Almost There!

 As planned, I had my scan on Monday (day 10 of stims) at 8 AM.  Parking at Jessops can be hard work so I left the house at 6 to get there for just after 7 and then chilled out in the car reading my book and eating my breakfast.  I was the first one in for a scan and was taken in shortly after 8 AM.  I think I counted 10 follices (4 on one side, 6 on the other) though I can't be sure and I didn't ask.  However, they were all measuring around 14 mm which meant they weren't quite ready yet and I needed a couple more days on the medication.  I ended up hanging around the pharmacy for over half an hour but managed to make it to work by 10 AM which isn't too bad, all things considered.  They also seemed to think the bright spot on my uterus was less bright so hopefully not a polyp and just a slightly thicker bit of lining.

My next scan is tomorrow morning (day 12 of stims) at 8 AM but I don't work Wednesdays so it's a lot more relaxed.  Hopefully they will say I'm ready and then egg collection will go ahead on Friday.  They did suggest egg collection may be Saturday but I'm hoping for Friday as it is much easier for childcare.  Because of the drugs they're planning to give me, I'm likely to need help for the first 24 hours or so which means Friday evening and Saturday morning I'll need assistance while Ant is at work, although if the procedure happens on Saturday morning Ant will be around to help me out all weekend.  However, we essentially have no childcare as Ant's parents are working nights on Friday/Saturday and our friends, who had offered to help out, are away this weekend for his 30th birthday and their own IVF scan on Monday.  At least if the procedure happens on Friday, Oscar will be at nursery in the morning and we can just muddle through - if needs be Ant can cancel clients or I will just have to survive on my own.  I do have a couple of other friends I could maybe call on to help me out with Oscar whereas I don't really have anyone else who could look after Oscar without me there, certainly nobody that he knows well enough.  My dad is my backup but I'm hoping it won't come to that as it's a long drive for him!

I'll try and update again tomorrow when I know what is happening!

Stim Cycle #2

Our second IVF cycle is officially underway but we've had such a busy few days that I haven't had time to write about it.

On Saturday we went to Sheffield for our appointment to get things started.  We dropped Oscar off with Ant's dad and stepmum around 8 and headed off for our 9:30 appointment.  We paid, signed the consent forms and both had our bloods done then we had almost an hour wait before my scan.  It showed 7-8 follicles on one side and 5-6 on the other, which is around the same as last time and is a good number.  However, there was a bright spot on my endometrium which could potentially be a polyp.  It won't affect the egg collection part of the cycle but, if it is a polyp and is still there by the time I've had the egg collection, then it will have to be removed before we can go ahead with a transfer.  Only time will tell so I'm not worrying about it for now.  

Our appointment ran over the expected time so we only just made it back in time for Ant to go and have his second COVID vaccine (while I did my first Gonal-F injection in the car park, at a slightly increased dose of 175 iu this time) then we headed to pick Oscar up.  Technically I'm meant to be isolating but it was our nephew's 4th birthday party and we haven't seen that side of the family in almost 18 months so we decided, because it was outdoors, we would go and just keep our distance.  Oscar had a whale of a time and really enjoyed spending time with his cousin on the bouncy castle so we didn't leave until gone 19:30.  Needless to say Ant and I were both exhausted, especially from the social aspect, so we just had an early night. 

Sunday was Father's Day and we had bits and bobs to get done - I wanted to sneak in a last gym session before having to take it easy, we popped to drop presents off with Ant's dad (and the Hales' were there again so we stayed a little while) then had pizza for dinner which was yummy!

Yesterday I was at work all day and then shattered so went to bed for about 8 which brings us to today.  I've now done 4 injections and tomorrow I'll add in the Cetrotide too - this time they are all done together in a morning so no faffing about trying to get them 12 hours apart etc.  In terms of how I'm feeling I'm pretty tired and have been a bit crampy, but that could be the period itself.  The tiredness is no doubt in part due to a very busy weekend which involved a lot more socialising than we've done in the last 18 months or so but I do feel generally fatigued which could well be down to the medication.  My sciatica has also been playing up a bit for the last 48 hours however it seems a little better at the moment.

I have my monitoring scan on Monday which will be day 9 of the medication so we will see where we are at by then - I'm hoping to be good to go as that would mean egg collection on Wednesday which is a day I'm already off work anyway, but things never work out the convenient way so I won't hold my breath!

IVF Round 2!

There is a LOT going on in our world right now but this is the most exciting/pressing matter so it's where I'm going to start!

On Saturday we are due to start our second full round of IVF so I'll go back and cover where we've been at recently.

We had a multidisciplinary meeting via video call with the genetics team, IVF Consultant and Tracy (our amazing nurse) to discuss the process and go through the differences between using their sole clinic rather than using them as a satellite clinic and travelling to London.  I'd already had blood tests and a scan done so they essentially just made the referrals to the company that run the genetic tests and then we had to go through a counselling appointment with them.  They already had all our DNA stored from the last time so they used that to create our probe and we were essentially just waiting to hear what happened next.  In the meantime, Ant had his semen analysis checked and all was fine there. 

A few weeks ago we received a call from Tracy to say that the genetic side of things was all complete and that we could start as soon as we were ready effectively.  She arranged an appointment to go through things with us, again via video call, on 3 June.  In the couple of weeks before that weekend we got our finances in order and we are in a position to go ahead!  We are borrowing a small amount from grandparents as we won't have to pay interest to pay that back and we have also received a small grant from a wonderful charity.  The rest we have managed to save ourselves! 

At the appointment on 3 June we went through the consent forms, sorted the starting dates and prospective dates for the procedure and Tracy also dropped a bit of a bombshell on me in that they don't use sedation for the egg collection - NOT thrilled about that bit, or the Fentanyl that they use instead!

However, we are set to go to the clinic on Saturday 19 June at 9:30 AM to get the ball rolling.  I'll take my last pill tomorrow (Mon 14 Jun) and hopefully be on a period by Saturday.  Whilst there I'll have a scan and blood tests then we will have to sign our consent forms and collect the prescription for my medication.  Hopefully we will find out relatively quickly that I'm good to start and I'll have to do my first injection straight away.  From there it is all very much the same as last time - the medication is the same but they're using a higher dose as I was pretty slow to respond last time so hopefully I might be on the stims a little less than 17 odd days this time!  I'm so keen to get started but we know it is still a long road from here, especially as I have to isolate around the procedures and we have a wedding to go to in August so we can't start our transfer cycle until after that.  It's much harder to work around things when you have to isolate for 5-6 weeks as you can't just take meds with you and crack on with it, avoiding any procedures.  You have to totally wait until the event is over before you can start.

However, we have an appointment booked on 26 July to discuss our embryo results (a luxury we weren't offered last time) and plan our next steps so at least we can get an idea of what is going to happen and when.

Watch this space!