Anyone TTC #1 and 30 or older?

[Angel5000]

So sorry that you had to deal with that Star. It's awakward asking for your medical records. I've heard of other patients asking for them just from their normal doctor and getting a lot of bad responses because the drs didn't want to give them their info. When you go in at your next appointment just be extra sweet, thank them for the records and tell them you are just really curious about the lab results and everything and like to be able to review the information on your own because sometimes you have a hard time remembering what was said later. That may not be 100% why you want it, but it makes sense and will be something they can actually relate to. Hope you have a better day today/tomorrow.


AFM - it's hot this week, 80 degrees, which doesn't SOUND all that hot except that our classrooms don't have AC and only have 2 tiny windows. By the end of the day my classroom is close to 90 degrees, and can you imagine trying to teach high school math to a group of 30 hot, grumpy, teenagers?!?! It's a nightmare. Its supposed to drop back to the 70s in a day or two and I will be so happy. This is ridiculous. At least when I taught in Texas we would have 100+ degree weather but we had AC! I really hate that the pacific northwest area doesn't have AC (though I know they didn' really need it for a long time), it makes teaching and learning SO VERY HARD!

 

[star_e]

So sorry that you had to deal with that Star. It's awakward asking for your medical records. I've heard of other patients asking for them just from their normal doctor and getting a lot of bad responses because the drs didn't want to give them their info. When you go in at your next appointment just be extra sweet, thank them for the records and tell them you are just really curious about the lab results and everything and like to be able to review the information on your own because sometimes you have a hard time remembering what was said later. That may not be 100% why you want it, but it makes sense and will be something they can actually relate to. Hope you have a better day today/tomorrow.


AFM - it's hot this week, 80 degrees, which doesn't SOUND all that hot except that our classrooms don't have AC and only have 2 tiny windows. By the end of the day my classroom is close to 90 degrees, and can you imagine trying to teach high school math to a group of 30 hot, grumpy, teenagers?!?! It's a nightmare. Its supposed to drop back to the 70s in a day or two and I will be so happy. This is ridiculous. At least when I taught in Texas we would have 100+ degree weather but we had AC! I really hate that the pacific northwest area doesn't have AC (though I know they didn' really need it for a long time), it makes teaching and learning SO VERY HARD!

Angel- not having ac in 80 degrees would be very uncomfortable. I start turning the ac on when it's much cooler than that bc it's still to hot during the day. I'll open window at night if it's cool enough. with teenagers on top of that it would be hard. hope it cools off soon! at least until school is out!

and yea on Thursday I'll be super nice and just mention that I want them bc I'm curious, etc. hopefully they will understand and it won't be so awkward.

 

[Etisgonnab]

Sorry to hear about the lack of AC....at least you probably don't have any humidity to deal with on top of it. Or is that a thing that far north. I have family in the Bay Area where it is definitely not.

Afm: what do you guys make of these opks? Trying to attach a picture from my phone so hopefully it works. AF wrapped up this afternoon but take a look at my wandfos from this cycle. I missed cd1 but have them every day since. All but one is from second urine

 

[star_e]

Ettis I think the lines appear to be getting darker. I don't use OPKs bc they don't work on me. so i don't know that much about them. how soon after AF do you normally ovd?

 

[mrs unicorn]

Etis - I think they are still a way off being positive. It's normal to have some kind of line there all the time. Some people have a slow build up where they get darker over a few days but I tend to go from negative to blazing positive in one day. Bit annoying as I also tend to ov the same day. I'm going to try and do one at night next cycle near ov time and see if I can catch it the evening before for once!

Star - rubbish about your docs. Why on earth would they be so funny about it?! They are your records! I guess our healthcare systems are very different. Because we basically have one big one you can't leave really! Obviously you can switch docs or practice buy there's never any awkwardness there. More likely to have to secretary roll their eyes because it's a faff!

Angel - hope it cools down for you soon, send some of that heat our way will you?! I'm fed up of it being 8C. Actually it's been much warmer this week, I've sat in the garden and had my lunch. Cannot wait for summer!

AFM - it seems I o'd early on cd12! I did suspect it. Kind of annoyed as I really wanted to bd the day before ov but hey ho. At least it means I can start testing sooner and my cycle will be one day shorter. Think I'm gona start testing next Wednesday at 9dpo. I fully expect a bfn then either way but I'm impatient and after the faint dodgy lines of last cycle I want to see what a negative is like on these ICs. I don't want to be fooled by shadows again!

 

[Etisgonnab]

Sorry for the quick response but just got my first positive opk on the digital! So looks like I'm about to o! I'm super excited because I had never had a positive reading, my bbt has been too unstable to be helpful and hadn't tracked fertile cm so I could never figure out when/if I'm ovulating. Problem now is that we haven't BD yet (just finished AF yesterday) and DH is working until 11pm tonight. I'll have to stay up and be ready to fend off his "I'm tired I just got home from work and its almost midnight" excuse (if he tries to give an excuse) and hope it's not too late.

 

[mrs unicorn]

Oh wow! That is early! Maybe you'll have a couple of days of positives then you can get some bding in!! Xx

 

[Angel5000]

I am pretty sure I'm getting pneumonia or bronchitis (or both!) again. I'm wheezing, coughing, my chest is rattling horribly, and my asthma is off the wall. My steroid inhaler is not helping, and in order to sleep I have to do a nebulizer treatment before bed and that only gets me through about half the night. The last 2 nights I have resorted to taking some of my left over cough syrup (with codine) from the last time I Had pneumonia just so I can get through the whole night. I don't know if it's allergies or what, but this is insane. It's been a long time since I've had this many lung and asthma problems in the same year.

Etis we have 93% humidity right now. It doesn't FEEL as humid as it did when I lived in Texas, and that must have something to do with the type and amount of heat we deal with. I know that living in Texas the summers felt significantly more humid than they do here up north, but we do have a pretty high % of humidity.

I was going to ay that your ICs are pretty dark for that early in the cycle but sometimes mine are that dark and then go white and then go dark again. But if you got a +OPK on the digi then I'd say your body is about to O! That is VERY EARLY in a cycle!! Wow! I wonder if you always O early?! I have a friend who does, her Ov is usually about 3-4 days after AF ends, and she has an incredibly long LP, because her cycles are still 23-24 days long. So very very odd, but apparently it happens. Get that egg!

 

[Etisgonnab]

I know. I'm pretty shocked. The other thing that's strange is that my CM is as sticky as it can be and I'm pretty dry right now. Definitely not seeing signs of fertility there, but could that mean that I'm a day or so out from od?

I stopped by the store on my way to work today and picked up some Mucinex and preseed to try my best to loosen up my CM, so we'll see. Have you guys tried either/both? I'm reading articles saying I should take the Mucinex (it is guaifensin only) up to four times a day, but I'm not sure if it'll work this quickly.

The other thing is that I doubt we'll get the timing right on this. Hopefully we can BD tonight and it won't be too late. But I've been using both the clearblue advanced digital opks and wandfos this time and the cbdopk had me at low yesterday to peak today, skipping the flashing smiley high estrogen surge completely, which makes me paranoid that I'm going to ovulate really quickly. I know that now that I got a positive reading with cbdopk, it won't give me another reading of anything other than positive even if I stick it in a cup of soda, so I'll have to rely on the wandfos to see if I get a two day positive reading.

Either way, I'm stoked that I'm finally figuring out when I likely ovulate which will definitely help next cycle if I don't catch that egg this time around.

Angel: I'm on the east coast and the allergy season is at its peak right now it seems, so it definitely could be that the allergies are triggering you to get sick again. I'm really sorry to hear that you're feeling so miserable! Take a sick day if you can and rest up!

 

[mrs unicorn]

angel - sorry you are feeling so rubbish. I was just going to say how epic your temps are but if you are coming down with something it could be that?

Etis - did you do a cheapie opk aswell to see what it looked liked compared to the digi reading? I've used preseed (got my bfp with it) and have used it tentatively this cycle. I'm a bit scared of everything since the mc, but the studies show there is no higher rate of mc using it than normal, so I'm trying to snap myself out of that Just don't use the amount it recommends!! It'll probably be way too much (some men struggle with the amount of slippery-ness too I've heard) I used 1mg and that can be a little bit too much sometimes so you might need to experiment!

 

[Etisgonnab]

angel - sorry you are feeling so rubbish. I was just going to say how epic your temps are but if you are coming down with something it could be that?

Etis - did you do a cheapie opk aswell to see what it looked liked compared to the digi reading? I've used preseed (got my bfp with it) and have used it tentatively this cycle. I'm a bit scared of everything since the mc, but the studies show there is no higher rate of mc using it than normal, so I'm trying to snap myself out of that Just don't use the amount it recommends!! It'll probably be way too much (some men struggle with the amount of slippery-ness too I've heard) I used 1mg and that can be a little bit too much sometimes so you might need to experiment!

Thanks for the tip on the preseed. I've never used it before so have no clue what I'm getting myself into.

And, no I didn't use the cheapie opk with the digi this morning. I had already dumped my urine when the positive reading came up. I was following the clear blue instructions exactly this time, so they insist that you use first urine until you get a flashing smilely at which point you can test whenever throughout the day. Oh and edited to add that because I had some extras from the last cycle but not enough to make it through this cycle, I've been using two digis out of curiosity. With one, I started on CD1 just to see. And with the other I followed the instructions and started on CD5 (when they recommend for cycles as short as mine). Both were negative yesterday and both turned up positive today. So they definitely detected something.

For the cheapies I've been using second urine and in past cycles, I've also tested in the evening as well. So I will be testing later today with the cheapies.

UPDATE: the wandfo is very clearly negative. I don't get it. I have two positives with the digis around 8 this morning and a obvious negative on the cheapie around 11:30. What gives? Did I already ovulate? Not wait long enough before testing again?

 

[Angel5000]

Went to walk in clinic today and the dr there thinks it's allergies. I don't buy it 100%. We'll see. Gave me a nebulizer treatment, shot of steroids, and a week of prescription steroids but told me to hold off until I talk to the RE and make sure it's okay to take that. Then follow up with my regular doc in a week or two if I'm not better. I'll take tomorrow off, even though I can't really afford to use another sick day, and then go from there.


Etis - sometimes you just don't produce a lot of fertile cm. I've had a couple cycles where I produced none. Make sure you are hydrating an ddrinking lots of water. That makes a difference. I've never used mucinex for CM but I do use preseed and I love it. DEFINITELY RECOMMEND USING LESS THAN RECOMMENDED DOSAGE! I use 1g and that's PLENTY for me. More than that and it's like a slip-n-slide in there!

If you went from low to peak then it's probably because you didn't start testing early enough for it to locate the estrogen surge. The flashy face can only be detected if you start soon enough that it has a base line and then when estrogen starts to surge it will give you flashy. I learned the hard way that it doesn't always get a smiley if you do't start soon enough and in your case, if you are ovulating this early, you wouldn't even have a chance to detect an estrogen surge.

there might not have been concentrated enough urine for the wondfo. Try to do another long hold (like 4 hours) and try again. Very very weird that you got positives on the digi's and negatives on the cheapies. Sometimes my ICs have had almost positives (not quite positive) when I get a + on the digi. But usually it's at least close.


Mrs Unicorn - Well, I don't know if my temps today are related to being sick. I slept well (thanks to codine ) and I'm not running a fever today though I'm a little warmer than normal. I want to believe they are great temps, but ..... I'm worried they are just because I'm sick. If it's allergies like the dr thinks then it's not affecting, but I'm not 100% sure I believe him.

 

[Etisgonnab]

Sorry to hear that you're still feeling so terribly. Taking the day off tomorrow is a good idea. Get some rest. If it's allergies can you take some Claritin since you've already ovulated? Hopefully you'll be feeling better soon. Any rain in the forecast? If it is indeed allergies, that might provide some release too. I also find it helpful to put an ice pack on my sinuses to relieve the pressure fwiw. It looks ridiculous but it really helps.

Afm, so yeah I took another opk this evening around 7:30 and there barely was a second line at all. I don't get it. Is it possible that I could have had a false positive on two different digital tests this morning? Or ovulated that quickly? With the wandfos, the two days with the darkest lines I had were cd 5&6, though as you saw neither were totally positive. The lines have been fading ever since (I'm on cd7 now). I'm confused. Last cycle I did hit the flashing smiley with the digital but never got a peak reading. I stopped using it after nine or ten days of flashing smileys though...who knows

 

[star_e]

whoa, i've got a lot to catch up on over the weekend. today was a very long day, but just wanted to update you all real quick.

as i expected, i'm out for a month. i wasn't disappointed all over again though b/c i anticipated it. she said the biggest one shrunk by about half, but they are still too big to safely proceed. she said that she is positive we will be able to start next cycle (though she did say if one was still there we would have to drain it, but she does not think that will happen).

they still have not given me the medical records and i didnt ask b/c i didnt want to have another awkard reaction again. i did act real nice though, but i didn't bring up my reasoning for asking for the med records b/c it just felt like it would be odd to say it since we weren't discussing it. i guess i'll call them next week and tell them to mail them to me. i really wish i did not have this information problem. i wish sharing the information was standard practice, but it seems like i have to push for that and i don't like having to do that.

anyway, im going to try to make the most of the month break. i will try to be as healthy as i am able, but i am going to allow myself the occasional glass of wine. trying to eat less candy is the tough part, but ive been working on that one for a while now.

 

[star_e]

okay so i just got caught up, lol

ettis, im not too familiar with the +opk. but, i can believe that they are dark and then not dark and then dark. for me they were positive for over two weeks. maybe keep testing and see if you can pick up on more secondary signs. it takes a while to figure all this stuff out, so just keep tracking what you are doing b/c if this cycle does not work for you, then you will have that info and slowly but surely you will figure out what works and does not work for you. i imagine that is very confusing though, bc the temp thing has not been working for you. wish i had more advise.

angel - oh that's awful you are so sick. glad you are taking the day off though, its the worse feeling so sick and still having to go to work. i hope you feel better soon.

mrs unicorn - my fx for you! let us know how it goes. i have yet to be in the situation where i see faint lines or shadows, but i imagine it would be a bit nerve wracking...i hope the lines are clearly dark for you this cycle. good luck!

oh and when i use the preseed i have found it works better if DH puts it on himself and i just rub it in the right area on myself. for some reason that works better for us then using the applicator to squirt it in.

 

[Etisgonnab]

I'll comment more tomorrow, as I'm really sorry to be so very selfish that I'm hogging this thread right now...I'm just really sad. DH came home and dropped the bomb on me that the pressure was too much between this and his new job and he wants to stop trying. I feel really stupid for getting all excited thinking today could be the day that my body cooperates and this finally happens when it turns out I'm on this journey alone. I'm so demoralized and upset and feel like a total fool. And don't have anyone to talk to about it so I'm sorry to dump it all here. One day we were on the same page then as soon as it became real we weren't.

 

[mrs unicorn]

Oh no etis, I'm sorry. It has to be the right time for you both. Is he just scared? I ask only because my DH was like this at first, he also gave the same reason but after several conversations we agreed to start TTC. I've wanted to start for years but he wanted everything else to be in place - marriage, secure jobs, homeowners etc. Once we had those things he then used the work and stress card - I was furious! I'm glad we talked, he was scared that was all, or liked life as it was. I'm glad we did start trying when we did, having the mc has dragged it out much longer than I'd hoped for. All I'd say is keep talking to him, is having a baby really going to impact his work that much? My DH even chatted to people at work who had kids and they said it hadn't (he's a lecturer/researcher so often it's not a 9-5 job)

Keep on tracking your cycle, then you'll have a good idea of what's going on. I have no idea how the digis work but I wouldn't stop the ICs until you get a +. Hope you manage to sort things out with your DH.

 

[Etisgonnab]

Thanks Mrs. unicorn. Yes, that's exactly what it is. He's totally freaked out about the idea of having a kid and I think it's all hitting him now. Like the difference between knowing that it was a possibility that I'd get pregnant from BDing off BCP was one thing. Knowing that we're timing the BD to improve the chances of getting pregnant freaked him out. We definitely had all the same excuses before: get work squared away, financial stability, house, etc. It wasn't just him. I pushed it off for a while too until I felt comfortable. But now he's 35, I will be 35 in a couple months, and it feels like now or never time. So it's hard for me to hear him out because him wanting to stop now makes me worried he'll not ever be ready or when he will be it will be too late. It's catastrophizing I know, but just trying to explain where my head goes when this happens. I also don't like the feeling that I could end up pressuring him into something he doesn't want to do. I want to have a family together and be excited about it. I don't want to be charging down this path alone and I don't know where it leaves me if he ultimately does change his mind about ttc. We've been together since we were teenagers but yet can still have difficulty talking to each other about more emotionally charged issues. Ugh...

Anyway, star_e: sorry to hear you won't be able to try this month, but at least your doc is optimistic about next month! You definitely should make the most of it. Do some fun things that you won't be able to do pregnant. Have a glass or two of wine. Maybe go to a nice dinner with DH and order a good bottle and just relax and enjoy it. BD without the pressure of BDing if that makes sense. Go to a baseball game and enjoy a beer and a hotdog. I can be your month off buddy if you'd like, since I'm obviously out this month now too.

Angel: Hope you're feeling better today!

 

[mrs unicorn]

Star - sorry you gotta take a month off, but it's not necessarily a bad thing. Etis has some great suggestions. I'd live to the max this month! Just think, you won't have to stress to much about it all, just try and relax and have fun. Then once that's done hopefully you'll be good to go!!

Etis - I had some very similar thoughts. I told him all of them 'are you ever going to be ready if you're not at 34' that kind of thing. I also really didn't want to push him into it, because lets face it, that would be a miserable life for everyone. I was so worried that when I finally got a bfp that he'd be devastated and I'd be able to see it in his face (that didn't happen, he was delighted but terrified!!) We did have a few arguments about it at first, but he's on board. Even more so since the mc. My advice is tell him these things you are worrying about. It is hard to discuss things that are emotionally charged, you don't want to hurt each other. Good luck. xx

 

[Etisgonnab]

Star - sorry you gotta take a month off, but it's not necessarily a bad thing. Etis has some great suggestions. I'd live to the max this month! Just think, you won't have to stress to much about it all, just try and relax and have fun. Then once that's done hopefully you'll be good to go!!

Etis - I had some very similar thoughts. I told him all of them 'are you ever going to be ready if you're not at 34' that kind of thing. I also really didn't want to push him into it, because lets face it, that would be a miserable life for everyone. I was so worried that when I finally got a bfp that he'd be devastated and I'd be able to see it in his face (that didn't happen, he was delighted but terrified!!) We did have a few arguments about it at first, but he's on board. Even more so since the mc. My advice is tell him these things you are worrying about. It is hard to discuss things that are emotionally charged, you don't want to hurt each other. Good luck. xx

Thanks for the support and advice! It's nice to hear from others who have had similar experiences. I know I'm not the first nor the last to be dealing with this, but it's nice to be able to talk to someone who gets it. That fear you mentioned about him being devastated by a BFP is so exactly what I fear if we get to that point. I'm so glad to hear you guys were able to work through the uncertainty and are on the same page. Good luck to you too! Fx that this is the month.