TTC 18 months....

[Toots3495]

Thats a terrible shame about your 2 that died Lisa.
We started off with 2 and then a pregnant stray moved into the garden. We managed to rehome 2 of the babies but kept mum and the other 2 bubbas so thats how we ended up with 5.
You secret is safe with me, I'm doing the exact same thing with a little male cat thats hanging around in our garden

 

[Toots3495]

Just noticed the time! Must dash and get on with some jobs
Good luck with the docs Lisa
Fingers crossed for a result tomorrow sbl
Have a good evening girls

 

[Lisa40]

I know.. was a sad time, we also had another one a few years ago that was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, & he had to be put down at 18 months as he got a blood clots in the heart, AND we had another half feral cat that just didn't come home one day! Hoping that one just found another home.

My love of cats did help a poor little kitty last month though, I was walking to work & I saw this cat ( I always stop to stroke them haha) and he felt quite dirty & thin, anyway the next day he was there again (I'd brought some food with me just in case) & he scoffed the lot & I managed to get a look at his tag and there was a phone number on it. I was worried about ringing incase the cat wasn't lost & they thought I was interfering but & it turned out that the cat had been missing a month & was over 30 miles from home, & home was the other side of the river mersey. We have absolutely no idea how he got to Liverpool.

Anyway the owner came & picked him up & it was soo cute when he saw her, he clearly recognised her.

That was my good deed for the month lol!

xx

 

[Toots3495]

Morning girls,
How did you get on with the doc Lisa?
Sbl, any good news coming our way?!

 

[Lisa40]

Morning Toots,

Well the got me late last night which was a bummer, but the docs appt went well. Apparently my day 21 bloods were fine & I am ovulating (which is good cos I thought I was so would have been surprised if I wasn't)

I've gotta have day 5 bloods taken on Monday & then I have an appt for next thursday morning for an internal just to check everything looks ok.

She registered my OH for a SA to see whats what there so we just need to wait for the letter from the hospital for him to go in. She mentioned that with us having no kids & trying for 2 years & being a good weight that we would qualify for fertility treatment funding from the NHS which is really good news too.

Overall she was really helpful, didn't fob us off at all, I think she realised we knew what we were talking about and had tried pretty much everything we could naturally before asking for help.

Have you had any tests toots??

& yeah SBL did you test today??

xx

 

[Toots3495]

That sounds like a very positive appointment. I think they do tend to take notice of you when they can see how long you have been trying.
Will your internal be done at your local hospital or do they have that facility at the gp surgery?
I've had bloods done and everything is fine, I'm ovulating and don't have any suspicious diseases! I had the internal ultra sound done and again everything was fine. They injected dye into me and it shot up my tubes so no blockages there. I have got one small 3mm fibroid but they didn't seem remotely concerned that it was causing any probs. Oh has had sperm test and that was good so on paper we are fine.
We are still deciding if/when to start iui which was offered to us. We would get 4 or 5 try's with iui and 1 go at ivf. I gather that each local health authority budgets differently so it's not the same everywhere.

 

[Lisa40]

How long have you been trying now Toots?

& yeah they will do the internal at the GP to see if there is anything obvious before referring me for the ultrasound & things. I'm so glad you've been through it already (not for you obviously) but so that there is someone I can talk to. You mind me asking how old you are?

Is there a reason you are holding off on trying the IUI?? whats involved there?

xx

 

[Toots3495]

We are heading into our 28th month of actively trying and we were ntnp for roughly 2 years before that. I'm a spring chicken of 33.
I'll be glad to talk to you about the various tests and things Hun, i didn't really know anybody that had been through it so it was kind of stepping into the unknown which was a bit daunting. I did ask around on here but some of the responses were a tad melodramatic!
Iui would involve me injecting myself daily. I gather that they need to stop my natural ovulation so they can control it. They need to be able to pinpoint exactly when an egg will be released so that they can inject oh sperm in at approx the right time. They wash the sperm before hand to remove any of the dodgy ones so that only the best ones get in. They think this may help us because if I'm hostile then the process puts the sperm right where it should be in time for the egg. It'll bypass my possible hostile cm or antibodies which are possibly attacking it. The reason I've put it off is because I haven't read that it's got a great success rate and I'm thinking that if it doesn't work then it could take me forever to get my cycle back on track after they've been buggering around with my hormones! I just feel that if there's nothing 'wrong' with us then it should be possible to get pregnant naturally. I'll try any sort of natural remedy but if by the end of the year we are still no closer to getting a bubba then I'll probably opt for iui

 

[Lisa40]

Ahhh right I wasn't sure how they did it, I thought you'd just pee on Opks & when you got a positive you'd go in... how wrong am I haha!

I'm a spring chicken of 32 myself so not too far behind you. I really hope it happens naturally for you.

It will be well worth it in the end I'm sure

xx

 

[Toots3495]

If I would have known it was going to be so difficult I think I would have maybe considered trying at an earlier age. The trouble with that is we weren't financially or probably emotionally capable in our early 20's. We made a decision to start trying when we felt the time was right and I honestly thought it would take a few months at the most! Couldn't have been more wrong!
How long have you been actively trying for? Do you kinda wish you'd have started earlier?
I think the closer I get to 35 the more panicy I feel in a way. I always read that fertility starts to decline then and I think if I'm having probs now just imagine how much worse it could get! Plus the older you get the less inclined I think the medical profession are to help.
Get me a Dolorian quick cos I need to go back and have a word with my 20 something self!

 

[Lisa40]

hehe yeah I know what you mean,

I have always put it off as I've really enjoyed my life and work, never really wanted to be a stay at home mum (I'm not that maternal when I really think about it)

I always said I wanted to have enough money (wanted to save 10K to cover the mortgage while i was on mat leave) & a decent job with a good maternity package. OH was always more into it than me & so when I agreed Aug 2009 to stop taking the pill I was actually thinking I hope it takes about a year...

Now I'm like ok storkie the year is up now... I'm bloody ready!!!

I guess I might have needed this journey though to actually realise how much I do want this, I think if it had been easy for me I might still have been unsure whether I was doing it for OH or for me too.

Now I definately know I'm ready, so while I do sometimes wish I'd started earlier I'm not sure if it had happened sooner how I'd be feeling.

Just this April I went to visit a friend I'd not seen in years in Hong Kong & visited another friend in Sydney, all on my own & there's no way I would have been able to do that if I'd been lucky enough to be pg. (I had to use some of the baby money we'd saved though)

So do I wish we'd started earlier... no, but if it takes too much longer then I will haha!
xx

 

[Toots3495]

I totally agree with you that the journey certainly makes you realise you're ready!
Hong kong and Sydney, wow! Bet that was pretty awesome. The furthest I've been is Canada which was really fantasic. The scenery and wildlife was mind blowing.

 

[Lisa40]

yeah it was amazing, quite scary to make the journey on my own but it was definately worth it.

I'd love to go to Canada, been to America, but Canada just seems much purer from what I've heard if you know what I mean, far less commercial & much more natural.

So what do you & your OH do for work down in sunny Devon?

xx

 

[Toots3495]

I think you were v brave making long haul flight journeys on your own
I'm a dental nurse/practice manager and my oh is in engineering.
How much longer have you got to go on your studies? What's the long term plan job wise?

 

[Lisa40]

I've got about another 3 years, I'm studying part time & I work full time as a statistical planning analyst for Barclays.

I think the long term plan would be to set up my own tutoring business, GCSE and a-level maths. I'm not sure I could be a teacher as the classes are so large and the abilities would be so varied I would worry that I was leaving people behind or not doing enough for some students.

I've tutored a few friends children for their GCSE's and most got an extra 2 grades higher than predicted & I really enjoy it too. I just this that it would really help with family life to be self employed & able to pick & choose hours.

My OH is a pe teacher & so I really did consider teaching maths in a school, it would be great to have all the time off together too haha) but I figured I could probably still do that teaching privately.

Well thats the plan anyway, although I do really love my current job. I started studying when I was doing mortgage and financial advice as I had had enough of sales, but in Jan last year I got my current job & I love it, so the motivation to study has somewhat disappeared haha... I know I need to keep going though for the flexibility I could have in the future.

Would you ever want to train to become a dentist? Is that possible without going back to uni?

xx

 

[Toots3495]

Anything mathematical is a great mystery to me, my poor old brain never has got itself in gear with it. It's difficult to carry on doing something when you've lost a bit of motivation but it would give you a bit more freedom of choice. Am I right that you said it's an open university course?
I thought about retraining as a hygienist but unfortunately the course is full time so I'd have to give up work and we couldn't afford for me to do that. It's a shame but one of those things I guess.
I'm off to get some lunch now and pop in to see how my nan is. I'll be back in a little while.

 

[sbl]

hi girls,
broadband decided to give up on me this morn...
and this morn even tho i knew it would be...
how are you all this morn??
lisa how'd docs go??
xx

 

[Lisa40]

yeah it's an open uni course Toots, I'm also quite lucky as I started it before the government changed its funding so I get the rest of the course at the same fees as when I started which is about £1500 a year instead of £5K.

& so sorry to hear that sbl, but at least now you know it was probably just a light AF & you could be quite close to your next ovulation which means lots of & you know what =.... & =

Have you had any EWCM yet?? (sorry if thats TMI lol)

The docs went well, she was really helpful, apparently I am ovulating fine, she's referred OH to the hosp for his SA, we just have to wait for the appt to come through, & I have another appt next week when the has gone to have some day 5 bloods taken and an internal to see if there is anything obviously wrong.

So all in all quite a positive day.. & my OH just went and got us some fish & chips so I'm a little stuffed now (I always get the munchies when AF is here)

 

[sbl]

glad to hear your app went well hun, its great to be getting somewhere I bet! are you happy with everything they've done/are going to do??
whats the story with SA?? My Oh is wondering what they will be testing him for, so any info would be great!
and i meant to say to you guys that my Oh had a little blood in his urine at the beginning of this year and had tube put up his willy the poor little thing!! so i'm thinking if it was anything physical with him they would have seen then??? He didnt have SA tho so that will have to be done!!
yes have had allot EWCM this morn so we'll be this eve when he gets home!!
also starting charting this morn aswell lisa so thanks for that!!
xx

 

[Lisa40]

Yeah pretty happy with everything, it's just frustrating a little that you have to wait for cetrain days for things to be tested, I'm so impatient haha!

I think on the SA they test for the amount, ie how many ml they produce, the numbers in the sample, what percentage are normal - ie 1 head & 1 tail in the right place, I think they also check the % motility, ie how many are moving & in the right direction.

I'm not sure what normal results are yet though, as soon as we get the info from the hospital I'll let you know.

The only thing is that we cant for 3 days before the sample is due so I hope they either send the appt for next week or wait 2 weeks.. he can go between now & day 7 and then after day15 hahaha!

xx