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@OurEastAndWest: I kept a daily journal which helped me unwind and sort out my thoughts at the end of each day. Turned out pretty well and am glad I have the momento.
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@OurEastAndWest: How'd the injections go last night? I usually found that stims totally flew by and retreival came in no time. good luck!
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My RE says that after the next good scan (at 8.5 -9 weeks), I'm going to have to continue my care with an OB. When do you first meet with the OB? Do they do anymore scans at the first appointment with them?
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@PurplePumps: I transitioned to my OB after the 6 week scan with the RE. My OB schedules the next appointment to be around 9 weeks, then did her first scan with me at 11 weeks.
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Getting ready to do my FET next week. The hormones are brutal on me. I have no energy, emotional rollercoaster, and stomach is so bloated I can barely fit in my pants. Anyone else have that? When I asked my RE, they just said look up side effects online.
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@PurplePumps: we transitioned at 12 weeks. Even got a “graduation” certificate from our RE. He did a scan arbor that last appointment, but then we waited until 20 weeks for our next US for the anatomy scan. We had one interval visit with my OBs NP just to take a complete history, decide/discuss where we wanted to deliver, and discuss midwives if we were interested in that (we weren’t).
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@Memphis: I was very bloated, so they were on the lookout for ovarian hyper stimulation syndrome. If I recall they want you to weigh yourself every day and there’s a threshold that’s too much weight gain and is a sign of OHSS. Sorry memory is bad.
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@YogiRunner: Thank you!
And you're right about the acupuncture time being at least a bit of 'calm' within this crazy storm! I have my next two appointments in the afternoon, when my energy is already the lowest, so hopefully I can actually get a small nap in too! @yellowbeach: I was actually thinking last night about recording how things are going so I can montior any big changes and such. I'm so glad you mentioned that it helped you, I will start one now for sure!
@PurplePumps: Congrats on graduating to your OB!!
The injections are no biggie at all! Such a teeny, tiny little needle & no tummy fat squeezing yet like with the Ovidrel we did before our IUIs ha. Whoop whoop for that! I think I was more anxious about it all being so unknown & new for both of us. Plus all these big words like injections & IVF being thrown around, they just instill a level of seriousness that gives me anxiety about it! If that makes any sense 
When did you all start to notice any side effects during stims- or did you?? I am probably most worried about ovulation pains or cramps because I naturally ovulate on my own & it definitely burns when I'm close to ovulating & the follicles are growing the most. So far though, I haven't really noticed too much of anything... Although my husband said last night that he can tell my hormones are in full force haha
Apparently I 'playfully' mentioned more than once that I was going to throw something at him if he said or did _____ one more time haha! I think that is probably more related to the giant shift from period hormones to suddenly ovulation prep hormones- my skin has already broken out like cRaZy-so hopefully my 'I will cut you' comments to my darling hubby will subside soon! 
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Okay, I take back my no symptoms yet ha- I am freaking *TIRED*! This is normally my super-motivated & focused time but I could seriously crawl up & go back to sleep already
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This morning was my Stim day four blood work & I was honestly so surprised / border-line happy that I didn't also have to have *another* vaginal ultrasound ha that I almost skipped outta there!
My E2 level was 573.7 today so I was told to continue on the same dosage of 375 Gonal F but was also told to now add on Cetrotide! (It will be injected in the morning beginning tomorrow but I was told today to do it whenever I got home from work) Umm, Cetrotide was a painful little sucker! YUCK! 
I was not prepared for that after the teeny needle of the Gonal F! 
My next appointment is on Saturday so I'm looking forward to actually SEEING what my ovaries have been up to with all their fluttering & {maybe??} getting a better idea of when the egg retrieval could be! I tried to find some info online about what my estradiol number means but I didn't want to Google TOO much because the internet can easily become a vast supply of things to freak out about ha. Does anyone have input on what that level means, whether good or bad, or what I should be looking for at my Saturday appointment?? I am just a sponge for any & all info on IVF right now so feel-free to share it all!! -
@OurEastAndWest: I didn't have any symptoms from anything during stims. But I've had no symptoms from the supposedly hellish Lupron depot menopause inducing 3 months treatment I did, so I think med wise, I'm pretty immune to most side effects. (Though I'm totally not immune to pregnancy side effects, it's totally kicking my ass).
I think my E2 levels around day 5 were 500 something quite a few times and it lead to about 20-25 follicles for me. It seems like totally reason able level at this point. If you check my profile, I have a link to my blog, and there's a page that has the details for my E2 levels for all my cycles and stim dosages if you want to see what my experience was. But sounds like things are going well for your cycle! -
So I went in for the transfer. They couldn’t get to my uterus with the catheter. I was devastated. Ended up doing zift. Anyone else done that? It’s so painful
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@Memphis: never even heard of it. Do tell.
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@yellowbeach: its when they do the FET into the tubes. Instead of doing it laparoscopic they did a laparotomy...so painful but supposedly the results are as good or better since the eggs chooses implantation site instead of the RE
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@Memphis: Ouch! That sounds super painful but I guess better than not being able to do the transfer at all. Have they ever had a problem before getting through your cervix?
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Sorry for ghosting the thread a few weeks ago ladies! I was all set to start another FET cycle in February but when I went for a check in Day 2 there was fluid in my lining and a monster estrogen producing cyst on my left ovary so my cycle got cancelled before it even started and I needed to wallow for a bit. I just started my period again (only 20 days after my last one) but fingers crossed we will be able to transfer our last frosty in a couple weeks
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@mrswin: you have no idea! Sorry to hear about the restart need for you. This is our first transfer. We banked for the past year gathering as many “good” eggs as we could get. The dreaded tww everyone talks about...I’m sure everyone thinks they can handle no big deal...but my gosh the impatience meter is off the charts! I am 7dpt of a 3 day embryo now so yep I did a test and it’s negative. But I know it’s too soon. After the surgery, I’m not sure I can do this again. Going through the cervix proved impossible because apparently I have a hard rt turn close to the uterus. So every time I transfer I have to do that surgery. So much for all the banking...
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@mrswin: ugh I’m sorry. I had that happen to me twice in a row last year - actually Jan and Feb! I had to trigger both months to try and get my body back to square one. I was delaying stims, not a transfer, but still, I fully know how disappointing that is!
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Just wondering how everyone is doing? Anyone in a cycle this month? Anyone new to the group?
We are going to try naturally for the next 3-6 months and then buckle down for round 2 of IVF. Carving out the time is hard - but I have to remind myself the retrieval is done, this will just be a FET.
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@yellowbeach: Hi! I’m still here. I am doing an FET cycle this month...transfer is actually scheduled for tomorrow morning! This is our last frosty so if this doesn’t work we will have to do another cycle, which is 100 times harder than an FET but we are so ready to have another baby.
Best of luck to you with your next cycle. -
@mrswin: So I don't think I'm going to be needing that n ext cycle just yet. POAS tonight and got a
! DH and I only even managed to BD once this month (sadly). There's truth to what they say about IVF opening up the pipes and flushing out the cobwebs!
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@mrswin: just checking in on you...
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@yellowbeach: Thanks, our FET cycle was a bust
Thankfully we have a funded cycle available to us for this next round. We have decided to go ahead and I am on an estrogen priming protocol waiting to start my meds on Saturday (Day 3). I am finding it very stressful right now because based on how long I stimed for last time I will likely have to back out of a work trip on very short notice for the retrieval. I haven’t told anyone at work about what is going on - they would not be very happy so I am just going to call out as needed and get a note from my family doctor indicating that I am not able to travel -
@yellowbeach: how are you doing?
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Ok ladies - really (selfishly) hoping this IVF wakes up in the next few weeks. Today DH and I had a TFMR for T21 and cardiac abnormalities. This pregnancy had been a result of natural conception, but I think we are too afraid of another Trisomy diagnosis that we want to proceed with IVF so we can do PGS on the 9 embryos we have frozen.
I can't meet with my RE for about 2 weeks as we are headed to Italy June1-10. Does anyone know how long PGS takes on frozen embryos? How long you have to wait for a frozen cycle after D&C? Which would be the longer hold up I wonder? Oddly, DH and I are both perfectly in agreement that we want to move forward with TTC again ASAP.
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@yellowbeach: I was able to do an FET really quickly after a d&c. I think it was just over 2 months between d&c and transfer? You just have to get af then you can start monitoring. Our PGD testing took about 10 days but it depends on the lab you're using. So glad you have that fun trip planned. Enjoy aaall the Italian wine and good luck with your next steps. We're here for you!
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@Mrs. Pajamas: Correct me if I'm wrong, but for PGD on frozen embryos, you would take out the number you want to test and potentially implant, but not more, right? When deciding how many to test, do you add an extra since there's a good chance of destruction?
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@yellowbeach: you can do what you want but pgd is not cheap so you probably want to batch test. It depends on your lab. We tested all of our frozen embryos at once, it was 6, and then transferred one. It's better to test them fresh then freeze but all of ours survived the thawing and refreezing. We had great luck and a successful fet after the testing so it was well worth the cost to us. Before testing we had 2 failed fets and it was devastating. My re guessed that we literally just happened to pick the only bad ones of our batch since all the ones we tested were normal and most importantly one is my almost 11 month old dd!
@sweetiepie could probably weigh in here...she's done a bunch of pgd as well -
I’m new here! I have my injection class tomorrow and really feel like I’m kind of lost with the whole thing. I’m hoping to have my retrieval around June 20, PGS testing and FET in August. Any tips or tricks?!
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@MrstypeA: welcome! IVF can be very confusing and nerve wracking. I found this group to be very helpful in terms of what to expect each step of the way. Some in the group have been through PGS and multiple retreivals and transfers, others of us are newer (just one round of IVF for us so far) but there’s enough variety of experience that likely someone has shared your experience. Did you ever do a fresh transfer or is this #1?
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@yellowbeach: this will be my first time with everything. Does anyone have suggestions for retrieval? Did anyone do acupuncture?
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@MrstypeA: I didn't do anything out of the ordinary except try to hydrate much better than I usually do. I know some folks have tried acupuncture and supplements.
Tomorrow we see our RE to talk about PGS and a FET. We have 8 (maybe 9) embryos in the freezer. I didn't realize you could thaw them, PGS them, then refreeze. I guess I just assumed that would be too much stress on them. So I don't have total sticker shock, does anyone remember how much PGS cost them roughly? @Sweetiepie @PurplePumps:
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@MrstypeA: Stock up on protein bars and drinks with electrolytes (Gatorade or coconut water) for afterwards. You'll want/needs a lots of protein and fluids to help combat ohss symptoms. I've never tried acupuncture or anything else really different leading up to retreival aside from the supplements and stuff for egg quality.
@yellowbeach: My PGS screening was fairly inexpensive compared to other quotes I heard. I think I had only paid around $1600 for up to 8 embryos, and it was $175 for each one over 8. And whatever shipping fee ($75-300 depending on weekend or weekday.) And I think the biopsy fee charged by the clinic was covered by insurance for me.
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@yellowbeach: Good luck today! it cost us about $3000 for PGS
@PurplePumps: thank you! what kind of supplements did you take?
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@MrstypeA: Along with the usual prenatal vitamin, extra dose of C, D, E, acai, resveratrol, melatonin, Ovasitol, and l glutathione.
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We met with our RE today and I’m so glad we did. It was such an encouraging visit. We have 9 embryos frozen and are going to do PGS on them. Since they were retrieved when I was 38, the T21 risk is 1/200 where as now at age 40 its 1/80.
He predicts 50% will be abnormal on PGS, and the destruction rate for PGS there is <3%. So we should come out if it with ~4 good embryos. And apparently we have a 70% chance of it sticking. Our first IVF Transfer with untested embryos they gave us a 30% chance. I feel really good having something to look forward to rather than just focusing on what we lost. I’m so so glad my husband pushed for us to meet with the RE sooner than later.
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Also - PGS on 9 embryos will be $3500 which we are paying out of pocket. We did get good news that since we last did a transfer (July 2016), our same insurance plan covers the transfer fee 100% ($2600). The only catch is I change jobs on Aug 15, and will have different insurance. So we are going to try and do our transfer before then and get it covered. Now come on AF!
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Also - RE says for a frozen cycle we won't need any meds - just track OPKs and when I get a positive, call him and we will transfer 5 days later. Is that common? That's not what I was expecting based on our fresh transfer, but we've never done a FET.
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@yellowbeach: That sounds like a natural FET. I'm not sure if it's *common* but not unheard of. I think it makes things a little harder to time if cycles are irregular. But from my point of view I'd be a little worried about exact timing too, since one can ovulate anywhere from like 12-36 hours after a positive OPK I think, so 5 days from a positive OPK might not be exactly 5 days from ovulation/start of progesterone production which is what I thought a 5 day FET would be aiming for. Considering people adjust their transfer window by as low as 12 hours after ERA testing sometimes, it seems timing can be quite critical for progesterone exposure.
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@yellowbeach: I agree with @purplepumps but actually I tried a few rounds of "natural" IVF and I was still monitored via blood before transfer. I'd rather do that honestly to make sure you're getting accurate info. I'd be terrified of messing up and "wasting" an embryo by transferring at the wrong time.
And you're right about the acupuncture time being at least a bit of 'calm' within this crazy storm! I have my next two appointments in the afternoon, when my energy is already the lowest, so hopefully I can actually get a small nap in too! 
The injections are no biggie at all! Such a teeny, tiny little needle & no tummy fat squeezing yet like with the Ovidrel we did before our IUIs ha. Whoop whoop for that! I think I was more anxious about it all being so unknown & new for both of us. Plus all these big words like injections & IVF being thrown around, they just instill a level of seriousness that gives me anxiety about it! If that makes any sense 
I was not prepared for that after the teeny needle of the Gonal F! 
My next appointment is on Saturday so I'm looking forward to actually SEEING what my ovaries have been up to with all their fluttering & {maybe??} getting a better idea of when the egg retrieval could be! I tried to find some info online about what my estradiol number means but I didn't want to Google TOO much because the internet can easily become a vast supply of things to freak out about ha. Does anyone have input on what that level means, whether good or bad, or what I should be looking for at my Saturday appointment?? I am just a sponge for any & all info on IVF right now so feel-free to share it all!! 
! DH and I only even managed to BD once this month (sadly). There's truth to what they say about IVF opening up the pipes and flushing out the cobwebs!
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