November 2018 IVF

drewsdarlin

Thanks.

What was everyone's E2 at time of retrieval?

mbradfo2

@drewsdarlin I think mine was around 3 or 4k? Not high enough for OHSS worries.

drewsdarlin

Mine wasn't that high on Thursday. that is last time mine was checked. 

Anyone know what E2 should be at time of retrieval and lining thickness? Thanks.

nicole030985

Tuesdad and Er- congrats on your good fertilization reports! 

Drew- GL today and hoping you get good reports. 

Christen and sbj- that’s awesome you are both getting so close!

The last time at my last appointment before retrieval my e2 was 2700. 

AFM- went to the doctors this morning. It is day 8 for me now. I have 10 measurable follicles on my right and 6 on my left. And still a bunch more under 10mm. The doctor told me to watch out for signs of OHSS. Waiting for my E2 level to come in. I will probably go to just 300 IU of menopur and no more gonal. I will be back at the doctors Wednesday which is day 10. Retrieval is looking like Friday or Saturday . 

nitnat007

@erwahler So glad retrieval went well and such a fantastic report too! FX those other 3 "maybes" catch up too. GL on more news today.  

@drewsdarlin Good Luck today. 

@wine_mama16 FX that you have your FET schedule in hand and can get started soon. Excited for you!

@ChristenMA83 So close to go time! FX that things go smoothly for you. 

@nicole030985 Those are great numbers to work with so far. Start drinking your electrolytes and salty foods now. FX that OHSS stays away for you.  
@Tuasdad Your wife did great! Awesome numbers to work with. Wishing you all the best on your next step! 

@callingthestork Sorry that I am absolutely no help with fragmentation etc. Try not to stress too much and trust that things will work out. FX!

@sbjbrn Looks like we may be on the same schedule for Thursday. How are you feeling so far?

AFM We went in yesterday for day 11 scan, we still have some growing to do, so keep going until tomorrow and hopefully trigger tomorrow night with retrieval on Thursday. I have been rather uncomfortable and kinda ready to be done with this part now honestly. Tech said yesterday that my left ovary is hanging really low and is pushing down on my artery (she showed me on the scan). So sitting up straight for too long is not great. Sending everyone positive vibes!

nicole030985

Nitnat- that sounds painful! I usually do my trigger at day 11. Hopefully you get to do yours tomorrow! How many follicles do you have on each ovary? Just make sure you get plenty of rest when you are at home. That is a good idea to start drinking my Gatorade and salty foods now. Sounds like a lot of us are coming up this week! 

drewsdarlin

Thanks. home now.They got 7 eggs.

nitnat007

@nicole030985 We have about 12 that they have been measuring (right 5 and 7 left) E2 was around 8K or so, so still a little more to go. There are quite a few of us on schedule for this week. FX for good news for us all! 

sbjbrn

@nitnat007 The fatigue is real.  I don't recall feeling this tired our first cycle.  I'm drinking one cup of decaf, but it does nothing lol.  Also, I can't seem to stay asleep past 4am, but I'm tired all day.  I do have a sensation of heaviness in my ovaries this time around vs last cycle.  Today is day 10 of stims for me.  We had 12 measurable follicles as of day 9.   E2 at 8k? Wow!  I don't believe mine was any higher than 4k before retrieval during our first cycle.  Looks like we may be ER buddies! I find out tomorrow morning if we do one more night of stims or if it's trigger time.   

Good luck everyone!

ChristenMA83

We triggered tonight.  Retrieval is Wednesday morning.  My E2 today was 1650ish (dont remember the exact number)  still measuring 13 follicles with 10 "main" follicles at 17-19.

nitnat007

@sbjbrn I have been feeling the fatigue too. I normally hit the gym five days a week and right now it is the last thing on my mind. I think with the E2 we measure in different units up here. So I think my 8K is your 800. I know they measure our follicles in cm vs mm too. I asked the nurse this morning and she said once E2 reaches 16-20K they consider that ready to trigger. 

@ChristenMA83 Yay! That is great.  Sending you all the positive vibes for a smooth ER tomorrow. 

drewsdarlin

I saw someone from IRH called earlier but for some reason my phone quit ringing before I could answer. So I called back and left message asking them to call back. Nurse Ricia called at 9:04 am. I answered and she said Janetta and I said yes and she said this is Ricia, I have your news. She said we got 7 eggs yesterday and you have 5 fertilized. Then, I asked how many was mature and first she said all of them was and then she was like no wait. 6 was mature and one egg didn't make it. Said lab wants to check on the embryos on morning of day 3. And if they are still looking good we will go to day 5 transfer. And they will call between 8:30 and 9:30 and if we don't hear anything then plan on being there at 11:15 for 3 day transfer. Then, told me instructions for transfer day. I asked if they had to use ICSI and she said no your husband's sperm looked good. And I said all 5 fertilized on their own and she said yes isn't that great. Then, after we said bye and thank you and things she said my name and then asked how I was feeling. And I said I had a little bit of cramping in recovery yesterday and last night when I used bathroom cramped again but this morning feeling fine and she said cramping is normal since the ovaries are still enlarged. Then, I called Andrew to tell the news of how many fertilized and things.

ChristenMA83

@drewsdarlin that's exciting!!  5 Fertilized is a great place to start.  Good luck for the upcoming transfer.  I'm glad you're recovering well with just a little cramping.  

drewsdarlin

Thank you. 

nitnat007

Triggering tonight for ER Thursday. Hope everyone else is doing well. 

ChristenMA83

@nitnat007 Happy Dance for getting your retrieval scheduled!! Good luck!

nicole030985

Christen and nitnat- congrats to triggering!  Wishing you the best of luck!

Drew- I’m happy everything went well for you!  Now the hard part is waiting for updates. 

Afm- I will find out tomorrow if I will be able to trigger for Friday retrieval. I really hope so because I can barely walk. Going to work today was tough especially with it being parent-teacher conferences all week. Tomorrow is my late night at work and I’m dreading it! I don’t remember being in this much pain the last time. I’m just really worried I’m going to have too many eggs and develop OHSS. I have to get up at 4:30 to drive to my other doctor’s office that’s way further away before work tomorrow morning. That’s really going to suck! But, I can’t wait to see what’s going on. And it was really weird last night. The doctor called and said they had a meeting around 8 pm last night and they were going to do ICSI with all my follicles so maybe that will help my little embryos make it to day 5! 

drewsdarlin

Thanks. We only get the update today. no more updates until thursday when they look at them to see if they are still doing good and move transfer to saturday.

sbjbrn

Trigger tonight! Retrieval Thursday. 

erwahler

Our fertilization report was good with 8 for sure and possibly up to 11 fertilized, but today is Day 6 and only 3 embryos developed to this stage.  I feel grateful for those, but took the news as a hit after having 7 embryos last time.  I just can't figure out why it would be a 50% drop from our first time around just a few months ago when everything else (protocol, number of follicles, eggs retrieved, fertilization) was so similar to last time.

So I'm feeling a little on edge not doing PGS testing this time, having less embryos, them having lower grades, and having the first failed transfer now all stacking up.  My husband is encouraging me to get out of my "glass half empty" view of things, but that's where I'm at right now.

Anyone else have such differences in embryos from 2 rounds after having similar outcomes leading up to that stage?

drewsdarlin

How full did your bladder have to be for transfer?

ChristenMA83

@drewsdarlin if I remember right they asked me to drink a liter of water starting 1 hour before arrival time for transfer.

drewsdarlin

Cause i am worried about this bladder thing since I don't have a good bladder to hold for long and when they are messing around there for transfer. it is making me nervous. since after ER this week I am having to urinate more then usual cause i almost didn't make it to place we went last night with youth from church and it is only 15 minutes from house. 

nicole030985

Er- it is very weird how cycles are so similar but results are different. All my cycles have been similar but yeilded the same results which is retrieving about 18 eggs and 10 fertilizing and only 2 of those making it to day 5 or 6 only as morulas. I’m praying this time will be different for me. 

Drew- I never drink as much water as they say and don’t start drinking it till about 30 minutes before the procedure and it’s always fine. I’m the same way with being bad at holding my bladder! 

AFM- my appointment this morning was good. My e2 over doubled and it 2879 nowwith 20 measurable follicles and 20 under 10 mm. I have to go back tomorrow morning for another scan by my actual doctor so no trigger yet. I have to still continue in 300 menopur tonight and tomorrow morning. My trigger should be tomorrow with a Saturday retrieval. 

Has as anyone has experience with ICSI?

ChristenMA83

@nicole030985 we did icsi last cycle and will again this cycle.  We dont try to fertilize any naturally so I dont have anything to compare it to.

AFM egg retrieval this mor ing went well.  We got 10 eggs which is 1 more than last time and all the "main follicles" he was measuring.  Super hopeful this will result in a couple extra snow babies for us.

drewsdarlin

Thanks. And I will have to pee when i get to clinic since it is a 2 hour drive from my house to the fertility clinic. 

nicole030985

Sbj- congrats on your trigger! I can’t wait to finally get there... it’s a nice feeling that is the last needle! 

nicole030985

Christen- Ten eggs is a great number. Congrats! How was you fertilization reports with ICSI? This will be my first time doing it this way. Hopefully you will get some to the freezer!

drewsdarlin

Got a call earlier at 8:40 or so before we were about to leave house to head to Cincy for embryo transfer this afternoon. Nurse Penny called and I answered phone and she said Janetta this is Penny. How are you doing? I said Good how are you? She said good and then said how about moving your transfer to Saturday. I said okay so all embryos are still doing good. She said 4 are 8 cell and 1 is 7 cell which is very good. Then, she said grade 1 which is great. And I asked what time for transfer Saturday and she said I have you down for 10:45. Then, asked if I had any questions and I said no and then she said have a great day and stay home and you don't have to get out in this weather.

ChristenMA83

@drewsdarlin I didnt realize you were in the cincy area.  I'm just north of cincy but go to a clinic in Dayton.  So glad all your embabies are still going strong.  Stay safe in this weather today.  I hope Saturday's transfer is smooth.

@nicole030985 round one with icsi 5 of 8 were fertilized.  We ended up with 2 blasts on day 5.
Just got the call with our fertilization report today and 6 of 8 fertilized with icsi, 2 were injected with sperm a little late so they're still watching those.  Apparently 2 of the eggs opened later so they injected them later.

drewsdarlin

ChristenMA83 said:

@drewsdarlin I didnt realize you were in the cincy area.  I'm just north of cincy but go to a clinic in Dayton.  So glad all your embabies are still going strong.  Stay safe in this weather today.  I hope Saturday's transfer is smooth.

@nicole030985 round one with icsi 5 of 8 were fertilized.  We ended up with 2 blasts on day 5.
Just got the call with our fertilization report today and 6 of 8 fertilized with icsi, 2 were injected with sperm a little late so they're still watching those.  Apparently 2 of the eggs opened later so they injected them later.

I am not in cincy area. we live in Kentucky. just drive almost 2 hours to clinic in cincy. thanks. 

Tuasdad

@drewsdarlin I told my wife you’ve got a 2 hour drive to your doctor and she said she’ll never complain about the 30 minutes in traffic we have to go through again lol

sbj- Good luck at RET tomorrow


AFM- Today is day six since retrieval and we’re still happy & grateful for positive numbers. We originally retrieved 26 eggs, 22 were mature, 20 fertilized (ICSI), they froze two “very strong” candidates yesterday and three more today. 

It it appears that 5 will be our number moving forward with transfer in December. 

drewsdarlin

Tuasdad said:

@drewsdarlin I told my wife you’ve got a 2 hour drive to your doctor and she said she’ll never complain about the 30 minutes in traffic we have to go through again lol

sbj- Good luck at RET tomorrow


AFM- Today is day six since retrieval and we’re still happy & grateful for positive numbers. We originally retrieved 26 eggs, 22 were mature, 20 fertilized (ICSI), they froze two “very strong” candidates yesterday and three more today. 

It it appears that 5 will be our number moving forward with transfer in December. 

yeah use to go to RE that is only 20 minutes years ago and did IUI's but only one worked and ended in 4th loss. so moved to different RE that is almost 2 hours away.

wine_mama16

@Tuasdad 5 frozen sounds great! How was the recovery for your wife. Hopefully you both feel good about those numbers!

@ChristenMA83 I hope your ER went well! Please keep us posted!

@drewsdarlin I will keep my fingers crossed for a healthy and successful transfer for you!

@nicole030985 I have not experienced ICSI, but I know there are some on here who have. I hope your ER goes amazing on Saturday.

@erwahler I am so sorry your count makes you feel disappointed. I know it is so hard to see the glass half full rather than half empty. Just be easy on yourself right now. 

@nitnat007 How are you doing? Have you had your ER yet?

*******Trigger Warning - Child mentioned*****

AFM-I got my tentative FET timeline which makes me feel like things are progressing. I started BC on Saturday and as soon as i start menses I will call my curse CD1. I had to go in this week for a water ultrasound, which I've done before, but they wanted to do another one. Oh man it was an experience this time around. I had some bad pain during and after. They explained I have a heart shaped uterus, which has risks of preterm labor and pregnancy loss. There is a procedure they could do to correct this, but since I have had no experience of miscarriage and have successfully carried a child almost to term(5 weeks early), we will not be doing the procedure. If my FET is not successful then we will circle back to the procedure option. As of now my FET date is December 19 and I just can't stop thinking about how much of a gift it would be for this to be successful!

drewsdarlin

Thank you. Good luck to everyone.

nicole030985

Christen and Tuasdad- That is a nice percentage fertilized with ICSI. I’m hoping I get the same results. Also that is an amazing number to get to freeze! 

Drew- That’s great! Wishing you the best of luck Saturday. 

Wine- that’s great that you r going to get your timeline! It’s always exciting to get finally get started! 

 Im triggering tonight and retrieval is Saturday morning. Thank God! Starting to get very sore now and hard to walk. I have about 22 nice measurable follicles and another 15 or so that are smaller. My E2 is pretty high. Went from 2,800 yesterday to 4,000 today! The doctor is only having me do half of the HCGtrigger which is 5,000 iu instead of the 10,000.  I’m very worried about developing OHSS because this is the highest e2 level I have ever had!

drewsdarlin

Thank you. Good luck saturday morning.

callingthestork

@nicole, a cool thing about ICSI is that it prevents an egg being fertilized by more than one sperm, which actually can happen with normal ivf.  I have read that fertilization rates are about 20 percent  higher with ICSI.  
My doc does it for us because eggs from endo women tend to have hard shells and low fertilization rates.
Good luck!

ChristenMA83

@nicole030985 Good luck Saturday Morning.
@Tuasdad 5 is a great number for freeze!  That's the number I'm hoping for.
@wine_mama16 yay for more schedules!!

AFM: Retrieval went well.  We got 10 eggs (one more than cycle 1).  Fert report came back yesterday with 6 fertilized and 2 being watched.  I guess two opened late, so they weren't fertilized with the first 8, but they were able to inject them with sperm later.  Now I'm going stir crazy waiting for the day 3 report Saturday.

nitnat007

@nicole030985 Sending you positive vibes for your ER tomorrow. FX that OHSS doesnt become an issue. 

@drewsdarlin Good luck!

@sbjbrn ER buddy! How did you make out yesterday?

@erwahler This is our first cycle so I do not have any experiences to share. Try and stay on the positive side though. It only takes one! 

@Tuasdad Congrats on those 5 blasts. FX that things go great with your transfer. 

@wine_mama16 ER went well yesterday thank you. So glad that you have your schedule now and are moving forward. FX for Dec 19th for you!!

@ChristenMA83 Rooting for those embabies to keep going. Really good starting report. Totally feeling the crazy though lol. 

AFM ER went well yesterday. We got 12 eggs of which 10 were mature. This morning 7 have fertilized and are being watched. We will be getting daily calls with updates along the way. Rooting so hard for those little embabies to make it to day 5.