October 2011 IVF cycle buddy group

[3 ladybugs]

BC-Impatient_in_VA - Welcome! I don't know what your FSH is but if it is low I think the egg question isn't really something you need to worry about. There are ways around your DH's sperm, and the lupron not keeping your E2 down is VERY VERY rare. Happened just once on these boards this year. You are on the long lupron protocal. I was on the same one for both my IVF's. The Rx prenatals have higher folic acid in them but that is the only differance. You will also be on a progesterone of some sort. It wasn't listed in your list. Cysts can be worked around as long as they are not functional (producing estrogen). I think I answered everything in there. Nice to have you on board! Good luck with your cycle!

I was on a low carb diet that my RE put me on for my cycles. He had me working with a nutritionist for it. I actually was so anal about it that I used a program called Calorie King to track EVERY last carb and gram of protein. Yeah I am a bit of a control freak as well. Oh and one last thing. When you cut out carbs, I know I couldn't replace them with straight protein. Well I could but it was VERY hard. So please ignore the fat intake. It will help. I know that has really helped me and I am not even low carb now.

DKthePK - Welcome back! Sorry to see you still here but I hope October is your lucky month. I am about to get out my boot and kick some people to the PG boards, and your definitely on my list. Good luck!

sunshine27 - Glad your feeling better today! I am doing alright. I heard from the police officer yesterday who came to my hit and run accident (the last one) and she said that they found the other person and he said he stopped and determined there was no damage and drove off. Yeah. No damage. That is why I couldn't open my passenger door! Oh well, there are laws in this state to deal with people like this. And he admitted the accident was his fault so it is rather cut and dry!

mj_914 - I never took acupuncture. My DH doesn't believe in it and so I thought that his negativity would cancel out any good it would do me. These groups actually help me in a strange way. I feel like I am helping people and that makes me feel good to face the day. So it is my little pick-me-up everyday.





Pregnancy mentioned





sedsoccer - Dexamethasone is a steroid. It will control any inflamation from any condition you have. There are ways to work around things so you don't get OHSS. So please don't worry about that. And if the WORST happens I have yet to see anyone not get pregnant after OHSS.

[mj_914]

Only, since quitting all that stuff cold turkey, I've discovered I'm really not getting them anymore. I got one from the Clomid, and I get the occasional eye-throbber when everything is being a giant CF, but those aren't the kind of pain that made me start taking Excedrin in the first place.

That's amazing. What a gift! I am happy to hear that such a thing is possible.

Everybody's talking about diet -- mine is not so hot, either. Too many low-quality carbs, not enough veggies. I hadn't even been thinking about that so much. Glad you all are here to get me back on track!

[sunshine27]

My diet is terrible too. I eat poorly when I'm stressed so I can imagine it may get a little worse. I actually started taking a veggie supplement a few times because I just don't eat enough. I'm starting to wish I'd bought the more expensive one with the antioxidant fruits seeing everyone else's diet regimes.

[DKthePK]

Impatient- I am hetero MTHFR- the "C677T" one but clotting issues (not sure if related to the MTHFR) are rampant on my mother's side of the family and I had no idea until after my m/c. But now I know so here's hoping for no nasty repeats. Sorry about slabs of chicken for you (sounds "fowl" LOL). After you score your BFP (YES!) you might want to inquire about Lovenox, it might be overkill but I really wish I had it on my radar with my previous IVF. I have heard that most people do just fine on the baby aspirin and folgard though. Are you planning on going to a perinatologist?

For all you protein "slackers" (you know I'm teasing)- I go to Wegman's or Whole Foods and pick up these little veggie sausages called "Field Roast"- each one has 26g's of protein!!!! They taste good too and you can throw them into other recipes to ramp up your protein intake. It can be a welcome break from meat overload.

Ladybugs- feel free to kick me, I will gladly get kicked over to a bfp board......and I hope to take everyone from this board with me!

Interesting we have so many people with clotting issues on this board, although I'll admit it's nice to have company.

[3 ladybugs]

For those of you that have what you would call a poor diet, have you thought about getting a meal planning service? I don't know about you but before I did the meal planning service dinner would be something like this:

DH - I am hungry!
Me - Me too! What do you want to eat?
DH - I don't know, what do we have?
Me - I am not sure... I think we have some fish in the freezer.
DH - That will take a while to defrost, I am hungry now!
Me - Your right. So what then?
DH - We have those cheap pizza's in the freezer too. Lets have those!
Me - Alright

Now that we have the meal plan we are able to forgo that whole conversation. The only ones we have now are "did you remember to take the steak out of the freezer this morning?" "Nope, can you take it out?"

There are quite a few out there for people if you look. I did e-mealz for a while (they have a low carb option) however I am now eating a Real Food diet and so I get meals from 2 other places. Real Food isn't much different then low carb if you do the GAPS way.

Just a thought if your having trouble. We eat far more veggies and fruit now then we ever have. And while our diet isn't low carb per say, it is low carb in a round about way.

[SC-Impatient_in_VA]

sed They've not checked me for that one. My RE has only checked me for MTHFR, because I pointed out a family history of m/c and of close female relatives all of whom tested positive. Thank you for the information, and I'd do exactly what you're doing with the Lovenox, too!

BC-3Ladybugs My cd3 tests revealed: FSH 5.1, E2 112, AMH 1.8, and my AFC was 14+ the following month (he said there might've been a few more, he couldn't quite tell.) I am 33. He said the E2 was probably pushing the FSH down a little, but not by much. We are doing ICSI for the naughty sperms Plus he's being treated with ciprofloxcin now and probably doxycycline 5 days before retrieval. I figure that my Lupron instead of BCP is because of my E2? He didn't say so, but I noticed that my packet says I will be on BCP but he outlined Lupron instead for me. I thought the Endometrin in my list was the progesterone suppository? Is it something else? Or did I forget to list it? I'm a spaz and see what I want to see sometimes! As for the carbs thing, I'm not going to try and cut them out entirely, just trying to cut back on the sugar and artificial sweeteners while adding protein. And making more of an effort to eat complete proteins -- yogurt with granola and not just yogurt, etc! Do you have an opinion on artificial sweeteners?

mj I feel like I'm mostly ok on veggies as long as fruits count! But I eat way too many carbs (principally in the form of sugar!) and then I'm not hungry enough to eat the meats! I did ok tonight, protein noodles, chicken, spinach, onions, and a bunch of parsley all featured in my main course. Lots of veg and protein!

sunshine If your problem is not enough food period, you should consider adding fruit smoothies to your daily diet. Either at home or bought out somewhere -- berries and dairy, antioxidants and protein!

PREGNANCY, LOSSES MENTIONED
DKthePK That's interesting about your hetero MTHFR. I'm compound hetero for A&C, but my fasting homocysteine levels were ok (I feel like I might've said this already, forgive me if so). Due to the prenatals and the aspirin I've been sucking down for at least a decade, I think I'm probably not clotty. I was horrified to discover how many m/cs were in my immediate family though -- my mother had 2 (which she never told me about, she is deceased now so I can't ask either), my mother's sister had 1, and both my mother's sisters daughters had 1. One of my cousins (that's such a better word than mother's sister's daughter, rite?) had a DVT in her early 20s, but it wasn't until her mid-late 30s that she had a m/c and they thought to test her for MTHFR, and treated her next pregnancy with Lovenox (successfully). He was a natural conception; she was 38 at the time. My older sister's 1st pregnancy was plagued with issues that we now know were probably MTHFR-related -- IUGR, pre-eclampsia, loss of amniotic fluid, then once born (3.3 lbs at 37 weeks, low birth weight even for a slight preemie), failure to thrive. He's ok now -- he's not "average" but he's healthy and happy at 18, though I'm sure he still has to grow into himself (didn't we all). Thank you for sharing your story.
END MENTS

Regarding diet - I always plan out healthy, excellent, well-rounded meals and serve them. Then I just don't eat them the way I should. It's really just a matter of me having to force myself to eat chicken and not rice -- even though rice is tastier ) I do agree though that if you plan ahead, you wind up eating lower calorie, tastier, healthier, better-quality food than if you just leave it up to fate!

AFM Today I picked up hubby's last IUI report (11 mil round cells, 7 mil leukocytes) so that he can take it to his urologist tomorrow and get some cipro to treat it. Whatever or wherever the issue is. It could be epididymitis (infection of the epididymus, which I gather is some sort of penis tube) or prostatitis which is infection of the prostate gland. It keeps coming back. It really frustrates me. Also, I had to sign a form to release my own information TO ME. Arggh.

I also got new prescriptions, one for a prenatal, and one for FolgardRX. I did have regular Folgard, but my store has to order it in, and carries RX full-time, so I asked to switch. The prenatal I chose (after sampling like 5 freebies) was NexaSelect.

I am great at picking pain in the ass stuff, because without insurance, it was $277 for 90 pills! Efffff that! They discovered that I could get the generic for $10 a month. Let's do that, yes. We're switching insurance in 2 months from Anthem to Coventry, and I don't think Coventry is worth a crap when it comes to prescriptions, so they're probably going to try and charge me like 50 bucks a month for regular NexaSelect. My best friend found me a coupon for -30$ on your copay for 9 refills, so that made me happy!

[3 ladybugs]

Your FSH is good (AMH is still experimental so I am taking that with a grain of salt) so I wouldn't worry about not producing enough eggs. Lupron can work in concert with BCP or it could work well on its own. My FSH wasn't that high when I was cycling (I think it was around where you are) and I never took BCP. I had stubborn ovaries though that didn't like to produce eggs then would produce WHOLE bunch! They were tricky. The ICSI should take away the male factor. Endometrin is progestrone your right. I keep forgetting that because it sounds like estrogen to me.

My RE told me to avoid artificial sweeteners and so I did. Now I don't even consume refined sugars. So I use Rapadara, honey or maple syrup. You would be amazed what you can make with just those sugars. I also want to caution everyone on hidden sugars. I know when I went low carb for my fertility, I would go into the grocery store and find a nice salad dressing, only to find that it had more carbs in it then anything! Carbs are hidden in our foods. Sort of like hydrogenated oils (which are EVERYWHERE) and corn syrup. When you start reading labels it gets scary!

[SC-Impatient_in_VA]

BC-3 Ladybugs Really, my doctor said that AMH and AFC are more important to him than FSH/E2. Interesting. (In fact, he accepted me into the shared risk program without a 2nd cd3 test (nor will there be until the cycle I start, to rule out cysts I guess) or a Clomid Challenge. I think my age, healthy weight, and dx (male factor) have a lot to do with that too though. But basically he said not to sweat the FSH/E2 because AMH/AFC are the best predictor of success. I hope he's right about all of it, I think he's on to something, he has FANTASTIC success rates (52% overall last year, 70% for male-factor-only cases) so even if he plumps his stats by only taking guaranteed-wins I'm ok with that since he took ME!

The ICSI scares me, honestly, because so many women with 0-1% morphology report bad embryos or repeated failures and no frosties. It can make me feel really dismal if I think about it, so I'm trying not to, because there's absolutely nothing to be done. His hormones are generally ok (testosterone a little low) but not outside normal for males overall (pretty low for males his age, but still not a big deal), the repeated infections are not involved with sperm production so they're not involved in the motility, supplements did absolutely NOTHING (not even pycnogenol or royal jelly), trying to keep the boys cold just CHAPS them (---yes that's right. Chapped nads. Sad. So I let him stop that one, since it was his idea anyway. Funny story: I think I have 2 bags of frozen "nads-peas" still in the freezer. They will not be eaten!) and the urologist said if it's a varicocele, it's so small as to almost guarantee no improvement from surgery. So I can't do ANYTHING about it, so I am trying to just not think about his multiheaded, multitailed, mutant sperm!

I'm kind of a food hippie so a lot of this information is a reminder for me. I generally make my own salad dressings, but you're right, people just getting into the whole "Does my food have high fructose corn syrup or hydrogenated oils or genetically modified organisms" in it game are thoroughly shocked. HFCS (and sugar) are in so much (they're what makes ketchup taste good. There's no secret spices making that taste good. Without sugar, it's just tomato paste, but with sugar, it is a potato-orgasm.)

At present the only "diet" food I have is diet soda (for the caffeine). Perhaps I'll cut that out in favor of measured doses of coffee with creamer and real sugar. The problem is that with coffee, the amount of caffeine can vary by brand, so even if I measure it -- and I do -- I wind up not being 100% certain how much I'm getting. Maybe I'll switch to packets of tea or hot cocoa, what I really need is just a little caffeine and a big jolt of hot liquid to get the business going in the morning!

Question: I have an ultrasound on Wednesday to measure my uterus. What's that going to tell them, and how is this accomplished? Will it hurt?

[DKthePK]

Hey everyone!

I had my post-op visit yesterday and everything is good. I got to see pics of the surgery which was wild and what I thought was a hydrosalpinx was a hematosalpinx- instead of just fluid it was filled with BLOOD- yuck! I also had a consult with a perinatologist today so that I will be covered if I get a BFP. He was pretty awesome and totally agreed that my m/c was most likely caused by a thrombophilia (he's not convinced it was the MTHFR but something else probably not included in the panel), so he says that if I get pg they would keep me on Lovenox for 20 weeks and see how things were going.

[3 ladybugs]

Cancer and frozen embryos mentioned




BC (sorry for the familiar but it easier for me for right now) - I was never given the AMH testing when I had my cycles in 2007 and early 2008. It just wasn't available. I had cancer last year that did a number of things but the chemo was hard on all fast growing cells including my ovaries. To find out if my ovaries were going to come back, I went off birth control (which was helping me with my hot flashes) and asked my doctor to order a FSH and AMH having seen it so widely used on here. She couldn't order the AHM because the hospital where all of my labs go through, didn't do that test. However she doing a clinical trial and knew about the test as she was using it to see how cancer victims relate to it. I didn't qualify for that study though. So I called my insurance company and they didn't want to clear it because it is experimental. They were fine with the FSH because it is important for my normal health (not just fertility). So DH did some more sniffing and found out that FDA hasn't approved it yet but it is available on an experimental basis. For me, once I saw my FSH though I dropped the idea of the AMH because of the fact that it was so high (120 range). So it is really a mute point now. Oh and don't worry about me, I have 5 frosties that my RE has repeatedly told me will get me all the children I could want.

I agree that with your doctor's success rates if he told me that he would only get blue blood from me (impossible because of blue blood being without oxygen so therefore when it goes into the air it is going to turn red) then I would say "Okay!!!!"

Don't forget that with ICSI it doesn't take millions, just a few good ones. So I am sure you will be fine.

Hey! I make my own ketchup and it has NO HFCS in it. I use honey and lactoferment it. Tastes just like the kind out of a jar but way better for you. Oh and vinegar is also important because sweet tomato sauce tastes funny.

With the coffee I would figure out how much you REALLY need and go with least amount to get that.

The mapping of the uterus is just like a transfer. They will grab your cervix like an IUI and you will have a full bladder. The worst part is the ultrasound with the full bladder. However that is it. The good news is you don't have to stay laying down for a long period after the mapping like when you have your transfer. Good luck!

DK - Glad your appointments all went well. I think it would freak me out to see my surgery! I know my doctor has showed my DH my surgery once but just his description was enough for me. Sounds like your completely ready for your cycle!