Oh no applicator? Nice one freedom fertility pharmacy…

February 20, 20151 Comment

At my last visit to the fertility clinic I asked the nurse if she had any tips or hints on the progesterone suppositories. She looked at me funny and said slowly,

‘Well, they are trans-vaginal’.

OK so I got that part, but they look a little awkward to insert?

‘Ohhhh, well it’s easy with the applicator’.

Ahhh, well I don’t seem to have been given an applicator.

‘Oh I am sorry, that’s not really helpful’ the nurse sympathized.

No, not much. I’ll figure it out.

Last night was the first evening I had to ‘insert’ the progesterone suppository.

Progesterone Suppositories: Greasy little things

I have to take these for at least 14 days just before I go to bed. These suppositories help to thicken the uterine lining, increasing the chances of a successful implantation. The suppositories are quite small, certainly no bigger than a small tampon. They are oily and greasy, feel like a cross between warm candle wax and hair wax. I think they would melt very quickly if held in your hand longer than a minute.

I forgot to cut my nails. Mistake #1.

When I started walking it began to fall out, I had not ‘deposited’ it in a suitable place. Mistake #2.

I am very much aware of the sticky and greasy residue and so have worn a panty liner for most of the day. When I got home I thought I was done with the leaking. Mistake #3.

I haven’t had any side effects from the progesterone noticeable as of yet. I’ve had a sore lower back, but that could be from trying out a standing desk for the last couple of days. Fingers crossed I won’t get any. Ha…famous last words!

Is it my British accent that confuses you?

February 17, 2015February 17, 2015Leave a comment

I have concluded that it must be my British accent that confuses people at the other end of a phone line, namely my insurance company, Allianz, and freedom fertility. Or they are just morons. I am sure these big companies wouldn’t hire morons to man their phones, so it must be the former.

You may remember a couple of weeks ago I had a mild panic about whether my insurance company needed a pre-approval before fertility treatment? When I had called my insurance company the nice Irish lady, who held me the line whilst she thoroughly checked the answer to my simple query, concluded I did not need approval for IUI. Turns out she was wrong. The only reason I know this is because my fertility clinic requested to see proof that my insurance covers fertility treatment. So yesterday when I asked my insurance company for an email confirming this, they replied today stating that in fact their representative was incorrect and I needed prior approval. To get the approval I need to send to my insurance: medial records, history, diagnosis and costs of planned treatment. I could easily have collected all this the several times I have been at my clinic in the last few weeks, had the representative supplied me with accurate information in the first place. Is this a normal situation, for insurance companies to request all this? I had thought that insurance companies would usually liaise directly with the healthcare provider?

Who knows what the heck is going on with my insurance. Chris has kindly volunteered to deal with it. I don’t mind if we are not covered, but what annoys me is that this process is not exactly the smoothest of rides as it is. I know people make mistakes, but this mistake is a pain in the backside. At least Allianz apologised and realised their initial mistake, we had a response back from their ‘senior customer sales representative’. So I am not mad at them, but all these coincidences of mess ups on the phone, I’ve decided the only common factor is me. The only obvious explanation is my accent. From now on it’s email all the way, guvn’r…

Purple sperm and a painless IUI#1

February 17, 2015February 17, 20154 Comments

Today Chris and I tried to make a baby without touching each other (well later on we will try the normal way too!!). Totally weird.

Last night I had killer ovulation pain. Both my ovaries were painful when I went to bed – the timing seemed to be just right, 12 hours before the scheduled artificial insemination procedure. Thankfully, I woke up this morning with just a dull ache in my ovaries rather than a sharper pain.

Chris worked from home today and I had a day of leave planned. We headed out to the clinic for our 10AM appointment and we were out of there by 12PM (with a short interlude to Starbucks). First of all Chris gave his sperm specimen for washing. He didn’t take long at all! Then we headed to Starbucks for a quick coffee and catch up on a bit of work. Chris collected his washed sperm sample and we waited in the waiting room with his purple sperm for about 20 minutes. Yup it was purple!

Chris’s purple sperm

The specimen that Chris gave was excellent according to the doctor:

semen volume: 1.7mL

Sperm Concentration: 12.45 million per mL

Percent motile: 64.3%

Number of motile sperm: 13.6 million

After washing (centrifugation)

Number of motile sperm in vial: 6.6 million

Motility: 95.7%

volume of vial: 5mL

recovery rate for processes sample: 49%

It seemed a bit weird sitting in the waiting room whilst Chris held his sperm…but then again I am currently blogging about his sperm, so we are not prudish about it. It was just weird and I can’t put my finger on why. We did get a good giggle though from the diagram on the results form. It was more of a cartoon than a diagram because I don’t think it accurately represents a medical procedure of washing sperm. But perhaps it is, and this is how they wash the sperm, in a nice warm bubble bath.

A highly technical diagram on how sperm are washed

I wasn’t nervous about today, just more excited to get it over with. I was called into the examination room with Chris and the nurse briefed us on the procedure. Very simple. A speculum is inserted, without any lubrication (because that kills sperm), then a catheter is inserted through the cervix to the womb. The sperm are then slowly injected into the womb. Actually it wasn’t very slow and was over within seconds. Apparently the doctor pulled a funny face after she removed the catheter. I didn’t notice as I was concentrating on the picture taped to the ceiling of a happy place – a tropical island beach. The face was one of puzzlement. Chris wondered if she was going to say that something didn’t work. But no, that was it, over and done with in less than 2 minutes. It was painless and hurt less than a pap smear test. I was asked to lay down for 15 minutes, and the nurse left a timer. We laughed about bun making, ovens and timers. All in all, the process was very easy. I’ve had cramping for most of the day, but I’d rather that than the sharp ovulation pain I was having any day of the week.

We are now into the two week wait and I have told Chris if he asks me one more time ‘Do you feel pregnant yet?’ I’ll punch him in the face. Luckily he doesn’t really mean it and we can have a bit of a giggle about it. No point in stressing, my glass is back to being half full again 🙂