anyone going for retrieval around july 22 or close???

[jharris12]

Hey ladies! Mind if I join you? I am currently part of the Aug/Sept thread, but we got to start sooner than I expected. This is my 2nd cycle, and we will be on the Antagon protocol. I start stims today, and ER should be July 23! It will take me a little bit to catch up on the past 3 pages, but hopefully I will be able to figure out where everyone else is! And babyloves, I've seen you on the other thread as well. It will be nice to talk with people cycling around the same times! Good luck to you all. I will do personals when I get caught up!

[kimmysq]

Hi JHarris:
We were together on the May/June thread. I am excited that you get to start earlier. The waiting is so hard....!!

I just had my AF, so I found out for sure my FET will be July 30th. Hoping I can join this board also. Is anyone else doing FET??

Have a great weekend!
Kim

[elisabethski73]

Hello Ladies,

I just found you, so I hope I can join in as well. Kim, we are almost living parallel lives!! I am in Bethesda with Shady Grove Fertility and am also due to have ER on 7-22 for our second IVF/ICSI. We also did it in April and had a BFP, but it only lasted a few days as my beta values did not hold up, so it was a chemical pregnancy. We were devastated because we transferred 2 perfect blasts on day 5 that time. I did accupuncture before and am doing it again, so hopefully, it will work this time around. I am on Lupron in the am (5 units), and Gonal-F and Menopur in the pm. Last time they got 18 eggs, and 13 fertilized, but although we had 2 blasts, none were left to freeze by day 7. Bummer!

For all of you new to Accupuncture, I find it totally relaxing and it really seemed to help with my lining. I had a trilaminar lining by my third u/s visit, and I attribute this to the Accupuncture. But, you all are right about the expense! I pay $85 per visit, so I have to spread it out this go round as we are running out of money very quickly due to the IVF expense.

On a gross note, are any of you experiencing diarrhea from the lupron? I am having a hard time eating without my stomach immediately responding! It is terrible! I've started drinking gatorade, but am sure that I am losing nutrients because this has been happening now for days!

Well, I have lots to read to catch up with most of you, but wish you all the best of luck and easy injections to us all!!!

Elisabeth

[kimmysq]

Elizabeth:
I am not having the diarrhea, but I am having terrible Lupron headaches.
Does anyone know if we can take anything for it?? I have a call into my clinic.
kim

[kim14]

This is great - even more ladies joining! Welcome. Elis - wow our stories really are similar. Same issues, same eggs, same good blasts, same clinic. We are even the same age!! Did they change your meds for this cycle? I am doing less lupron for shorter period. I stop when i start my gonal and repronex tommorow. Trying to get less eggs cause i had such stomach issues after er cause of the hormones. did you have trouble? I was chugging pepto. it wasnt pretty I started accup in may so im hoping to see a difference!

kimmy - lupron gives me a whopper headache and i jsut take tylenol

Maybe its a mixed blessing i am under the weather. This 5 day anitbiotic is so strong that it keeps me from stressing about ivf Watch - it will work this time when im not healthy and not watching every little thing I eat If i sleep through the next 5 days, i will be five days closer to retrieval!!

[RBJean]

Welcome Kimmy, Elisabeth and JHarris! I think it's great so many of us are cycling so close together.

I also have head almost a steady headache since I started microlupron on Wednesday. My clinic said we can take Tylenol. If I recally correctly, they said no Ibuprofen. My stomach has been messed up to - but that usually happens when AF is heavy and this month is horrible (maybe from the BCPs??)

Babyloves: I believe my E2 for my last cycle was around 3500 (for 16 eggs retrieved). For my 1st cycle, which ended up getting cancelled, the highest it got was 1443, but they cancelled b/c my follicles weren't growing well and my E2 dropped on day 11 of stims.

Kim: Glad to hear you're still in the game!

Venus: let us know how your follicle report looks. Hope they're growing like heck.

[kim14]

What do you guys know about the lupron stop protocol? I stop when i start the stims? Last time i used lupron all the way to er.

Also, how does FET work? What meds are you on for that? I would imagine that would be much easier on the body!

[babyloves]

Good evening ladies,
Venus and Kim: thank you for the great advice, it was comforting. I think i'll be okay, now i'm beginning to think a PMA helps more than anything. Worrying doesn't help anything. I actually read 1/2 of that book that people have been talking about called "The Secret" - its kinda uplifting in a goody goody kind of way...

kim - i'm glad you'll be stimming soon! Yeah, you can probably take any antibiotic up until ET...if you have any specific questions, i am in infectious disease, and can probably help. Hope the 5 days goes by fast!

Welcome [/b]kimmy and elisa - i'm from Shady grove too - annandale

jharris: yeah, i'm watching a couple of threads, but this one has ladies actually stimming like me...i think venus was on the previous threads too. i'm glad you'll be joining this group..im on antagon (ganirelix) too.

krysta i've never heard of the lidocaine patch for injection, but i'm sure it works. THe 1% patch is used for things like back pain too. The SubQ needles are not so bad, but i'm sure the progesterone IM is worse. I heard using ice helps a lot.

as for me, i go in tomm again for more BW/US - grow follies grow!! Have a great night all!

[hopinginpa]

Hi all hoping I could join you. I too am on the Aug/Sept thread. I started stimming today. I started microdose lupron yesterday and then follistim this am. I am excited to get started again. I had my first US yesterday and she saw 9-10 follicles. Hoping for large numbers this time. We didn't have any follicles at this stage last time. My next US and BW isn't until Wednesday. Does that seem long?

For all of you at Shady grove- My SIL went there last year and now has twins! First try. She loved that place! She too is in Bethesda.

Hope everybody is enjoying there weekend. I am off to get a massage.

[hopinginpa]

I too am having lupron headaches. I think we can take tylenol but that is it.

[kim14]

Hope everyone is having a good weekend! How are you all doing/feeling? We stopped lurpon and started gonal and repronex today. Anyone else stopping their lupron before stims this cycle. Last time we did lupron all the way through till er. ER seems so far away...

[valerie68]

Hi Kim!! How are you feeling? I've been following you and I'm so glad that you're on your way to a BFP! I was worried when you were so sick, but it seems like you are alright now. I'm keeping an eye on you so I know how you're progressing. Just wanted to let you know you're in my thoughts.
Sorry we didn't get to stim together again, but I'm not far behind!

Good luck and a big hug!

Val

[RBJean]

Kim: Sorry, I don't know much about the stop lupron protocol - other than it seems a safe bet to avoid oversuppression. I'm on microlupron (which is very diluted lupron) so I keep taking it during stims, though last time they may have cut me down from 40 units/day to 20 units.

I'm on day 3 of stims and had a little scare this morning. I woke up at 6:30 to take my shots and laid back down to sleep more. About an hour later I was having severe cramping in my lower abdomen as well as a sore back. I paced my bedroom a while and then got really nauseous and vomited. After that, I started feeling better. Some of the cramping was localized on my right side so we started worrying about appendicitis . But - the rest of the day I've been OK and kept food down (just some painful bloating). Not sure what's going on or if it's possible it's from the meds. Just seems too early to be caused by the stim meds. Also, I don't think it was food poisoning because my stomach was empty when I vomited. Fun stuff!

How is everyone else doing with shots? I won't have my 1st US until Wednesday, so no progress reports until then.

Have a good evening!

[kim14]

Thanks Valerie - I think we both have a good shot at it this time. doct tells me each try is a 50 -50 chance so this should be yours and mine Only BFPs! Plus i think i am less nervous and stressed out this time. Plus we are both doing ap now. Is your protocol different this time?

Rb- maybe you just had a little stomach virus. Glad you are feeling better. Im sticking with plain foods during the next week of stims and until my preg test. No indian or thai which are my favs. Made the mistake of having some thai that did not sit well with me like a week after et. Now my tummy was messed up from the meds so it wasnt the smartest idea

[elisabethski73]

Hi ladies! I hope everyone had a nice weekend, with lots of great follie growth.
Kim, you and I are so similar as I am not eating anything spicey like Thai either because I had it a few days ago and it tore up my stomach!! Bland food seems to be the best for me as well. And, unfortunately, I am also staying away from my occaisional glass of wine or two. This has been much more difficult than I had expected because we have had out of town guests who brought some great bottles for us to enjoy!

RBJean, I'm hoping that you too just ate something that didn't agree with you. Fingers crossed that you will feel much better after your next series of injections.

As for me, I had my first u/s follie check this am. To date, I have 14 on my right ovary and 13 on my left. They initially called me back and told me to increase my dosage of meds, doubling them. (Quite shocked me since I already have such a high number growing) Then they called me again an hour later stating that they had made an error and I am not to increase anything, but to keep things the same until my doctor sees me on Tuesday. Thank goodness that they caught this mistake. I totally do not want to go into OHSS!!!

Thinking of you all, and hoping that your stim days are going well and quickly!

Elisabeth