Cycle number 2.

I am conscious that I have not been on here for a while and thought I ought to update you all.

Don't worry I'm fine, in fact I have spent the last month enjoying myself and avoiding all things IVF. I've been whisked away to London by my hubby for our wedding anniversary and just enjoying not thinking or doing IVF for a month. I think its good to not let infertility rule your life and I have to say this month off has done me the world of good and I am now looking forward to getting myself and my body in ship shape order in time for the next cycle. So as of today it is back on the healthy wagon in preparation for cycle number 2, which I think will be towards the end of November/beginning of December.

So I will update you when I know more......

BFN

Its offical. I got my negative Beta results yesterday. Boo!!!

Oh well, onwards and upwards. IVF cycle 2 to start at some point in October. I will update you when I know more. xxx

PUPO!

Ok so I am now pregnant until proven otherwise! I so hope it is not proven otherwise.

We ended up with 7 high grade embryos and one that was ok. So we decided to implant the best one, freeze the other 6 for future use and discard the one that was only ok.

The procedure was fine, just a little uncomfortable and only took around 20 minutes to do. It was however the most overwhelming thing I have ever been through. I had a picture of the embryo on the screen in front of me and I also could see the fluid go into me on the scanner screen and it was like I was in a dream. A very good dream, but still a dream.

And then the waiting began...........

From Tuesday last week and up until the transfer on Thursday I have sore nipples and felt like I was about to get me period. The pain was so bad on Thursday night that it woke me in the night. However when I woke up on Friday it had gone and has not come back so I am hoping that this is a good sign.

Speaking of signs, I am trying to spot them everywhere and it is driving me mad. I know I should be looking on the internet for symptoms but I couldn't help it! It didn't help, in fact it has made it worse and now I am even more confused. It seems there are a whole host of things that could be a pregnancy symptom but they could also be side effects of the hormones that I am still taking and even signs of getting my period.

So if anyone is interested and would like to know these are the symptoms' that I have been getting:

Sore throat

Stuffy nose

Excess saliva

Slight pinching pains in my tummy

Feeling dizzy

But please note that there are also a whole lot more that I have not been getting, so who knows!

So for now I will go away and try not to try myself insane. More soon xxx

Eight

So we have confirmation that 8 of the 11 eggs have fertilised. We were also told that the 3 eggs that did not fertilise were immature eggs and therefore would never have reached fertilisation, so we have achieved 100% success which we are over the moon about. My husband is so pleased that his little swimmers did what was expected of them.

I will receive a phone call in the morning to inform me what grade of embreyo's we have but I was told this morning that we are in a very good position and they can see no reason why would would not have at least 1 top quality embreyo to transfer tomorrow afternoon.

So I will update you further next week as I am going to put my feet up and relax for a few days. xxx

Eleven

I have just been informed that we have 11 eggs allocated to us! Yippee!!

The eggs and sperm are now being introduced to each other and then left overnight to do their business! I am told that they would expect around 65% to fertilise but this is just guesswork.

They will call me in the morning to inform me how many have fertilised, I am so excited and I am struggling to write this post as my hands are shaking!

Hopefully we will have more good news in the morning and I will update you then xxx

Day 15 scan.

My scan went well this morning and my lining has increased from 1.5 to 8.7 so everyone is very pleased. My husband's swimmers have been analysed this morning and they are looking good and ready to go. We are now just waiting to hear from the hospital as to how many eggs the donor has produced and how many we get allocated to us. The donor has to produce at least 8 eggs for us to continue on the egg sharing scheme. Any less than 8 eggs means that she keeps them all and we have to wait for another donor to become available and start all over again. The nurse did hint that it looks like we should get eggs from what they can tell from her scan on Friday. I'm not sure but I think that they can see how many follicles that she has which gives them an indication as to how many eggs she may produce. But if you know different to that please let me know.

So we are back to the waiting game for another few hours! but on the plus side I had my last Buseralin injection this morning Whoop Whoop.

I will post later with how many eggs we have.......

Some piccy's

I have been reading some other blogs today and I have noticed that they are more interesting with pictures.

So I am going to have a dig around at home for the lead that links my phone to my laptop. I'm sure I have one somewhere. So i intend to upload some pictures at some point. I also like the idea of doing a whats in my handbag and haul posts too.

So keep with me peeps as I am trying to make this more interesting for you xxx

Baseline scan

So this morning I went for my baseline scan and apparently it went really well. Whilst having what I can only describe as a rod inserted into me I was told that the lining of my womb is 1.5. I'm sorry I don't know whether that is 1.5 mm or cm or what because I forgot to ask as I was distracted by being naked from the waist down. Why do you always feel so much worse when it's just one half of your body being naked rather than being naked all over, or it that just me? Anyway I was told that 1.5 was good .

I now have to start taking progesterone tablets in increasing daily doses between now and my donor's egg collection date (21/08/12). This will thicken my lining to hopefully more the 5 in preparation for the embryo transfer on the 23/08/12. I was also told that my donor will start to take the drug to stimulate her ovaries at some point this week.

So all in all things are moving along nicely and I'm starting to get excited that this could actually happen. I could end up pregnant. Keep everything crossed for me peeps xxx

Boggled about beauty boxes.

So last month I subscribed to all 3 monthly beauty boxes (glossybox, jolie box and she said beauty).I couldn't decide which one I thought would be best for me, so I ordered all 3 for the first month with the intention of just sticking with my favourite one and cancelling the rest.

Now the trouble is I can't decide which one to choose. I have been pleased with my boxes but after watching some vlogs on youtube I have come to the conclusion that everyone else has had far better boxes than me and I have major box box envy. At this point I am more in love with the actual boxes that the products come that the products within! They are just soooo useful and in such lovely colours. Anyway I digress...

Please, please, please can you give me your views on which is the best box and help me out of this dilema. Otherwise I fear that I may end up getting 3 boxes per month for the forseable future.

Thanks peeps x

Feeling Perky!

Well what a difference a day makes. Yesterday I was grumpy with a capital G. My poor husband just laughed it off but I have to say last night I was a nightmare. I had what can only be described as a tantrum and stomped (literally) off to bed at 9pm. And all because he didnt want to watch I wanted to watch on the telly. Bless him. I like to think that I would be the same if he was having a hormone induced tantrum but I fear the answer would be a big fat NO. But I will not be admitting that to him.

Anyway, a good nights sleep has done me the world of good and I woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning. I have defo got that Friday feeling and I am looking forward to a fun packed weekend with friends and family.

So tell me has anyone else had a tantrum like this? If so please share as
1. I would like to know that its normal behaviour whilst having IVF and
2. We could all do with a laugh at your funny stories

Come on don't be shy.....

IVF update

So I am currently on day 33 of 54 days of buseralin injections. Up until now I hadn't really had much in the way of side effects. However today I would say is my first 'down day'. My tummy has suddenly become hard and bloated aswell.

I have my baseline scan next Tuesday and perhaps I am getting a little nervous about it. I'm not really sure what to expect. If anyone can give me any advice it would be really appreciated.

In the meantime thanks for reading and I will report back on the results of my scan next week.

My situation so far.

I was the first of all my friends to decide to have a baby but now 5 years later I am the only one without one.

After 18 months of nothing and being told by my doctor to give it time, I decided enough was enough and went to see a different doctor. I just suddenly felt that something was not right. I had started to get hot flushes, night sweats. I was lucky to get a period every 6 months. I gained weight and no matter how little I ate or how much I exercised I couldn't get it off. My new doctor actually listened to me when I explained why I was worried and he too agreed that this was not normal. He ordered a blood test but hinted that it sounded like I had polycystic ovaries, which was treatable. I went home happy that someone was taking me seriously and with some PCOS leaflets to read and feeling positive.

That positivity did not last long. My world came crashing down around me when I received the phone call with my blood test results. I was expecting PCOS to be confirmed and the doctor to prescribe some medication. I did not expect to be told that my ovaries were not working at all and my FSH levels were horrendously high.

I waited for an appointment with a specialist and after more tests etc it was confirmed that I had ovarian failure. This means that I had basically been through the menopause before I was 30 and I had no eggs of my own. I would never conceive naturally and genetically have my own child.

I was immediately put on HRT and I was told I would stay on this until I was in my fifties in order to reduce my menopausal symptoms. I was told IVF was my only option and I would also require egg donation as I had no eggs of my own to use. I was placed on the egg donation waiting list and told to expect a 2 to 3 year wait!

My husband was my rock through this time. I literally fell apart and it was hard for him as I was always the strong one in our relationship. He comforted me, cared for me and helped pick me up and carry on. I could not have done this if it was not for him being by my side supporting me every step of the way.

So we decided that we would keep busy and make the best of our lives (holidays, nights out, lots of shoes and handbags for me and cars and motorbikes for him!) whilst we waited and waited and waited.

I was finally matched to an egg donor in April this year and after a slight delay we started IVF on 1 July and I am currently just over half way through my first cycle now but more on that later.

Although I managed to find a wealth of information online and various forums etc about IVF, I have found it really hard to find anyone that has either ovarian failure or who is having egg donation. So after reading some other peoples blogs I though sod it, lets give it a go and even if it helps just one person like me, or anyone else for that matter, then it was worth it!

Here goes........

Ok, so your are gonna have to bear with me. Never in a million years did I ever think I would be writting a blog!

So why?

I am currently in the middle of my fist IVF cycle and although I have found loads of useful information online about IVF and infertility. I could not find anything which really dealt with my diagnosis so I thought perhaps someone else in my situation may be having the same problem.

So here I am.

I will do another post shortly which will provide you with my diagnosis and where I currently am with IVF.

Speak seen peeps xxx