IF Testing and Treatment w/o 10/18

inthewoods23

@zwink1 sometimes I had trouble pushing the lupron needle in. The IM injections felt so much easier to do not including the contorting that I had to do when injecting myself. The lupron needles must be more blunt. I think my stomach bruises were from that and never all the IVF meds.

@jellie603 we're here for you! Seriously, don't ever feel bad to ask a lot of questions. I was in the same boat trying to figure out all this stuff with the RI I'm doing and how that whole process is supposed to go. We were all noobs at one point here.

@kiki047 YH getting you a treat post-ER reminds me of this post in r/trollingforababy (spoilered the link)

https://www.reddit.com/r/trollingforababy/comments/q7dx7n/this_absolute_legend_had_her_postivf_fries/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

keikilove

Going to update now and add more tags later. Things have been so busy in this thread lately! (ETA: I’ve written a novel this morning! I shouldn’t go weeks without interacting here hahah.) 

Diagnosis (if you've been):  RPL/RIF, elevated NK cells, DQ Alpha match, blood-clotting disorders, AMA, DOR 

Status (WTO/TWW/TTA): WTO/another egg retrieval coming up. 

What are you doing this cycle? (Testing? Treatment?):  I think we are doing another DuoStim, but my RE wants to see how this first retrieval goes before planning on doing a second one in a couple weeks. 

How are things going?: Overall things are good. MH is doing very well with his treatments and life is trucking along. I feel like things are settling down a bit after being pretty chaotic for awhile. Lots of emotions lately. Going to spoil it for length. 

First the bad, then the good: Things have been all over the place. As I updated last time, I was the lowest I’ve ever been in this process when our September transfer didn’t work. That was exactly one year to the day that we’d done our first IVF transfer that failed. Then we tried the Hail Mary IUI after that and those results were questionable before it obviously failed. So last week I went to my RE in MX on CD3 to get ready for our final attempts at retrievals. That visit also hit me hard because it was exactly one year to the day since we first met with her, since we got our first LIT treatment for the DQ Alpha match, just so many things that we’ve tried over the last year. It all kind of hit me how excited we’ve been for every née thing we’ve tried and nothing has worked. -*TW: Loss* And this month makes 3 years since we had our first loss almost halfway through PG, the unexplained loss of a perfect baby that kicked off this whole reproductive immunology mystery. The length of this s****y journey has been really weighing on me lately. I know some of you here have been on this road even longer, and I’m sorry for all of us. 

The good news is that this cycle has been going well. Besides the baseline appointment at my RE in MX where I picked up my stimming meds, I’ve only had one monitoring appointment at my local RE. I flew to see her on Monday and was so happy because she saw 8 follicles. That’s my best yet. And 6 of them were the same size, which is also my best yet. I’m hoping the 2 smaller ones will catch up by retrieval time. I’m on a layover now on my way to MX for my next U/S. I’m hoping the dr says to trigger tonight for a Saturday morning retrieval. I’m very proud of myself that I’ve now done this enough times to be able to predict what’s happening in the cycle, when to buy my plane tickets, and how many days I can expect to be away from home. However, I’m also very glad that we are winding down these retrievals, as I am very tired of the constant traveling and having to go with the flow (literally) of each cycle without being able to plan too far ahead. I can only dream of how much easier this all might’ve been if there was actually an RE on my island to do all this with. Anyway, we may do 1 or 2 more retrievals for banking purposes, and then possibly try one more transfer in December. 

The last thing that’s kept me occupied is that I’ve been seriously exploring/researching the surrogacy route. That is super overwhelming; it feels heavy to think about trusting someone else to that degree. And it’s so so costly. But we’ve managed to make the money to cover all these rounds of IVF so we will figure out how to pay for a surrogate if it comes to that. I really want to get more embryos and push them to Day 5 for testing because if I get any euploids I want to save those for a surro. I told my MX RE that and she was very surprised. She said she believes my embryos are healthy even though we haven’t tested them, and she believes my body will eventually accept one. But I feel like my history shows my body may very well continue to reject them. We are down to our last chances to make embryos with MH’s last samples of heathy sperm, so if I get any euploids I don’t want to squander them in my body that might still reject them. I have a friend who sees the same Reproductive Immunologist and also goes to the same RE in MX. We have become close and text fairly often; she has the same plans with saving her precious euploid embryos for a surrogate. She is also finishing banking by the end of this year and maybe trying 1 or 2 transfers in her own body before switching to a surrogate. So it’s a weird place to be at mentally, but I am so grateful to have a friend at the same stage, someone else to relate to as we take these final steps.

Any questions?:  Do any of you get lumps in your underarms while doing the stims? I’ve noticed that I get them when I supplement with estrogen. Of course, after MH’s diagnosis I’ve been way more concerned and monitoring this closely. But whenever I have a natural cycle & flush out the supplemental stuff, the lumps go away. So I’m sure it’s just the lymph nodes responding to the extra hormones in the stim cycles. Just wondering if anyone else has noticed this? 

GTKY: What would be your go-to karaoke/singing alone in the shower song? Oh you guys, I’m one of those annoying people at karaoke who loves to sing!😬 It runs in my family. My sis is a professional singer, and it’s actually a little embarrassing to go to karaoke with her because she performs.😆 My go-tos are Mariah Carey, Amy Winehouse, Beyoncé, and Alicia Keys. 

Edited for spacing, as always. 

acleverusername

I'm mega-lurking this week due to a crazy work + life week but just wanted to pop in and say GOOD LUCK to @shortstack930 on your transfer tomorrow and to @kiki047 on your retrieval tomorrow! 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

bows22

I didn’t make it here to post this week since I was in limbo for half the week, but I’ve been lurking and thinking about you guys! CD1 here and I’ll be on vacation next week so I’ll be MIA again but I’ll be back!

But mostly just wanted to say good luck today @kiki047 !!! ❤️❤️❤️

optimistgardener

@bows22 sorry to see you back here, but enjoy your vacation!

@kiki047 good luck with the retrieval! I hope it goes spectacularly and that you feel great on wake-up.

@shortstack930 FX for the transfer and i hope you can find a way to take it easy for a couple of days.

shortstack930

@acleverusername @optimistgardener thank you for the well wishes!!

@kiki047 good luck today!!! 

zwink1

@kiki047, good luck for a great retrieval today!!

@shortstack930, also thinking of you and hoping your transfer goes smoothly!!  

@keikilove, I'm very happy to hear YH's treatments are going well, but sorry that you're having a lot of emotions lately.  I think that your emotional state is completely reasonable, these shitty 'anniversaries' stir up a bunch of difficult feelings, and I'm hoping you can take advantage of this calmer time to take care of yourself.

 

Not much new to report on my end after my mid cycle u/s yesterday.  Lining looked fine at 8.8 and transfer is officially scheduled for 10/27, so 2 days early!  Apparently there is some fluid in my uterus that they want to keep an eye on, but worst case scenario is that they have to aspirate it before the transfer so that's fine.  Other than that, no more lupron - woohoo!

Edit - fix random glitch typo.

keikilove

@kiki047 Woke up thinking of you. Hope that everything went perfectly with your retrieval and that recovery is super smooth!💗💗💗

@shortstack930 FX for a successful transfer! Also hoping all good things for you. 

Sending you both 

hanshotfirst77

Good luck!!!@kiki75

also wanted to wish a happy transfer to @shortstack930!!!

good vibes to both of you!!!

afm cd1 today so I reached out to my nurse here’s hoping I can successfully schedule my bloodwork and saline Sono during this cycle. It may be tough timing wise but I’m optimistic. 

shortstack930

Thank you friends!! The transfer went really well and I’m home now relaxing. Picture in spoiler of our little embryo already hatching ❤️

Beta is scheduled for 11/1!!

knockupthestock

@inthewoods23 yay for getting somewhere! and its cool that your parents are in the know....im sure its different, and i hope they arent too pushy about things, haha. somethings my parents say things and its just the biggest eye roll. FX for a good experience! also, that reddit fries picture was hilarious.

@kiki047 hope your ER went well!!!!!

@jellie603 its still greek to many of us! haha. ask allllll the questions - we dont judge and are here to help. its a whole world, this IF stuff, so we know it can be foreign and scary. and like others have said, its so funny that it takes them so long to use that cup LOL. i had to help my husband in a more hands on way, if you catch my drift, but hey, it got done, haha.

@keikilove so sorry for all of the crappy anniversaries. im glad this cycle is looking good so far! FX for a successful retrieval tomorrow! i havent had any underarm lumps, but i can see how that could just be lymph node responses.

@shortstack930 glad your transfer went well!!! have a wonderful, restful weekend!

kiki047

Sorry for the late update, I was reaaally out of it for the rest of Friday and still managed to make it to my work retreat yesterday, although I definitely overdid it a little - not completely my fault, but the restrooms closest to our conference room were closed so we had to walk to the other side of the building, and by walk I mean shuffle/run since some of our breaks were only 5 mins. But anyway, I'm home today resting and already feeling much better. 

Spoilering results out of respect:

We ended up getting 33 (!!!) eggs in total. Of that, 26 were mature, and 18 fertilized. 
MH is feeling responsible for the 8 eggs that didn't fertilize, but I've been reminding him over and over that even with scientific intervention, not every egg and every sperm that meet are meant to produce a baby. I'm still very happy with those numbers and it is heads and tails over previous results (in my siggy, for reference). We should get another update Day 3 (Monday) and Day 5 (end of day Wednesday). We're doing a freeze-all with PGT-A.

ETA: Play-by-play of the day - 

The procedure itself went well, I'm told, but the day leading up to it was a doozy. We arrived an hour early, as instructed, but the parking garage was like stupidly bonkers for no apparent reason. There was a huge line of people waiting to pay, and thereby blocking the driveway, so it took us literally 15 mins just to get IN the garage. When we got upstairs we signed all the consents, etc, they sent MH off to give his sample - at which point I had to part ways with him as he wasn't allowed back in after that. They got me settled in a pre-op room, which was a massage chair (score!). Got dressed in my gown, etc. My procedure was supposed to be at noon, and around 11:45am the nurse came in to take my blood pressure and then came back a little while later to put in my IV. She said she would be back in 25 mins to take me in. Well at that point the power went out, and the backup generator didn't kick in. Cue complete panic. Like, isn't my ER supposed to be a time sensitive thing given the fact that I had already triggered 36 hours earlier? Nobody was telling me anything and I was pretty freaked out. Power came back on after 35-40 mins, and I still waited another half hour before the nurse came back in and gave me a handful of pills - she didn't tell me what any of it was but I asked if one was lorazepam, and I was right. That helped take the edge off. I still waited over an hour before they finally took me in. In all I was probably waiting there for over 3 hours? The nurses were bitching about the RE's delays lol. 
I have some fuzzy "memories" of being in pain during the procedure, can't tell if it was just a dream but it felt real. Post-op was rough, and apparently I could've asked for MH to come in and help me at that point but I somehow managed to get dressed even though everything was spinning. I haaaaaate anaesthesia. But I didn't throw up this time, which is a first. I was fairly useless the rest of the day, and in a fair amount of discomfort. They gave me another double shot of Cetrotide before I left, and also put me on baby aspirin and letrozole in addition to the cabergoline. I was instructed not to drink ANY water, only gatorade, V8 and high protein ensure. 
The bleeding has stopped as of this morning and the bloat is subsiding. Yesterday was brutal for bloat but otherwise the pain was tolerable with tylenol. All in all, I think it was worth it and I'm glad we went with this RE. 

optimistgardener

@kiki047 heeeeey i've been waiting for your update! great numbers! woo hoo!!! now get some rest, sheesh.

zwink1

Wow, fantastic news @kiki047!!!  I hope you got some down time to relax today!

acleverusername

@kiki047 I was anxious for your update and totally forgot that you had that work retreat yesterday and was praying the news wasn't bad. Whew! Come on little embies! Grooooooowwwww!

optimistgardener

also @kiki047 i just read the second of your two spoilers and ooof, that's a lot of stressful stuff to deal with right before a retrieval. i'm so sorry you had to deal with all that! i hate waiting before any kind of procedure, and especially before getting put under. also: super weird that you sorta-kinda think you remember experiencing pain during the procedure. maybe mention to your RE that you felt like you were not entirely out? glad you didn't vomit afterwards. i worried that i would be nauseated afterwords because that's usually my MO, and asked them to hit me with some anti-nausea meds. they 100% did the trick.

bumblebee0210

Yayy!! Glad everything went well for both of you @kiki047 and @shortstack930 (except for the pre-ER madness that seems like a lot). Just over here with all the fingers crossed...