The Over 40 Crowd

[randa2006]

Lisa!!!! OH how WONDERFUL!!!
I'm grinning from ear to ear for you, Dear! Congratulations! Now don't leave us. You have to hang around and keep us posted as BigJ has done. PLEASE!

It has been raining so much here that our internet connection has been down more than up. So sorry to keep you all in the dark with my progress.

We had another scan yesterday (day 10) and it was much better than the last one on Saturday (God does answer prayers). They could see more follies and everything was growing. However they decided I should wait another day before the hcg. So I went back today and everything looked even better still. I now have 9 follies (3 very large and 6 medium). And even some smaller ones to boot!

So I took the hcg tonight and we go to EC on Feb 2 (Thursday). ET is also bumped a day to Sunday, Feb 5 (SuperBowl and the Seattle team is in it for the first time in history! - maybe that's a good sign?).

I know we are far from out of the woods, but I'm praying for at least three high-quality ones to complete fertilization and make it to day-3 stage for transfer. There's a slight chance they will wait and do a 5-day, but doubtful. I think it all depends on the embryo quality.

Anyway, I'm THRILLED! This is truly a miracle and that's exactly what I prayed for when things looked so bleak on Saturday!

Thanks for all your prayers and words of encouragement. It helps so much!

I'll try to do a better job of communicating. But this rain has to STOP! We've got peoples homes sliding off the hills!

[Kat]

Wow - Lisa - that is fantastic news !! congratulations !!! That's put a smile on my face for the day

Randa - glad to see your follies are doing well - hope you get a good crop of eggs on Thursday

Bev - try one of these for hotels - www.bookings.es or www.ratestogo.com
both have very good deals. Wouldn't stress too much about getting a hotel close by the clinic as the metro is very, very easy to negotiate. Also depends which IM building you are going to - they are in the (slow) process of moving and not sure how far they have got since I was last there. Buy a T-10 metro ticket (pronounced tay dee-ess) for 6 euros and you get 10 journeys between the 2 of you. I didn't meet Frederique although I have spoken to her but everyone there is lovely. I went to my first appt with some tests done and some not, some they were OK with that I had taken results from previous tests so didn't need to have them done again - take any paperwork that could be at all relevant. I only had to have blood test and a swab when I was there and was about 50 quid extra.

Best go now as too many people arriving at work! Hi to everyone else too
Lots of love
Kat xx

[cmg]

oh wow, it's a happy day on the boards! Lisa it's so exciting. I'm just thrilled for you and it really does go to show that there is always hope until it's confirmed over.

And Randa, that's great news - the follie fairy has definitely been doing her work for you. Maybe she likes rain!

I'm stressing about money - big tax bill to pay which I hadn't accounted for at all, not working much, the FET to pay for, have to ease off on work for a while, etc. But hey, it'll work itself out in the end.

Must get my invoices out though, so some money comes in! Back to work.

love Caroline

[BevT]

Hi all,

Just trying to scroll back through everyone's messages to reply, but don't seem to be able to go back a page, only the current one seems to show. I guess there must be a way round that, but I can't figure it out. Anyway, if I miss anyone out, I apologise.

Randa,

Great news about your follies. Good luck for tomorrow for EC.

Lisa,

I'm still smiling to myself about your news, it gives me soooo much encouragement to go forward for donor eggs to hear of you girls being successful. Fingers, toes and everything crossed!!

Caroline,

Try not to stress about money - easier said than done I know. But I'm sure it'll sort it self out! I'm in the same position having just booked our flights to Barcelona, worked out how much the initial consultation is, plus the 10% deposit if you decide to proceed, then there are the hotel bills. Thankfully Kat has given me some good sites to look at, but due to half-term nothing is bargain basement prices.

Then of course, if you are going to a lovely city like Barcelona, you want to make the most of it, so we are looking to stay for 3 nights, travelling out on Wed 15th Feb. Still high priced hotels that night cos of Valentines Day and associated breaks etc. Think I might have to take on a "Paper Round" to earn a bit more . I can feel a second mortgage coming on.

Kat,

Thanks for the info on hotels. Some look v.nice. Will have to see how much we have in the piggy bank as to whether we stay in a hostel or a ?star hotel. It's so great to have the benefit of your experience. Thanks again.

Randa,

Just realised, if I keep scrolling down, I do come over to the previous page! Silly me. Anyway, congrats again on the bumper crop of follies, be thinking of you tomorrow. The rain where you are sounds horrendous. Those poor people with their homes sliding off the hills. Hope your's is secure.

Tammy, when will you do the SIS proceedure to check for polyps? I don't really know what they are - have heard of them but feel a bit daft as I have no idea what the significance is if you have them. Do they stop implantation happening, and are there any indicators I should look out for? Sorry to seem so ignorant, but after reading on this site about all the different stumbling blocks people have to overcome, I wonder if my IVF clinic, GP etc have not checked me out enough. I've had no tests really, whatsoever!

Love to all you other gals!

LOL Bev xxx

[teachertam]

Hello Ladies:

Randa: Wonderful news! We will thinking of you tomorrow for EC.

Bev: You are correct. The polyps apparently can keep the embryo from implanting into the uterine lining, if they are large enough. I have scheduled my SIS test for February 9th. My good friend, Tracy, had 2 large polyps removed and got pregnant with one round of meds. She is due in May . My doctor did a lot of tests, but nothing to check the uterine lining for polyps. I thought that this was one missing piece, so I requested this test. I guess, the polyps do not show up on your vaginal ultrasounds. My doctor did find out that I have a ovulatory problem. Apparently, I release immature eggs and immature eggs almost never fertilize. The meds help the eggs grow to the proper size before ovulation. Have a wonderful time in Barcelona. I've never been to Spain, but heard it is beautiful.

Take care all,
Tammy

[robyn]

Hey Lisa FANTASTIC news. I wish you and DH all the best and keep us informed how you are progressing. Positives are good for all of our PMA.
Randa hope you have an easy EC with good follies.

As far as I go, This is the first month i saw the LH surge on the ovulation test strips so I am keeping my fingers crossed. I haven't had a positive on a test stip in over 18 months. Could be from the hyper active thyroid. I started meds 09/06 so hopefully I am ovulating regularly. The earliest i can test with hpt would be around Feb 9th.

Hope everyone else is well oh and my mother in law just had a bad fall and after spending all afternoon in St Marys Hosp she has a fractue in her humerous (arm). Now trying to sort her out with a career to help her dress and wash/bathe.

All the best to everyone
Robyn

[taylorjools]

hi ladies

just popped in to see how you all are and waht a lot of good news

Lisa - well done you congratulations. don't worry about the low hcg as long as it picks up fast, it has no real relevance on prognosis for success at this stage. Check out www.betabase.info for reassurance. There is a girl on another board I am on who started just like you with 5 then 25 and she is now 17 weeks pg witha little girl come over and join me on the 40+ thread

Randa - at last sweetie, and this time it's the real thing. You can bet I'll be there for your 2ww lady I need you to come and join me on thenother side please and we can get that 40+ thread bouncing again

Bev - glad you have made a decision, IM will look after you I am sure. We staiyed in cheap hotels in the gothic district which is arty farty and fun, I think Jude had an appartment when she went, if you want to hang around after ET it's cheaper than eating out the whole time and better for resting. We looked at the money back deal at IM after the miscarriage but decided we could get 8 fresh cycles for the same money at ISIDA and they had expertise with preparing wombs with fibroids and immune issues that IM don't have. be wary of the flight thing - first visit is a cheapy cos you can plan it but for ET it's last minute as they only take you for one day + 1 resting so you'll end up paying normal fares (we paid about €450 each for flights for our ET) I think Kat paid a fortune too. Try and get them to commit to an EC date and maybe you can take a chance and book earlier, especxially if you are confirdent that your endo will respond OK to the meds. As we were going to be 9 days in Kiev anyway for the preparation, ET + testing we could book much more in advance, I was really puchy getting them to give me an EC target date and we saved a fortune on air fares and appartment prices.

Kat - Hope all has settled down now, and you are back in a preparation phase for your next cycle. i know I've recommended them before, but I now swear by Zita Wests vitamins for girls and boys. I took the prenantal ones and now the 1st tri ones and my doc is mega impressed with my bloods etc. Don't forget to get dh behaving well with no coffee, baths etc it really will make a difference in quality. And also don't forget they can take samples for ICSI while doing the meiosis test saves two ops incase they recommend that the TESE sperm is better (Victoria had recommended that for us if we had gone back).

We had 12 week scan yesterday and sweetie is showing 12 weeks 2 days she (I call her she) has a little bladder now wasn't moving much but gynae said she was sleeping as heart beat and pulsing umbilical cord were fine. Big one next week, Nuchal scan. We are not doing any other tests and termination is out of the question regardless of result, but were advised to do it to find our as much about baby as possible for prenantal care reasons. They use age and racial origin of donor when calculating risk, and as Ukraine has the same gentic pool as the Celts (which is one reason why so many americans, canadians and brits go there) there is low risk associated with race-related disorders (unlike mediterranean origin which I didn't know before ).

to all of you other ladies about to jump off the starting blocks sending biggest hugs and loads of baby dust your way.

thinking of you all

bigJ



BigJ (Jules) - BFP 9/12/05 praying every day, Nuchal scan 07/02 (13 weeks)
Randa - hoping follies grow, EC Feb 1st
Anna - Waiting for AF to start short protocol
Kat - Going to Spain 2nd March for testicular biopsy & then hope to start DE tmt again soon
Jen - Next IVF in May...
Lisa - ET 23rd jan, test 30th Jan, in waiting
Lara - planning IVF in Feb/March
Tammy- IVF cycle 2 Feb 06
Caroline - natural FET in February,ovulation test Fri 3rd Feb
Robyn - 2nd IVF cycle in March
Bev- waiting for egg donor, considering abroad
Amfy - FET March/April
Jane- visit to Spain 24th Jan to decide next step

[randa2006]

Needed to change my date.

BigJ (Jules) - BFP 9/12/05 praying every day, Nuchal scan 07/02 (13 weeks)
Randa - EC Feb 2nd, ET Feb 5th (first time)
Anna - Waiting for AF to start short protocol
Kat - Going to Spain 2nd March for testicular biopsy & then hope to start DE tmt again soon
Jen - Next IVF in May...
Lisa - ET 23rd jan, test 30th Jan, in waiting
Lara - planning IVF in Feb/March
Tammy- IVF cycle 2 Feb 06
Caroline - natural FET in February,ovulation test Fri 3rd Feb
Robyn - 2nd IVF cycle in March
Bev- waiting for egg donor, considering abroad
Amfy - FET March/April
Jane- visit to Spain 24th Jan to decide next step

I think somone asked (while my computer was down) about why I've waited until now to do my first transfer.....
The reason is that my dh came up with the idea that we should "bank" as many embryos as possible while I was still producing. That way we stop the clock on my eggs aging and have a reserve. I wasn't totally on board, but since I already have children and he doesn't, I'm letting him call the shots. The clinic couldn't disagree with his logic, so that's what we did. We have 9 embryos in the freezer, all of which we collected last year (2005). It's a gamble, because we passed on several good, top quality embryos and froze them instead of doing a fresh transfer, which has a higher success rate...but that's what we did.
Hope that explains it.

[Sand]

RANDA

Best of best of luck with EC tomorrow !!!!! You've waited sooo long for this complete cycle. We'll all be thinking of you ..

Sandra xx

[lara]

hi all,

Randa, well done on those follicles, good luck with EC! All very exciting, can't wait to hear how it goes.

Lisa, well done to you too! That's fab news - good luck for the next stage honey.

Bev, well done for making decision - it sounds like the right one. I'd go for the package deal myself, that way you can't lose - you either get a baby or get your money back - it's called hedging! Very excited you sorted out what you're doing, anyway.

Caroline, I'm with you on the financial ruin front - we just spent our IVF money on a massive tax bill, so it's back to bashing the old credit card once again!

By the way, some of you may remember that in order to greatly reduce the chance of miscarriage due to aging eggs (of which I've had 2 last year), I was considering doing PGS, which screens out embryos with damaged chromosomes, and selects only healthy ones. It's another £2k more or less on top of the standard IVF. Anyway, Taranassi, one of the top fertility doctors in the UK (ARGU) who fought for PGS to be introduced here has said he now doubts whether it really helps - it ought to scientifically but in practice the results are not what they'd expect. They thought it was going to be the next big thing, and since 42% of even young women's eggs are chromosomally impaired they were going to make it standard treatment for all IVF clients, but that's looking doubtful now.
I do like to keep up on my research!

I got a little irritated reading a newspaper article about a novelist, Rebecca Frayn, who's written a novel about IVF - which is fine, good for her - but she wrote in the paper about how terrible and awful and a nightmare and traumatic her IVF was - she already had twins, she was only 37, she had bundles of money and the IVF WORKED FIRST TIME! No cysts, no operations, no cancelled cycles, no missed miscarriages or miscarriages - just a nice, healthy baby. Hmmm.... I don't think she's been on these boards!

Tammy, I understand about your dilemma. I saw a programme about adoption last night, and I just wanted to gather up all these little ones from this orphanage and take care of them! So sweet, and they all need parents. It takes two years to get vetted in the UK, which would make me 46, and you have to be a max of 40 to 45 years older than the child you adopt - it's all so rigorous and complicated. I looked into it at one stage. Good luck with your decision making anyway.

BigJ, lovely to hear about sweetie, send her a kiss from me.

Hi Anna, hope all's well.

Take care all,

Lara x

[taylorjools]

just to say thinking of you Randa - hope the folly fairy has done her bit and that the endo elf is on the case ready for your ET

i put a pink Vit E capsule in last night instead of a prgesterone capsule and have bright jelly baby pink dischsrge today ahahahaahha what a wally thought that'd cheer you ladies in waiting up a bit

big hugs

BigJ

[BevT]

Jules,

Just checking, did you get my pm?

LOL Bev xxx

[teachertam]

Good morning Ladies

Lara: We have been proceeding with the China adoption. It looks like I can finish the paper sometime in April. You have to have a "Home Study" and that take a little while. If I finish in April, we should be able to travel to China next March! Which is very exciting. I have not given up on having our biological child yet. I am just hedging, as you said.

I need to change my status to:
Tammy: SIS test on 9 Feb 06, IVF #2 March 06

Lisa: Keep us posted.

Randa: Good luck with EC today!

Caroline/Lara: I'm in the same boat financially. My husband asked me if we had the $10,000 for IVF #2 and I told him that I would find it. I am very good at "creative finances"

Take care all !
Tammy

[DebraP]

Hi,

Lisa, Congratulations your BFP and
Randa, wishing you the very best of luck today for EC.

Hi to anyone who remembers me and best of luck with your tmts.

hugs
Debra.

[erjumper]

Hey guys, only a second to post...have to run out but Lara, you're right about the PGS. We call it PGD here (pregenetic diagnosing) At this point the technology only exists to test 7 of the 21 sets of chromosomes and the 1 most common in "old" eggs is not 1 of them. I was advised against it as being money we could better use elsewhere.

Lisa