IVF Diary Vol II: Our Failed Cycle

February 12, 201630 Comments

I had been eagerly waiting for Chris to finish work on Thursday, I had been off work ill with this cold so was getting impatient. As soon as we were both ready, I went to pee on that stick. I watched as the wet line slowly crept up the test window…it went straight past the result line to the control line without even a vague faint line. It was so white and empty. At 12DP5DT I should be seeing that line. It was all over. I cried. I came out of the toilet and just hugged Chris and told him “It didn’t work, I’m so sorry”.

So many things were running through my head. Bitter sadness at our situation. No halloween baby this year for us. No frozen embryos from this cycle despite our great fertilisation success rate. These embies were not meant to be. Anger. The anger at our failure and hopelessness. The anger at not knowing why.

Of course, there is always a chance the pregnancy test could be wrong, but the odds at this stage were not in my favour, I’m not that naive.

Thursday night I woke up every hour with our negative result on my mind, and finally at 5AM I woke after a dream about being stuck on a sinking nuclear weapon ship that I helped to destroy by providing intelligence about it (I was a spy in my dream!). And as the ship started to sink, one small rescue boat was filling up quickly with other people, there was no room for me on it, I shouted out, “please save my frozen embryos. Please, all I want is for you to make sure they are born and grow up knowing that I was their mother, and I loved them.” I woke up in a cold sweat with tears streaming down my face.

For all our failed IUIs, the clinic never made me go in to have a beta blood test if I got a negative. For IVF, everyone has to have a blood test. I now know what it feels like to go to that blood test with a heavy heart, knowing it is pointless. The idea of not testing and waiting to get the results by phone whilst at work horrifies me, so I am glad I tested the night before to prepare me for the worst, and be with Chris at the same time. I am not brave enough for that.

Today when I went in for my blood test I got the new nurse. I knew she was new because she was literally shaking as she took the blood from me, and then afterwards proceeded to spill my blood from the end of needle all over the table. She also asked me some very awkward questions, in a sweet naive way, so I could tell she was a newbie around here! But I wasn’t in the mood for being polite and quaint, so I cursed myself as I left, telling myself it was typical for that to happen to me of all days!!!

I got THE phone call from my doctor not long after lunch when she confirmed what I already suspected. A negative result. She basically ran through what happened during my cycle – 14 eggs collected 11 mature, 11 made it to Day 5, 2 reasonable blastocysts transferred on Day 5, and then none made it to the freezer. She said that my egg quality was not looking good and we can talk about it some more at a later date when I am ready. I thanked her, put the phone down and immediately picked up the phone again and called the clinic to schedule a consult with her for next week.

What next? Chris and I talked about possible next steps, but it was foggy. I looked at my calendar and figured out if we did another IVF cycle when it might be. The thought of going through all of this again to end up with nothing seems terrifying. They say you should try at least three complete rounds of IVF before considering to changing tactics. In the UK, depending on where you live, you may only get 2 rounds of IVF with the NHS, but there is lots of research that suggests 3 rounds is the magic number. My bets are on. We don’t seem to be able get enough embryos to freeze so there will be no point in trying for genetic testing, I am betting my doctor will suggest donor eggs. This is a path we are unlikely to go down (which I will expand upon for another time). Or donor embryos, which we know little about. But before we even consider any of that we still have one frozen blastocyst from our first cycle, so we also need to think about that too.

It’s devastating to get this far to have nothing to show for it. I hope that at the least we will learn something more about our infertility.

IVF Diary Vol 2: 2-8 Feb 2016

February 8, 2016February 8, 20165 Comments

Medication(s) administered and dosage(s). Progesterone in Oil 1ml Intra-muscular injection, vivelle dot estrogen patches 0.1mg x2. I have failed to pierce the skin myself yet, I am so close, but I have managed to do everything else, including doing the actual injecting part…I had a couple of mis-haps, including one evening as I removed the needle, blood gushed from the injection site. The blood poured down my leg and I just managed to catch it before it landed on the nice white hotel towels. I have no idea why it happened, I guess it’s going to happen once in a while. The injection site was sore for a couple of days after that 😦

I had to put a plaster (aka band-aid) on this one after the blood gushed from this injection site! Minions to the rescue!

Medical procedures undertaken. Nil

What are my symptoms? I have had a few sharp pains and cramps here and there. All good signs I guess. I have also managed to catch a cold and sore throat. WHYYYYYYYYY??!!?!! Now the wisdom of the internet says this is an early pregnancy symptom. Well, it is the runny nose/cold part which is the symptom that can be explained by the extra estrogen caused by the pregnancy, apparently that creates a stuffy nose. Well, I have a sore throat and that can’t really be explained by that theory. Some argue that your immune system drops after implantation. Well in my case, this cold was inevitable because it was going around at work. I was the last person to catch it because it was going around mostly when I was out of office for the stimulation/egg retrieval part of the IVF. There were some remnants of the cold hanging around the office when I returned. It was bound to happen. Also, this happened to me the exact same time last year during my second IUI, excitedly thinking it was an early pregnancy symptom, I was wrong. SO I am not taking this cold as a sign of anything except for being a pain in the butt.

The night sweats. It’s gross and I hate it.

The cats have been on my lap again (two nights in a row)…I have already written about this (Can your cat tell if you are pregnant before you do) and whether it could be an early pregnancy sign. I think they can detect a change in something, whether it is pregnancy or just a change in your body temperature, I don’t know. One thing I do know, they can’t tell if the pregnancy is going to stick around or not 😦

Sushi sitting on my lap and tolerating Diesel laying next to her, it’s not a common sight

Having said all that, today I do feel a little nauseous and I couldn’t bare to eat my chicken sandwich. So who knows? May be I am pregnant! I don’t know because I haven’t tested yet!!! Yup, today I am 9DP5DT (9 Days Past 5 Day Transfer) and I haven’t pee-ed on a stick yet. I am impressed with myself! I’d like to thank a very lovely lady who I met at my local Resolve Support Group who is IVF cycling with me…she encouraged me not to do the test it out thing, and to wait it out with her!! Last time around I tested 12DP3DT (i.e. what would be tomorrow, when my period would ordinarily be due). But this time I am not testing until the evening before my Beta test (which is scheduled for Friday).

How do I feel today? You may have noticed my absence for the past week. Well I took my ‘Must keep busy during the 2 week wait’ a little too literally! Although I have been hampered a little bit as a result of work. Last week I got home in the evenings with my brain frazzled – I wasn’t doing overly long hours, just lots of hard thinking and writing. The thought of updating my blog was too much for my poor brain, so I did mindless (mindful) things such as knitting, TV watching and colouring in. I even taught Chris how to knit 🙂

My IVF knitting project 2/3 complete!

Chris learning how to knit!

We also went away on a mini road trip/city break to Charlotte, North Carolina to see the Charlotte Hornets v Washington Wizards (Basketball). My first NBA game, it was my birthday present from back in December. I had a fantastic time, I really enjoyed the experience and appreciate the very talented athletes. I think it might be my favourite American sport so far! Along the road trip we visited some random places, like a Lemur conservation, the world’s biggest chest of drawers, and a mountain that was only 350ft tall (it was a slightly misleading name of a state park!!!!). Planning a city break in this 2 week wait was perfect! (Except for the catching a cold part).

Our first NBA game!

The World’s Largest Chest of Drawers – It’s in a town called High Point in North Carolina!

Any results? Not much longer to go now!

What’s next? Beta HcG test will be 4 days from now :-s

Weight. NSTR.

Waist. NSTR.

Boobs. So, so sore and sensitive!

*Notes. I take First Response Reproductive Health multi vitamin gummies (pre-natal) and CoQ10 200mg gummies daily. NSTR = Nothing Significant To Report.

IVF Diary Vol II: 31 Jan – 1 Feb 16

February 2, 2016February 2, 201611 Comments

Medication(s) administered and dosage(s). Progesterone in Oil 1ml Intra-muscular injection, vivelle dot estrogen patches 0.1mg x2. I still have not mastered injecting this thing myself, but getting used to seeing the needle going in and injecting the oil myself.

Medical procedures undertaken. Nil

What are my symptoms? I have had some aches and pains around my ovaries. I am also quite tired, mostly because I have not been sleeping overly well since starting the progesterone.

How do I feel today? A little stressed with work situation at the moment. At work as we were trying to sort some issues out amongst the team, and I was sat there consciously trying to remain calm, breathing through my nose and exhaling through my mouth slowly and consciously. That worked for the morning, the afternoon I was just plain sad about work. Someone who I barely know came to find me after a meeting and asked if I was OK, I seemed a bit sad and not my cheery self.

Any results? At 5pm my phone rang with the clinic’s number, I couldn’t think why they were calling me. The nurse answered the other line in a somber voice. She had bad news. Our 9 embies didn’t make it to cryopreservation. So, no frosties this time around. I tried hard not to cry on the phone, and burst into tears at my work desk as soon as I got off. I cried in the car on the way home from work, trying not crash through the blubbering tears and snot. We are gutted. I am grateful we managed to transfer two at least.

What’s next? Beta HcG test will be 12 days from now :-s

Weight. NSTR.

Waist. NSTR.

Boobs. NSTR.

*Notes. I take First Response Reproductive Health multi vitamin gummies (pre-natal) and CoQ10 200mg gummies daily. NSTR = Nothing Significant To Report.

IVF Diary Vol II: 29-30 Jan 16

January 30, 201626 Comments

Medication(s) administered and dosage(s). Progesterone in Oil 1ml Intra-muscular injection, vivelle dot estrogen patches 0.1mg x2. Remember I was taking baby steps with self injecting the progesterone? Well, I have not progressed any further, in fact I probably regressed. I am really struggling to pull back the needle to check for blood and keeping the needle still, then I freak out when the needle is moving around in my butt!!! I have yet to take the plunge with putting the needle in myself. I am feeling pretty miserable with my lack of progress. I’m not going to give up, but I’m feeling frustrated at myself.

Medical procedures undertaken. 5 Day Embryo Transfer! Our transfer was scheduled for 7AM on Saturday, so we were up super early again. I learned my lesson from last time around. No tea before the procedure. Usually I am a real grump without my morning cup of tea, but as tea is a diuretic I decided to avoid it this time. I also didn’t drink anything until I arrived at the clinic. For our first IVF cycle, in addition to tea, I also drank 3/4 of the recommended water to take 30 minutes before the procedure (24oz) and I was painfully busting to go to the toilet. So, now knowing my bladder size a bit better, I decided to drink just a third of the 24oz recommended water (and no tea). I was a little nervous it wouldn’t be enough, but the ultrasound clearly showed my uterus (Dr also commented on the severity of my retroverted uterus as if it was a surprise!).

As I got onto the table ready for the transfer procedure the Doctor gave us a run down on the status of our 11 embryos. This time, she showed us the report (last time the Dr just told us we had 2 eight cell embies). We had not been given an update since the fertilisation report so I was very nervous!!! Amazingly, all 11 embryos were still alive. We had three blastocysts, graded 5BB, 5BB and 5CC. The other 8 embryos were still only 9-5 cells. They were going to wait one more day to see if they would catch up. When I said ‘so this means we will have at least one to freeze?’, she didn’t seem particularly confident that we would have any. But I will remain hopeful that the rest will catch up!! We were transferring the best two blastocysts we had, and I am happy with that!

We have named our embies Petrie and Spike…can you guess why we ended up naming them this?

Introducing Petrie & Spike – our Day 5 Embryos – now on board! (We think that weird stickie looking thing is a scratch on the petri dish – that or I will be giving birth to some stick man)

The Dr prepared me for the procedure, she washed out my ‘baby house’ as she called it, then practiced inserting the catheter, everything went smoothly! Then the embryologist came to confirm my identity, he went back to the embryology lab to show on the TV screen in our room our name on the petri dish and then a zoomed in picture of our embryos. Then he came back in the room with our embryos ready to be transferred. The Dr quickly did the transfer as we watched on the ultrasound monitor the liquid with the embryos in it go up into my uterus. Chris later described it looking like a ‘shooting star’. I thought that was a lovely way to describe this! I was wheeled back to the recovery room and I had to lie down for one hour before they would let me either pee or leave!!!

What are my symptoms? I think the estrogen and progesterone are starting to kick in and I had a good old cry last night. It wasn’t helped by my failure to do my own progesterone injection.

How do I feel today? I was pretty relaxed with the whole procedure today and I am feeling positive still. Woohoo!

Any results? I am thinking of doing a home pregnancy test everyday from 7 days past the 5 day transfer – last time I tested the day before the beta. But this time I am thinking of testing simply in the name of science. I don’t know why, I’ll have a think about this – I’ve got a while anyway! 2 Week Wait here we come!!!

What’s next? Beta HcG test will be 13 days from now :-s

Weight. NSTR.

Waist. The Dr showed me my squished uterus today from my stimulated ovaries – there were some pretty big follicles still in there. I am not surprised I am still bloated as I am. The Dr told me to keep up the drinking to help flush them out.

Boobs. Definitely growing.

~~Hours of Sunshine 🙂~~ Deleted from my diary…what’s the point? The one sunny day at a weekend – I am on enforced bed rest!!!

*Notes. I take First Response Reproductive Health multi vitamin gummies (pre-natal) and CoQ10 200mg gummies daily. NSTR = Nothing Significant To Report.

IVF Diary Vol II: 26-28 Jan 16

January 28, 20169 Comments

Medication(s) administered and dosage(s). Progesterone in Oil 1ml Intra-muscular injection, vivelle dot estrogen patches 0.1mg x2. I am taking baby steps in learning how to inject the progesterone myself. Last night I held the needle and hovered it above my skin but cried, well sobbed… and begged Chris to do it. I realised that I had never actually watched this huge needle go in before because I have always been lying down on the bed face down. So the first step was watching it break the skin. He checked for blood, then I took over from Chris and injected the oil so I know what it feels like and I took the needle out. There are definitely some challenges with injecting yourself and reaching round at the right angle – fortunately I am pretty flexible (thanks yoga!). We will do the same again whilst I build my confidence up! baby steps….!!

Medical procedures undertaken. Nil

What are my symptoms? My recovery from the Egg Retrieval surgery has been incredible! Compared with last time when I was practically crippled with pain and constipation I am in a way better place. The runny/dribbly/itchy nose and continuous sneezing has started to wear off. I treated the symptoms with nose saline spray (with aloe) and antihistamines. I was only constipated for about 1.5 days, and for someone who poos 3-5 times a day this wasn’t insignificant! But again, it was no where near as bad as last time when it was 3 days. I don’t sleep well when taking the progesterone injections or the estrogen patches, I’m not sure which is the culprit. I suspect it’s the progesterone because I remember being like that when I was only taking the progesterone suppositories for the IUIs. I woke up very early this morning with some sharp tummy pains, the kind you get from being very hungry. OK enough whinging, really, I am in a good place!

How do I feel today? I guess technically we are in the 2 Week Wait. I’m getting nervous that I am too positive now!!! Although last night I had a dream that I had to knit my embryos, and I dropped the last stitch, which meant I dropped an embryo on the floor and I had everyone looking for it!!! Don’t pscyho-analyse me too hard ;-p I went back to work on Wednesday and people were surprised to see me in good health because I had originally booked the whole week off as sick leave based on my experience last time. But it wasn’t needed!

Any results? Out of the 14 eggs that were retrieved, 11 of them were mature. Out of the 11 mature eggs all 11 fertilised successfully! This means an automatic go to Day 5 Transfer space!!! Our clinic doesn’t provide updates on the embryo progress unless things are going badly. We haven’t heard from the clinic and today is Day 3, so we are assuming things are all good. Our next update on how many made it to blastocyst will be on Saturday morning when we go in for our Transfer! It’s really strange because I know so many other clinics offer daily updates, but I’ve come to the conclusion that ignorance is bliss.

What’s next? Day 5 transfer is scheduled for 7AM this Saturday :-s who needs a lie-in when you can make a baby the good old test tube way!

Weight. Aghhhhh. I can’t even….

Waist. Seriously bloated and look pregnant.

Boobs. Getting bigger by the day – someone is happy about this! Not my bra, that’s for sure ;-p

Hours of Sunshine 🙂 The sun has been hiding. I think that the whole sun thing has no bearing on my fertility considering the amount of sun I got in August last year when we went through IVF the first time!

*Notes. I take First Response Reproductive Health multi vitamin gummies (pre-natal) and CoQ10 200mg gummies daily. NSTR = Nothing Significant To Report.

IVF Diary Vol II: 25 Jan 16

January 25, 201619 Comments

Medication(s) administered and dosage(s). Some cocktail of anesthesia drugs, x2 tylenol the nurse gave me before the Egg Retrieval procedure. I have avoided the pain killers so far.

Medical procedures undertaken. The Egg Retrieval!!! My appointment was at 0630 AM, so we got up nice and early at 0500, I actually slept quite well, I thought it might be a bad nights sleep with nerves, but it wasn’t. The nurse picked us up from the waiting room, she exclaimed “Oh I know you guys!!!! You are French!!!” (We thought she was teasing, but I found out later she wasn’t and she actually thought we were french). She said “Oh I am supposed to be just bringing the patients up today….but….I’ll sort you guys out!!” She took over from the other nurse so she could be with us. Haha, I think she actually just loves Chris 🙂 She was very sweet. Anyway, we were number 2 into the surgery room this time (out of 5). I was feeling pretty relaxed about it all, knowing vaguely what was about to happen.

The nurse got the Intra-Veinous drip into the back of my hand with no problems (because my hand has nice straight veins!!), it didn’t hurt at all. It was cold in the ward, I was wrapped up in lots of blankets but my right hand just wouldn’t get warm because of the drip running through it. We waited about 40 minutes or so, and even got a game of cribbage in. I was made to go pee. Chris was called to do his part for the day, and then it was my turn – the anesthetist gave me something that started to make me feel woozy, I was a lot more aware than last time around, so I tried to take a good look around. I was shuffled over to the operating table and was given something else, then zzzzzzzzzzzzz I was asleep. I don’t think I was awake for getting my legs into the stirrups this time!!! 30 minutes later I was waking up with the nurse asking me lots of questions. I was talking random crap about how nice they were. The nurse continued to monitor my vitals (blood pressure and heart rate), I was made to sit up, then finally I was made to go to the toilet to pee for her to check it. There was a teeny bit of bright pink blood, but not much.

Chris helped me get dressed and I was taken to my car in a wheel chair. I was feeling woozy, but no where near as much pain as I experienced last time around. In fact I was wondering if the local anesthetic was taking longer to wear off. I am sat here now 6 hours later, and I have some pain, but not half of what I felt last time. However, I do have a very very drippy sore nose. I think the oxygen tube must have damaged my nose somehow, or the anesthesia drugs have caused this.

What are my symptoms? Really not too bad apart from the runny, dripping nose. I am taking it easy on the sofa, but I haven’t needed to snooze yet and my tummy is tender, but not extremely painful. So overall I’m grateful!

How do I feel today? Super relieved to get today over with, I’m feeling very positive!!!

Any results? 14 Eggs retrieved!!! That is really much better than I expected. Last time we got 9 of which, only 6 were mature. So I am hopful for 9 mature eggs this time 🙂

What’s next? We will receive our fertilisation report tomorrow morning. Then hope for a 5 Day Transfer – this is our goal. But of course we will do a 3 Day Transfer if things aren’t looking promising.

Weight. Not even looked at it.

Waist. Continually growing.

Boobs. NSTR.

Hours of Sunshine 🙂 None. I’m tucked up on the sofa, hopefully tomorrow I will get out for a short walk.

*Notes. I take First Response Reproductive Health multi vitamin gummies (pre-natal) and CoQ10 200mg gummies daily. NSTR = Nothing Significant To Report.

IVF Diary Vol II: 23-24 Jan 16

January 24, 20163 Comments

Medication(s) administered and dosage(s). Stimming phase: Days 9 & 10. PM: Saturday AM: cetrotide, Sunday PM: Ovidrel (the trigger!!!). I did the trigger injection myself and decided to record it and post the video to my personal facebook page #thisiswhatinfertilitylookslike. (the video is at bottom of my blog post :-))

Medical procedures undertaken. Monitoring appointment – ultrasound and blood test.

What are my symptoms? Tiredness – afternoon naps have been required!!!! Nausea that comes and goes. Sunday, I have felt a little bit better than I have done over the past few days, but the ovaries are starting to twinge with odd pains here and there :-s These eggs are ready to go!!!

How do I feel today? Excited. Nervous.

Any results? My follicles are looking great. Randomly, in my right ovary all the follicles look the same size and shape.

“My good English eggs are ready!!!”

(The Dr’s words…not mine!!! Every single time I have seen him he makes a reference to my Englishness)

What’s next? Egg retrieval Monday 0630 AM!!!! Trying to mitigate any potential mild OHSS symptoms like I got from last time.

Weight. I haven’t weighed myself, I need to do this before the surgery so I can monitor OHSS.

Waist. My waist is 6cm larger than the same time last time!!! Whoops!!!

Boobs. NSTR.

Hours of Sunshine 🙂 None. It’s winter. It’s cold out there. Oh and we were like the only city in Virginia to get a pathetic amount of snow, it was mostly rain for us! I am pleased so it hasn’t messed up any of this round of IVF. I hope other women didn’t face problems with the snow storm who may need to travel from further way.

The snow storm wasn’t quite so apocalyptic as it was in other parts of Virginia!

Fun Activity to keep Dani from going insane. It will be time to relax and recover, so no specific fun activities. However, I am quite excited to watch Orange is the new black – I have a lot of catching up to do!!!!

*Notes. I take First Response Reproductive Health multi vitamin gummies (pre-natal) and CoQ10 200mg gummies daily. NSTR = Nothing Significant To Report.

IVF Diary Vol II:21-22 Jan 16

January 23, 2016January 23, 201612 Comments

Medication(s) administered and dosage(s). Stimming phase: days 7 & 8. PM: Gonal-F 300 iu & Menopur 150 iu. AM: cetrotide.

Medical procedures undertaken. Monitoring appointment – ultrasound and blood test.

What are my symptoms? Tiredness – I had to have a 1.5hr snooze in the afternoon because I just couldn’t keep my eyes open! The headache was just awful yesterday, it was persistent, however, today it has not been so bad. My tummy generally hurts when I bend over.

How do I feel today? Awesome because I gave myself the menopur injection. MY FIRST SELF INJECTION!!! That’s right, I have managed to get this far without doing one single injection myself because I have been terrified to do it. Today I overcame my fear. Chris got excited because he thought this meant he was getting out of injection duty. Oh no dear hubby we will go 50-50 from now on with this job! I like that he is a part of this. I treated myself with some ice cream as a reward :-p

I played dodgeball last night, I’m not sure how I managed it…I really got into the game, played through any paing and kind of regretted it afterwards, my body is a bit sore today! But I very much enjoyed it, it’s a social league so it’s not overly competitive and we have a good laugh. I have no one to blame but myself for my non-stimming related aches and pains.

Any results? I am excited because my estradiol results are much higher than last time (but not too high!) this has to be a good thing for more mature eggies!!!! My follicles are also growing evenly i.e. they are all around the same size, which is a bit better than last time too.

What’s next? Tonight is hopefully my night of stims (mostly because I only have one vial of menopur left!), hopefully the final monitoring appt Saturday morning, trigger Saturday eve, then Egg retrieval Monday morning.

Weight. NSTR

Waist. BLOATED

Boobs. Bigger and squishier.

Hours of Sunshine 🙂 None. We are in the midst of a snow storm!

Fun Activity to keep Dani from going insane. I went to Michaels and stocked up on wool for two new knitting projects! A kid’s cat scarf, and a cable knit scarf. I have been practicing cable knit and it’s actually not too difficult. I probably won’t finish them this weekend, but I will make a good start at them.

Cat scarf knitting project

Cable Knit Scarf Project

*Notes. I take First Response Reproductive Health multi vitamin gummies (pre-natal) and CoQ10 200mg gummies daily. NSTR = Nothing Significant To Report.

IVF Diary Vol II: 19-20 Jan 16

January 20, 2016January 20, 20169 Comments

Medication(s) administered and dosage(s). Stimming phase: days 5 & 6. Gonal-F 300 iu & Menopur 150 iu. I started cetrotide this morning, day 6 (20 Jan) – this is the drug that stops me from ovulating prematurely and losing all those eggs!

Medical procedures undertaken. Monitoring appointment – ultrasound and blood test. So for my last appointment there were loads of people in the waiting room – it was like chaos. This morning, there was no one except little old me. It made me nervous! I don’t know why, but it just did – I wondered if I was an odd ball with my cycle.

What are my symptoms? Tiredness – I am struggling to keep my eyes open today. I went into work after my appointment and this afternoon I taught a 2 hour lesson as part of our staff development training. I give a highly interactive class with practical tasks, so it is incredibly draining on the brain as the ‘students’ always have lots of challenging questions for me!!! I am amazed I survived. At the end, one of the organisers asked me if I was OK, was I tired? Clearly I looked pretty rough!

I also have a headache. It is not dehydration because I have hydrated constantly all day, carrying around my water bottle with me.

The bloat…the bloat….the bloat is on fire! Aghhh! How many days do I still have left? I’m just over halfway hopefully! I am currently sat in my fluffy fleecy pyjama bottoms. They feel sooooooo good!

How do I feel today? Apart from the tiredness thing, I’m feeling not too bad. I am excited to be on this IVF journey still and haven’t given up hope just yet 🙂

Any results? I have 6 follicles in the right ovary and 7 in the left, with a few smaller ones hoping to catch up!!! Last time around my right ovary was the dominant one, this time it is the left. It looks like I am responding well in terms of follicle numbers similar to last time. Which is good because they collected 9 last time (6 were mature, 4 fertilised) so I am hoping for some more mature eggies this time around!

What’s next? The same injections then monitoring appt on Friday morning. The Doctor says I am currently looking good for an Egg Retrieval on Monday!

Weight. NSTR

Waist. slowly growing 😦

Boobs. Slightly bigger.

Hours of Sunshine 🙂 None. Snow expected soon!

Fun Activity to keep Dani from going insane. Dodgeball season starts tomorrow evening, I am not sure if I will play yet! I am doubtful. But I will go along anyway to support the team even if I don’t play.

Rahhhhh – Dodgeball is a great place to let off some steam – But not when you are in the middle of an IVF cycle!!!! :_-(

13 follicles – with a few at 3-4mm left to catch up

*Notes. I take First Response Reproductive Health multi vitamin gummies (pre-natal) and CoQ10 200mg gummies daily. NSTR = Nothing Significant To Report.

IVF Diary Vol II: 17-18 Jan 16

January 19, 20163 Comments

Medication(s) administered and dosage(s). Gonal-F 300 iu & Menopur 150 iu. We tried the injections with me sitting down, Chris preferred giving them to me this way. It doesn’t make a difference to me either way, they still suck.

Medical procedures undertaken. Monitoring appointment – ultrasound and blood test. My appointment was at 0830 – I left at around 1000. There were waaaay too many people in the clinic today for my liking. Chris came with me because it was a holiday here – Martin Luther King Day, so we were both off work. That was really nice, especially as we waited for quite some time.

What are my symptoms? Little to report except for starting to feel a little tummy bloat, and a thumping headache. I bought a new water bottle last week so that I can take water with me everywhere. I ummed and ahhed between two and decided to buy the bottle that was $5 cheaper. Got it home and realised it was a piece of crap, can’t put it in the dishwasher and wasn’t BPA free. Bah that’s what I get for being a cheap skate! Anyway, I’m hoping my headaches are from lack of water (something I can control opposed to if it was being caused by the meds)

How do I feel today? Feeling pretty good! I had a lovely weekend not making any decisions. Chris took me on a surprise date – we went to Dave and Buster’s – a kind of modern day arcade thing with lots of games. We released our inner kid. Then afterwards we stopped at Ruby Tuesdays to have a virgin cocktail and share a sundae ice cream. It was great fun to do something random and just be silly.

Any results? My uterine lining is looking great. I have a few follicles, the Dr didn’t count them all, but I’m on track. I called in for my instructions, and the nurse told me start my cetrotide on Wednesday morning. This means that I am starting the cetrotide a day later than last time around. I’m hoping that is a good thing 🙂

What’s next? The same injections on Tuesday, adding the cetrotide injection on Weds morning, then monitoring appointment following that.

Weight. NSTR

Waist. slowly growing 😦

Boobs. NSTR

Hours of Sunshine 🙂 It snowed yesterday unexpectedly. It was very random considering the day before had been warm and glorious. Weather here in Virginia is CRAZY. They are also talking about 10 -20 inches of snow on the East coast maybe as far down as here on the border of North Carolina, this weekend. So long story short. I think it is going to be hard for me to get much sunshine this IVF cycle.

Fun Activity to keep Dani from going insane. We discovered that Tuesdays at our local cinema is half price entry and half price food so we will be going to the movies! I want to see the new Quentin Tarantino film The hateful eight or The Revenant.

*Notes. I take First Response Reproductive Health multi vitamin gummies (pre-natal) and CoQ10 200mg gummies daily. NSTR = Nothing Significant To Report.