IVF Round 1.1 Let's do this thing

JUNE 2010

THE JOYS OF JABBING

After the whole broken ankle fiasco I was recovered & ready to start IVF/ICSI again. I sniffed & injected every day then on Day 8 went for my first scan. The fertility Dr (Dr J) performs an internal ultrasound to see how many follicles there are & how they are growing. This gives an indication of when your eggs pick up will be scheduled.

This was when I discovered what a roller coaster ride this whole process is. The follicles weren't looking right (measurements etc..) so I had to come back for 2 more scans to check the progress, this also meant that if things didn't turn around egg pick up would not go ahead. I got a little stressed as I was desperate to complete a round of IVF/ICSI.

Yay on the third scan the numbers looked good so my first egg pick up was booked. Egg pick up is a day surgery procedure. Mine have always been done quite early in the morning so it means fasting from midnight (no food, no problem it's the no water I find so hard to cope without as I'm a camel & drink several litres a day.) Usually before any type of surgical procedure I'm nervous but this time I wasn't. They put you under & remove the eggs vaginally (sorry if this is TMI for some of you - just mentioning this for those who don't know) therefore I knew I would not be waking up with stitches & post op pain from surgery so was fine about having this procedure & so eager to get it done! While I was on the table Dr J made fun of me & told everyone in the operating room I was the patient who had wanted to go ahead with my IVF cycle with the broken ankle. Everyone was laughing as I went off to sleep. While I was having this done H went & did his part (so to speak - I don't think I need to give you the details of that)!

I woke up to find out they got about 20 eggs - WOW that's great I thought, them ore the merrier. Here came my first surprise I was unaware of: 20 eggs is NOT good, as it can lead to something called Ovarian Hyper Stimulation Syndrome (OHSS - there is a lot about this condition online so I won't go into all the details here). One of the nurses from the fertility clinic came to see me & explained OHSS to me & gave me a pamphlet all about it, the signs to watch for & what to do if I got any symptoms. She then advised if I did get OHSS that the embryos would be frozen and no transfer would go ahead this cycle.

So with this news looming over my head I went home feeling a little deflated worried that the actual transfer would not happen which meant no chance of becoming pregnant this month. The day after egg pick up they put you on progesterone support which is called Crinone, you use the Crinone right up until your pregnancy test.

 The next fun part of the process I was to discover were the phone calls every other day from the scientist's at the fertility clinic. The day after egg pick up they call & tell you how many of your eggs fertilised with the ICSI process. Dr J discussed things with us & told us that if you can grow the embryos to a Day 5 blastocyst you have the best results. She also suggest using something called embryo glue & assisted hatching (they drill a tiny hole into the fertilised egg to help it hatch!)

From memory I think 10 eggs actually had fertilised on Day 1, I thought this was great as I would have one to transfer back & some to put on ice. They explain to you about freezing the rest of the embryos & then if the IVF cycle does not work. Next time you can do what is known as a frozen cycle which means no egg pick up procedure etc.. you just take a small amount of medication to prepare your body & they thaw out the frozen embryo & place it back.

The scientist's called again on Day 3 to give me an update, the numbers had dropped off & now I think we had 5 embryos left. An appointment time was made for embryo transfer as I had no signs or symptoms of the dreaded OHSS.

We arrived at the clinic on a Sunday morning very excited as this was what we had been waiting for, to put one of these embryos back & cross fingers for a baby. When we arrived the scientist's came & had a meeting with us and told us we had 1 good blastocyst to transfer back today & nothing else had made it to freeze. This was disappointing as I've always been someone who likes to be prepared 'just in case' but being optimistic I hoped it didn't matter as this was going to work.

Embryo transfer is much the same as a pap smear, something I have always found quite painful. There was a fair bit of trouble with finding the right type of speculum for me & getting it in the correct place as I have a sneaky cervix that doesn't like to co-operate. Success! cervix in view & one little embryo transferred back. In some way's its a little comical as if you had told me years ago about being in stirrups with a spotlight on my nether regions whilst 3 people (Dr J, clinic nurse & scientist) were all concentrating on them I would have died of emabarrassment. Off home we went to take it easy for a few days, continue the crinone & go for a blood test in 14 days time.

I did as I was told and was dying to go & have that blood test. I was now in what was known as 'the two week wait 2ww' the first week seemed to pass so slowly, then it was Monday & my blood test was due that Friday, roll on Friday I begged. With no symptoms or twinges of any kind I made a trip to the bathroom late that Monday to discover I had started to bleed. I called the clinic & was told some bleeding can be normal & a very high percentage of women experience it. Unfortunately the bleeding got worse & I lost faith that anything would have survived. I went to have my blood test feeling it was a waste as I already knew my result.

The clinic called me that afternoon to confirm that I was right & this round of IVF had been unsuccessful or what is referred to as a BFN (big fat negative). H & I were very disappointed BUT we did realise falling pregnant on the first round is not that common. After waiting so long to start I was ready & eager to go again. You can't do full IVF rounds (meaning a full cycle that includes egg pick up) back to back.

We went to see Dr J & she went through the lab reports with us & discussed things like fragmentation in the embryos etc... all things we had never heard of & knew nothing about. She felt that my getting 20 eggs meant they were not of the best quality. We discussed doing another round as soon as possible & she decided to try another type of cycle to see if we could avoid my getting over stimulated this time.

Round 2 - bring it on!