pre-IVF anxiety... Help!!

[Nima]

Thinking of you, Megan.

 

[Nima]

Some mid-IVF anxiety here... I have 25 follicles and some of them are already about 15mm in diameter, and it seems that my egg pick up will only be on Wednesday. I am so afraid that it's too late. Plus I am worried that it's too many follicles and that I will have ohss. And generally, I am just so anxious...

 

[WinterBub]

Nima! I totally get it. They told me that I have a more than 50% chance of getting OHSS. Is the egg retrieval date set because you will have to travel? I will have everything crossed for you that everything goes well between now and then. I'm sure your doctor is on top of everything, and it will work out. i get the anxiety, and wouldnt underestimate how the stress and hormones are making all of those worries much more intense, too. Just a few days to go- you've got this!

Glad to hear that everything is looking good, Megan!

 

[Nima]

Thank you so much @WinterBub
Yes the anxiety is definitely not unrelated to the storms of hormones in my body...
We are actually traveling to Denmark tomorrow already but I guess they want to let the smaller follicles a better chance, since most of them are about 10mm.
I think they know what they are doing, it's just so stressful anyway.
I want it to be Monday and know when the transfer is and maybe it'll ease the anxiety a bit.

50 percent is a lot! Why did they estimate you have such a high risk? I am actually not a very likely at risk patient, I am 37, no pcos, just many eggs.

 

[WinterBub]

I have a really high egg reserve, and PCOS. So apparently those two things up my odds by quite a lot. I just plan to drink a lot of water and do whatever else is meant to stave it off. It is a scary thought, though. I was also considering asking whether I could preemptively do some IV fluids. Is that worth you asking too? If they would do it, my thought is why not?! Do you have an OB/GYN at home who you could set up to see after your retrieval? (Or how long will you stay in Denmark?)

I'm sure you will feel better once you've completed the travel, and seen the doctor there. It's all stressful, and I can imagine that when you get to the point you're at, you really just want this last bit to go well. There's no indication anything is wrong, so I'll have everything crossed you get good news once you arrive in Denmark. I was thinking to myself just now how bizarre this whole thing is. Amazing that we've worked out how to do IVF. But also totally weird to hijack these processes will be wild to look at our babies and know what all getting them here took!

Keep us updated!

 

[Megan0625]

Some mid-IVF anxiety here... I have 25 follicles and some of them are already about 15mm in diameter, and it seems that my egg pick up will only be on Wednesday. I am so afraid that it's too late. Plus I am worried that it's too many follicles and that I will have ohss. And generally, I am just so anxious...

I totally understand the anxiety! I had quite a high response, probably higher than they even expected. I have bad health anxiety so I was already nervous about the possibility of getting OHSS, but when they retrieved 36 follicles, I was definitely nervous about it. About 4-5 days before retrieval, I remember having at least 8-10 around the 14-15mm size but they wanted me to have more of my follicles in the mature size range, so they had me continue stims. After your monitoring appointments, they will move the egg retrieval up if they believe you have enough mature follicles. I know it's hard not to be anxious, but I think it sounds like everything is good and you are on the right track . By the day of my retrieval, I had tons of follicles in the 18-22mm range, some even slightly larger.

 

[Nima]

Thank you lovely ladies! It feels so comforting to be understood, not even my partner gets it, i feel.

We arrived in Denmark and it's beautiful and our apartment has sooooo many stairs my toddler is basically at life danger all the time... lol I guess she'll learn very quickly how to climb up and down (she can do it but not very well).

Tomorrow I have my appointment and I plan to walk there (30 minutes) and try and mentally prepare for whatever comes.

Megan how are you doing? Do you feel better?

 

[Bevziibubble]

Good luck for your appointment

 

[Megan0625]

Thank you lovely ladies! It feels so comforting to be understood, not even my partner gets it, i feel.

We arrived in Denmark and it's beautiful and our apartment has sooooo many stairs my toddler is basically at life danger all the time... lol I guess she'll learn very quickly how to climb up and down (she can do it but not very well).

Tomorrow I have my appointment and I plan to walk there (30 minutes) and try and mentally prepare for whatever comes.

Megan how are you doing? Do you feel better?

I don't think my partner fully understood either, I think it's hard to understand unless you go through it yourself. Every step of IVF is very anxiety-inducing. Let us know how your appointment goes

I'm doing okay, my partner's grandma passed away early this morning so I've been doing my best to comfort her and just be supportive during this time. We have an ultrasound tomorrow morning (5/16), and then again on 5/19 to see my uterine lining thickness, and I'm hoping we could get a more solid embryo transfer date. It looks like we will very likely be leaving next week for the funeral over next weekend, so the plan is to be able to go to our appointment on 5/19 and leave right after to go to the funeral. If it all works out that way, we will return a few days before the embryo transfer. It's so much to even think about, but this all happened so suddenly, so we are going to try our hardest to make it work.

 

[Nima]

@Megan0625 I am so sorry for your and your partner's loss and hope your timing is OK with going to the funeral. So much to handle!

@WinterBub I really understand what you mean about hijacking the natural process, it does feel weird. I am very grateful for it, and it's still strange.

The appointment was OK today. The doctor was very unsure of whether to go on with trigger hcg and fresh transfer or move to gonapeptyl and freeze all. I let him decide because I feel my brain can't make such a decision at the current hormonal and emotional state. So we'll do the fresh transfer and hope I don't develop OHSS.
Pick up is on Wed, transfer probably on Saturday. Excited and scared...

 

[WinterBub]

Megan, I'm so sorry for your loss. I hope that you're both doing ok just take it all a day at a time.

Nima- that all sounds really good! It all seems like such monumental decisions all the time, doesn't it? Glad that your doctor has a plan and you'll be able to do the transfer before you go home. Just remember to drink electrolytes (do they have something like Pedialyte in Denmark? It's an electrolyte drink you give to kids when they're sick and a risk of dehydration.) Wishing you all the best for the next couple of days xxx

 

[Megan0625]

@Nima Thank you very much. And that all sounds pretty promising. I think it's a good idea to plan on a fresh transfer, and if you are showing signs of OHSS on the day of transfer, they will likely reschedule it. As long as you drink lots of water and electrolytes and eat a high protein diet, I think you will be okay I know, it's so stressful during a time when we are supposed to be keeping our stress levels low. My fingers are crossed for you, it's so exciting!

@WinterBub Thank you, we are doing okay. My partner is sad as her grandma raised her, but she had been suffering, so we are glad she is out of pain. As far as our FET plan goes though, everything is looking really good. My lining has thickened to 10mm (goal is at least 7mm), but my estradiol still isn't quite where they want it, so we added an estradiol patch I wear on my abdomen. We are taking a road trip out to Texas for the funeral on Thursday, immediately after my final lining check. My doctor is so great and gave us both a hug and assured us that our treatment plan will not change, so the plan is still to do an FET next week after we return . Since we are driving, it will be easy for us to travel with all of my many meds since I will probably have to start progesterone injections while we are there.

 

[Nima]

Thank you so much @Megan0625 and @WinterBub

Megan your doctor sounds like a real person, that is so good to know you are in good hands.

I am going to my retrieval in 10 minutes, hoping for the best but definitely preparing for worst case scenarios, so scary. I will buy some yarn before I go in so I can knit through the next day or so when I can't do much else. Knitting is a new hobby that calms me like magic... weird, i know.
My daughter is with a fever though so I hope I can really rest.

I'll update you here about how it went.

 

[Megan0625]

Thank you so much @Megan0625 and @WinterBub

Megan your doctor sounds like a real person, that is so good to know you are in good hands.

I am going to my retrieval in 10 minutes, hoping for the best but definitely preparing for worst case scenarios, so scary. I will buy some yarn before I go in so I can knit through the next day or so when I can't do much else. Knitting is a new hobby that calms me like magic... weird, i know.
My daughter is with a fever though so I hope I can really rest.

I'll update you here about how it went.

Yes, I couldn't have asked for a better doctor, he is so kind and has the best bedside manners. I hope your retrieval went well, and I hope your daughter is feeling better!

 

[Nima]

The retrieval was ok, pain is much better today. We got 12 mature eggs, of which only 6 fertilized. I am a bit disappointed since I had so many follicles but I am still hoping that those that fertilized will develop well. The waiting is hard. 2 more days to wait for the transfer and 4 more to know if we'll have any blasts to freeze.

Oh an my daughter is back to her normal wildness so that's good.

I feel overwhelmed from all that we've been through and the weight of the information we're still waiting for.

 

[Nima]

You guys, we are officially in the tww!
Had a 3 day embryo transfer today, 5 more embryos are still developing in the incubator.

Now I can just pray and wait.

 

[Anke82]

I wish you both have good news soon! Hope it works out this time!

On my side I could not go further as the doctor found an ovarian cyst and asked me to come back next cycle.

 

[Megan0625]

@Nima Congratulations! You are pregnant until proven otherwise. I wish you so much luck and have my fingers crossed for you. It's so exciting! My embryo transfer is on 5/26! I started my progesterone injections a few days ago.

@Anke82 I'm sorry, I totally understanding how disappointing that is. My IVF cycle was postponed a few weeks due to my cyst they found, but luckily they were able to move ahead once it was suppressed and stopped producing estrogen. It ended up resolving after a couple of weeks of Lupron injections. Next cycle will be here before you know it!

 

[Nima]

@Anke82 oh cysts are so frustrating and seem to appear exactly on the wrong time! I hope yours goes away quickly.

@Megan0625 two more days to go! How are you feeling?

We just got the news from the lab that we have 3 blastocysts frozen. That's good, considering only 6 eggs fertilized and 1 embryo was transferred on day 3.
Somehow I don't even dare to hope that it actually worked on this cycle, but soon I'll start itching to test.

 

[Bevziibubble]

@Anke82 oh cysts are so frustrating and seem to appear exactly on the wrong time! I hope yours goes away quickly.

@Megan0625 two more days to go! How are you feeling?

We just got the news from the lab that we have 3 blastocysts frozen. That's good, considering only 6 eggs fertilized and 1 embryo was transferred on day 3.
Somehow I don't even dare to hope that it actually worked on this cycle, but soon I'll start itching to test.

That's good news. Good luck