The LTTTC thread for everyone.

[Milty]

What movies do you have planed to watch?

Also do they tell you to drink lots of water or eat a special diet or anything?

 

[Milty]

I'm picturing you on the sofa with your feet up, with a blanket, eating pineapple core and watching Gone with the Wind or something

 

[HappyAuntie]

What movies do you have planed to watch?

Also do they tell you to drink lots of water or eat a special diet or anything?

I'm picturing you on the sofa with your feet up, with a blanket, eating pineapple core and watching Gone with the Wind or something

My post-transfer instructions are to rest at home for two days, no lifting anything over 20 lbs until OTD, and pelvic rest (no sex or orgasm) until OTD. If it's positive, the no lifting and pelvic rest continue until further instructed (usually until the heartbeat is seen).

I don't typically follow any special diet or anything like that... one thing my mc's have taught me is that you can do everything "right" and "perfect" and lose a baby anyway - no amount of pineapple core can overcome having the wrong number of chromosomes, and chromosomal errors are the cause of the very vast majority of mc's and IVF implantation failure even in young women, and more so in our age group. Whether or not these embies have the right number of chromosomes was determined back in October when they were created. All I can do now is wait and see. Truth is even the "rest at home" instructions only provide the illusion of having any influence on the outcome - studies have repeatedly shown that bed rest after transfer does not improve pregnancy rates. There's even a woman on here who hopped on a city bus immediately after transfer and rode across San Francisco to court where she was being sued for malpractice and sat in court all day, and she got pregnant with twins on that transfer. Resting at home for a few days does give me a mental health break, though, a chance to sort of acknowledge the gravity of the event and how desperately I want it to work, and so it helps me in that respect.

To that end, I will most definitely have my feet up with a blanket watching my movies!! No pineapple core, but likely lots of hot cocoa brought to me by DH. I love GWTW - it was on tv just the other day. I should have recorded it for this weekend. I own it, but on VHS if you can believe that! So no, I won't be watching that this weekend. My DVR has several movies on it right now, but mostly action and dramas, and what I need to relax this weekend are some comedies, so I'll probably be sending DH to Redbox.

Given the fact that I went to bed at midnight and woke up at 2:30 due to anxiety, I will also be sleeping on the couch a lot today!

 

[Milty]

HA

Thinking of you today

 

[CaliDreaming]

HappyAuntie. I hope your FET goes well today!! I know it must be exciting and nerve wracking at the same time. Lots of sticky baby dust to you!!!!

 

[alison29]

Good luck HA!

 

[readyformore]

Hi guys!!
How's everyone doing? We've all been in hiding I guess.
Bmom and Cali- how's clomid going?
Waiting impatiently with you Happy.
Crystal, LL, Milty, More4, Hopeful, Alison, Jax, and everyone else: what are you guys up to?


We didn't really get around to ttc this month so I have nothing new to say.

 

[HappyAuntie]

Well crap, I just realized I never updated here after transfer! I was so knocked out from the insomnia + valium double whammy that I slept for most of that day.... All three blasts survived the thaw and we transferred all three. Pre-cryo they were two 2BCs and a 1BB. Post-thaw they all three looked pretty good - virtually no damage from the freeze/thaw. The dr said he ordinarily wouldn't be comfortable transferring three blasts that look this good, but that given our history he could understand why we'd made that decision. I have absolutely no more confidence in the outcome of this transfer than I've had in the last four, so make of that whatever you will.... (These are, in fact, the lowest-graded embryos we've had out of the nine we've created.)

I started heparin on transfer day and holy hell it hurts!! My abdomen is covered in giant bruises, too. It's very colorful....

Here's a pic of the post-thaw blasts. The one on the top left is frowning - it's very unhappy about all this activity.

 

[readyformore]

I started heparin on transfer day and holy hell it hurts!! My abdomen is covered in giant bruises, too. It's very colorful....

Here's a pic of

I thought you were going to show us a pic of your bruised belly!!

Not to make light of your pain, but I was interested.

 

[LLbean]

HA so did you transfer all 3?

 

[crystal443]

HA-I just wanted to wish you luck lovely No one is more deserving then you, you've been through so much I really hope this is it and you get a few babies in 9 months time!!

That is amazing!! the little blast does look its frowning

 

[HappyAuntie]

I thought you were going to show us a pic of your bruised belly!!

Not to make light of your pain, but I was interested.

I've taken one, because it's kind of astonishing... but if I do post it anywhere, it would be in my journal - I won't subject the innocent passerby to something like that!!

HA so did you transfer all 3?

Yep. We've gone the very conservative route up until now - our first two transfers were elective single blast transfers, then the next two transfers we only transferred two each. That alone made us ready to transfer three this time, but we also found out back in October that we'll have a new lifetime limit (for our insurance) on the number of cycles we can do - we'll be limited to three cycles. But any and all cycles completed prior to January 1st don't count toward the lifetime limit, so we rushed to get this FET done before January, and since everything has failed up until now, we saw no point in wasting one of our three future cycles on one of these frosties - we just wanted to transfer them all now in order to preserve the maximum flexibility of options for the future, whether it's with my eggs or DE. (Or quit, but that doesn't require insurance pre-certification. )

 

[LLbean]

wow that is awesome insurance! but FXd you don't even need it

 

[HappyAuntie]

It would seem that way, but it actually seriously sucks because up until now we've had absolutely no lifetime limits (either $ amount of # of cycles) on infertility treatment. And double when you consider that the new healthcare law was supposed to eliminate lifetime limits! But nope, the new law doesn't consider infertility treatments to be 'essential' health care. And because the new law increases costs to insurance companies, our premiums have gone up every year for two years now, and now they're instituting new limits to our coverage.

Moral of the story: every single law comes with unintended consequences, and Aetna are total assholes.

 

[readyformore]

It would seem that way, but it actually seriously sucks because up until now we've had absolutely no lifetime limits (either $ amount of # of cycles) on infertility treatment. And double when you consider that the new healthcare law was supposed to eliminate lifetime limits! But nope, the new law doesn't consider infertility treatments to be 'essential' health care. And because the new law increases costs to insurance companies, our premiums have gone up every year for two years now, and now they're instituting new limits to our coverage.

Moral of the story: every single law comes with unintended consequences, and Aetna are total assholes.

When I had my first son, I had unlimited infertility coverage for 1 year. I obviously used that up, (I have a great lengthly story about a coworker that worked that insurance magic!)

Then, our policy switched and we now have a lifetime limit of $12,000. I wanted to go see my RE again but seriously did not have the cash to pay for any out of pocket. I was sure that my insurance would tell me that I had already used up my infertility coverage, or some other nonsense. I was hoping that since the policy changed, I could wiggle myself in somehow under a new policy.
Anyway, I called them and they had NO record of any fertility treatments I had ever done!! They have records of my prenatal care and delivery following my fertility treatments, but no record of infertility treatment of any kind.
Last summer, I started with a blank slate!! Can you believe it? The one time EVER that insurance companies screw up and the patient benefits!

I'm still waiting for them to catch on and send me a bill for those last 4 cycles.

 

[Milty]

I'm imagining the frowning one is thinking " oh man you mean I have to share"


I love it

 

[LLbean]

Well I have no maternity and certainly no fertility coverage that I know of. Would be nice if with the 2,500 deductible increase we just got we also got some of those things included... Sigh

 

[Milty]

Yes the new health care law has totally screwed us as well. Between all of us we are paying an extra $160 a month and now for less coverage.

My DH's Insurance actual used to cover some infertility. I discovered this this year. However, I couldn't get on to his insurance until open enrollment which is this month. Only starting Dec. 1 those benefits and a lot more benefits had to be dropped because the insurance was to good.

 

[HappyAuntie]

Well I have no maternity and certainly no fertility coverage that I know of. Would be nice if with the 2,500 deductible increase we just got we also got some of those things included... Sigh

How can a policy not cover maternity care?!!! God I really hate insurance companies!!!

But the good news is that I'm pretty sure maternity coverage is required under the new law - there's one thing Washington got right.

 

[HappyAuntie]

When I had my first son, I had unlimited infertility coverage for 1 year. I obviously used that up, (I have a great lengthly story about a coworker that worked that insurance magic!)

Then, our policy switched and we now have a lifetime limit of $12,000. I wanted to go see my RE again but seriously did not have the cash to pay for any out of pocket. I was sure that my insurance would tell me that I had already used up my infertility coverage, or some other nonsense. I was hoping that since the policy changed, I could wiggle myself in somehow under a new policy.
Anyway, I called them and they had NO record of any fertility treatments I had ever done!! They have records of my prenatal care and delivery following my fertility treatments, but no record of infertility treatment of any kind.
Last summer, I started with a blank slate!! Can you believe it? The one time EVER that insurance companies screw up and the patient benefits!

I'm still waiting for them to catch on and send me a bill for those last 4 cycles.

That's awesome! Maybe the RE's office worked a little coding magic for you. Mine does some of that - early on we noticed that if they coded my ultrasounds as a limited pelvic ultrasound instead of a pelvic ultrasound exam, my copay was $8 less... I pointed it out to the office, and they've been careful to code every one of them as a limited pelvic ultrasound ever since... if you add it all up, that's probably saved us close to $800 over the last two years....

About 15 years ago I was hospitalized for a few days for dehydration (I picked up a parasite while waterskiing in a river, and I've never been able to bring myself to go waterskiing again!). Less than a year after that incident, I quit the job I had then (the job that was providing my insurance), married DH, and got on his insurance. TWO YEARS after the hospitalization I got a random bill for some lab service at the hospital! I called the "Questions about your bill?" phone number on the bill and asked wth was this, that the service was more than two years ago and this is the first I'm hearing from you, I no longer have that insurance and I'm not even at that job anymore... the bewildered girl in the billing dept had no idea what had happened and just said you know what, that's ridiculous, and we're going to write this one off - you don't owe us anything.

I'm imagining the frowning one is thinking " oh man you mean I have to share"

We were wondering if it was showing a little attitude already... we joked about whipping that pic out in the teenage years to remind ourselves it was surly even at literally 6 days old!