First time IVF - Started Lupron last Thurs - Would Love some Buddies

[beaglemom]

So I am home now & can put up a proper update about my day. Work was busy, so I really couldn't type much. I may repeat some things, so sorry about that. So my appointment was at 9:15. I meant to get there at 7:30, but sleep was too good this morning...so I got there at 8...I was out by 8:30 which was nice because I didn't miss any work (after skipping lunch). So I went in & the tech says to use the bathroom. When I come out I start waiting & a nurse comes in. So I wasn't sure what was up. Then she started talking & I was like oh here we go...a talk. Basically she was saying after 3 we usually say no more IUIs...blah blah. So I explained using up my meds & she was like oh yeh that's right. I was just thinking no one wrote that down somewhere...does my dr even know I am doing this? So she checks me out & says both sides look great. I could see some tiny follicles already there. So she gets my ovidrel ordered & then I say make sure to mark my chart timed not IUI so insurance will pay & she looked at me funny & was like ok. So I think she thinks I am even more nuts now. 3 failed IUIs & now doing a timed cycle. That made me start thinking desperate again & thinking I need to do another IUI. But then I checked out & instead of $250, I only had to pay $30! So I felt better & just said whatever will be will be. So I set up my CD 10 scan appointment which is a Saturday which is good because no more missing work. Plus I looked & my husband is off that weekend which is perfect for a BD schedule. So with the late cycle & making an extra trip to Raleigh, I think I was just feeling a bit overwhelmed & tired. So I typically listen to audio books. But instead I started up my MP3 player & pretty much cried all the way to work...an hour! It was just one of those exhausted cries, you know? I had the music up as high as it would go...& some of my best music was on. It felt good...I was screaming some lyrics & actually my throat hurts a little now. So my husband calls later & asked how it went. And I said well apparently I have beautiful ovaries & a perfect uterus. Basically with a tone like why the f*** can't we get pregnant? So anyways, then in to work to a pretty hectic day which made it go by fast. So i am excited to give this a shot. Even more excited to hear back on the grant hopefully in a couple of weeks.

I am going to put up 2 videos...basically the first one is my go-to mood upper. They lyrics are a bit depressing & so is the video, but the chorus is what I was scream singing on the way to work...it just pumps me up. Sorry if they are not your taste in music...I am a rocker til death The other is a Guns & Roses Patience. (excuse the weird 80s music video) When I listened to the lyrics today, I realized they could mean so many things...but today they spoke to me & my TTC situation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFNZXaBcXkA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErvgV4P6Fzc

 

[terripeachy]

booger-Glad everything is going great! I was watching runners yesterday when I was at the social, and I felt bad that I've been such a fat blob. Tomorrow morning I'll get a chance to go, and I will go. I realized that with my excitement to leave, I left all four of my school articles at work, so I'll have to drive back up there to get them. Run-drive to work-read school books-go hang with my coworker. We're going to Annapolis (the state capitol) for lunch and then a movie called No Good Deed. I don't know anything about movies, but I'm going. I just hope I don't fall asleep.

brighteyez-I saw that jump this morning. Woohoo!! It could only mean good things.

Jen-I hope you're not mad at me for calling you a dummy. I was being Sanford talking to Lamont. I hope your line is getting darker. I just know that I couldn't test that early because I wouldn't want to be disappointed. Any updates??

Amy-Go get that egg, girlfriend!

beagle-You are the boss of your body, and those nurses just have to do what you say. So what if they think your crazy? You own your crazy and do what makes you feel better. Glad you got to sing your heart out. Patience is such a great song, and it works in MANY applications. I don't know the Bon Jovi song.

Moni-Glad you didn't throw up today. Shew! I guess headaches are your thing. Can you take Tylenol? Hope you have a nice weekend.

AFM-Day 1 shots are complete. The end. HA!!HA!! Temping starts tomorrow too.

 

[brighteyez73]

Terri - yeah it jumped but came back down this morning. But its ok, I am in a good mind frame. ��

 

[ERosePW]

Hi girls, sorry I'm just now checking in. Been enjoying my lazy time and haven't even been using my iPad. Now today I'm finally restless, so time to start doing some stuff! I only have a minute since it's my BIL's bday. My FET went fine. Easy peasy. I feel really good, and my estradiol is literally about 10x lower than my fresh cycle, no kidding. 10X! It was over 3000 last time. It's a nice normal 300-400 now. I read a study the other day about super high estradiol levels (>3000) in IVF having a detrimental effect on endometrial receptivity. I'm pretty convinced that's why my fresh cycle didn't work. I'm a little disappointed that my RE didn't mention it and potentially do a freeze-all, but I guess high estradiol doesn't ALWAYS mean a failure, and in reality, even if she'd mentioned it to me, I would've gone through with it anyway since we had 8 embies. No reason to look back. Just all the more reason to be excited about this one.

Anyway girls, I'll check in again later to properly catch up. Xoxo

 

[ERosePW]

Oh, and moni, they thawed two. I had to sign a document stating that if one or both of them didn't survive the thawing process, that they could thaw more on that morning. So then I was worried! But they both made it, so both are floating around in my uterus as we speak (or hopefully already burrowing in!).

 

[JCM]

Hey all! I've been trying to stay busy and relaxed and step away from the pee sticks! Lol I've been doing well actually. Oh no, Terri! I'm not mad at all! I was just stressing myself out. I decided I'll wait til mid week to check. I don't feel really that different. More like myself actually. I just get these cramps like AF cramps and then they disappear! Maybe from the P? Mine this time are capsules I throw up there. Fun fun. My boobs are a little sore today by my armpits and that's about it!
Oh, actually I'm starving. You know when you want something so good and you can't decide what it is? I have that. DH and I had pedicures today and I got a new iPhone 6.
Hope everyone is having a great weekend! Terri, you'd be proud...I'm gonna chill out and watch football all day tomorrow!

 

[beaglemom]

Erin glad you feel good after transfer.

Jen - maybe those are good signs...I hope so...ready to see more ivf success!

Started femara today. We went to my friend's kid's 4th birthday...ugh...it was exhausting...plus 1 1/2 hours away. But we are back home. Now I think my husband is dedicating the rest of his evening to grand theft auto.

 

[JCM]

Haha beagle, sometimes I actually love that DH can zone out and play video games. I like my time!

 

[beaglemom]

Ok so I just learned something. I know I am behind all of you & my info may be meaningless to you. So I realized I am not doing PGD...I am doing PGS...which is different. I am posting a link to my dr page where there is a video explaining it. So basically the PGD is for specific genetic disorders & PGS is for screening in general to count chromosomes & basically increase the pregnancy success rate. PGS can be done & a fresh cycle still performed which is something I was worrying about. Anyways...so if this is not helpful at all to anyone.

https://www.carolinaconceptions.com/invitro/pgd/

 

[terripeachy]

ERose-you are so good with research and E levels. Now I wonder what mine was. Hmmm. I think this time all the odds are in your favor. So excited for you. When do you go back for your blood test or test at home?

Jen-glad you're not upset with me. Sometimes I realize that the computer doesn't have emotions and then when everyone else was saying you weren't dumb, I started thinking that maybe I was mean. Phew! You know I love ya. I'm happy you chilled out though. The stress of testing is too much. Yay for football tomorrow. I usually go to a bar, but I don't really feel like spending money at the bar drinking or not. The only other problem is that the Cowboys are probably playing at the same time as the Ravens and I certainly don't want to sit here listening to him curse and pout so I guess I'm going to the bar. Hmmm. I really need to convince someone to invite me to their house. Have fun tomorrow watching the games.

Beaglemom-I'll look at the link. Thank you for posting it. Day 2 shots are done. Yay. I tried doing it sitting down today, but I didn't like it.

 

[booger76]

Hi ladies! Hope you are all having a fabulous weekend whatever it may be that you are up to - watching football, etc.

Erin - I'm glad the transfer went well! You're already 3 days past your transfer now. I hope this wait flies by for you. Crazy to think that in a week or so, there could be two more pregnant ladies on this thread!

Jen - Nice to hear that you have stepped away from the tests for a bit. I can only imagine how hard it must be to wait this out. How do you like the new iPhone 6? I walked by the Apple store here in town yesterday evening and it was definitely buzzing.....I just got an iPhone 5c in Feb so I won't be getting a new one anytime soon but DH is due for an upgrade. Maybe if he's nice I'll see about getting him the 6 for Christmas. I hoping the bigger screen will keep him from stealing my iPad all the time.

Beagle - Is the Femara an injection? Sorry, I have never dealt with that drug before so I'm not very familiar with it. I hope you are feeling better now after jamming and singing it out on Friday. Sometimes we just have to let it all out. Kind of crazy how things can build up inside of us that way. I'm fearing for DH when I finally see him tomorrow.......I'm feeling fine for now but I could be an emotional mess by tomorrow. Hormones plus limited human interaction could equal meltdown. Hopefully for his sake I'm in good spirits! PGS is what we are doing too; however, my clinic can't run the test. They have to send the biopsies to NJ which is why we can't do a fresh transfer. I actually think I'm glad about that. Especially after hearing about Erin's experience. I think they said my estradiol level was at like 3700 this morning.

Terri - Is it you or DH that is the Dallas fan, too? I might actually watch a game or 2 today as well - we'll see, I'm still kind of disgusted with the whole league and all the crap going on right now. I know that the majority of the players aren't jerks so they shouldn't be punished. I think the attitude of professional players is what makes me like college sports better in general. Anyway, football can still be interesting to watch so maybe I'll throw a game on later on this afternoon. How are the shots going?

Brighteyez - You're chart is still looking pretty good! Fingers crossed for you.

Kfs - How are you doing? How were the beer and apples?

Moni - I hope your weekend was a nice one and you didn't feel too icky.

Well, tonight's the night. Trigger time! I can't believe it. Thank goodness too because I am so ready to be back home. I went for monitoring this morning and I think I counted at least 9 follies that he measured in the 18-20mm (plus some more he didn't bother measuring). I left the clinic and forgot to have them draw the circle on my bum for the shot because I figured I'd be triggering tomorrow (based on what my nurse told me Friday). When the nurse called me back and said I'd be triggering tonight, I panicked and asked if I could come back and have her draw it since I have to do the shot myself. She said "of course" so I had to run back over there and get the "Circle of Dread". I am scheduled to take 5000 units of Novarel at 11 pm. Yikes. This old lady is going to have a hard time staying up that late. Although, I have a feeling it may not be an issue tonight.

I'll go back in the morning for one last blood draw and ultrasound and then I have to head home to pick up DH. We'll drive back tomorrow evening. Eight hours on the road. Yay. He has to go do his thing at 7:15 Tuesday morning and I have to be at the clinic at 9 am.

 

[terripeachy]

Yeah booger!! Trigger tonight. I did the trigger by myself. Just make sure you don't have weight on your butt cheek when you give yourself the shot. I was leaned over on the couch to the opposite side of the circle and just jammed that needle in with a bit of force. My nurse said to imagine I was puncturing an orange. So stoked!!

Hubs is the Cowboys fan. Luckily they won today and the Ravens came back and won today as well. I thought sure we were going to lose. Be careful driving back and forth. Oh, and what did you end up telling your coworkers?

 

[beaglemom]

Femara is a pill similar to clomid. It is used in women to make them ovulate...in my case it is used to boost my egg quality.

After watching the youtube videos, I am feeling very confident in my clinic. I am lucky to be in a huge medical area. My dr went to Duke & basically the clinic is in that medical cluster...UNC - Chapel Hill, Duke, Wake Forest. I would not mind FET...but if my body seems to be doing fine, I would much rather a fresh just to be that much closer & not have to wait. BUT since my cycle was late, there is a chance I will have to take the bcp longer so I can move things in to the first part of Dec. I may be cutting it close to do things the week before Thanksgiving. But I guess we will see when I set it all up.

But that will not be necessary since this cycle will be it

Booger, good luck at retrieval. Sorry you have to drive so much...honestly, I would LOVE it. I love to drive long distances. My dr exhausts me but that is because it is over an hour really early & then I have to go to work.

 

[booger76]

Thanks, ladies!

Beagle - Your clinic looks really good so I would trust them too! They seem to have great success rates, especially for this year. That's always reassuring. Their twin rate is really low too, which is a superb statistic to have. That is one of the reasons we decided to go with the PGS, so that we would feel pretty confident about our chance of success transferring one embryo. I have read of a lot of threads with women using Femara but I was never sure if it was a pill or a shot - now I know - Thanks! I wouldn't normally mind the road trip but driving all that way just to turn around and come right back (when I really just want to be home) isn't going to be too much fun. At least I get to see my dogs for a little bit!!!

Terri - I remember you talking about doing the trigger yourself. Thanks for the tip about taking pressure off of the leg I'm injecting above. I ended up not telling work anything, actually. Things kind of turned out serendipitous timing wise. My boss was on vacation all of last week. I'm super busy at work so I just told everyone I was teleworking (which wasn't a lie, since I worked from my hotel room). I'm going to take tomorrow and Tuesday off and tell people I wasn't feeling well (at least on Tuesday that won't be completely untrue). My plan is to go back on Wednesday if I feel well enough. I have a meeting I'm supposed to help with that's out of the office - I basically just have to be there - no real participation required on my part.

Truth be told, I'm really nervous. I'm pretty sure he halved my dose for the hCG trigger because he is concerned about OHSS. When I went back to the clinic this morning to get the circles drawn on my tush the nurse mentioned that I might even be using the Lupron trigger. She said she would call back and let me know. She did call back and I'm to stick with the hCG trigger. Just wish I had thought to ask more questions. I'm glad I go back for monitoring in the morning. This is just one of those situations where I have really have to trust that my Dr. knows what he is doing. And since I won't be having a transfer, even if I do end up with OHSS, it shouldn't be bad because there is no chance of pregnancy.

 

[JCM]

Isn't it weird that my trigger had to be done sub q? Nobody else does it like that. My RE is weird though. I couldn't do the shots sitting either but sometimes, DH did them while I was laying down and I'm not sure if it hurt less cause I was comfy or because I was tricking myself. The human growth hormone and my heparin had to be early in the am so hubby just stuck me while I was half asleep on his way out the door!

Booger, wow! I feel like that went fast! I was annoyed having to stay up til 10:30 for mine. I set an alarm. Lol I really like the phone. Everyone thinks I was one of those people that waited in line at 4am at the apple store. Haha no way. I walked into Verizon, asked about my upgrade, sold my 5 back to them and walked out with a new phone. Apparently the one everyone waited hours for! Ha!

I ended up going to a scentsy party today. Huge mistake. 1000 smells gave me a headache. Plus, I'm cranky. I really hate progesterone. Especially what it does to my boobs. Holy cow I couldn't even shower with comfort this morning. Yuck. I think it constipated me too. I feel full. I held a 4 month old baby at the party for like 3 hours though. Hope he gave me some luck! He could have fit in my purse but I'm pretty sure his mom would have noticed. Haha he was so sweet!

Hi to everyone else! Hope you had a nice Sunday! Oh yeah, and GO CARDINALS!!! Woooooohooooo! Great game!

 

[terripeachy]

Booger-my nurse told me that if your estrogen is above a certain level (maybe 4000 or 10k) they give you the Lupron trigger. Otherwise you use hcg. Not sure what it means if your E is high or low and how the medicine affects you. Hope the trigger shot went well. You have to do it anyway, do now it's done. I had to do mine at 10p which wasn't too bad.

Jen-you're so funny with your Cardinals cheer. I'm happy they won even though I had SF in my pool. Hee hee. I couldn't go to a scents party! All the scents would start running together. So cute about the baby.

Hi to everyone else!

 

[kfs1]

Erin - So happy to hear that things went well. Your clinic really sounds so amazing. I love that they're speaking to you like they KNOW it's going to work (which OF COURSE it will). And I agree with Terri - you're so good with your research!

Booger - I'm sorry you're feeling nervous but I'm sure things will be fine. Good luck today!!!!

JCM - How are you feeling other than the sore boobs? I HATE progesterone, too. Ugh. Stupid symptoms and it's DISGUSTING. Awww - they always say to try and hold a baby if you're TTC. Hope that baby luck rubs off on you!

Beagle - Glad to hear that things are all set for your next IUI.

Hi everyone else! :wave: Great weekend. Beer tasting and apple picking were both a lot of fun!

 

[beaglemom]

kfs - I am actually not doing IUI...I am doing timed. This way insurance will pay & I can use up the rest of my follistim...while I wait for my grant decision...hopefully we will know something next week!

Speaking of meds, I looks at my vile last night & I may not have enough follistim. I won't know for sure until I start. It is so hard to judge a partially used vile. But if I do not have enough, I will be pretty close...so I am not stressing over it...I am not going to out a lot of thoughts into this cycle. I know my chances are low, so we will just put in a good effort.

Booger - We are planning to do PGS for pretty much the same reason. I really only want 1. I would be happy with twins, but more happy if I do everything I can to keep those chances as slim as possible. I don't know how your clinic works...but for me, we pay about $3500 (I think) extra for PGS. Then if the fresh cycle doesn't work, I think the FETs are about 50% the cost of what it normally would have been. So my husband says if we spend the money & it is a success obviously we will be happy. And if it is not a success, we will feel happy to be saving some money on the next try.

 

[beaglemom]

Wow...I just started thinking it is almost October...it seems like just a few days ago I was stressing to get my grant app in. Now we are almost at decision time. Sat I will most likely trigger...this cycle is going by fast!

 

[moni77]

Happy Monday everyone!!

Nice relaxing weekend for me - I did a very light workout - I am talking walking with some stairs and I am so sore! Ugh. Back on the elliptical this week though.

Jen - I also did a subQ trigger - I did the ovidrel shot like I did with the IUIs. Can't wait for this week!

My friend went into labor last night - she was really unhappy and miserable this last week. Waiting to hear the results.

Hope every one has a great week!