May cycle buddies :)

[Kamaile]

Tess- I feel you, I know what you are going thru...i too had a m/c on my first IVF attempt in 2008....everything was going fine, even saw a HB on a couple occasions and then at 10 week check up, there was no HB...got a 2nd opinion and it was the same...i tried to wait to miscarry on my own but i didnt...I waited 2-3 weeks and nothing happened...no bleeding, nothing...so i had a d&c....so sad...and it took me a while to recover and have the guts to try again, its such an emotional roller coaster...i hope the best for you! and at least you can do an FET, my first IVF cycle i had no frosties...i only made ONE egg!

[lisadcb]

I'm pregnant with twins and I am sooooo sick and every day the all-day-sickness gets worse. I will be 7 weeks tomorrow and I think I am in for a long ride. I threw up every day with my son until he was delivered...I'm wondering just how bad it will be with twins??

[kitty_mom]

Hi ladies
Sorry I've been MIA it's been a stressful week!The bleeding has subsided for the most part since my trip to the ER so that is awesome! I see my OB on Monday he put me back on Prog Supp. based on something he saw in my blood work from ER. I hate those things but whatever is going to help my two little ones is all worth it. I am having an awful time with sciatica! Anyone have any remedies Our landlord told us he is selling the building and that the new owners want it vacant upon passing papers so we have until Sept. 1 to find a place and move. Oh and to top it all off my "wonderful" boss found out I was expecting twins and instead of congratulations he said "well looks like we'll have to find a replacement there is no way you will come back after you have them". I know he's a great guy. So needless to say things are a bit stressful I am trying not to let it get to me too much for the sake of the babies!

Rio-sorry that the # isnt going down as fast as you would have hoped

Tess_I'm so sorry for what you are going through. Not that this will be of any comfort but it happened to me too on my 1st IVF. Try to hang in there.

Hope you all have a great weekend and thanks for all the well wishes!

[purpleFish]

kitty - what a stressful week! A move and your boss finding out yikes! I am glad that your bleeding has gotten better and that everyone is still okay in there. Hopefully everything will work out for the best, you can find a great place to live and have some time to enjoy the twins when they are little without worrying about work. I am glad you got a blood test even if it means you are back on progesterone. It must mean your body needs that extra boost right now.

Rio - I am sorry your numbers are dropping so slowly. I hope they get to 0 soon so you can move on. Hopefully it means good thins for your next try, your body really wants to be pregnant!

Tess - I am so sorry for you! Personally I would give it a few more days and see if it happens naturally,i t might be a little easier on your body. If you just can't stand the anxiety of waiting then it might be best to take the drugs and just get through it quicker. I hope you get lots of love and support from everyone around you!

lisadcb - I was pretty sick last time until about 14 weeks. This time I am about 12 weeks and it has started to ease up. If you just can't keep food down it might be time to talk to your doctor about medication to keep you from being sick. I know it is so hard to keep your head up when you are hugging the porcelain king, just remember it will all be worth it! The last trimester with twins I had a really hard time with heartburn, but that depends somewhat on how the babies are positioned. Now you have something to look forward to

Kamille - I need the note that says I can't do housework... then I wouldn't feel so bad that I haven't done anything. Your OB is very conservative, but he has done a great job so far, so trust him and do what he says! I too am laughing at the thought of sex at 34 weeks... it would be pretty awkward by that point. I was able to stop progesterone shots at 7 weeks and now in 4 days I am off the suppositories. I was taking both for about 7 weeks, then 200mg suppositories twice a day. Just curios and if it is too personal feel free to tell me, do you have to pay for the weekly ultrasounds or is insurance covering them? I had to pay for 1/2 of all the ultrasounds from my RE and I was thinking that would be a lot of money for weekly ultrasounds.

pep - I am feeling much better, tired, but not so sick. I am excited for your next ultrasound it should be so neat. I wouldn't worry about not gaining weight... it will come. Hopefully I will start getting some energy back here soon in the next few weeks.

Ultrasound and Camping pics:
http://gallery.me.com/diane.damon

[Kamaile]

Purplefish- omg i dont even know if insurance covers the U/S, i just assumed it did...maybe my OB has me listed as a 'high risk' pregnancy (because of my age, ugh, and the fact that i miscarried last time around at 10 weeks) and that is how they are gonna be covered. I have no idea if he does this with all his patients or if i am in a category of people that need to be monitored closely...maybe i should ask him, i would hate to be hit by a big fat bill in the end lol....but if i end up with a healthy baby it would all be worth it anyway...plus having an u/s every week does give me peace of mind and keeps my anxiety levels at a low....its just a machine in his office, its not as good as his machine in his RE office....maybe he's just doing it and not billing insurance for it....? Cause i feel like he would tell me if there was a charge each time..

[purpleFish]

Kamaile - I didn't meant to freak you out=) With my insurance I had to pay $200 at my RE for every ultrasound, and I was thinking gosh if I had to do that for 30 weeks it would get really expensive. I know that my insurance coverage is much better once I go to the OB instead of the RE, so hopefully it is covered for you. You are right though, in the end it doesn't really matter, a healthy baby and pregnancy is all that really matters.

[Kamaile]

no prob, im not freaked but i will check with him on this issue just to make sure lol

[lisadcb]

I had some really bad cramps on Friday night, followed by red bleeding. The after hours OB did an U/S and everything looked fine and both hearbeats looked good. He thinks that one of the babies dug up a blood vessel in my uterus, which he said would cause both the cramping and the bleeding. But since I am RH negative, they wanted me to get the shot, just to make sure there wasn't mixing of the blood with the babies and me. Of course...another shot!

Purplefish - How many weeks were you when you delivered your twins? My due date is 2/26, but I am trying to figure out when they will likely come. I had to do an emergency c-section with my son, so I can only imagine that they will insist on doing a c-section with twins. I am a bit disappointed, because I really wanted to try the "regular" way.

[purpleFish]

lisa - sorry about your bleeding. I am sure that was scary for you. I went to 36 weeks with my first two, my OB said they don't typically let twins go past 38 weeks, around that time there is just no room for them to grow. So I would count on a minimum of 2 weeks early. I had a c-section with the twins because of the positioning. My son was breech with his feet under my daughters head. I would love to do the regular way too, but I doubt they will let me either. I do know some mom's who were able to deliver their twins naturally both babies were head down, and it was their first baby though. I guess it wouldn't hurt to ask and see, I think a lot of doctors and hospitals are more comfortable doing a c-section after you have already had one though. Luckily I live in a hippie part of the US so I still am going to ask if I can try.

[riogirl71]

I really need your opinion on this, I sent this email to a close friend. Would you mind reading it and telling me what you think?

I wanted to ask your opinion on something, the very few people that know about our IVF don't get the science behind it and think it is simple so I thought I would ask your opinion since you will have a better understanding of things If you don't mind...

I have been going back and forth on trying for this free IVF clinical study or not. It seems I qualify beautifully and I found out a couple of clinics in the area are doing this and one 5 hours away. The drug doesn' t worry me, it is a phase 3 study and the rates were comparable and this drug was approved for use in Europe. Basically it is a long lasting drug vs the same drug but one shot every day. Here is the story behind our cycles:

We were diagnosed with male infertility only. I passed everything with flying colors and at 39 my FSH is 6.9. Below are the result of my 2 IVFs

#1 IVF Age 36 January 2008
300 Follistim (same drug)
150 Menopur (some docs don't use this anymore)
triggered cycle day 10 (stimmed 9 days)
10 large follicles, 7 eggs, 4 mature, 4 fertilized (10 cell, 8 cell, 8 cell, 5 cell) 8 RT ovary 2 LT ovary
transfered all 4 embryos, Xande born in Oct 2008

#2 IVF FSH 6.9 Age 39 May 2010
300 Follistim
150 Menopur
triggered cycle day 9 (stimmed 8 days)
6 large follicles, 6 eggs, 3 mature, 3 fertilized (9 cell, 8 cell, 5 cell) 5 LT Ovary 1 RT Ovary
transfered all 3 embryos on May 10th, 2010 ectopic pregnancy, MTX shot on 6/16

Unfortunately 10 follicles and 6 follicles is not considered a great response but no a bad responder either. On this the more follicles you get, the more eggs and chance of them being mature. Unfortunately the follicles mature at different rates so you end up discarding your immature eggs.

Both times we transfered every embryo, 7 to 8 cell is what you want, not to say some 10 or 5 cells don't become healthy babies.

I won't be able to cycle until Sept. because of MTX shot which seems to fit the study.

My big concern is that I didn't respond that great to being with on Follistim. I am nervous about doing Follistim only and because this is a clinical study, the doctors can't put me on mixed drugs to improve egg quality/maturity or quantity. And they can't even give you some priming drugs to help to a good start. The biggest factor is that you can only transfer max of 2, 3 day old embryos. So that would mean we would have to freeze any others and most don't make it to freezing or the thaw... something to consider when you don't have that many.

We were thinking of going to Kaiser which has the highest pregnancy rates in the country and they taylor the drugs to you (something my idiot last doctor didn't do) and they have a great lab that can grow embryos to day 5 where they are blastocysts, which increases your odds of a pregnancy. Also they cost about 13,000 plus drugs on top of that.

So my big question is should I try to make the study for free IVF and risk a negative result after going through so many meds and eg retrieval surgery and then pay out of pocket for IVF on which would probably be 2011 and lose the tax benefit or should I just pay for IVF somewhere with blasts and transfer more and better my chances so that we can still get a tax break (not a big break but with 2 cycles this year we get a little break)?

I know you don't have a crystal ball! But based on my past history I wonder if the study would most likely give me a baby or am I just setting myself up for failure. I have that question for the new doctor (one of them) but I don't see him until August and I am afraid that he might be skewed depending on whether he wants people for the study or paying customers!

I am so confused right now, what would you do?

[riogirl71]

Now for personals!

Tess - I am so sorry hon. The D&C vs waiting is a personal decision, there is a risk of D&C causing scar tissue but also a natural miscarriage can be worse emotionally. I only had a negligible something and had bad cramps and weird bleeding. There is another board on fertility community and they had a thread on that. Beware of the shot though because you should not try anything for 3 months after it and I was told it works well on ectopics not uterine. Waiting for the numbers to go to zero is excrutiating, your body still thinks your pregnant and you know you are not, it sucks. I am so sorry you have to go through this. Big hugs and look forward to your frostie!

purple- my hospital only lets you do a c-sec after one c-sec... I wonder if yours would let you do a vbac?

lisa- glad your beans are doing well! Hopefully the bleeding stoped

kamaile - I find my insurance is better at the OB then RE also. Good idea to check though... sometimes you get that big bill later! Docs don't usually care about the billing much... wow, you made one egg and got a BFP? That is great odds! Sorry you had to go through a m/c

kitty - oh you poor thing! Moving? Yickes and what your boss said was not very cool... sorry you are stressed.

kiz - I get emotional too, this whole thing is frustrating!

PA - how did your OB appt go? Remember that in normal pregnancies non IVF they rarely if ever check progesterone levels or estrogen! I never had mine checked! So of course you will worry but don't worry too much! How do you feel about Conitnental and united merge? I flew continental overseas and loved them!

[TammyS]

Rio...ask Ghost his opinion, too. I sent you an email...so you already know what I think. I hope you find some answers and know without a doubt what to do...Big Hugs.

[kizmet]

Hi All,

Well AF finally turned up again last Thursday after about 40 days from my last one, so not bad for me. Hormones still seem to be messing with me though and poor DH is still in all sorts of trouble, though I'm feeling a bit better this week. Started BCP on Friday and will do FET in August. Fingers crossed it works, if not, we'll give it another crack with our last embie and then take some time off.

Friends are getting married in Samoa in April next year and if I'm pregnant I wont be going (PA_FA may appreciate just how sick some people get on planes and it just about kills me everytime - last long haul I did from London-Dubai-Melbourne I threw up for 8 straight hours after locking myself in the airplane loo, dropped 8kgs on the flight, and was carried off the plane into a wheelchair because I was so sick and spent the next two days with vertigo and unable to keep food down! This was followed two weeks later by flying Melbourne-Auckland-Rarotonga for my own wedding - added bonus was massive weightloss prior to the wedding!). There is absolutely NO way on earth I'm travelling on a plane while pregnant, especially since the only travel drugs that seem to work for me, I can't use while pregnant! So basically if the 2 frosties don't work for us, we'll take some time off, go to Samoa and start again next May. Either way, I win - baby or 2 week holiday on a tropical island!

Rio - Hugs, this just seems to be going on forever for you.

And all you ladies PG with twins - wow, we seemed to have quite a few in this cycle group! Congrats!

Kiz

[purpleFish]

rio - what a dilemma. I can understand why it is so hard! For me personally I would choose not to do the study and to find the clinic with the best success rates and go there. What worries me about the study is that you can't have anything extra to help the eggs mature and be good quality, plus if you don't respond they can't do anything to change it and you are stuck continuing a bad cycle. From my understanding after 35 egg quality goes down and anything you can do to help boost it is a big bonus. I just couldn't bare the thought of doing the study and having it fail, and then doing another cycle of IVF again. It is such an emotional rollercoaster that I know I couldn't handle it (although you are so strong). I know that money is a huge deal, but I guess for me if you could afford it I would find the best clinic around.


AFM - I went to my OB today and had a checkup. They did a blood draw to test me for stds... again seriously... but you know it has been a whole 3 months since the RE did them At my clinic you see the nurse practitioner for the initial visit. She tried to find the hearbeats with the doppler, but could only find one. So she ended up getting the doctor and the portable ultrasound to take a quick peek. Happily there were two squirming babies. I was also told there was no way with twins after a c-section they would let my try for a natural birth... doh! My doctor also decided it would be a good time to talk to me about having my tubes tied while getting the c-section... I wanted to smack him. Don't get me wrong 4 children is plenty for me, but after all that it has taken to get pregnant the thought of having my tubes tied brings me to tears. We are still debating genetic testing. I said yes, my husband thinks it is a waste of time. I thought we had done it with the first set, but my husband actually pulled out our records and we only did the carrier screening.

[PA_FA]

OOOH I feel like I have a lot to catch up on! I'll try my best.

Tess- I'm so sorry for what you are going through. I have absolutely no advice for you but I send you a big virtual HUG!

Kamaile- You asked about progesterone stuff...I am still on supposetories at 3x per day. Each one is 100mg. I set my alarm and do it every 8 hrs.

purplefish- Wow what a time for your Dr to bring that up! UGH.... I'm sorry you won't be able to try for a VBAC but we'll all do what ever is best for our babies right?! I loved your pictures! Your family is beautiful and that campground spot looked absolutely perfect! I loved the waterfall and cabin! How fun!!!!!!!!! That's my kind of camping!!!

Kiz- I'm glad AF showed up finally and you are on the road to a BFP cycle! I can't believe you were sick for so long on the flight! OMG you poor thing! I had a lady that had food poisoning for 7 hrs one time. We have a huge medicine kit on the flight that can only be opened by a licensed Dr or nurse or paramedic. If there is non we can radio call a Dr and get permission to administer things to make you stop puking. But yes, I agree, if you get that sick while flying....best not to do it if you are pregnant. Although...I do love a good wedding.

Rio- I'm glad you had a good experience on Continental! I only work the overseas routes so maybe me or one of my friends was on your flight! How do I feel about the merger....mostly scared. They are a MUCH bigger company. We are super worried about how they will merge the two seniority lists for the FAs and pilots. Seniority is everything in my job. It determines where you fly, if you fly and what days you get off. It even determines if you have a job if they have too many after the merger there could be layoffs. I really hope that does not happen because if me and DH lose our jobs we would be beyond screwed...and not in a fun way! I also worry because my airline used to be horrible with customer service and they have really worked hard to turn it around. Now United is full of ticked off and disgruntled people. When we merge I really hope we can bring some of our happiness and enthusiasm to the table. I mean who wants to work/fly with ticked of b*tches for 8-12 hrs a day???? Not me and NOT our passengers. So yes...lots of worries there. But from what we hear, nothing will happen for a couple of years so for now I am just along for the ride.
As for your decision...if they can't tweek anything to make you a better responder or change up anything because it's a clinical trial, I am not sure if I would do it. We all want the best shot possible and I think that may be achieved better with a proven clinic/Dr. Someone who can tailor everything to you. Just my opinion. I want what's best for you and would support any decision that is best for you and your family!

Lisa- I'm so glad everything is ok. Bleeding is so scary no matter how much or little it is. EEK!

AFM- I had my first OB apt last Friday. I just met with the nurse to go over paperwork for 1 1/2 hrs. WOW! They have classified me as high risk which makes me happy. I will get monthly u/s until 30wks. Then every 2 weeks until 35weeks then weekly. So that makes me feel better I guess. I was a bit annoyed that when I was meeting with the nurse she did not have ANY of my paperwork from by RE. I know they sent it over because I had just talked to the RE about 1 hr before the OB visit. It made me a little hesitant to trust this new OB office I have never been to. The RE had said that my estrogen and progesterone levels were fine for this point in my pregnancy but low so they wanted me to stay on the meds and have my OB follow up. Well if they have no paperwork they can't follow up easily. I called them on Monday after I got back from work and they found my paperwork. But...in a nutshell they are confused as to why I am on estrogen. They said they usually do not recheck levels and just go with whatever the RE says. Well, RE said to have them recheck. ARGH. I just want to make sure my baby is ok. I have this totally irrational fear that I'll miscarry. I have no clue why I think that since it has never happened to me. I mean heck, I have never been able to get pregnant. I just have a hard time believing that I can really be this lucky. I really just want another scan. This is horrible. UGH...do you think we'll all feel better when we can feel the baby/babies moving every day? They are calling my RE to find out more info. They didn't even have my 6 week u/s showing that I did have a viable pregnancy. Maybe when the OB office calls back I can beg for a quick peek???
I went back to work on Saturday for the first time since my bleeding incident almost 3 weeks ago. Everything went fine and there was no problems. I have 4 more flights this month. 3 in a row starting this Thursday. UGH...tired. My week looks like this: Newark-London-Newark-Amsterdam-Newark-Birmingham, UK-Newark then off for 4 days. AHHHH...good for me DH is with me for London and Amsterdam. That will be nice.
That's all the updates for me. Now just watching the construction in my back yard. We are building a deck and installing a paver patio. The deck is almost done. They are working on the patio right now. They excavated the dirt for the patio yesterday and within 4 hrs I caught one of the neighbors from a few blocks away stealing my dirt. They will be using the excavated dirt to backfill and fix my yard that they have torn up. I ran outside and was like..."UM Excuse me? Could you please not steal my dirt???" He said Oh I thought it was for anyone...really with a huge dump truck parked in my backyard and they are clearly doing landscaping work??? Not likely...please leave my dirt alone until they are done with it! Trashy!
Well that's my novel for today! Sorry it's so long...I feel like I miss so much when I fly. I hope all of you wonderful ladies have a great day!