Archive for May, 2012

Phase 1 complete (I think!)

For the last 21 days I have been injecting myself every morning with 0.5ml Buserelin in order to ‘down regulate’ myself. This morning I had my first scan at the fertility clinic to check that this first drug has done its job.

As I sat in the waiting room, I couldn’t help but try and guess the circumstances of the couples around me. Was this their first time, like me, or have they gone through this process several times? What stage in their treatment were they? How many have had success? It’s a funny place to be, sitting in a room surrounded with by people who are undoubtedly filled with the same mixture of anxiety and hope that I feel every day at the moment.

Once my name was called out, I was led to a long corridor which had a huge number of ‘scanning rooms’ along it. It made me feel like I was on an IVF conveyer belt! The nurse was very pleasent and, although having an internal scan isn’t the most delightful thing to have, she kept my dignity intact. She asked me a few questions about my period and any side effects that i’d had (none really – it would appear i’m one of the lucky ones) then she got her ‘wand’ out and started the scan. The idea of this scan is to check that my womb lining is thin and that my ovaries are ‘shut down’. Within a few seconds of it starting, the nurse had a confused look on her face. She asked me if I was still bleeding (I’m not). Apparently there is a collection of fluid in my uterus which shouldn’t be there. She said not to worry for now and then moved onto looking at my ovaries. There were several small follicles in each ovary but no dominant ones so that is good news and the nurse confirmed that I had down regulated. She disappeared off to chat to a consultant as I got dressed and when she came back she confirmed that there is nothing to worry about re. the fluid in my uterus. The consultant suspects it’s just a little remaining blood left over from my period and that it will disappear on its own. Let’s hope so!

I was given a lesson on injecting Menopur and have to start that tomorrow night on a dose of 150ui and I have to continue with my Buserelin injections in the mornings but reduce it to 0.25ml.

So that’s where we are folks. I’m pleased to be moving onto the next phase of treatment but a little nervous about the fluid in my uterus. Funnily enough, this afternoon I had a bit of spotting so am really hoping that the consultant was right and it was just some left over blood from my period.

Is there anyone else out there who has had a similar experience? What did it turn out to be for you? Any advice or personal expereinces from anyone else who has gone through IVF (or is going through it now), it would be great to hear from you.

I’m ready for my telling off!

It’s official, I’m a rubbish blogger. It has been soooo long since I’ve written – there is absolutely no excuse. Yes, I’ve been busy, but I still should have written some blogs. So this means that there’s loads I have to get down on here as lots has happened since my last blog post. Here we go…

5th – 16th April – We were on holiday (Las Vegas, LA & San Francisco). One word… AMAZING!
Whilst we were away though I got a call from the fertility clinic saying that the donor that we had been matched with could no longer be used. There was some problem with the sperm and it hadn’t passed the tests after it came out of quarantine. But alas, all was not lost – there was another donor that we could use and one that actually is a better match than the previous one! It’s a stroke of luck that we have managed to get another one straight away as it could have delayed our treatment.

The details of this new donor are:

  • Height = 5’10″ (perfect)
  • Weight = 10 and a half stone (ok)
  • Hair = dark brown (perfect)
  • Eyes = hazel (prefect)
  • Career = a research scientist (interesting)
  • Interests = sport and music (perfect)
  • Other = is a qualified stone mason (not a DIY dunce then!)

My period came on 5th so I let them know and was told the drugs would be sent to me when we got back from holiday. As for my husband, we were so lucky with his crohn’s. He was quite bad before the holiday but fortunately whilst we were away, he was reasonably well – at least enough to not let it spoil his trip.

23rd April – I went in hospital for a sinus op. Not a particularly pleasant experience but not as bad as I thought it was going to be.

25th April – I started injecting the first drug (Buserelin). I can’t quite believe that I’ve finally started treatment. I was quite excited about the prospect of sticking myself with a needle!!

And that takes us up to today. That was a whistle stop tour of the last few weeks but at least it’s all down on here now and I promise to write regularly from now on. I really want to keep a record of our IVF journey (and everything else that goes on).

Bye for now!

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