[Witters]

Hi Girls!

AF has finally found me after a 72 day cycle. I am so excited to be moving on at last to my FET cycle.

I started my IVF suppression in May, had retrieval at the end of June, then developed severe OHSS and so could not go ahead with transfer  

I have 3 snow babies, at 3 days, two were just 4 cell but one was 8 cell.  We are very realistic that our chances with this are slim, but definately hoping to prove everyone wrong

Feel free to join me in this stressful wait!

 

[Cecilie]

Hi Again Witters 

Just wanted to say good luck and send you some  and some  and lots of 

Cecilie x

 

[Witters]

Back atcha!

     

 

[Witters]

Cecilie, how are things?  Nothing new with me.  I should get my drugs tomorrow ready for this cycle, so atleast it will seem real again.  I have my appointment on Monday to check everything is OK and ready to start de-regging at the end of next week.

 

[Cecilie]

Hi Witters 

AF arrived at the weekend - HURRAH!!! And I went for a scan yesterday to check on my cysts. They've both gone - DOUBLE HURRAH!!! I also picked up all my gear whilst I was there - Buserilin and syringes etc, I was like a child at Christmas - like you say, having the drugs in your hand makes it feel much more real.

I'm not going to be far behind you - about a week - as I'm due to start de-regging on 13th October. I'm really pleased - it'll be really good to have some company during this next chapter! It's especially nice for me as you were the first person ever to reply to one of my posts.

We're finally back on track now - it'll be an exciting couple of months!

Cecilie x x x

 

[Witters]

Hi Cecilie,  You start Buserelin on the 13th?  I start mine on the 11th, so we will be really close   Awww, I'm honoured to be the first person to answer your post - I hope it was a good response

I just received my box of drugs!  You're right, it's like Christmas.  I can't wait to get home to check it all out properly, you can't really do it at work with all the guys around can you?  Especially with needles and syringes, they'll never look at me the same again!

So happy that your scans show that you are on track, isn't it just the best feeling?  Roll on a couple of weeks time and let the baby making begin!

 

[Cecilie]

Hi Witters - 11th and 13th - that's brilliant!! Very exciting.

Yes, your first reply to me was lovely - I posted just after the OHSS nightmare. I felt black and blue and emotionally and physically battered, and you replied to my question about OHSS with a very similar story (although much magnified in its nightmareishness!!) It made me feel like I wasn't alone, which is just what I needed.

Enjoy opening your drug pack tonight!

Cecilie x

 

[Witters]

Yes, that OHSS is not something I want to go through again.  I don't know about you, but it's taken me ages to get over it and my body back to normal.

I will enjoy checking out all my drugs   Do you get it all directly from your clinic?  I get mine mail order and it always comes in a neat blue bag, so it keeps everything together.

 

[Cecilie]

Hello Witters

I get all the drugs straight from the clinic in a nasty carrier bag 
I have a freebie toiletries bag from Marie Claire (or some other mag), which I ritualistically organise my drugs, swabs, etc in. I usually make a warm milk with honey or a nice herbal tea for when I do the injection -savouring the moment!! I also get a planner for the treatment from the clinic. It has all the days marked and drug doses etc. I cross each day off when I've done that day's drugs. I'm like a child counting down the days till the holidays! 

But I do find the rituals really helpful - it makes me enjoy the whole process.

I think the next couple of weeks are going to be slow. I'm trying to get healthy again as I seemed to want nothing but rubbish to eat after the OHSS - which isn't really like me. I still don't really feel totally back to normal after all that - I feel sort of heavy and my appetite is weird. It dawned on me like a bolt from the blue the other day that OHSS is really serious. Even though I was nowhere near as ill as you - I didn't have to have IV fluids and my ovaries only swelled to 10cm- I was quite sick with it. I didn't really take it in properly at the time though. Let's just hope that FET works for us and that neither of us have to do any of that again. 

Speak to you soon

Cecilie x

 

[Witters]

I agree!

It's funny you mention your appitite.  Mine has gone really weird.  I used to love sweets and sugary things and was crazy about apple juice.  Now, completely different!  I have gone very savoury and if I see a bottle of apple juice, I would instantly feel sick.  I find it hard to select a drink that I fancy.  I used to stick to the same thing every time for months, now I'm lucky if I can get through a glass

You're right though, it is a very serious thing.  Your blood chemisty is totally out of whack.  All my levels were being measured by blood tests every two hours as they were dropping all the time.  Thankfully my BP stayed pretty much perfect though.  Apparently, things start to normalise once AF arrives, so it's not life thretening or anything like that - providing the fluid doesn't get into the lungs or other organs.  I know that my pressure built up so much it was putting pressure on my lungs so I found it hard to breathe.  It was at that point they put the drain in.  Although uncomfortable, that was such a relief!

Would you go through a fresh cycle again?  I don't know if I could.  At the time I'm talking to my doctor, I get reassurance and think yeah, it will be fine.  Then I get home and start worrying again.  What dose were you on?  I was on 2 amps of menopur.

 

[Cecilie]

I really struggle to drink now too - I don't know how I was managing 3-4 litres when I had OHSS.
I also struggled to breathe, but it only lasted a couple of days before things started to go back to normal. The projectile vomiting and simultaneous uncontrolled diarrhoea was the worst!! (Sorry TMI).

I rally don't want to do a fresh cycle, but I think I probably would if the consultant thought reduced doses would make OHSS unlikely. He put me on 4 amps to start with then reduced to 2 and then 1 every other day towards the end. I read somewhere on here that with PCOS it's a fine line between not responding at all and OHSS. That freaked me out a bit as I thought PCOS just always meant that you needed less menopur to respond. Do you know anything about this? It seems like such a fine balancing act all round - I know they didn't want to reduce my menopur too much last time in case the follies stopped growing...

I can't remember how many frosties you have now? I have ten, so I'm hoping I've got enough for two FET cycles and that one of those will work....

Cecilie x

 

[Witters]

We only have 3 frosties.  We had a poor fertilization report - 5 out of 25 eggs fertilised but only 3 progressed.  So we're hoping for twins this time around   No, seriously, one will be quite enough to handle, and a fantastic gift, but we would welcome two and just hope for a smooth pregnancy and routine once they are here.

You are right, there is a fine line between reacting at all and over reacting.  With me, I'm very sensitive.  I don't O on  my own, yet overstim on 50mg clomid, so I reduced it to 25mg and again to 12mg and was still ovulating even on those small amounts. 

My doctor was talking about trying Gonal-F and doing just 1 amp with close monitoring.  We shall see what happens next.

 

[Cecilie]

Wow - you are sensitive! I didn't ovulate at all on 50mg but seemed to on 100mg, but that dose made me cry non stop for 3 months!! Either way I didn't get pregnant, so don't have very positive feelings about Clomid.

What's the benefit of Gonal-F over menopur in your case?

I was quite surprised that "only" 10 eggs fertilised out of my 30 odd so asked about this and Dr said that sperm quality was great but with OHSS you often get a load of eggs that aren't developed enough for fertilisation, hence only 30% fertilised - so maybe that's what happened to you too? (By the way - I'm not complaining about my ten - I was dead chuffed with that number.) It only takes one and you never know - could be twins!! I'm secretly hoping for twins - think it'd be amazing. But as you say - one would be a gift.

Cecilie x

 

[Witters]

I would love twins, especially boy/girl twins.  I just know that they will be much more hard work and pregnancies can be difficult.  Could you imaging it though?

Yes, I think it is all due to the egg development.  I would rather do an IVF cycle using clomid, maybe 50mg and get one, maybe two good quality eggs.  My clinic won't do that though.  I'm not entirely sure why they mentioned Gonal-F.  I think it's just made up differently and so I may react better to it?  If I have to go that route, I will ask more detail on it.

Sarah x

 

[LizH]

Hello

Do you mind if I join?  I just started down regging yesterday for my first FET after OHSS in August so really excited about this.  I've just been reading this thread and I've had similar experiences to both of you.  It is a month since my egg collection and I have only just started to feel better.  For the last couple of weeks I have been back at work but have found it very hard to concentrate and have felt very tired in the afternoons and evenings.  Also I haven't been eating healthily since the OHSS, I used to eat lots of fruit but I just don't fancy it anymore, I've not been eating many vegetables either.  I wasn't hospitalised with the OHSS but I had breathing problems and had to take blood thinning drugs - all a bit scary really.

If everything goes OK over the next few weeks I should be having my ET on 25 October.

Liz

 

[Witters]

Morning!

Liz, of course you can join! Sorry to hear that you went through this terrible OHSS too. So, you are in the lead in this FET cycle then. You are lucky to beable to start so soon after your OHSS. My last cycle was really wacky and long I hope you can start of the 3 lucky BFP's!!

Cecilie, how are you today?

I took some pics of my drugs yesterday -

Here's my auto inject pen:

My drugs:

More of my drugs:

 

[Cecilie]

Good Morning OHSS/FET ladies!

Great to have you here Liz.  Glad you're starting to feel better after your OHSS nightmare. The fruit and vegetable thing is so weird - I'm exactly the same. I used to have a massive fruit only smoothie every morning - the thought of it makes me heave now. And I'm really struggling to eat properly the rest of the day too - no appetite at lunch time (just nausea) and too tired to cook very much in the evening. How annoying!! I've found cooked apple and pear much easier to get down - I put a little bit of cinamon in it and then top with toasted oats and nuts. Very tasty and healthy. How are you finding down-regging this time? Do you feel any different to when you were doing a fresh cycle? 25th Oct isn't long - how exciting! 

Hello Witters -  at your drug photos - I love it! It gave me such a kick to see all those drugs laid out like that... How sad are we?? I got mine out and looked at them longingly last night. Looks like you've got a hell of lot of stuff there. And you get to use a pen! I was disappointed last time as I'd been promised a pen but only got loads of normal syringes. Actually it's not at all painful though, so I needn't have worried about that.

I'm on fairly good form today thank you Witters. I'm looking forward to the Buserilin to help me sleep better though! Sounds a bit weird but I feel much better on Buserilin than normally - sort of relaxes me, and I'm sleeping really badly at the moment - waking loads of times in the night.

How did both your DHs deal with your OHSS? My DH found it quite traumatic I think. He was absolutely exhausted the week after EC when I was at my worst. Did you both have to tell work what was going on? I'm self employed so am quite lucky in that respect. However, having made the decision not to tell lots of friends and family about IVF I ended up telling lots of people because of the OHSS. I couldn't lie about why I was in bed for ages etc...

Glad to be in touch with you both - it's so lovely to know I'm not alone.


Cecilie x

 

[Witters]

Hey Cecilie (I love your name by the way)

Reading your post is like reading one of mine!  It's so weird

I'm having a real problem drinking today.  I have a jug full of pinapple and grapefruit squash sat here, but the thought of it makes me feel ill.  As for food, no way!  The night before last, we trated ourselves to an Indian takeway.  I tell you, it was lovely!  I almost ate it all which is a first for me.  But ever since then, I've been uninterested.

Glad you liked my photo's!  I laid them all out so I could check them off the packing list, and thought hey, I should take a photo, so out came my phone and there it is!  The pen is great, it really takes away the self injecting thoughts.  Although the needles are so tiny that I think normal injecting would be fine.  Where do you inject?  I do my thighs. 

Glad you are on good form.  Your post sounded cheery!  I'm not too bad.  I turned awful about two weeks before AF, and DH only commented the other day how he has 'his Sarah back' so I must be happier in myself!  I hear that buserelin makes people feel awful, but I felt fine on it, it was the stims that I felt bad on.  The only thing with the Buserelin is that the injection site reacts and gets itchy for a few minutes, but it soon dies down.

My DH was scared to death when  I had OHSS!  He still is now.  Any little comment I make, he's like 'are you OK?  You don't feel like you did do you?  Bless him.  The worst part was when the doctor said I had to be moved to ICU for closer care and monitoring, and then following a blue lighted ambulance to the ICU as it was in another building the other side of the complex.  When I was there, I had a monitor showing my heart beat, BP, pulse and something else.  All he could do was watch it and watch my drips checking for air bubbles.  One time several fairly large bubbles went straight in me and he was really panicking.  I felt really bad for him as I couldn't calm him down.  Everytime a doctor came to see me, he always asked if I will be OK.  He was so scared of loosing me.  Once I started getting better and I was moved to the normal gynae ward, he was much more relaxed.  I think he told me he loved me every minute he was there!

As for work, easy peasy for us!  DH owns (well, he and his partner own) a business.  I work there too doing all the admin side of things.  Any time we need off, we have off.  Weidly, my boss will be the first to know my BFP!  We only told his partner and his wife that we were TTC.  When this all flaired up, we told close family.  The others we just said that it was a reaction to some drugs  I was on, which is true!  We didn't want to tell anyone as we didn't need the added pressure and questions.  Now they know, even the innocent questions have stopped, so it's actually better.  They know its a touchy subject and what we've been through, so we will keep the FET to ourselves too.  I just can't wait for the day to tell parents of our BFP.  They will be so suprised and happy

 

[Cecilie]

He he -  I was just thinking yesterday how reading your post was like reading one of mine 
Your DH sounds lovely - bless him.
I think it's quite sensible to keep quiet about treatment. I tried not to tell my mother - who's very anti IVF - thinks it's too big a health risk - cancer etc. I certainly didn't tell her about the OHSS - she would have had kittens! But in the end a friend who didn't realise mum didn't know let slip in front of her. It was actually a bit of a relief to have it all out in the open with her. She does still lecture me about the merits of adoption though 

C x

 

[Witters]

It is a relief isn't it?  I just didn't want all the lectures and questions.  It's hard enough answering your own questions let along any one elses. 

Adoption...  Have you thought about it?  We would really, really like one of our own.  If we exhaust all oppertunities, we would seriously consider it though.  My only thing with it would be the experience of pregnancy.  It is one thing that I have looked forward to all though my life.  I just think it will be amazing to have something so tiny growing inside of you and getting so big!  Oddly enough, I'd love to experience labor too.  I just think it's facinating and develops a great bond not only between mother and baby, but also husband and wife.