March IVF

rainbowwishes5

@QsMadd most clinics start you out on antagonist - it's the least amount of meds, cost and injections. Unfortunately, even a 70% success rate means that there will definitely be people who fall into their "fail" group. Antagonist yielded a whopping 8 whole eggs from me and 2 blasts that cp'ed. Soooo. Yeah. I decided on the protocol for me this cycle. Never doing antagonist again. I don't have PCOS. It was a terrible idea for me. Waste done of my 4 retrievals on it. Ugh.

QsMadd

@rainbowwishes5

I am ok with starting out with this. Since I have not had IUI, we had no idea how my body would react to the meds. My insurance covers 4 IVF's a year, so this first one is a nice way to ease me into it. I do not have PCOS either and my AMH is 4.0. Our only real problem is my endometrium....my follicle count has always been good and I ovulate on time every month. Sorry it didn't work out for you! Hopefully you find something that works! 

caseyw8784

I did my first shot! I hyped myself up and jumped/paced around our condo for a good 10 minutes before finally working up the courage to stick it in...lol! DH cheered me on...the plan was for him to do it for the first couple nights so i could get used to it, but he is working a 24 hour shift tomorrow so i decided to try it myself. Does anyone else have a teeny bit of soreness/pain for a few minutes after the Gonal-F injection? 

@cmiller73 - I now have a Donatello turtle bandaid on it. Wasn't really needed, but I wanted it cause I was being a big baby

LoveDontCostAThing

@caseyw8784 yay!  If you want to hear about being a baby...I use numbing patches--they're awesome!  I hardly feel a thing lol 

@rainbowwishes5 I guess I am on the antagonist protocol...I don't know much about protocols...buuuut it didn't work great for me last time because I had a failed FET and a chemical pregnancy FET.  I met with the dr. after, and he didn't want to change much...ugh.  What are the different protocols?  I don't need anything else to worry about lol so I hope it serves me better this time!

caseyw8784

@LoveDontCostAThing - numbing patches! where would i find these?

LoveDontCostAThing

@caseyw8784 first, they prescribed me numbing cream (lidocaine) which cvs pharmacy has!  It works too  Then, the blood girl (as I call her lol) at my dr. knew I always used it, so they got samples of a patch called Synera, which has lidocaine in it and other stuff that warms up.  I put the patch on 20-30 minutes before any injection and it gets warm and numbs the area.  It's less mess than the cream.  So after I tried the sample they were able to order me some ...my prescription plan covers it so it's like $9 for about 40 patches.  You should look into it!!  I think it's fairly new, but the pharmacy ordered them for me  (not cvs, but the cream is there!)

sugarhead-2

Yes, what's this about numbing patches? I'm intrigued.

LoveDontCostAThing

@sugarhead see above!  I told my dr. that I was terrified of needles at our original consult because I have a tendency to faint at medical stuff...so he immediately prescribed me the lidocaine...then, I became the "girl afraid of needles" which I am totally fine with because then they gave me the Synera patches to try out!

LoveDontCostAThing

In reality, why the hell don't they give them to everyone doing IVF!!??

sugarhead-2

Oh thanks. I'll ask about them. 

My IVF approval came through late on Friday, after my REI office closed. So I'm hoping on Monday the financial people will get everything together and I can come of BCP and start on Injections in the middle of the week. 

DungeonTrollMel

@LoveDontCostAThing i got some cute little ice packs and with 3-4 minutes of those I didnt feel any of my needles. They were super helpful and the fun factor made shots a good time 

Rachel_leigh22

@QsMadd oh alright, yeah I get that, I was just curious...it's like a different language to me, it's hard to understand so I also just go along with what they say!! 

Rachel_leigh22

@LoveDontCostAThing I started birth control on day 4 and just took my last one today and I think this is day 17 for me but I'm not positive,(I would need to check my calendar lol) then I started 20units of lupron in the evening Thursday and I decrease to 5 units next Sunday and add gonal-f but am unsure how much of that yet...then when the time comes I trigger with novarel and add progesterone supplements

PoeMasque

Sheesh ladies! Not only am I jealous everyone is onto stims a week before me, but numbing patches and treats for shots?! Awesome!! We have "injection class" on Thursday, but I'm a nurse and my SO faints at the sight of blood, so I will be doing my own shots. I also will not be doing band aids, numbing gel, or treats for subq injections.....how would I face my fellow ER nurses if they found out?? Especially when one of them just went through IVF herself and took zero days off during the whole thing. 

i have to admit I'm definitely not looking forward to the PIO.....might have to treat myself to a glitter band aid for that one....

HottLemonade2886

Had another ultrasound and I woke up feeling so full down there I was sure they would tell me to trigger tonight. Nope! They want to wait at least one more day to give some eggs time to check up. Ugh can't believe I need to keep growing for at least 3 more days. At least now it looks like I will get a nice 4 day weekend to recover if retrieval is Thursday.

@famiylgrl86 - Hope your retrieval goes well today!

caseyw8784

@famiylgrl86 - good luck today! can't wait to hear how it goes!

@HottLemonade2886 - how many days have you been injecting for? hopefully you will get that nice long weekend!

HottLemonade2886

@caseyw8784 - I started last Monday. Looks like I have 5 good sized follicles and a decent amount of medium ones so they want to give the smaller ones some more time. I have around 12-14 follicles. I was expecting more when we started since I had like 20 at my baseline but am trying to remind myself quality over quantity.

mandasd

Yesterday was first full day of injections - why didn't I remember it from last time? Instant headaches, chills, and the crazy dreams I had last night! Luckily, I am taking time off work as advised by my physician based on my demanding work schedule and stress, so it's okay if I only get a few hours of sleep since I can take as many naps as I want!! Yesterday I tried to relax, did some fertility meditation, cooked, snuggled with the pups and watched bad TV with the hubs. I go in for bloodwork tomorrow. 

rainbowwishes5

@LoveDontCostAThing I insisted we change protocol. I only had 2 non tested blasts. I was afraid to even test them because I only had 2! There are 3 main protocols. Antagonist, down reg and lupron flare.

@PoeMasque PIO doesn't live up to the hype! You can certainly do this yourself as you have tons of experience. You might want to numb though- just for that one though!

LoveDontCostAThing

@rainbowwishes5 how do you know which protocol fits best?  

I went today for blood/ ultrasound.  This is my 5th day of stims (Day 6 or 7 of cycle.)  I have 3 measurable follicles (13.3, 12, 10) and smaller follicles that could become measurable.  On Saturday I had 2 measurable, so at least it's increasing.  By the way, I only have one ovary ...it was discovered during a laparoscopy and apparently I was born that way.  So it's not a big deal except that I will have less eggs.  I'm on 150 gonal-F/ 75 menopur and cetrotide...isn't that kind of low dosage?  Not sure...the ultrasound tech said it's still early...we shall see!

mtele

@SugarHead - Glad your insurance came through! Hope you get to start stims later this week!
@HottLemonade2886 - Sorry you have to wait another day! That must be so disappointing! But I hope you get a nice long weekend to recover!
@caseyw8784 - Congrats on starting stims!

AFM- I just got my day 4 report, they said I have 4 follicles on the right <9 mm and 2 on the left <9 mm, but that doesn't include ones less than 5-7 mm. I was hoping for more because they measured 10 on each side at my baseline. I am confused now and kind of worried. I hope more will grow in the next few days. They have me on a low dose 150 GonalF and 75 Menopur. I made an appointment with my RE on Wednesday so hopefully she can give me some more information.

HottLemonade2886

@LoveDontCostAThing and @mtele I am not on Gonal but believe it's the same as Follistim. I think 150 does seem like a lower dose. I started at 200 then down to 175 when my estrogen was too high and now up to 225. The fertility issues are on my DH's side so I believe they started me on the lower side. Wonder if your lower dose is a reason for a low response but maybe they plan to build you up slowly for better quality. It seemed I had a quick response hence the high estrogen so maybe your RE is trying to prevent that.

P.S all this talk of fun Bandaids made me request a star wars bandaid from hubby since my shots all seemed to bleed tonight.

LoveDontCostAThing

@HottLemonade2886 that's what I was thinking that it sounded low...but when I met with the dr. before this cycle he said he would up it a little to try to get more eggs...now I am confused

mandasd

@LoveDontCostAThing  and @mtele average stim is 8 days so there's still more time. 

Has as anyone been trying IVF meditation? I downloaded one from iTunes and it has been very nice to just relax and provides specific affirmations for stim cycle, then egg retrieval, then transfer, then implantation. I also do acupuncture - I figure it can't hurt!! 

rainbowwishes5

@LoveDontCostAThing my RE gave me info and I chose which one to do this time.

caseyw8784

@HottLemonade2886 - my RE assumed that my insurance would give me Follistim, so my instructions originally were for 150 of Follistim. However, I ended up with Gonal-F, so my RE told me to do 187.5 of that - something about the increments on the injection pens differ between the two brands or so. Our fertility issues are the genetic/single gene disorder kind, so I assume they're starting me off low since there shouldn't be a reason that I don't respond appropriately... ::shrugs::

AFM, night 2 of stims! DH is at work so I did it myself and was a lot easier than last night. Still got a little worked up ahead of time, so i chose a Minions bandaid of one looking freaked out...
Wishing that I would have an ultrasound on Wednesday morning instead of just bloodwork cause i'm curious to see how things are progressing. 

In terms of the stims side effects, when did they start for you all? I was dead on my feet today and had a small headache, but assumed that it would take more than 1 night of gonal-f to really start feeling the effects?

HottLemonade2886

@caseyw8784 - That makes sense. I was wondering if there was any real differences between the two brands. As far as side effects I started having pangs and pressure in my ovary area after one dose which surprised me. Other than that I felt low energy and fullness but not much else until yesterday (day 7 of stims). Now having nausea/food aversion, some moments of feeling flush and now weirdly the nausea of today is gone and replaced with feeling like I'm unendlessly hungry. Haha!

rainbowwishes5

@caseyw8784 lupron headaches! They are the worst! Everything else is cake by comparison.

mtele

I've been having some headaches too but I'm not sure if it's from the meds or allergies starting to pick up. Other than that I've just been feeling gassy and bloated so far

sugarhead-2

I'll be starting on a similarly dose as many of you ladies, 150follistim, 75menopur 

I'm dying to start.  Husband ordered a bunch of fun socks for me to wear doing my monitoring ultrasounds. I'm calling then my "stirrup socks". They're suppose to arrive this week, hopefully I'll get them by my baseline sono. 

mandasd

@caseyw8784 I'm on 2nd day of stims and today I have really bad headache and injection sites are pretty sore. I have bloodwork tomorrow and ultrasound probably on the 3rd. 

KGTG

Hi All,

I am new to the board! My husband and I start our 1st IVF cycle this month! Our cycle was just approved by our insurance last week and my meds are supposed to come in today! I go in for my baseline blood work and u/s Friday morning and hopefully start stimming that night. I am excited, nervous, and terrified!!!!

P.S any helpful advice would be immensely appreciated! 

HottLemonade2886

@KGTG - Welcome!

AFM: Today is the day! I get to trigger tonight and ER is Thursday morning. My ovaries are so big they are touching and it made it hard to see which follicle is on which ovary but they did count a good number of large follicles so FX.

mtele

@HottLemonade2886 - Horray! Good luck on Thursday! FX for lots of mature eggs!

DungeonTrollMel

@HottLemonade2886 good luck! 

caseyw8784

@HottLemonade2886 - yay!!! good luck with the trigger shot tonight and fx for lots of eggs!!

laurad75

@HottLemonade2886 GL on Thursday!  

@KGTG Welcome!  Getting started with IVF can be overwhelming but this group is great for support and answering questions.  

KGTG

@HottLemonade2886 good luck on Thursday!! 

caseyw8784

kind of random question (and i know i can ask my RE's nurse, but their line has been busy all morning lol.) The Gonal F injection pen i have is 450 iu. each night I take 187.5. right now there is 75 iu left in the first pen. For tonight, I'm assuming that I'll take the 75 from that pen, and the remainder of the dose (112.5) from a new pen?

HottLemonade2886

@caseyw8784 - Do you have more than one pen or one pen and multiple vials? Either way the answer is pretty much yes. Finish what is left from the first one. I don't know if its the same as Follistim but it might have some overfill so you will want to dial to your full dose, then inject until it stops then read what is left and do the remaining dose with a new needle. Those nights are fun because it means an extra needle.