TTC Over 35 Weekly Check In (week of 4.10)

katekate628

@Momifbysea I totally get that! I think it was opening the package and seeing the sharps box, instructions etc! I'll get it together! I'm super anxious for tomorrow. Luckily my appt is early in the day! 

Momifbysea

@katekate628 what do you do to bring down your anxiety? I've been doing slow walks outside, watching sunsets while listening to ocean wave sounds on my meditation app and pretending I'm on a cruise, being mindful of my blessings and thankful for each moment, taking baths, and using my social supports, including this awesome group. You will do fine, trust me, I'm like the biggest needle phobe in history and it's now our daily routine. Don't forget to ice 3-5 min before your alcohol swab to help numb it!

So this morning I commented to DH that I'm beginning to look like one of those connect-the-dot puzzles from the little needle blood marks and he said maybe he will work on making an outline of a cruise ship (we love cruise vacations). Laughter also really helps in all of this!

amberruka

I know I pop in and out but I LOVE how y'all ladies have such a different perspective than the young'uns. We are still trying naturally and I certainly feel welcome here, @vlagrl29 you totally belong! 
@KLake42 congrats on all the fertilizations!!

Status (WTO/TWW/Benched/in process of testing or treatment):  Almost in TWW, 5th-ish cycle after 7 month bench for thyroid regulation, lost last 2 months due to circumstances beyond my control 

CD, CD/DPO (if applicable):  CD 15, +OPK yesterday and today

What are you doing this cycle? (Testing? Treatment? Vitamins/supplements?):  Same ol' song and dance, except I don't temp. 

Rants/Raves: Rave-I'm just glad we were able to BD in FW this month without physical injury like the last 2 months--score!

Questions for the group: nope

GTKY: If you could have any job, what would you do? If I could switch places with Samantha Brown on The Travel Channel, it's done. 

vlagrl29

@katekate628- I was having those same thoughts with the progesterone supplements I took last month.  For me it went like "oh what if my egg hasn't really released yet and this suppository jacks it all up for me"  and that's why I'm glad my current OB said I'm fine with all my levels and don't need it because the anxiety was running really sky high.  I just don't want anything to jack up my normal flowing cycles.  It's the one thing I can count on.  I have lots of respect for you girls that are medicating.  Just reading you stuff almost makes me feel overwhelmed. lol.

katekate628

@Momifbysea I'm currently taking celexa for anxiety. I have been for almost a year. It's really worked out for me but I also think in stopping the bcp helped too. I won't ever take bcp again if I can help it! I kind of just give myself a pep talk. I've bungee jumped, white water rafted and rode the rides on top of stratosphere in vegas, I can do this tiny shot! Lol

katekate628

@amberruka congrats on your FW BD timing! FX for you!!!

katekate628

@vlagrl29 i don't blame you one bit!!! If my cycles hadn't started getting weird & super long, I would totally be ttc naturally. May end up going back to that if we don't have success in a few cycles. 

Momifbysea

@amberruka that's awesome you can BD without physical injury again, it's tough being benched and then that on top of it, right? Hoping for you. And yes that Travel Channel gig would be incredible!

amberruka

Thanks--DH had some skin condition where we would BD once and his penile skin would blister and cause lesions. Would take like 3 weeks to be able to try again and it would come right back. Tried everything until a derm friend of mine suggested a specific steroid cream combined with blow drying and baby powder. Bingo! 

artemis618

@katekate628 and @Momifbysea I triggered with a single dose (250) of Ovidrel for each of my egg retrievals, so yup, it's the same thing. Easily my easiest shot (maybe as easy to tolerate as the hgh, but the Ovidrel is pre-measured/mixed/filled so you really don't have to do anything/it's hard to mess up).

I have residual from like nine gonal-f pens and two Ovidrel (they ordered me two each of the last ERs and both times they only had me use one), along with six vials of Menopur.  I sort of wonder if it'd be the bulk of what it takes for IUI or timed intercourse.

@amberruka Yikes, that sounds like a very unpleasant and inconvenient skin condition - I'm glad you got it sorted out.  Hope this FW did the trick!

PoeMasque

@KLake42 woot!!! 7 is a great number!! 

@Momifbysea i did a HCG trigger (not sure if that's what ovidrel is??) and I had a pretty awful reaction. Huge, dark red, super itchy spot for a week after injection. I still have some slight discoloration on my abdomen from it. But even with all of that it wasn't as bad as I'd imagined. Will you be doing PIO after retrieval? I thought those shots were actually better than the stims! No bruises and didn't hurt at all  

Momifbysea

@PoeMasque I will be doing PIO, not sure when I start and can't look at those big needles yet so they're hiding in the fedex box still..,

So, my update is that I have 3 follicles that look decent on each side. I know some younger women have numbers in the 20's, but at age 42-1/2, I'll take it! They needed to see at least 5 today to continue so I passed another hurdle! Stressful! The nurse will call today after looking at my estrogen level in this morning's bloodwork and let me know if my dosing needs to change, as well as when to start some other additional injections. Day by day I keep saying! 

PoeMasque

@Momifbysea woot! 6 is great! I started out with four on each side and ended up with about 14 total, so your counts could likely still go up too  

Momifbysea

@PoeMasque I didn't realize that! The nurse said usually by today what they see is what they get. Btw, I forgot, did you do PGS testing? We are, and our clinic requires ICSI in order to do that, not sure why.

vlagrl29

@Momifbysea That's great news about the follies!  When is your actual embryo transfer? One step at a time is right!

laurad75

@Momifbysea What day of stims are you on?  It's odd that the nurse that that the nurse told you you might not get anymore especially since without the blood work/ estrogen count they can't see the whole picture.  

We did PGS testing and ICSI but I wasn't told that we had to do ICSI for the screening.  I just figured they wanted to do everything they could to get a high fertilization rate.  

SP128

@laurad75  Hmmmm they did not tell me I needed to do PGS and ICSI....

PoeMasque

@Momifbysea our plan was to do PGS, but when we ended up with only two embryos we opted not to (why spend $3800 at that point? It was either going to take or not take). The RE actually called us to suggest no PGS with two anyway. We did ICSI, but the clinic I went to defaults to ICSI unless you ask for natural. Stats show a much higher fertilization rate with ICSI anyway, so I went with it (we had 6 of 7 fertilized)

Momifbysea

@PoeMasque of course that makes complete sense. I had heard of the higher fertilization rates with ICSI, so we are hopeful. How are you feeling? 

PoeMasque

@Momifbysea when is ER? How are stims going? I'm doing well, morning sickness seems to have kicked in, but so far it's not as bad as I thought it would be (although it's definitely an all day thing!). Still anxious for our first US.....I know that's really the last, big hurdle. 9 more days to wait for that

vlagrl29

@PoeMasque - glad everything is going well with you. I had all day sickness with DD. It's no joke. Ginger gum was my best friend and zofran.

Momifbysea

@PoeMasque wonderful news, hang in there with the all day sickness. I vomited all first trimester, weeks 11-13 were worst, I actually used a week of vacation one of those weeks and it was a good choice. I had crackers and ginger ale at my desk and also bedside so I could keep a little something in my stomach at all times.

My ER will be Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday. I took Ganirelix last night for the first time, owww the burn! I have one more if those lovelies, not sure if they will have me take it tonight? The huge fedex box of drugs is looking noticeably smaller. My right arm vein is blown out from weekend tech but this morning I'll tell regular person who's wonderful to go ahead and switch to my left arm for the remaining draws this week. I look like a junkie. I'll update you all once I see how many follicles are there this morning.

KLake42

My embryo transfer is today, and I got the call this morning-- 4 blasts! We'll transfer two this afternoon, and test and freeze the remaining two.

It is expensive to test just two, but in my mind, it's worth it.

katekate628

@Momifbysea hoping you have some great follicles! Good luck!

@KLake42 awesome!!! Good luck with the transfer!! 

Momifbysea

@KLake42 I'm so excited for you that's wonderful! Praying all goes well today. Hugs and positive thoughts coming your way from Iowa!

katekate628

Triggered this morning, per doc instructions. Wasn't bad at all, luckily DH was home to do it for me. I'm hoping we will be okay with timing, but I'm afraid we will miss it with him traveling. Won't be able to BD until wed around noon & supposed to Tuesday late. FX that last night and weds will have us covered. 

Momifbysea

Okay this morning we used the left arm for the blood draw- most painful one in my life what the heck? I may have both arms blown out now. Anyhow, more importantly, the nurse said she still sees 4 on each side so I'm holding onto those. I was hoping maybe more would have grown but still this is decent for 42. They will call later today to let me know if I take another Ganirelix tonight or if I trigger with the Ovidrel soon. I'll update you. This still is so surreal, I'm used to reading others' IVF stories so can't believe I have my own retrieval this week. And am definitely in a drug fog, what with three different injections in me now.

vlagrl29

@Momifbysea- when I was getting all my HCG draws during my loss both arms were bruised and it hurt!  So glad you are getting closer to your retrieval soon!  This process is almost over.

Momifbysea

I just got the call and am surprised- my estrogen level rose from 559 Saturday morning to 1022 this morning so my ER is Wednesday at 10am! My DH has his last big class for grad school Wednesday at 8:30 so just sent an urgent email to his advisor asking how he can handle. We were praying it would be thursday or Friday - can you say stress? I'd prefer to use a fresh vs frozen sample for him. Nervous on this all yikes!

vlagrl29

I'd be with you on the fresh sample @Momifbysea - hopefully your DH is allowed to leave....family over classes any day

Momifbysea

@vlagrl29 it's a presentation he's doing with his team with the university CIO and CISO officers there, the big finale of his grad school ( other than his thesis defense). Timing sucks but I'm happy he is doing what he can to try and get out of it. He's trying! **TW** a lot of things to juggle as we have to drive DD to preschool a half hour north which opens as early as 7 and then have him do sample and then drive to clinic which is an hour from the preschool almost **end TW**. But we will figure it out!!! 

Momifbysea

Just updating- I know this is last week's thread- but I'm getting up and ready for my egg retrieval. I slept well, still feel calm going in. I'll keep you all posted.

vlagrl29

GL @momifbysea - hope all goes well

Labluver2

Good luck @Momifbysea!!!!!

harleyquinn0621

@momifbysea good luck with the retrieval!

Momifbysea

DH is driving me home now - the fentanyl is serious stuff I was out, don't remember even walking back from the procedure room but woke up in a chair with it still in. Great news guys, ALL 8 follicles had eggs!!!

Labluver2

 @Momifbysea Wow!!!!! Thats great!!!! Fx for you. I dont know much about IVF tho I'm reading up since it may have to be an option for me. Wishing you the best of luck!!!

Momifbysea

Thanks @Labluver2! I'm happy to pass along what I've learned, like paying it forward from everyone who helped me. I am so high right now on this fentanyl, apologies if I don't sound myself.

vlagrl29

awesome news @Momifbysea - so what's the next step?

Momifbysea

@vlagrl29 the RE will call tomorrow to let us know how many were fertilized!