Cycling In 2012 Board (formerly Fall/Winter 2011-2012)

[fvrogers]

WeHaveHope and Adkelp - Sending tons of hugs and support. You are both in my thoughts and prayers always.

Leora - Good to see you gearing up for you FET. I did the same protocol as you. No lupron, Estrace three times a day and Progesterone 5 days before transfer. Hoping that this cycle gives you your rainbow baby.

AFM - Ultrasound went well. Got to hear my LOs heartbeat. It brought tears to my eyes. Heart rate was 137. According to the measurements he measures at a gestational age of 7wk5days which is ahead of the schedule because I am about 7wks2days. My RE has released me to an OB so I have my first OB appointment on Nov 3rd. Everything is moving so fast! DH and I are so excited but nervous. We just stay in constant prayer. As for my nausea, I pretty much have to tough it out until I see the OB next week. Hopefully she will give me something then. In the meantime I am miserable, but just trying to hang in there. As always I am lurking and reading and I owe everyone more personals ... please forgive me.

Felicia

[LYD10]

akdelp - i am so sorry. this sounds awful. i cant believe you had to see everything like this. i had a MC - but mine was an empty sac - so i never had to go through actually "losing the baby"

[WeHaveHope]

Akdelp-I am so sorry. I'm at a loss for words. You have been through so much. I have prayed so much for you. I know it's difficult. I don't know why these things happen but I do know that we must put this in God's hands. Let him take our burden because otherwise it becomes to much for us to handle. I feel such a connection with you. I wish we were closer so we could go to have a hot chocolate. That always made me feel better. Yes, I spike to my RE this evening at length and we will be having tue recurrent pregnancy loss panel which includes all sorts of testing. Dont let your RE wait for another MC before they dothe tests. They are not the ones suffering with the loss. At this point they should be very accommodating and doing practically whatever you ask of them. There is absolutely no reason to wait foe this test. My RE said the only thing we need to wait for is four weeks after the Beta gets to zero. It was a week ago yesterday that I went to have my Beta redone because of the bleeding and it was over 4,200 and only a week later today my Beta is 112. How is that even possible??? It's incredible to me how this time everything happened so quickly. Still very difficult for me to wrap my head around but I have to trust in God an have faith. I pray that God gives you the peace you needs. I have never offeres this brforr but if you would like to tal vía telephone, PM me and maybe we can talk. No obligations. I know that sometimes I wish I had someone to talk to over the phone but it's never been possible since I haven't told any of my family members or friends. It's been a difficult decision for me but one that I'm sticking to. Take all the time you need. Please know that I will continue to pray for you and DH. I'm glad he is taking good care of you. You deserve that and so much more. Sending you a big hug.

[bodie1011]

Blue - Yay! Congrats!

Blessed - I hear you on the meds for the FET. Very complicated. I get so confused keeping track of the endometrim and my patches. I am supposed to do 2 patches every other day. And trying to remember if its on "on" day is hard! Good luck with the lining check tomorrow.

Kerpuppies - welcome and good luck!

Leorira - you made me LOL with the story about crying over the Katy Perry song. I can totally identify, as probably everyone on this board can. Today what made me cry was a Beatles song that came on - "Don't Let me Down" -- but really anything can set it off. I'm really sorry about your prior loss and very hard not to think about what might have been. I was the same way with my losses, even though they were all early on.

Julia - I think the follicles should be around 17,18, 19 for retrieval. Sounds like you are in great shape.

Jen - YAY! Congrats!

Akdelp - I'm so sorry. Its such a terrible thing that happened to you.

Felicia - thats wonderful.

Sorry if I forgot anyone - Sending you all hugs!!

[WeHaveHope]

Felicia-congratulations. Hearing that little heartbeat must have been amazing. Sendi g you many blessing for a healthy pregnancy and a happy healthy baby.

[blessed143]

akdelp- I am so sorry. I hate that you are going through this. It is such a hard thing that you and DH are going through . I am so glad that your DH is so supportive and so loving of you. You are so blessed to have a man who loves you and is being so sweet and supportive. I am praying for you both! I hope that things get better... I will be thinking of you!

[blessed143]

felicia- what an awesome thing to hear! That is so awesome! So happy and exited for you! I pray that you have a healthy and wonderful pregnancy and healthy baby!

We- I am still thinking of you and pulling for you! I hope that each day gets a little easier. I am sorry that you back for your beta... I am sure it was rough. Still thinking of yoU!

We ladies I am so sorry that I have not done too hot on my personals. I have so much going on right now that I feel like I am being tugged in all directions. I am not looking forward to getting up before the sun comes up but excited to get the ball rolling on the process... I am thinking of you all and I pray that you all are doing well... I hope that you have a great day and I will try to do better with personals tomorrow!

[akdelp]

Felicia - Congratulations! I am very happy for you. You and your bean are moving in the right direction.

We - I am going to PM you.

[Lauren319]

Akdelp - I'm so sorry. This has got to be so difficult. I have no words.

Blue - congrats!

Felicia - congrats!

I'm sorry I can't do personals right now. My pma is really down. Going in tomorrow to see what my options are. Still only 4 follicles at the end of my cycle.

[WeHaveHope]

Lauen319-try and keep your head up. I am praying for you.

Akdelp-I know it may be a bit weird for us but I thunk it will be nice for us to actually talk. I look forward to it. You are in my thoughts and prayers.

I know that I haven't been great with personals but I'm trying. At this point I think the best I can do is reply to messages and post in an individual basis. Please bare with me. Please know that I am keeping all of you in my thought and prayers.

AFM- had a very long talk with my RE this evening. I thank God for having such a wonderful RE. I had an appointment with my RE for this Wednesday but it was for our baby scan. I thought initially that we would keep that appointment in order to speak with him and discuss our options and the plan for the future but I just couldn't keep the appointment. Wednesday is going to be a difficult day for us. My RE understood that so he agrees that we should speak via telephone today and cone up with a plan and cancel the Wesnesday appointment. We discussed doing the "Recurrent Pregnancy Loss Panel" or RPL Panel. This blood work panel includes the following tests;

Panel Tests Include
Anti-phospholipid antibodies (APA), anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA), anti-thyroid antibodies (ATA), immunoglobulin panel, embryotoxicity assay (ETA), reproductive immuno-phenotype (RIP), NK activation assay (NKa), lupus anti-coagulant (LAC), activated PTT, and prothrombin time (PT).

The plan is to have this panel done 4 weeks after my Beta gets to zero. We also discussed having a hysteroscopy with endometrial biopsy. This will be scheduled as soon as my Beta gets down to zero. With the was it has droped in a week from over 4200 to 112 today, it should be down to zero by next week. We are waiting for the results of the tissue sample I took to the office last Tuesday. We should know by tomorrow if the sample was pregnancy tissue or maternal tissue. The hope is that is was pregnancy tissue so that they can conduct thorough genetic testing. The last thing we discussed was wanting to schedule our FET for the 1st week of January. We only have two more FET's left so we really want to explore all options and possibilities before our next try. Our RE was very helpful and wling to explore all of this with us. I am so bleeder to have him in our side even if in the end we are not able to have a baby. I know I shouldn't say that but I have to be realistic. This may just not be in our future and we may have to cone to terms with that. In the end, like DH said to me on Sunday, it may just end up being the two of us when the kids leave home. Just the two of us spending more quality time together enjoying each others company and doing the things we love to do together. That's not a bad thing. I so would love to have a baby with DH, though. But our love and faith will get us through, no doubt. In as much as we both desire having a baby together with all of our hearts, we both know that we will be ok if it doesn't happen for us. I am blessed to have the comfort and peace of knowing that. Thank you God for all the blessings in my life.

Sending you all my love,

Maria

[becca5m]

akdelp and we, thinking and praying for you both.

ninde - thank you. I'm just having a rough day. Everything that happens is magnified and I have felt at the end of my rope on more than one occasion.

jen and blueeye - congrats to you both!! wishing you both a happy and healthy pregancy.

julia - good luck! friday will be here before you know it!

kerpuppies -welcome. sounds like you are doing well on your ivf journey

lyd - hoping AF comes for you soon.

blessed - I hope your lining check goes well.

Sorry for missing anyone. It's been a rough day. u/s this morning shows progress, but not enough to schedule FET. Crossing my fingers that Wed's scan goes well.

[Sunshine1576]

Lyd, you should so get a puppy! Dh and I rescued Blackjack (formerly Arnold) from the animal shelter at 7 weeks old, he's a lab/chow mix. Looked like a baby black cub-bear more then anything with his velvety little ears. So adorable his first Christmas I dressed him up in a holiday sweater. Even saved the picture of him when he first met my MIL, he crawled up around her shoulders and snuggled up next to her ears. He's always been a lap-dog though even 8 years later and is so spoiled! We found Vegas, his adopted sister at the animal hospital.... someone literally dropped her off for ten days and never came back for her. They have been best buds ever since and warm our hearts unconditionally with so much love! I will tell you they both chewed alot the first year but so make sure you invest in lots of chew toys. Vegas loves socks so I have a whole trunk of mismatched ones for her to toss around and she loves to play fetch while Blackjack often just watches for an opportunity to play tug-o'-war. I'm very much a dog person, posting shelter pictures on facebook in hopes that more dogs out there will be rescued.

We and Adkelp, I'm so glad this forum has brought us all together because it's especially hard when we have nobody else out there that understands these emotions. I'm continuing to pray for you both right now that God will bring you comfort and peace. Take all the time you may need, I promise you each day it will get easier too and I will be here waiting to cheer your next cycle every step of the way to the day when we bring home our rainbow babies!

kerpuppies, how have you been girl? I'm wishing you the best upcoming cycle, cheering you onto this upcoming BFP!

felicia, It sound like you are progressing along well, congrats on the u/s and moving on to an obgyn. Do keep us posted on how your next appt goes. I will be in constant prayer for you and your bean. I know it's all emotional and enjoy every moment you can. Try to eat small snacks to help with the sickness throughout the day, my good friend told me this really helped her.

Lauren319, I wish there was something that could be done about the meds. All I can tell you is my last clinic was very conservative and my last cycle with the meds I didn't respond well. So my new clinic has me taking a different approach with antagonist proctocal and my previous cycle was much better. We start injections on day3 and stim away, so much less complicated it seems.

AFM: sNs appt in the morning!

[WeHaveHope]

Akdelp-I tried to PM you but my messages keep appearing in my out box not in m sent box. So I am not sure if you received my message. I hope your doing a little better today. Praying hat you fin peace and strength dutinthis difficult time.

[leorira11]

Christy - how was the SnS?

Felicia -- SOOOOO exciting! Do you have an u/s picture to share?

Becca - sorry that you didn't get to schedule your FET - my FET cycles always seem to take suchhhhh a long time.... hopefully soon, though! Did they change your dosage? (don't worry if they didn't. I'm always worried my lining isn't growing fast enough, but it always ends up fine)

[LauraN]

I went in for my bloodwork for the beginning of the cycle....it's almost surreal, but it feels like it is where I should be. After they sucked out all of my blood, I got to sit down with my IVF nurse to go over what meds she is going to order, etc. I feel good about this cycle, I am going to live in the knowledge that it will be a great cycle that will yield the babies that we want. I only want to live in that, and not even consider the what if's. I will deal with anything as it comes- my goal is to live in the moment and right now, I'm living in the moment of the excitment of starting a cycle even though we are only at the beginning.

So, as far as my status, I'm officially on BCP's, started them yesterday 10/24. Here is the plan (and this is as much for me as for you guys to know what's going on):
11/17- appt for baseline sonogram/bloodwork
11/18- start lupron
11/19- start follistim (gonal-F) & menopur
11/22- appt for sonogram/bloodwork check
11/25- appt for sonogram/bloodwork check
no telling when the next appt will be after that
11/28- trigger shot (guestimation)
11/30- ER (guestimation)
12/3- ET (guestimation)

So, the meds I'm going to be on, is Lupron- which will be my first time on this!; we will start out with follistim (because I have some already) and then end with gonal-F (because it's the same but cheaper) and menopur- never been on this one either. So, 2 out of the 3 meds will be new for me. We are starting out with 450 IU's of the follistim, which is where we ended last cycle. We are obviously hoping for more eggs this time. I am praying that my right ovary will cooperate this time......anyone know anyway to "make" an ovary cooperate?

oh- in case anyone cares or wants to know, today, my estrogen is 18 and my FSH is 6.....she said those are both good.....I don't even know what they were during my first cycle. I'm going to track everything this cycle just so I can know and it will give me something to concentrate on. You all have a fantastic rest of day/night/whatever it is for you now

I'm keeping everyone in my prayers daily! I love you all- I'm rooting for you all!

Laura