I can't believe how long it has been since I updated this, so much has happened.
We are currently in the midst of our 2nd NHS IVF treatment and had egg collection this morning. We had 9 eggs collected. much less than last year but I have to have faith in the clinic to get us to embryo transfer. Its our of our hands now and we have the agonising wait til tomorrow mid-morning to find out the news.
I've been like a pin cushion as been injecting the stimmulation drugs every day til Tuesday, then also had injections to stop me ovulating as well as clexane to help prevent clotting. Clexane leave nasty bruises so I look like I've been beaten up!
I'm also taking 25mg of prednisolone a day and 75mg of aspirin.
Last monday I had an infusion IV of something called intralipids to try and suppress my killer cells. A nurse came to the house to do it which was good. If the cycle works we have to have another few of those infusions.
I have also had something called LIT - which is leukocyte immunization therapy. The theory is to expose me to my hubby's leukocytes so hopefully my immune system won't fight them off. It was the most painful thing I have ever had done and I have to do it again in a week's time.
Don't even get me started on the cost of all this. We addded up that so far on tests and these treatments (bare in mind IVF is funded currently) we have spent over 5k!!!! If this doesn't work and we end up going private for it all with all the immune stuff and an IVF cycle it'll cost us about 15k.
Trying not to think about the money as hoping we'll get pregnant and then not have to worry.
Feel like luck is not on our side though and feel that its going to be a big deal to get through tomorrow hearing if any have fertilised. Surely it must be our time........
Thursday, 26 August 2010
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
update!
I'm so rubbish at updating this blog, I swore I'd keep up to date with it when I started the monitoring cycle and hear I am 6 weeks later having not updated so here goes with updates copied from a forum I post on!!!!:
I had the mid cycle scan and the doc said 'wow that is one good sized follicle waiting to rupture'!! Thought I was about due to ovulate and my lining was nice and thick. Had to try and BD at my parents last night - not good, but managed it this morning instead - hope we've not missed the boat!
We then went and had karyotyping (chromosome) blood tests on both of us, an oestrodiol test on me and then the full lot of immune bloods, so I am now £1300 and 21 TUBES OF BLOOD LIGHTER!! 21 I nearly faineted when she got all the tubes out!Have to phone the clnic today as yesterday when we got home I had a surge on the OPK so now need to arrange extra blood test for progesterone.
I had my progesterone bloods on the friday as requested and am fuming as on the monday I phoned the lab and they hadn't even recieved it, so I got one of the girls in work to recheck it that day and I had the result that afternoon. The level was 45 which I believe to be good??? Anyway the ARGC said yes I had OV'd - I knew that anyway but hey ho! They advised long protocol for me whereas with my current clinic I did short.
we had our follow up on the 4th june to sort our 2nd NHS free go in Wales. Have had nearly all the London bloods back and thankfully they are almost all normal other than one killer cell level which is slightly raised, this is called CD56, they are hoping it could be treated with prednisolone steroid which thankfully my local clinic are prepared to try so we can have the free go. London also want me to have clexane but Swansea want me to clarify that as he's not too sure about doing that. So basically I'm starting stimming with my next period due end of June, doing short protocol again and aiming for double blastocyst transfer.
Excited now and glad to be able to give it a go locally for free before moving onto London if needed.
BUT........
Went to see this other consultant yesterday, Dr Gorgy in London who sugessted even more tests so another £1100 lighter we agreed. I'm getting terribly obsessive about finding out what the problem is and I want to cover all bases. However we are due to start treatment in Swansea next week, AF due in next week, but I'm worried that we should postpone for a month and wait for all the results to come back in case something is wrong. But another part of me wants to get going, we've waited so long and my drugs are arriving on fri and I just want to get going.
Any thoughts?
one of the tests checks for high up infections through the testing of menstrual blood so the results wouldnt' be back til I've almost finished stimming - if something is detected I'd need aggressive antibitoic treatment and this couldn't really be done then.
Hopefully nothing will be picked up but I guess if it was and it was something that couldn't be treated quickly and we get a BFN I'll be forever gutted.
Was just so excited to start this month, I could cry.
I had the mid cycle scan and the doc said 'wow that is one good sized follicle waiting to rupture'!! Thought I was about due to ovulate and my lining was nice and thick. Had to try and BD at my parents last night - not good, but managed it this morning instead - hope we've not missed the boat!
We then went and had karyotyping (chromosome) blood tests on both of us, an oestrodiol test on me and then the full lot of immune bloods, so I am now £1300 and 21 TUBES OF BLOOD LIGHTER!! 21 I nearly faineted when she got all the tubes out!Have to phone the clnic today as yesterday when we got home I had a surge on the OPK so now need to arrange extra blood test for progesterone.
I had my progesterone bloods on the friday as requested and am fuming as on the monday I phoned the lab and they hadn't even recieved it, so I got one of the girls in work to recheck it that day and I had the result that afternoon. The level was 45 which I believe to be good??? Anyway the ARGC said yes I had OV'd - I knew that anyway but hey ho! They advised long protocol for me whereas with my current clinic I did short.
we had our follow up on the 4th june to sort our 2nd NHS free go in Wales. Have had nearly all the London bloods back and thankfully they are almost all normal other than one killer cell level which is slightly raised, this is called CD56, they are hoping it could be treated with prednisolone steroid which thankfully my local clinic are prepared to try so we can have the free go. London also want me to have clexane but Swansea want me to clarify that as he's not too sure about doing that. So basically I'm starting stimming with my next period due end of June, doing short protocol again and aiming for double blastocyst transfer.
Excited now and glad to be able to give it a go locally for free before moving onto London if needed.
BUT........
Went to see this other consultant yesterday, Dr Gorgy in London who sugessted even more tests so another £1100 lighter we agreed. I'm getting terribly obsessive about finding out what the problem is and I want to cover all bases. However we are due to start treatment in Swansea next week, AF due in next week, but I'm worried that we should postpone for a month and wait for all the results to come back in case something is wrong. But another part of me wants to get going, we've waited so long and my drugs are arriving on fri and I just want to get going.
Any thoughts?
one of the tests checks for high up infections through the testing of menstrual blood so the results wouldnt' be back til I've almost finished stimming - if something is detected I'd need aggressive antibitoic treatment and this couldn't really be done then.
Hopefully nothing will be picked up but I guess if it was and it was something that couldn't be treated quickly and we get a BFN I'll be forever gutted.
Was just so excited to start this month, I could cry.
Thursday, 6 May 2010
monitoring cycle has started
So with the arrival of my period yesterday I can now start the monitoring cycle in London. I phoned them this morning and they have booked me in for a mid-cycle scan on the 17th of May, as its a monday we can have our immune bloods done the same day. These are the ones that are getting sent off to America.
I had the first lot of bloods done this morning. They were FSH, LH, prolactin and oestrodiol. I then have to fax the resulst over th the ARGC clinic asap. I may not be able to get them til Monday though so we'll see.
I have also had my forms to fill in about our 2nd free go in our current clinic. Someone I know has had her follow up already very quickly and is starting treatment this weekend, so fingers crossed we may get our follow up soon. I'm really hoping if anything shows up with the tests that we may just need a slightly higher steroid dose which they can give us at our current clinic. I want the free go because of the cost but then also don't want to go through the heartache of a failed cycle if we really need more intensive treatment which we can only have in London.
Feeling pretty low generally, I'm sure its probably hormonal but I spent most of last night crying. I'm fed up of seeing happy baby announcements on facebook and really feeling like I'm being left behind and that this may actually never happen for us.
Its so shit!
I had the first lot of bloods done this morning. They were FSH, LH, prolactin and oestrodiol. I then have to fax the resulst over th the ARGC clinic asap. I may not be able to get them til Monday though so we'll see.
I have also had my forms to fill in about our 2nd free go in our current clinic. Someone I know has had her follow up already very quickly and is starting treatment this weekend, so fingers crossed we may get our follow up soon. I'm really hoping if anything shows up with the tests that we may just need a slightly higher steroid dose which they can give us at our current clinic. I want the free go because of the cost but then also don't want to go through the heartache of a failed cycle if we really need more intensive treatment which we can only have in London.
Feeling pretty low generally, I'm sure its probably hormonal but I spent most of last night crying. I'm fed up of seeing happy baby announcements on facebook and really feeling like I'm being left behind and that this may actually never happen for us.
Its so shit!
Thursday, 29 April 2010
GP appointment
Went to see GP today to discuss about them doing osme of the bloods for the monitoring cycle at the ARGC.
He has given me forms for the bloods for day 2-3 and then the post ovulation ones. This saves us 2 trips to London and a few hundred quid so thats good. He is also going to find out about us having karyotyping bloods done too.
So just have to wait for my period now and can get going with the monitoring cycle at least. Just want to get the immune bloods done now so we can see if there is something wrong there. Then hopefully we can get planning our next cycle.
Of course, it would be much better if my period would never come and I got pregnant on my own!
He has given me forms for the bloods for day 2-3 and then the post ovulation ones. This saves us 2 trips to London and a few hundred quid so thats good. He is also going to find out about us having karyotyping bloods done too.
So just have to wait for my period now and can get going with the monitoring cycle at least. Just want to get the immune bloods done now so we can see if there is something wrong there. Then hopefully we can get planning our next cycle.
Of course, it would be much better if my period would never come and I got pregnant on my own!
Friday, 9 April 2010
ouch
After about 5 days of spotting and managing to convince myself that my period may not be coming after all, it turns up. Been awake for hours in agony and its heavy now, so definately out of the running this month.
Tuesday, 6 April 2010
LH and FSH
Just been reading through all our fertility stuff and came across some bloods I had done a year ago.
My LH on day 3 was 7.7 last year and this year it was 3.8
My FSH on day 3 last year was 5.3 and this year it was 7.4.
I know that if the LH is higher than FSH it can be a sign of PCOS, which would make sense for me but why has this years results gone in completely the opposite direction??
Also rather disappointed that my FSH has increased so much, Its creeping closer to 10 so my eggies are probably dropping in quality. Just wondering if that change is normal in a year?
It'll be interesting now to see the scan on the monitoring cycle to see how polycystic I now am.
My LH on day 3 was 7.7 last year and this year it was 3.8
My FSH on day 3 last year was 5.3 and this year it was 7.4.
I know that if the LH is higher than FSH it can be a sign of PCOS, which would make sense for me but why has this years results gone in completely the opposite direction??
Also rather disappointed that my FSH has increased so much, Its creeping closer to 10 so my eggies are probably dropping in quality. Just wondering if that change is normal in a year?
It'll be interesting now to see the scan on the monitoring cycle to see how polycystic I now am.
bad dreams
For a couple of nights I've had dreams that I've been shot or had a gun pointing at me. In one of them I was definately shot, and in my dream I expected to have died instantly and was wondering why it was so drawn out. It was quite disturbing, may have to look up the meaning of that.
Last night I also dreamt that the results from all the tests we'll be having came back and I was told I basically would never be able to have a child. Thsi has upset me loads because I am scared that actually may be the case. All I keep obsessing about is my friends who have babies and who is going to say they're pregnant next, another announced hers last week. One is getting married in a couple of weeks so no doubt she'll be the next, while all the time I'm left behind facing a childless future. Maybe I need to stop comparing myself to everyone else?
We are loking for a house now as we have accepted an offer on ours and we are considering a family as a factor when looking for houses but actually that may never be necessary. We want a better house and where we are possibly moving to is a lot more expensive than where we are now which means bigger mortgage. I was lay in bed this morning thinking how if we get too bigger mortgage we won't have any spare cash for further IVF treatments or even tests. But then I don't want to live in a smaller house than what we have now.
I seriously need to win the lottery!
Last night I also dreamt that the results from all the tests we'll be having came back and I was told I basically would never be able to have a child. Thsi has upset me loads because I am scared that actually may be the case. All I keep obsessing about is my friends who have babies and who is going to say they're pregnant next, another announced hers last week. One is getting married in a couple of weeks so no doubt she'll be the next, while all the time I'm left behind facing a childless future. Maybe I need to stop comparing myself to everyone else?
We are loking for a house now as we have accepted an offer on ours and we are considering a family as a factor when looking for houses but actually that may never be necessary. We want a better house and where we are possibly moving to is a lot more expensive than where we are now which means bigger mortgage. I was lay in bed this morning thinking how if we get too bigger mortgage we won't have any spare cash for further IVF treatments or even tests. But then I don't want to live in a smaller house than what we have now.
I seriously need to win the lottery!
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