Aussies and Kiwis!

[Tiger]

Following on from Randa's great idea of 40+ crowd thread (Hi Randa!) I thought we can have Aussies & Kiwis thread too? I know there are girls out there from this side of the planet and sometimes we feel bit lonely because of silly time zones. Any takers?

Just a little bit about me to start off...
I suffer endo and my tubes are blocked. Our first IVF consultation is next Monday!! in Melbourne.

Cheers,

[ogr1]

i think this is a grea idea good job..

[hlloyd]

Hi Tiger

You are currently in Japan? Are you returning to Oz just for treatment of permanently? Great idea about the Aussie and Kiwi thread. It can feel a bit lonely sometimes as all the action happens when I am pushing out big zeds.

I hail from sunny Rockhampton....moved up here about 6 years ago from Canberra. Can't say I miss the winters!!

I am just at the tail end of my first IVF treatment. I am on the 2ww and test on 3 May. Don't have a feeling either one way or the other at this stage but will just wait and see.

Are you going to Monash IVF? I did my treatment thru their clinic here and found them to be ok. They seem to have a few world firsts and are fairly well regarded. Good luck with your appointment, I am sure everything will go really well.

Cheers
Heather

[missmolly]

Hi Tiger!

Sounds like a fantastic idea. I am also from Melbourne & also had blocked tubes!!! I have just finished my 1st IVF cycle, which was a -ve. Which clinic are you going to & which doctor? I am at Monash (Epworth) & seeing Bruce Downing. He has been really good so far & was able to unblock both my tubes. He is one of only 3 Drs in Australia that do a procedure called tubal cannulation, which unblocks tubes. Keep in touch.

Missmolly

[hlloyd]

Hey MissMolly

How are you feeling today? You sound a bit more positive, you have an amazing attitude.....I am not so sure I would/will bounce back so quickly. Good for you!! When do you have your follow-up appointment?

I hope you managed to get some retail therapy in today! Take care of yourself and your DH.

Best wishes
Heather

[Tiger]

Hello Hello!!

We are flying home tomorrow - yipeeeeeeeeeeee but unfortunately I am not going back for good... just for appoinment only - AGH!

My appointment is with Melbourne IVF, at Freemasons. We ended up with them because of my endo situation. They collaborate with ECCA (Endo Care Centre of Aus) so that is why my doc is endo/infertilty specialist as well.

MissMolly - tell me more about tubal cannulation pls pleeeease!!

Heather - wishing so hard for you and your hubbie for +ve news for 3rd May.

Becks - what time are you now? it is 12:25am Wed morning in Tokyo, 1:25am in Melb, OZ.

Next time I log on I will be in OZ!
Cheers,

[BelB]

HI all,
Tiger, what a fab idea!!!
I'm 32 years old and hail from Ipswich in sunny Qld. I have endo, and have had one round of IVF and two FETS resulting in my beautiful little girl Annie who is now five and a half months old.
Have never heard of tubal cannulation, am also keen to hear more.
Chat soon
Belinda

[Deanne]

Hi everyone, my name's Deanne and I'm new to the board.
I'd love to join an Aussie and Kiwi group too. I live in Sydney and am getting ready to start my first cycle of IVF in the next month.

DH and I've been ttc for 2 years. I had stage III-IV endo cleaned up surgically 14 months ago, which fixed the pain completely (hooray!) but we're still not pregnant. I'm a bit nervous about starting IVF and would love to hear from others who've been through this or are starting themselves. Thanks

[BelB]

HI Deanna,

Welcome!, I grew up in Sydney, went to Sydney Uni, and my parents still live on the Central Coast, whereabouts are you from?

I have endo as well, I've never had a classification system applied, but have certainly had the Laproscopy diagnosis. I jumped straight to IVF, my specialist in Brisbane was very optimistic about IVF for endo, and well it worked for us! We had once full cycle and then two FETS. I didn't have a fresh embie transfer due to hyperstimm and other nasties (I ended up with a perforated vessel during the egg pick up and got internal bleeding..was horrible!!!), but had better success with the frozen embie transfer. I got pregnant on the first FET but miscarried, then pregnant again on the seond FET and gave birth to Annie last November. It really is a rollercoaster!

Some survival tips from moi:

1. Join and stay in touch with your cycle buddies via this web site, an absolute life saver for me!!!

2. 2ww Sucks big time!!!, most of the gals on this site agree that taking things a bit easy seems to help (maybe just by making us feel better about the whole thing?), but then there doesn't seem to be any rhyme nor reason to who gets pregnant based on those who did nothing during the 2ww and those who lived life as normal..

3. It takes only one embie to get pregnant. We have all at some time on this site stressed about the number of embie we get..there have been so many positives here from women who have had one embie of apparently "poor quality"..

Look forward to hearing your story!
Belinda

[Deanne]

Hi Belinda,

Many thanks for sharing those tips with me - I much appreciate it. I'm so happy that you have a beautiful daughter now - I'm sure it made the difficult processes leading up to her arrival worthwhile.

How is your endo now? Are you ttc again?

My hubby and I just got back from the specialist where we signed the paperwork ready to start treatment this month. I'm currently at day 10 so will start the nasal spray in about 12 days. We both know it's very early days but are feeling hopeful and I guess a bit relieved that we're doing something that's going to improve our chances, after 2 rather frustrating years of trying naturally.

You asked where I'm from - Tassie originally, but I've lived in northern Sydney for the past 9 years (came here for work after finishing uni).

Look forward to hearing from you guys again soon. Tonight we're taking our new puppy to his first night of doggy pre-school. Should be fun!

Deanne

[josiemack]

Hi all - this is a great idea - and it is fantastic to see so many of us coming out of the woodwork....

I am in Melbourne, bit like Deanne, ex-Tassie who did the migration thing when I finished Uni, still head back a couple of times a year to see family and friends.

I have two children from my first marriage (Declan is 11 and Grace is 9) - my fiance and I have been together for 4 years, he has had a vasectomy and also has two kids (Becky is 19 this week and Jonathan is 13) - bit of a Brady Bunch...but we have been talking on and off for about three years about adding to the gang, and finally got our act together a couple of months ago.

We are going through Monash IVF at the Epworth - DP is seeing Dr McLaughlin (male infertility specialist) and we are also seeing Dr Burmeister for the 'female' end of things. Scheduled to start sniffing on Monday - everything suddenly feels very real.....

I sometime feel a bit uncomfotable posting on the board because we already have kids and worry that people will think we are being 'greedy', but this is something we are both really keen to do - the biggest discussion we are having at the moment is about how many embies to transfer - I am keen to transfer two (if we get two!) - I had a dream after I had Grace that I went on to have twins, which I would love, but we both panic at the thought of triplets......so we have decided to put off that decision for a couple more weeks!!

Heather - - how are you finding the waiting? Not long to go now!!

Jo

[Sand]

Hi Deanne ... I don't belong to this thread, but just a note to say Hi, and glad you found us !!

Sandra x

[BelB]

Hi chicks!

I had no idea there were so many of us from Australia on this site, I assumed there was only a couple of us, but yep, we're coming out of the woodwork now!

Deanne, I love Northern Sydney, if DH and I move back to Sydney that's were we'd like to live. My fam are on the Central Coast, and we have a few friends on the northern side of the city so would be a great spot for us to live in. DH has older parents living close to where we are currently, so (sounds terrible, but..) while they're alive we'll stick around here (well, its nicer than saying we'll move when they die!!!). We would love another child, we have one frozen embie, so will have a go at that one, but otherwise I think we'll just let nature take its course. I can't imagine going back through IVF with a small child or toddler in tow (challenging enough getting to appointments when it's just the two of us, let alone three!!!). I'm currently breastfeeding (Annie is almost six months) and would like to continue that until she's twelve months if she is happy to do so, so that renders an infertile couple absolutely positively infertile..The flip side though is that pregnancy and breastfeeding are supposed to do wonders for endo...

Jo, welcome to you too!!, we seem to be well represented by Melbournites!!..Certainly doesn't make you greedy wanting a child with your DH, sounds really bloody normal to me!

Take care gals, look forward to hearing news soon!
Belinda

[Deanne]

Good to hear from you all.

Jo, I can completely understand your wish to add to your family too. Hope all goes well on Monday. I'll be starting my sniffing about a week later than you, so it would be nice if we can keep in touch about how we're both going.

Belinda, yes I've heard that pregnancy and breastfeeding are great for stopping endo in its tracks(!) so I'm sure that'll be really helpful for any future attempts at ttc.
Yes, this part of Sydney is a nice place to be, for me mainly because the relative quiet and the greenery reminds me of Tassie. I love the central coast too, and know quite a few people who are able to commute if they've got jobs in Chatswood, North Sydney etc.

Sandra is the weather warming up in the UK? I was last over there in mid-2003 in the middle of a heatwave. It was great, especially the long warm nights. Just perfect when you're sight-seeing!

Cheers everyone, Deanne

[missmolly]

Hi everyone,

I also did'nt realise all of the Aussies out there.

Jo - you are NOT greedy for wanting more kids. It would only be natural to want a baby with your finance.

I hope I have not got people too excited about the tubal cannulation!!! Basically it is designed to replace the dye method of checking tube patency. Instead of dye or fluid being used to check the tube, a fine, ultrasound guided cannula is fed all the way down the tubes (until it reaches the ovaries). My Dr says this method is much more effective than using fluid (maybe not if tubes are totally blocked, but if there are adhesions - which I had & did not get diagnosed in the past!) He explained it like this:

If you pour peas down the sink, fluid will go down the drain, but the peas will stay in the sink. He said blocked tubes can also be like this. If you have adhesions in the tubes, fluid will be able to pass with no problem, but the egg will get stuck like the peas! Makes sense to me. Our Dr is a tubal infertility specialist, and a leading expert in tubal microsurgery. It is such a fluke that we choose to go to him, as initially we had unexplained infertility, & we randomly selected his name off the list!!!! Before the surgery we had a 5% chance of conceiving naturally, & now have a 30% chance (going ahead with IVF anyway as we are not getting any younger!)

For all those in Melbourne - how good is this weather!!!!! It should be cold by now, so lets make the most of it .

Heather - Good luck for you test on the 3rd. I have a really good feeling about you. How are you feeling?

Missmolly