Jan/Feb 2010--Cycle Group

[gi]

Hey ladies,

sorry i have been mia!

Katie gonna start an AF dance for ye to see does she come!!

Arabscrool i really hope your cycle is covered its really difficult trying to pay in full so fingers crossed for ye

rlki thanks for asking the biopsies (had to have 2 as they saw an irregular lining) was sooooo sore, i am probably a big wuss but och

Rosario great the scan was painless! Roll on Feb

babyhopes welcome and wishfulthinking welcome to the madness of ivf!!!

amanda all the abbreviations is in the general forum, dont worry you will be a pro shortly!!

Penny2 soooo jealous you are only few min away, i am 2 hrs each way!!!

AFM so had the 2 biopies, and saline infusion which showed a sac of fluid near ovaries (harmless and should resorb itself) and also scar tissue from 2 d&cs(doctor actully thought i had a c section!) and also apparantly i have polycystic ovaries!! you would have thought after 6 attempts and zillions of scans with old clinic they would have picked it up. Apparently it has a big impact on what meds to take for ivf as it affects the quality and quantity of eggs so i am starting glucophage on monday (xmas party tomorrow and cant drink when on them - quiet xmas!!) Blood results next wk!

Sorry for all i have missed

gi xxx

[Arabsrcool]

well girls, its official. No insurance coverage for 2010. Called office manager at IVF center, bottom line is its $3100 for FET, plus meds (which I already have). We have already spent so much in this journey, I am at a loss. If we scrap it together for this cycle, what happens if it doesn't work......we would still have embies left and no money to do anything about it. My window is closing (I will be 39 in March). I am so conflicted.

Rosario,

Glad hear the scan was much better than the last one! No pain is a good thing.

gi,

I doubt you are a wimp, all the medical crap we have to do, not only is it expensive, but often painful. Sounds like your new clinic is on the ball and will get you a big BFP!!!! would have been nice if old clinic had known some of those things, you probably would not have had to have six cycles.

Ronda

[hopingforbaby#1]

Well first thank you so much for the warm welcome from everyone I am very exited to be apart of this cycle group. I have not posted much as not allot has been going on. We finished up all of our pre-testing Monday the 14th . And we found out we are Aproved for the Attain program and we are very exited about it. If anyone out there is using or knows anything about the program I would love some feed back. So now we are just waiting for AF in January so we can start the BCP'S. Good luck to everyone and I am looking forward to getting to know you all.

~Destiney

[katie99]

Well, my RE can throw me for a loop! For those of you that dont know my history, I've had 5 (yes you read that right) IVF attempts in the past year.
And 1 surgery to remove my totally blocked tubes. Each cycle I respond differently, which is why my RE calls me a complicated case, and has now added "you have odd ovaries that respond abnormally" Great. In other words sometimes my ovaries are superfast causing me to stim way too early, and other times they refuse to budge no matter how many drugs are injected. Fun, yes? So after last month's cancellation for having 2 follies reach 20mm at day 6 of stims and 4-5 more that never had a chance of getting over the 10mm they were, my RE has decided to try IVM with me. I get the call today with his nurse telling me to come for IVM education on the 29th - He had brought this up to me before saying he thinks its the only way to salvage the smaller eggs (since I only get a few each ER we need them all!) So I've googled this and havent found too much on it, other than its used for PCOS cases. So I'm a little excited plus a little confused too. I cant figure out if this is my RE's last resort with me?
Oh, I forgot to mention that the last time I spoke with my RE he said that when he went to the RE's conference this year that he came across a case study of 3 women who went on to a live birth that all presented exactly like me (atypical ovarian response) using IVM. I guess we'll give it a try, I mean we've tried everything else, right? And since you only stim 3-5 days then they go to ER when your follies are 10-12mm and finish maturing them in a dish (with FSH meds!) Its a lot less injections so thats a plus. I'm just not sure about it yet. I'll get the rest of the info & my schedule on the 29th - whew my head is still spinning from all of this!

[katie99]

Chris -I'm so happy to see you! yes, I did bring up HGH + DHEA at my last follow up and my RE blew them off. This is the last try with this RE so, if its another bfn - then I'm thinking at least a consult at one of the "big gun" clinics. Cornell NYU or SIRM NY are all just an hour from me, so i already have a backup plan in mind - if this IVM thing doesnt work. I'm glad to see that you jumped right back on this roller coaster and God bless your sister! What a selfless gift to give! I'll keep my fingers crossed that her DH sees what this would mean to you! But of course I hope that you wont need her to help at all! As always I'm pulling for you (and me!) to finally get there!

Wishful / Amanda -Welcome!

Gi -I'm so happy that you changed clinics! A fresh opinion and fresh ideas can only be a good thing! If needed that'll be my next step too
But we WILL get there! How's J and your pup?

Ronda -I know all about being out of pocket - its very hard! What a difficult time of year to make this decision - I wish you the best of luck with your choice

Destiney -Hooray for ivf approval! I dont know about Attain - but wish you luck with your upcoming cycle!

rlk1 -Thanks for starting this thread! You dont have too much longer to wait - your baseline is right around the corner! How are you doing?

hugs & prayers to all of us! - -xoxo

[katie99]

Hopingforbaby#1 - BCP 1/5
BlessedMama - stims in Jan -ER/ ET in Feb
Karenthescorpio - BCP in Jan
Kim14- BCP in Jan
Moorebaby - follow up appt 1/6
Rayofsunshine - RE appt 1/4
Washingtonda - BCP 12/25 - stims in Jan - ER 1st or 2nd w/o Feb
Jenice
Babyhopes
To_Have_Fun - Jan / Feb IUI
Amanda1979 - 1st IVF in Jan
Wishful Thinking -1st IVF in Feb



Bei
Turtle (Franny)
Anderjam
Penny2
Katie99
Beth84



Rileybabymaybe -BCP -lupron 12/21 - baseline 12/29 - ER 1/13
Jaydentd - BCP
Gi -BCP - stims 2/9 - ER 2/22
Bethanyneedsluck -BCP
Msmac -BCP - lupron 12/25 - baseline 1/8



Rlk1 -on BCP - baseline 12/30 -FET 1/15
Lou71 -on lupron - FET 1/6
J & C --FET in Feb
KJGrant - FET in Jan
Dodo928 - FET in Feb
Arabsrcool -FET in Jan
Rosario - FET in Feb
Ashleyncsu77 -on BCP - lupron 12/21 - FET w/o 1/18
Supergenius -FET in Jan

[J&C]

Hello Girlies!!!

We made it back after a week at my parents. Now if I can only get my Christmas cards out...

Welcome to all of the newbies and recent board joiners. I'm sooooooooo excited to see my old friends katie and rlk. It's very comforting to see former cycle buddies.

I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone.

Sticky baby dust!

[dodo928]

Hello ladies, just want to give an update! We found a donor from an independent agency instead of my RE's egg donor program. We both liked her before my last DE IVF. But because she's not proven even though she's young, we dared not bet on her knowing that the agency fee is more than the one under the clinic. But now after my BFN from the DE IVF, we looked for another donor because we didn't have frozen embies from the last one. Worst that the last donor was young and proven too but when came to our cycle, her eggs were so bad and only 1 made to blast out of the 7 embies. We had 2 embies transferred and the rest didn't made to freeze. DH knew by then that I'd not get pregnant knowing the quality of the embies. Now, we found the one that we like, we also have a lot of confusions from the flashback. DH knows that he also like her but not only me. She's young and just donated one time to a recipient who had 1 embie transferred and get pregnant with heartbeat last week. We should be very happy. But because the last donor has all the good conditions and her eggs still turned out to be bad. We don't know what to think. DH tried to think of tons of questions and even asked the clinic coordinator to help him think of any question that he couldn't think of. Up to a time, I though he would like to change his mind and went for the donor at the clinic to eliminate another agency fee. But he reassured me and told me that he would go for her because we both like but he said he still would want to think of any questions that we would leave out and cause another BFN! I then told him that we could only do our best. The rest would be fate or chance, just like gambling even though I don't gamble because of afraid of losing. The only difference is gamble takes shorter time and ttc takes much longer time and more personal and really will be mentally drained. DH promised that we could move on to talk to the egg donor agent tomorrow. We'll see if there's any bargain for tomorrow.

DH also finally found a good deal at Luxor Hotel in Vegas which costs $30/night plus buy 2 nights and get 1 night free. We have to found boarding for my dog for 3 nights. I hope we can bring him there with us but the cost is too high. If anyone has any suggestion that I can bring my dog, it'd be great. We tried to bring him to the hotel room before many years ago but we're exhausted to sneak up and down. We finally decided leaving him at the Vet's clinic for boarding.

Supergenus: Glad to hear you made up your mind to go for fresh egg cycle! yay!

Katie: We had the same anxiety in my last cycle too. It's our first DE IVF at the clinic. It's also my first IVF cycle after a cancelled one 7 years ago. RE and the staff were ver caring and nice. But they assumed that we knew a lot about IVF. He didn't know that we didn't have any idea about it. Everytime when we had questions to ask him, he would over-react and become defensive to our questions. In addition, he admitted that he's over-worked and when he melted down, he became more defensive and we could not get our answer. The patient advocate told me that they are going to hire an addition private practice doctor to help RE calling the patients for any results! Hope the new one can help the clinic in a positive way next year!

Ronda: Sorry to hear about the news! Hope your DH's insurance has coverage!

Rosario: Glad to hear your sonohysterogram was over with a good experience!

to_have_fun08 : Glad to know that you have choices to choose from!

amanda1979: Hi! Welcome to the thread!

wishfulthinking: Hi! I'm planning to cycle in the beginning of Feb. too. Sorry for the CB! It's so cool to hear your clinic can let you share your eggs with another patients. Do you tell me how it works? Does it mean that the other patient pay your for your eggs?

[gi]

Hey girls,

Arabscrool that sucks! I really hate they way we all have to pay to have a baby and everyone else gets to do it for free, in ireland there is No cover whatsoever so all out of pocket though it is cheaper here - icsi €5,000 and all meds only €100 - still sucks when i am on my 7th and broke!! and i really dont like my job but cant leave till i have a baby!

Katie never heard of ivm but its great you have another option - your ovaries are sooo tempermental!!! My doggies arent puppies anymore but my west hyland things he is a baby! the king charles at the moment is refusing to go for walks just wants to sit in front of the fire he is 8 but i think he may have arthritis now (along with is heart murmur, epilepsy, anal gland probs and fluid on his lungs!!)

dodo928 your head must be fried thinking of what to do, go with your heart and pray for the best xxx

AFM nothing new, xmas party in work tonight so lots and lots of vino!! Then no alcohol for 1 yr (PMA here i am getting and staying pregnant!!!)

chat later have a nice weekend,

gi xxx

[Arabsrcool]

Hi all. Welcome to amanda1979!. Well, I am leaning toward scraping the money together for one FET cycle (whats another $3100 in the grand scheme of IVF anyway!!) Will need to make sure dh is still on board with that (he originally offered to sell his car or motorcyle to cover costs, so I think he will be). Then if it works great, if not, then dh and I will re-evaluate then. I did call and doc is going to do my annual exam on 1/5/10, and the nurse thinks we will be able to talk about FET while he is doing that (and insurance will cover the annual visit). So I am hoping to at least not to have to pay a separate consult fee on 1/5/10. Its only morning here, but I think I may need a drink!

gi,

Don't get me started on all the people that are on Medicaid (tax funded health care) that have tons of babies, and we as taxpayers pay for it. Then there are us "infertile" ones, that pay our taxes, our own health insurance, our BILLS, and cannot get assistance to get pregnant. Oh that frustrates me. Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox now. I noticed in your post that you have a West Highland Terrier. So do I, his name is Trucker 8,9, 10 (yes my oldest DD named him) and I also have 4 other dogs (2 of which are older).

Katie,

IVM, interesting, never heard of it. You will have to update us once you get more info. Maybe that is your golden ticket to BFP.

dodo928,

Wow, your issues make mine seem very small. What a dilemma, I would say just go with your gut feeling and hope for the best. To answer your comment about dh having insurance, he does, but I am not covered under his policy, as his employer started the spousal rider (which basically means I have to carry my own insurance at my employer, then his would cover me at additional cost as a secondary) but of course we declined the secondary coverage, and the enrollment period has ended (not sure his would cover infertility anyway, I had already hit the lifetime max at the same insurance admistrator)

Ronda

[msmac]

Just wanted to update on my status.

this is my first IVF
Started BCP 12/18/09
lupron 12/25/09

As of now, my baseline u/s is on 01/08/10

The hardest part not I guess is the wait, especially now that I have a month of downtime from work and school.

Again, Good luck everyone

[katie99]

Msmac -Oh, I'm so sorry - I thought I had you on there already - I'll update it now How are you holding up?

J & C -So good to see you too! So glad to hear that you had a nice visit with the family. How goes it with your friend from bell practice? Hope that it doesnt bug you too much - since you'll be PUPO soon too!

Dodo -Wow there are so many decisions to make with a donor. I'm glad that you're happy with the one you chose! Once its all settled then the stress will calm down some - he he at least until the 2ww

Gi -Do they have Rimidyl in Ireland? Its an arthritis pain med for dogs, its made all the difference for my elderly Dane. So sorry that your King Charles has so many other issues as well. Aww its so hard watching the aging process, isnt it? I hope you thoroughly enjoy your vino - as its the last time for a while!

Ronda -You just have to follow your heart.

Girls - please dont hesitate to tell me if I've got something wrong or left out on the list - just let me know - and let me know when you all get your dates! hugs & prayers to all of us! - -xoxo

[lou71]

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick update while I'm at work.

Wow Katie... IVM... I haven't heard about that but it sounds promising for you! It just goes to show just how many options there are out there. Hopefully there's a way to BFP for everyone. Just a matter of finding it.

Supergenius -- Vegas was great! I partied like a rock star Thanks for asking.

I'm currently sick with a terrible cold and an ear infection. I probably picked it up on the airplane last weekend. It really stinks. I'm supposed to go to a Christmas party both tonight and tomorrow night but probably will skip out as I feel horrible. I'm lucky I can make it through my work day!

I go for my lining check on Monday. I don't know why but I just feel like I'm going to be cancelled for some reason. They came close two weeks ago because of a cyst and elevated E2. Then they put me on Estrace three times a day! I wonder what my labs will look like on Monday? I wonder what they're supposed to look like? Oh the stress of it all!

And on top of it all.... I have only gotten half my Christmas decorations up (tree, lights, no ornaments, who cares!), and still need to do 90% of my shopping. When did Christmas get here?

[nicolamark]

Hi girls,
IS it ok if i join ya....

Im not actually cycling jan/feb but dec/jan!!!!
I have already begun down regging. So far so good and not side effects.

Hope everyone else is good.

Will chat more laters xx

[J&C]

Happy Friday and welcome to nicolamark!

To answer katie's question, and to fill everyone in on my handbell friend....at our last IVF cycle and on the day of the transfer, I'm waiting in RE's waiting room to do my transfer and in walks one of my friend's from my handbell choir and her husband. She had just completed her transfer, her first round of IVF. Neither of us knew that the other was doing IVF. So we had our transfers within a hour of each other. She is pregnant, and we got a BFN from that cycle.

I'm super excited for her, because they have been trying for a long time also, but it is REALLY hard to see her each week at handbell rehearsal/performances knowing that she is pregnant, and I am not. My rehearsals are on Wednesdays, and I think about it before I walk into rehearsal every week. *sigh*

I'm just trying to keep my chin up for our next cycle and a BFP!