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

[Amy1976]

Terri - That's such awesome news!! What did they do different this time? Just up your meds? Or did they do different meds too? Come on Wednesday whoo hoo!!!

Update for Me - My SHG and mock transfer are scheduled for next Monday morning. I will also get my schedule and med prescription that day as well. So glad not to be in waiting limbo anymore!!

 

[terripeachy]

They increased my meds but they were the same. Because I had more follies and higher estrogen levels I had to change my trigger to a dual trigger of hcg and lupron. Last time it was hcg only. I think the difference was a success.

 

[booger76]

Good morning, ladies!

Terri - Fantastic report that 13 embies are still going strong. I can't believe that you're already to transfer again tomorrow! So exciting. Good luck getting your tickets this morning.

Amy - Hooray for moving forward! I love tracking all of us at our different stages in this process. Now that things are just "ho hum" for me it's even more exciting to stalk the rest of you. .

How is everyone else doing?

I started my second round of Insanity yesterday. Ouch! I forgot how sore it makes me. It also reminded me how out of shape I am right now. I did my first round last winter with pretty good results. I figure it can't hurt to try and get my body in tip top shape prior to transfer (and hopefully pregnancy). I would love to lose about 10 pounds but we'll see. I'll be happy with tightening up a few loose areas.

 

[beaglemom]

They increased my meds but they were the same. Because I had more follies and higher estrogen levels I had to change my trigger to a dual trigger of hcg and lupron. Last time it was hcg only. I think the difference was a success.

It's amazing what a little tweeking can do. My first month on follistim I only had 1 egg...they increased it by 75 & the next 2 cycles I had almost 4!

 

[LadySosa]

Hey everyone!
Thanks for all the friendly responses to my first post! It was super helpful reading all the mystery acronyms solved and feeling a warm welcome.

Since I'm a newbie I'm still a little lost in reading about all the IVF processes, but I do enjoy reading each of your posts! I will refrain from posting replies because I have no idea what I'm talking about, LOL! But, 14 embryos, Terri, that's good, right? Sounds awesome!

Yesterday we had our pre-op appointment for the laparoscopy. We also got all the preliminary IVF info, and for the first time, I'm starting to stress. We were originally thinking it would cost around $10k (as neither my hubby's or my insurance covers infertility treatment), which is a lot, but we were prepared to manage it. Then yesterday we learned it will really be more like $15k, and that's IF the embryo takes on the first try. Which it sounds like it doesn't always happen. Ugh! So much money. We'll have to take out a loan or max out all of our credit cards, just to get pregnant! Then comes the baby eventually, and we all know how much babies cost! UGH! I think we're going to wait to begin IVF until January so that we can load up our Flexible Spending Accounts, at least that's $5k we can spend towards IVF. Needless to say, I'm disappointed. All around me it seems women are getting pregnant without even trying. Stupid Blake Lively.

Sorry to be such a debbie-downer on the thread. I imagine you've all gone through similar emotions in the beginning of this process?

 

[kfs1]

Amy - Congrats on moving forward!

Booger - I've heard crazy things about insanity - like people inuring their backs and stuff! Always a great idea to get in shape though. Good for both you and your future baby. Now, can you come over to my house and make my ass get moving??

LadySosa - You're not a debbie downer! This is the place to vent about all of your frustrations. Ugh. I'm so sorry about the financial issues that you're having to deal with. I think it's enough to have the emotional/physical aspect going on but it's a whole other layer of stress when you have to worry about money. Anyway, it's better to know costs up front so you can plan on how you're doing to handle everything. Big hugs to you.

And I saw the Blake Lively thing this morning, too!!! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

 

[terripeachy]

Who is Blake Lively?? hee hee.

booger-Yeah, after you go to kfs1's house, head south. My stomach is turning into a fat bowling ball and it's gross. I think I have a bump from my shots in one area too. It's nasty.

LadySosa-Sorry you're stressing out about the financials. I have insurance covering mine, and then ran out of money and had to pay out of pocket for meds, and that alone was about 8k. Ouchies!! Then my husband runs into our fake, brick chimney on the side of the house and claims he wants to fix his car. REALLY?! You need to pay for these meds first. Your car will be fine, my credit card..not so much.

beagle-I guess that's why a lot of times they say the first IVF is a practice. For some people it works and others it doesn't.

I can't get Os tickets. They are all sold out or something. I did it last time, but this time I think the brokers bought up all the tickets. STUPID JERKS!!!

 

[beaglemom]

I had to google Blake Lively cuz I didn't know either. It sucks when pregnancy seems to be everywhere. Everything I watch is about it, too. I can even predict when it's about to happen. But (& I do not believe this 100% ALL the time) I have tried so hard to get in my own zen & out of other people's lives. It is hard, don't get me wrong. But Just keep telling yourself it will happen for me when the time is right. Another thing to think...I will get pregnant when the perfect sperm meets the perfect egg to create my perfect child. I try to find as many positive thoughts like that to bring me in a good place. Like I said, doens't always work & yes I totally get in to the why not me slumps...but the positive thinking helps a lot.

Terri - sorry about the tics...even though I want your Os to lose!!! They are my #2 rival after the Red Sox.

LadySosa - I am in the same boat as you with the money. The low number for IVF for me is $10K...but that does not include meds. I am luck enough to have some meds covered with a high copay which is better than nothing. But we are also adding PGS & ICSI. PGS being the testing of the chromosomes to pick the best ones...& ICSI being the process of one great sperm being chosen & injected vs putting the sperm & egg together to have them fertilize on their own. So with these processes I think my cost goes up to around $13K...then I am rough estimating meds at about $5K. I am hoping I am overshooting these numbers, but I would rather over estimate than under.

So here are my financial plans...I have said this before, but probably before you joined. I applied for a grant which may or may not work since they up & changed the announcement date. I do not want to delay in to 2015 for several reasons. Anyways...I also just received credit card advance checks. The fee is 2% with 0% interest for 12 months. Once the 12 months is up, I plan to refinance the remaining debt to avoid the insane 24% (guessing) rate. The other option for me is to sell stock my husband gets through his employer...but this is our seriously rainy day fund like we are going to lose the house & can't buy groceries, so we hate to touch it. And finally a loan against our 401K. The rate is low & I can finance over 60 months.

So since you ahve some time, seriously look in to some of these options. Call your credit card people & ask about promo rates. Christmas is coming so I am sure they will have some deals coming out. Check out your 401K loan options. A loan is SO much better than taking a distribution. And finally google IVF grant & see what comes up. There are some great organizations out there if you look. The application can be lengthy, but worth it if you get it.

And finally...put serious sit down time in on thinking your money through. Once you break it all down, it really makes it more manageable. When I started looking at it, I broke it down to my husband like this...a car payment. I recently traded my paid off car in for a larger one in expectance of a baby one day. It was used, exactly what I wanted, & some cosmetic damage which made it a great price. My husband has a good car that is paid off. So I see it as he cannot get a new car until this debt is paid or my car is paid off. Since you have some time, really buckle down on paying down some existing debt which may be lingering over your head. Putting everything out there & getting a plan will make the money not seem like an overbearing dark cloud.

Good luck & sorry for such a long post...it is just a topic I have done my own serious research on. I really hope my input helps you.

 

[moni77]

Hey all.

So yes, we did not have to worry about BD until after the retrieval - and then there was no touching of me until the beta test. Let me tell you, although we were fine for unprotected sex until the retrieval - that last week I was so bloated and could feel the eggs that the thought of penetration was not for me. We did do other stuff and still had a good time, but that was it. (we have a pretty good sex drive as well.)

Lady - I paid about 13k for my IVF - luckily my meds were covered. If I had extra eggs it would have been another 1000 to freeze.

Really swamped at work, so cant really catch up on everyone. Things are moving along though it seems.

AFM - First OB appt went well. Scan was great - got a bunch of new photos. Chimmi is measuring 9w1d. She was moving around and waving at me. Heart beat was 174. I go in next week for the harmony test and will know the sex about 10 days after that - so by the end of the month. Next appointment is in a month - not sure what I am going to do for a whole month - it was hard enough waiting a week between scans!

Here are this weeks pics:

 

[LadySosa]

Thank you guys! It's nice to hear the support. Beaglemom - I really appreciate the tips. My husband mentioned taking out a loan against his 401(k), which I really hate to do. I'm in HR and I've always advised others against borrowing against it, but sometimes its the best option. I will definitely Google IVF grant! I've never heard of this, but am quite curious now.

I'll try to keep my chin up and remain positive in this journey! You're right, it will happen when it's meant to happen. I need to stay patient. Unfortunately patience has never been my strong suit.

Blake Lively is a gorgeous celebrity with a gorgeous husband (Ryan Reynolds) and now they are undoubtedly going to have a gorgeous baby. But, one thing I remind myself is, who knows what they went through to get pregnant! Probably just ol' fashioned 'doing it', but you never know, it could've been a struggle.

 

[terripeachy]

Moni-Chimmi is awesome! Great pictures and glad your visit went well. The end of the month is not far at all! You can do this..

LadySosa-Jen also posted a website, www.fastivf.com which has meds for cheap (er). You have to get the prescription from your RE when you know what you'll need.

I am such an idiot. My work had a firewall for some reason and it was blocking all three season ticket holders at my work. I finally sent the link to my bestie and she was able to get tickets to Home Games 3 or 4 (if necessary). I offered her one set and we'll take the other set. *sigh* WHY WHY didn't I think of that earlier???

 

[JCM]

Hi all! I have been so busy! Ahhhhh everyone is moving so quickly! I wanted jump on and say hello!
Great news on the embies Terri!
Ladysosa, I was just gonna post what Terri did. My ivf meds were half the price from there. About 2500 bucks. Make sure you order 2 weeks in advance. My package was delayed and I was freaking out. Nobody should be any more stressed than they already are during an ivf cycle! My insurance didn't cover anything so we paid 10k which included ICSI for 10 eggs. Each additional egg was 100 bucks. Plus storage, ultrasounds, blood tests...beagle is right, since you have time, map it all out. We borrowed from our 401k and it's already almost paid back.

Moni, great pics! I was telling DH, Moni is like a real pregnant woman! He laughed and said so are you! But I'm like no, she has all of these pictures and it's all so real! Haha! Can't wait til next week for my ultrasound. Had to schedule it around my RE being out of town and then around DHs crazy hospital/clinic/surgery schedule. I hate taking time away from his patients! This blood test will tell you the sex this early? Hmmm I may have to look into it!

Brighteyez, yay you got your schedule! Woohoo!

Booger, I can't wait to start being able to exercise normally. I'm allowed to do light walking. No lifting. Yuck. My arms don't have any muscle that I can see anymore!

Hi everyone else! Hope you all had a great weekend! It's already almost midweek again! Time is definitely moving!

 

[kfs1]

Moni - LOVE those pics. Congratulations again.



Terri - Good luck again!



Oh, and I really could give 2 craps about Blake Lively. It was just the fact that "yet another pregnancy" was in my face.

 

[Amy1976]

Good luck today Terri!

 

[booger76]

Good morning, ladies!

Terri - Good luck today, lady! So excited for you. Let us know how it goes. Oh, and glad to see that you were able to get some tickets after all. I can be a drill sergeant if necessary. But you need to take it a little easy until after you embryos have had time to implant......


Jen - Good to hear from you! You are most certainly pregnant silly lady. Your ticker says 6 weeks already. That seems impossible. Excited for you to get your first scan. Hopefully, you'll get pictures to share with us too. My arms were one of the reasons I started Insanity again - I felt like I was getting Bingo Wings.

kfs - I didn't really know who Blake Lively was either. I had heard the name but didn't know what she was famous for. I'm pretty stupid when it comes to pop culture though. I think it comes from living in the boonies. I will certainly be careful while working out. Man, oh man am I sore today though. It's a good thing, really. At least that's what I keep telling myself. DH is doing it too and we sounded like 80-year old people last night - every time one of us moved we were moaning and groaning. I would love to be your workout enforcer. If I could do everything over again, I would totally go to school to be a physical therapist or athletic trainer. Hind sight is so 20/20, right?

LadySosa - We had to pay most everything out of pocket, too. My insurance will cover some of the monitoring - which can add up significantly - including the ultrasounds and blood work. (in our case, if we were having to pay the clinic directly without insurance, that part alone would have been $2700) The rest of it we luckily had saved up enough to cover. My clinic is 4 hours away so we have travel costs as well. I think in total, after we have paid for everything, ours will be pretty close to $20,000. My husband and I used similar thinking as Beagle - that it's cheaper than buying a car (although it's much easier to finance a car! ). It just sucks that any of us are in this situation at all. I often kick myself for not starting sooner (DH and I have been together for 10 years, although only married 1) but in the end, I don't think it would have mattered.

Beagle - I hear ya on the zen thing. I have been trying really hard not to let other's peoples lives affect mine. This isn't as big a deal for me on the pregnancy side of things - while sometimes it stings a bit to hear about others getting pregnant - for the most part, I don't care because I know it's bound to happen one day. I will say that going through the TTC and IVF process has made me much more aware of what other people may have gone through. It also made me realize that I used to be one of those insensitive jerks who said things like "just relax". I really had NO CLUE what infertility was like. I didn't say those things to be mean, or even to be helpful really, I was just trying relate to something that I knew absolutely nothing about. Now I feel like I need to go back and apologize to a few people .........

Moni - Loving those scan pictures. So amazing to see little bean getting bigger each time. I have read where it's hard to go from getting scans frequently to the regular schedule. After being monitored constantly, it's like going cold turkey back to normalcy. You can do it!

How is everyone else??

 

[booger76]

Checking in again......

My nurse called with the results of our PGS. We have 3 normal embryos out of the six!! I am ecstatic!

She said that she is really glad that we did the testing. I guess all of them looked really good so there was pretty good chance abnormal ones could have been transferred.

She also asked if we wanted to know the gender. I told her no. But I almost said yes in all the excitement..........

So, I'm to start my birth control today to start prepping for my FET. Looks like I'll be taking that for a few weeks, then overlapping with Lupron. I'll also be taking oral Estrace, Medrol, and doxycycline but I'm not sure when I'll start those (she'll be e-mailing me my schedule soon). I will have to do the dreaded Progesterone in Oil shots. Those won't start until 5 days before the transfer. So maybe I shouldn't try to lose too much of my booty before then - maybe make those shots a little easier......

 

[knitgirl]

I am new to this site and forums in general, but we are starting IVF this month and am hoping this is the right group to join!

Thanks!

 

[terripeachy]

booger-Awesome updates!! Woohoo for the three normal embryos!! I'm so happy to hear that. And now, BCP to start too. So cool. Sorry about the PIO shots, but Moni did it and look where she got! hee hee. I guess no one wants to talk to me about their fertility issues, so I have never told anyone to relax...plus, who am I to tell someone how to get pregnant? Especially when I was younger and just running around raging out.

My transfer went well today. I had three blastocysts transferred. One was expanded good rating, and the other two were expanded fair rating. The doctor said they grade them as good, fair, poor. She also said that they looked beautiful. The doctor is the only woman at the site, and she's always so nice, patient and explains everything. She also did my retrieval this time. I think tomorrow they will call me to tell me how many frosties I will have, but this morning my regular doctor called and said he sees about 8-9. So I'm super happy about that too. I took a nap when I got home and then chopped tons of vegetables and roasted them for a vegetable fritatta with white cheddar queso. Yum yum. I'm finally about to try it! I'm going to work tomorrow and just taking it easy. Last time I did the super bed rest, but it was the weekend and I could just sit around. Not this time! Hope everyone is doing well!

 

[Babywhisperer]

Hi ladies, may I join you? I know Beaglemom (thank you) from the IUI thread. Congrats on the bfps, and so sorry Erin about your cp. They can be cruel, but hopefully they can tweak your protocol to maximize your chances on the next round.

I have an almost 10mo old from an IUI that worked the first time last year, and now 3 failed IUIs ttc #2. My RE thinks it's age of my eggs and wants to move on to IVF. It boggles my mind that my eggs could have aged so much since I got prego in March of last year! I had my trial transfer on Monday, and I have my class and meeting with a genetic counselor on Monday. My Dr isn't a fan of PGS and I need to find out more as to why that is. He said it will be a game time decision for how many to transfer. I will be 39 in Nov so he thinks 2-3. He wants to be aggressive and I will be on menopour and I think Gonal F, will find out more Monday. I am cd 11 right now. Will I have to go on BCP? For everyone that has done a cycle how was the ET? Did you need more than a day off? Are the side effects of the meds more intense than IUI?

My RE is at Cornell and IVF is very expensive there and we don't have insurance coverage for it. I am scared it won't work. I have been doing weekly acupuncture for several weeks, taking CoQ10 and while DH's morphology is around 4-5% his numbers and motility have been awesome. I am under extreme stress right now and wondering if I should postpone my cycle. I appreciate any feedback as I am trying to find out as much as I can. Thank you all in advance for your support!!

 

[ERosePW]

Terri, I'm so glad your transfer went well today, and I'm SO excited that you have so many frosties, yay!! Such good news for you, all around!

And booger, that's great that you have 3 good ones! 50% is very good, so I'm certain that this is it for you!! I'm a firm believer in PGS now, and still considering it for my last 4 embies.

BabyWhisperer, welcome to the thread. The ET is the easy part. The ER can be a little more difficult, but it depends on the person. Some women bounce right back, others are a little sore for a couple of days. For example, I had fluid in my abdomen for a few days, so I was pretty uncomfy. But I think Terri had a much easier time of it. So it all depends! Honestly, while IVF can be stressful, it's also a very exciting time as well... You just have to be positive and optimistic (and we'll be cheering you on, so that helps!), and remind yourself that IVF is probably what will bring you that second beautiful baby. So its worth every second and every penny, in my eyes.

Welcome to knitgirl also! Happy to have you join us!

Moni, awesome pics, thanks so much for sharing!!!

Hi to beagle, Jen, Amy, brighteyez, LadySosa, kfs, and jkb! Hope I got everyone! Our little group is growing a bit, huh?

AFM... just waiting to hear from finance girl to see if my insurance will pay the PGS. My DH is thinking we should just roll the dice and transfer 3 instead of spending the money on PGS. He agrees with my RE that the odds should be that there is at least one (maybe 2) good ones in that 4. He wanted to do PGS from the very beginning, back when we had 8 embies... Now he's thinking, since we're down to so few, why not just put them in and try them. He'll do whatever I want though. He says my gut instinct is probably stronger on matters such as these, ha! So we'll make up our minds eventually.