find some useful bits and pieces on here – I certainly feel like there is a lot of people with loads of experience out there – everyone sounds like Drs!

10Bear – Am willing your 8 follies along – keep us posted!

Justwannabamom – I’m sorry you seem to be having a tough time. I completely agree that particularly when you are paying all of this money – you expect better service/client care. I automatically think that everyone should feel some sense of responsibility in their jobs like I do but they don’t. I would get sacked if I was a lax in my job as some people seem to be and then having such expectations inevitably means that you get disappointed once in a while. Having said that –where I am in the UK I can speak to any of the fertility nurses whenever I like and there’s always one on call too which is great – It would seem I am quite lucky in this respect. Just keep on chasing. Hope you got some sleep and that your DH’s surgery goes well –sounds like you have a lot on your plate!

Me2009 – that’s great news, you are just a few days behind me. Good luck with the injections – I am just getting the hand of them now.

Lou71 – That’s good news about your embies –keep us posted on your ET – and try to stay calm and relaxed – far easier said than done I’m sure.

Baby wishes and relaxing weekend to all x

[justwannabamom]

Just got home from the hospital with DH. Surgery was quick all went well. Numbing shot is just starting to wear off so he is a little sore.He will be on vicodin for a while now. Hopefully no vicodin state of mind like the ambien. LOL! Thanks to all for your concern.

I was wondering if any of you here who have already done IVF have had such low fertilization rates (see my signature for details) basically started with 14 eggs ended with 3 embryos. Just wondered what causes that and if it is likely to happen again this time. I guess it was such a dissapointment I am wondering if I need to prepare myself for that again. My old RE said there was no special reason and new RE says the first clinic I went to basically sucked and that unless he saw the same results himself, which he highly doubted, he would say that there is not a problem with me that it was just a poorly managed cycle but I wanted your opinions.

Thanks for the comments on the expectations of the RE office. I think I am gonna discuss my concerns with the RE on wednesday when I go for my ultrasound and just see what he says.
I agree with me2009.I am anal about things and as other of you have said due to paying cash for this procedure I feel as if I Deserve better customer service. Peoples work ethic sucks these days everywhere u go. I too would get canned if I did such a crappy job at work

Thanks to all!

[Riley baby maybe]

It's Friday and a holiday weekend - YAY!

Ladies, thank you all so much for the warm welcome. I really feel like I am among friends when I log in. I'm anxious to get to work and check on everyone in the mornings...don't tell my boss!

10bear, LuLu - thank you for the info. I know I'll learn so much more about the monetary issue when I go in Thursday. I'm dying to get that BCP prescription...never thought I'd say that while trying like a crazy person to make a baby!

me2009 - it sounds so exciting with all the injections, etc. You sound like a PRO! I can't wait to get that far along. I think I'm very behind everyone else. Wonder when I'll actually do my ER & ET???

olim78 - what an improvement on medication time...woohoo!!

supergenius - i LOVE the tracker...can't wait until I am able to see my name on it! Hopefully, we can get the ball moving Thursday!

AFM...next Thursday seems like an eternity away. At least I have a fun weekend with my DH ahead passing out candy and watching scary movies. Maybe next year we will all be out shopping for baby costumes!

[turtle0619]

olim woohoo on the shots haha when my "baby in a box" came last cycle i was sooo scared...holy needles batman!! i had no idea what i was going to do....those first few shots were so scary...i made DH help me to make sure i was doing everything right....then trying to convince my hand that it was a good idea to shove a needle into my stomach took forever! haha but after afew days it was like nothing to me...its crazy how normal things become in this very not normal ivf world!

rileybaby welcome!! we are all a big nutty family here and i'm so glad you joined! i was also soooo excited to start BCP's and also thought it was crazy that i actually wanted to be on BIRTH CONTROL!! when do you start? you arent far behind at all....when we all get to the stims everyone seems to catch up because some woman stim quickly and some are slower so it all depends....i start my stims (hopefully) on nov. 13th...it seems like years away!