Gotta See The Babeee!: Out, out brief candle!

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

RIP Barbara.

Our TTC Journey. (AKA, A Comedy of Errors, with apologies to Will Shakespeare)

April 2004: Let's have a baby! It'll be born January 05 and I can stop working, yay!

September 2004: Um, maybe I should work out when I ovulate? Start using OPKs.

March 2005: Move interstate. Maybe something's wrong? See GP to get ball rolling on getting some tests done. But before we can start....

April 2005: BFP! See, I knew we were normal!! Baby due Jan 06, only a year off schedule.

June 2005: Bleeding, cramping, U/S showed no baby in sac, D+C at 12 weeks. Let's try for another 6 months or so, seeing we CAN get pregnant and all.

March 2006: Um, ok, maybe we're wasting time here. Get referral to see Fertility Specialist from dodgy GP. Who, funnily enough, refers us to a dodgy FS.

April 2006: OMG, another BFP just 2 weeks before FS appointment! Start bleeding and lose it at 6 weeks.

May 2006: see dodgy FS who does no tests beyond BTs, says we're normal and like every other woman who has trouble conceiving, would we like to try Clomid? No Blood or scan monitoring offered at all.

June 2006: lots of spotting and painful cramping. I thought the spotting was Day 1 of AF and started the Clomid on Day 2. Is this pain a side effect of the Clomid? Ring FS, he says to keep taking Clomid and come back CD28 for Blood test. No interest. In fact, the spotting was not AF, and if said incompetent FS had been monitoring me, would have discovered I was pregnant and this whole debacle could have been avoided.

Start haemorrhaging at work, rush home for the 4th time (oh yeah, the women's hospital 2 days earlier had said I was having left-over crap from last month's miscarriage. HCG was 2800 but nothing in Uterus. Alarm bells? Obviously not for the incompetent Dr on duty there), ring Women's who tell me not to bother coming in. Collapse, temp 35 degrees, in agony, can't move. Ring Ambulance and husband, who luckily is not working away this month. GYN on duty at local hospital (thank god the ambulance wenches were too lazy to drive me to the Women's, BOOO HISS) knew straight away. "You've got a tubal pregnancy". WHAT? I'M PREGNANT AGAIN???

Had to wait on trolley for 6 hours or so for blood test results. Morphine is my friend, just keep upping that dose, nurses.

Surgery, right tube lost. Wake up, still in shock, as if it isn't hard enough for me to fall pregnant!

July 2006 Can't face this any more. We put TTC on hold to go on our dream, round the world trip at the end of the year. I probably should have booked a new FS appt for next year at this stage, but didn't want to think about this crap anymore.

Feb 2007: Get a referral from better GP to one of the better specialists in the state. Can't get in till May. In the meantime, have uterine scan, HSG and hormone tracking for a month, all perfect.

May 2007: See FS, quite a character. Orders more tests and another tracking cycle. DH's SA is off the freaking chart in all categories (he high fives himself).

June 2007: Tracking shows that all is well, although I have an unusually high level of oestrogen in my body. That's just me, apparently. FS recommends Ovulation Induction, reminds himself that I'm 37 and suggests straight to IVF. Okay!

August 2007: IVF 1: Flare cycle on only 112.5iu of Gonal-F. After 4 days of stimming, my E2 is already 11000 and they tell me to stop. 4 days later my E2 is 30000 and I feel as sick as a dog. Cycle cancelled due to OHSS, of course. D'OH! Only in bizarro-Mezland is an old bag such a HIGH responder.

Sept 2007: IVF 2: Start down reg with lucrin and 100iu of Puregon.

Oct 2007: We're moving states again in the middle of the cycle. I stay at a friend's and keep my drugs in an esky while DH starts work 2000 kms away.

Dream cycle. 16 eggs collected. 13 mature. 9 fertilised properly. All get to Day 5 blast, 5 are Grade A. Of course, it's a BFN.

Nov 2007: move interstate, send my 4 blasties over to new clinic.

Dec 2007: FET 1: thaws perfectly, all goes well. BFP but very low initial HCG, which then begins to double for a few weeks, until the 7-week scan shows another blighted ovum. D+C time again! Testing shows the baby boy was chromosomally normal.

March 2008: FET 2: 2 perfect blasts, thaw perfectly, but transfer very painful. BFN. Karotype/Immunology testing reveals that I'm ANA+ and MTHFR compound heterozygote. Is this the answer to the puzzle of why our perfect embies are failing?

April 2008: hysteroscopy/biopsy/dilation. All good. No NK cells.

May 2008: IVF 3, antagonist cycle, Puregon 100iu. Prednisolone 25 + Aspirin 100. 10 eggs, 8 fertilised. 2 blasts Tx, One to freeze. BFN.

July 2008: IVF 4, antagonist cycle, Puregon 100iu. Prednisolone+Clexane from EPU. 10 eggs, 5 fert, Tx 2 A-grade blasts, 1 frozen. BFN.

Aug-Oct 2008: IVF 5, down reg cycle, lucrin and puregon 100iu. Clexane 60 from EPU, prednisolone 20. 8 eggs, tx 2 blasts, no frosties. BFN.

December 2008: Natural FET 3, 2 blasts Tx with clexane 60iu and aspirin. BFP, HCG of 84 at 14dpo, only 575 at 5.5 weeks, 1800 at 6.5 weeks. Scan shows 5 week sac/yolk. D+C.

May-June 2009: IVF PGD cycle. 150iu puregon but obviously not enough. 7 follies but only 2 eggs, not enough to biopsy. Tx both at day 2, BFN.

July 2009: FSH and AMH tested due to no real period for most of this year. Suspicions of peri-menopause confirmed with results of 9.9 and 6.7 respectively: Dx, diminished ovarian reserve. Buh-bye, fertility!

August 2009: Clomid cycle 1, 50mgs. P4 and OPKs show ovulation. BFN.

September 2009: Clomid cycle 2, 50mgs. P4 and OPKs show ovulation. BFN.

October 2009: Clomid cycle 3, 50mgs. P4 and OPKs show ovulation. BFN.

I guess it's over...........

Commonly used Assisted Conception abbreviations and acronyms.

AC - Assisted Conception
AF - Aunt Flo (periods)
AI - Assisted or Artificial Insemination
AID - Artificial Insemination with Donor Sperm
AIH - Artificial Insemination with husband's/partner's sperm
ART - Assisted Reproductive Technology
BBT - Basal Body temperature
BCP - Birth control pill
BD - baby dancing (sex)
BFN - big fat negative (pregnancy test)
BG - Buddy Group
BFP - big fat positive (pregnancy test)
B/T - blood test
BTW - by the way
CD - cycle day
CM - cervical mucus
CVS - Chorionic Villus Sampling
D&C - Dilation & Curette
DH, DS, DD, DF, DB - dear husband, dear son, dear daughter, dear fiance, dear boyfriend
DI - Donor Insemination
DPO - days past ovulation
ED - Egg Donation
Em D - Embryo Donation
Endo - Endometriosis
EP - Ectopic Pregnancy
EPU - Egg pick up
ET - Embryo Transfer
EW or EWCM - Egg White or Egg White Cervical Mucus (description of cervical mucus at ovulation time)
FET - Frozen Embryo Transfer
FS - Fertility Specialist
FSH - Follicle Stimulating Hormone
GYN- gynaecologist
HB - heartbeat
HPT - home pregnancy test
ICA - Inter Country Adoption
ICSI - Intracytoplasmic Sperm Insertion
IUI - Intrauterine InseminationI
VF - In Vitro Fertilisation
Lap- laparoscopy
MF - male factor
M/C - miscarriage
M/S - morning sickness
O - Ovulation
OB - Obstetrician
OHSS - Ovarian Hyper Stimulation Syndrome
OI - Ovulation Induction
OPK - ovulation predictor test kit
PCO - Poly Cystic Ovaries
PCOS - Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome
PG - pregnant
PGD - Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis
POAS - pi$$ on a stick (do a home pregnancy test)
POF - Premature Ovarian Failure
SA - semen analysis
SAHM - stay at home mum
SCSA - Sperm Chromatin Structure Assay (test to check for DNA breakage in sperm)
TTC - trying to conceive
U/S - Ultrasound
2WW - 2 week wait (wait after ovulation when TTC)

Gotta See The Babeee!

Thursday 8 May 2008

Out, out brief candle!

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Our TTC Journey. (AKA, A Comedy of Errors, with apologies to Will Shakespeare)

Commonly used Assisted Conception abbreviations and acronyms.

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