Egg collection and fertilisation

Have been AWOL, I had egg collection on Wednesday and yesterday (Thursday) I had a massive row with my husband. I won't go into great detail on this blog as I think that it's been resolved and I don't want to dwell.

In my last post I mentioned that I was ready for egg collection. On Monday at midnight (36 hours before egg collection was due) I took Ovitrelle- my trigger shot. It contains hCG so would lead to a false positive on a pregnancy test if I were to take one. That was my last injection of the cycle. I felt that we should have had a ceremony or something.

On Wednesday we got to the clinic at 11:30 as instructed (freezing cold we were as the train was cancelled and we were stood on a train platform [all train platforms are colder than an Arctic winter] for half an hour). The receptionist gave my husband a plastic sample container then spoke to me and told us to go to room 15 and (confusingly) gave us the key with a 1 on the key-ring. We got to room 15 and it became apparent that it was not a pre-op room as, rather amusingly, there was a sign on the door that said Production Room. I told him to go in and get on with the business (he says it was a grim empty room with porn mags- oh how cliche) and I went back to the reception to rather awkwardly ask where I was supposed to go. Then she explained, I should go down the corridor and round the corner, tick my initials off on the board and take a seat. I was told that my husband should keep the sample in his pocket for the time being. I sat down and wondered why I hadn't been told all of this when we arrived. I am not psychic.

The husband did his bit and we waited to be collected. And we waited. Then we waited some more. I realised it was 12:15 and then flipped out. I could feel ovulation cramps and was convinced I was going to ovulate. I sent my husband off to find the receptionist to ask what was going on. A nurse came and reassured me that I wouldn't ovulate and that the trigger lasts for 40 hours. Again, why didn't they tell me? It would have saved me a lot of stress!

We got called in and spoke to the consultant and he took us through to theatre. No prep, no gown, no hat no nothing all we had to do was take our shoes off. Was rather surprised! How does one have an operation without a hospital gown and cap? I was wearing a jumper dress and tights, I undressed from the waist down (keeping the dress on), put my feet in the infamous stirrups and had a cannula inserted into the back of my hand. The doctor injected a painkiller and sedative, I felt sleepy and lay down. I don't remember anything being inserted or the CD being put on so I think I was asleep for a couple of minutes. The rich voice of Sam Cooke drifted into my head (our CD of choice was the Best of Sam Cooke) and I was aware of cramping- rather like period pains. I could hear the embryologists calling out numbers- it was the number eggs they were finding in the follicles. It only took about 20 minutes. They took me to the recovery room which had what looked like a dentist's chair and a plastic chair next to that. I sat in the scary looking dentists chair and started to feel less woozy. My husband said how during the op there was a screen in the theatre showing the eggs that the embryologists were counting.

A nurse came in and said that the collected 14 eggs and that the hubby's sperm was great so we could have IVF rather than ICSI. So we were sent off home and told we would get called the following day with fertlisation results.

The following morning I got the call and was told that we have 8 embies, which I am very happy with (especially considering that I thought I only had 5 viable follies). I called up my husband and he was very happy. Then he told me his brother was coming to stay at ours that night. I totally flipped out. Rather than calm me down he told me that I was selfish and intolerant.That's what caused the row. He was inconsiderate and I overreacted. I apologised this morning and explained why I acted that way. He said that he is worried about the fact that we have had some massive rows, I tried to explain that IVF puts a lot of pressure and stress.

Anyway, I am worrying a little bit that the rows and stress will effect our chances. I hope not.

Stimming!

Well, I had a meeting with Dildo Cam yesterday and my husband watched (oooh er missus). Before she started, the sonographer asked me if I had any symptoms, "Not too bad, I have had trouble sleeping though."


"Oh" she said, "You're the first person who has complained about that." OK, so I have been making it up then, clearly. I love to pretend that I am waking at 4am then 5am then 6am because I am red hot and dying to pee. She also asked my husband if I had been moody lately. Luckily he knows which way his bread is buttered and said "No, not really."

As always, I didn't sit far enough at the end of the table so had to scooch down, taking that giant loo-roll-like paper with me.

She found a thin womb lining and a "quiet" right ovary. It took her ages to find my left ovary, "Did they have trouble last time?" she asked. "No" was my reply, "I can assure you I do have a left ovary". Luckily she found it (after a good 5 mins of prodding and swirling the dildo cam). She told me it was a good thing it was all quiet, if it hadn't been my cycle would have been cancelled until the New Year :-0.


A nurse then showed my husband how to inject what can only be described as the pen of torture. It's a pen, you move the dail and squirt a load of liquid out, then you set it to the dose then you stab it into some fat and then twist the top around so it clicks 8 times. I have to go back to the clinic a week tomorrow to see if it is working.


I had my first two doses haven't been so bad so far- in fact the Buserelin hurts more.

So we will just wait and see.

The world's longest protocol

Nurses appointment today. We were asked to sign some consent forms "do you mind if we use any unfertilised eggs for research purposes," hhhm, OK. "If you die, can we use your embryos for research purposes?" If I do what now?!? They really do plan for every eventuality. Hopefully I won't croak it after EC but before ET for that to happen.

I was also shown how to inject, I say this, I was actually only shown how to draw the medication into the syringe. She told me where to inject but didn't make me do it, "Just grab a lump of fat and plunge the needle in". Nice. Also, what if I do it wrong?!?

I got told a list of side effects that I may encounter as my body is forced into a false menopause, "You may feel nauseous, you may feel very cold or very hot, you may experience cramps in your abdomen." Lovely.

It was at this meeting when I realised I would be down regulating for a lot longer than I thought. I thought it would be 14 days but in actual fact it will be 21 days (not ignoring the fact that I still have 10 days of taking the pill left) so embyro transfer will happen around the 19th Dec which means I will have my 2ww over Christmas. I had hoped to have my test day on 21st Dec, that way if it didn't work I would have been miserable but at least could have a drink (or 30) over the festive period. Now I will not be drinking, wondering if it worked and will have my husband's very nosy family wondering why I am not drinking. They will notice and they will jump to conclusions. I only hope that they turn out to be correct.

fertility investigations

Immediately after the ectopic I relaxed. I thought, "if we have done it once, we can do it again!". Here the curse of the forum strikes. I noticed that a lot of people who had ectopics fell pregnant again really quickly (within months). I convinced myself that it will happen soon and if that it didn't, it would not happen at all.

4 months later,and nothing happened. That 4th month, I was late and thought we had done it. Sadly it was just the case that my period was late. Tears ensued and my poor fiance (we got engaged September 2010, 9 months after we had started trying) by then had run out of things to say. It was 10 months since we had started trying and I had become a different person. Crying at the drop of a hat, moody and sometimes withdrawn.

He insisted that I go to the doctors for tests and so I did. My hormones showed that I was ovulating, his sperm analysis was fine. I had no signs of disease, my remaining tube was clear (I had the dreaded HSG- oh how undignified).

I very much appreciate the NHS, and the fact that it is free (they were excellent at treating my ectopic) but I spent a lot of time waiting around in waiting rooms. If you make an appointment with the hospital for a certain time, it is highly unlikely that you will get seen at that time. Usually I had to wait between 40-60 minutes. When I finally got in to see the doctor, he would talk at me for 5 minutes, then I would be dismissed.

At my last appointment (February 2011), he said that as they could find nothing wrong with us, we have "unexplained infertility" and I am being referred for IVF.

So here we are, I have been referred for IVF. The list in my area is around 2 years apparently. My first appointment in on the 23rd May. I expect them to ask us to complete a form and to tell us that we will be waiting around for 2 years.