IVF - Egg Collection & Fertilisation

As you will know, I had my first egg collection yesterday!

It was certainly an experience, but not for the reasons I expected.

I had my collection booked for 11am so had to be at the unit for 10am.  We arrived at about 9.40am and were called in just before 10am. 

I was shown to a little recovery room with a bed (the ones they can move you around in), given a hospital gown to change into and told the doctor would come in shortly to do my consent. 

I changed into the gown and waited literally a minute for the doctor, he sat on the bed with me to check my details and then said to me to sign the form, which basically advised of the very, very rare risk of piercing my bladder or bowel.

Once he had gone the theatre nurse came to take me through to the theatre - I was really surprised as I had anticipated having to wait until 11am and by this point we had only been in the room about 10 mins.

Once in theatre I had to lay on an identical bed to the one from my room and put my legs into padded stirrups which then covered my feet. Almost like wearing padded boots, I am not sure what these were for? Maybe to stop me kicking the doctor once sedated?.

The  anaesthesiologist put a cannula in my hand and I asked him if I would be asleep, he joked and said not to worry he is very liberal with the drugs.  The cannula didn't really hurt, just felt like a blood test. 

Once ready, the nurse knocked on the hatch into the theatre and introduced me to the embryologist who would be dealing with my eggs. They did another data check of my details (they take security very seriously, which is reassuring). 

The anaesthesiologist then put an oxygen mask on me and said he would start with a painkiller that would make me feel lightheaded, while he did that they dimmed the lights. Literally not even 30 seconds later I could feel the drug working, I remember saying wow that works quickly and then nothing.......

....... until I woke up in recovery!

When I came around I asked the guy how long I had been out and he said about 10 mins, I felt like it was only seconds but like I had a really good sleep! 

He checked all my stats and blood pressure etc. He then gave me some tablets to take and a drink (I assume painkillers). He asked me if I wanted a cup of tea, which I did and then wheeled me back to my recovery room. I couldn't believe how quickly I was fully awake after being so deeply sedated. 

I honestly didn't think it would all happen so quickly, it seemed too easy. 

They gave me tea and biscuits, which tasted like the best biscuits ever after not being able to eat all morning. 

Then the nurse came to talk me through the next couple of days and what I should do (rest) and when to take the delightful pessaries. 

She couldn't take the cannula out of my hand until I had been able to walk to the loo and pee. I was able to get dressed and managed that straight away. I didn't really have "pain" as such, just felt really bruised inside. 

Not long after the embryologist came in to tell us we had 14 eggs, which I was delighted with as they had thought 10-11 at my last scan.  Obviously some will not be mature enough to use, she told us usually about 80% are good enough and then they will perform ICSI on them all and watch them overnight to see how many fertilise and would call me the next day.

Not long after this I was allowed to go home.  I felt really good until about 10 mins into the taxi drive to the train station, by which point I was dry heaving and felt really sick.  I was sick twice at the station, once on the train and once in a bush next to the bus stop!  So an eventful and highly embarrassing journey home!  Neither of us drive and I honestly thought I could cope with pain for the train ride, but I didn't count on being so sick.  If we have to do this again I will make sure someone can take us, I honestly didn't think it would be an issue.

When I got home I was sick until about 4pm, I phoned the hospital to check whether this was normal and had to chuck the phone at Rick halfway through the call so I could run to be sick.  As I didn't have any pain or bleeding it was nothing to worry about, simply my reaction to the sedation. 

I managed to eat half a piece of toast and then nap for about an hour. I felt better then so Rick made me some crackers, which I kept down and later some beans on toast. I felt absolutely fine once the sickness stopped. 

Rick was so amazing, he looked after me all day and got me some beautiful flowers and said he was proud of me. It can't have been easy to watch, I love him so much xxx

I woke up at 7am this morning because I was excited for the call, even though they said it would be before 12pm. 

They just called and............12 out of 14 fertilised!

So emotional right now!  They said that all 14 were suitable for use and 12 fertilising is great!

They are going to call me first thing Monday to tell me whether I will go in for transfer the same day or Wednesday. They will make the decision on how many to put back on the day depending on the quality - either 1 or 2.

Xxxxxx 

IVF Days 7-14

Just a quick update, sorry for not posting sooner - hopefully most of you will have seen my updates on Facebook and Instagram. 

The first scan last Wednesday was ok and showed lots of little follicles, unfortunately the second scan on Friday didn't show much change so they had to increase my Gonal F to 150 from 112.5. 

My scans on Monday and yesterday were much improved, so much so that I am going for egg collection tomorrow - eek!

I took my trigger shot last night and didn't have to do any jabs today, which was nice!

Very bloated and uncomfortable, plus a little apprehensive for the collection tomorrow.  They think I may get 10-11 eggs if I am lucky. 

I will post a longer update after collection.

Fingers crossed xxxx 

P.S here is a sneaky pic I took from my last scan as they left the image on the screen when I was getting changed hehe, the back circles are follicles :) xx

IVF The First Few Days

As you know I started IVF (ICSI) short protocol on Friday. I have so far had four injections from my Gonal F pen and two from my Cetrotide "real" syringes. 

It hasn't gone too badly so far and I can now inject quite easily without stressing about it beforehand. 

For the Gonal F injections I wasn't icing my tummy beforehand and they were fine, but I had heard the Cetrotide was horrible to inject so I made sure to ice before doing it.  

It was absolutely fine, I had worried for nothing but I have kept up with the icing for all injections now because it simply makes it easier.

I have put together a photo tutorial for injecting Cetrotide for anyone who is going to do short protocol.  Or for those just a little curious :-)  hopefully the photos will display in the correct order!

The side effects haven't been as bad as I expected so far.  It is hard to tell which are as a result of the drugs and which are because of this hot weather.  I have felt hot and bothered, had headaches for the last two days, bloating on my tummy, hit and miss appetite and just generally felt down and emotional.

I am drinking lots and lots of water as this is recommended to avoid hyper stimulation. 

I have my first scan tomorrow so will update you all then.  Hopefully they will find lots of lovely follicles growing! 

Love to all xx 

IVF - The First Injection....

So it has been a little while since my last post, mainly due to having to wait for the start of a new cycle to begin my first round of short protocol IVF (ICSI).  But also because I wanted to keep my mind on other things while I waited. 

Well my new cycle started yesterday, I called both Oxford and Swindon to "book in" and was given the green light to start. 

Tonight was my first injection of Gonal F, which is a stimulant designed to encourage my body to produce lots of nice big follicles containing eggs.  The injection is in the form of a pen injector, so you only have to put a needle on the end of the pre-filled pen and turn the dial to set the dose. You then inject this into your tummy fat, which luckily I have plenty of, before pressing the button down until the dose has gone in and the dial reads zero. You then count to ten before removing the needle.  

It didn't go too badly, a couple of false starts before I got the nerve to inject - feels totally weird to stab yourself with a needle - but I took a deep breath and went for it. The needle didn't hurt and it was ok until I got to about 4 on my count, then it stung like a bee sting.  It still was ok, better than I expected. 

My tummy feels a bit tingly, but I don't know if that is all in my head because I know I have injected.  

I need to do the same injection every evening until told I am ready for egg collection. 

From Monday I will also add morning injections of Cetrotide, which is a drug to stop my body trying to ovulate and release the eggs before we are ready for them. 

I have to go for my first set of blood tests and scans on Wednesday to see how my  follicles are developing and then further scans every other day until I am ready for collection. 

As things are actually happening now I will try to update as I go.

Thank you for all the support everyone has given so far xxxx 

Change Of Plan....

Yesterday I received a call from the unit in Swindon advising that they want to switch me to short protocol IVF (ICSI).

There are two versions of IVF; long protocol and short protocol.  By default the majority of patients will have long protocol treatment, as I had expected to.

With long protocol you start with the down reg nasal spray on day 21 of your cycle, this effectively puts your body into menopause and stops your natural cycle.  This takes around two weeks, you then combine this with daily stim injections to artificially encourage your body to grow multiple eggs at once. Once the eggs are mature they are surgically collected under sedation and taken to the lab to get jiggy with the sperm sample. (Unless you are having ICSI like us, whereby the sperm is injected into the egg). After 2,3 or 5 days the eggs will be transferred back and you begin the TWW to test. The treatment takes approximately 6 weeks once you start the nasal spray.

Short protocol is just as the name sounds..... shorter.  There is no full down regging on day 21, instead you take two different types of daily injections from day 2 of a natural cycle and egg collection is around 2 weeks later - very quick!   

The reason they have decided short protocol would be more suitable is that I am at a higher risk of ovarian hyper stimulation syndrome (OHSS) with long protocol.  I was told this is because of my polycystic ovaries (which was news to me as this has never been formally confirmed). At my consent scan they found 28 follicles on one ovary and fifteen on the other, if all matured with long protocol it would be a lot of eggs and with that comes the risk of OHSS. Short protocol doesn't put your body under as much pressure so it is safer.

From what I have read online (was too shocked to ask questions during the call) there would be less eggs generated with short protocol but the quality would be higher.  We would still have ICSI with this version.

The downside is that because they have only just made the decision it is too late for this cycle (already day 4). But they are going to send me the drugs and have me in for "training" in the next couple of weeks ready for the next cycle.  If my cycle arrives at a reasonable time (let's face it Mother Nature loves to be unpredictable with me) then I might even finish the treatment a week before I would have done with long protocol - silver lining and all that jazz :-)

So a little bit of a waiting game now, but quite used to it after all this time (will be three years in Sept!). 

On the plus side I now have over a month to get my weight down and start eating well.

Love to all xxx 

The IVF Diet....

Well this morning I stopped living in denial and braved the scales...... 

Well I am not at my heaviest but I am not far from it! 

But today is a new day!

I can expect to gain between 10-15 lbs during IVF so I want to try and lose a few lbs before I start the drugs.

I am starting my IVF diet today. I want to give this first round my best shot and try to minimise the gain.

Whilst it is not a recognised diet as such, these are a few pointers I found online which are worth trying:

- cut out caffeine

- reduce sugar

- cut out sweeteners

- increase protein

- increase fruit/veg

- no alcohol

- less processed food

- glass of milk or yogurt every day

Sounds pretty obvious when you think about it!

I would like to lose a few lbs before my drugs start in a few weeks, but the aim is to have a healthy round of IVF and give it my best shot.

Wish me luck! Xxx 

The Consent Consultation...

We had our consent consultation with the satellite unit in Swindon last week (Swindon is in partnership with the Oxford Fertility Unit, which allows some of our treatment to be completed locally). 

So it is now all systems go!...

The appointment lasted around 90 mins and involved a baseline scan of my ovaries together with blood tests on us both. We then sat down with the nurse to go through all of the red tape/compliance forms.... all three billion of them!

Most of the forms covered generic information and consenting to the IVF procedures, including accepting the risks and understanding it is not guaranteed to work. But there were also lots of forms regarding our wishes for any embryos should one of us die, which was rather morbid, and whether we were happy to donate eggs/sperm/embryos that aren't suitable for IVF to be used for research. We both agreed we were happy with this, after all, without the research having been put into IVF in the past we wouldn't have had any chance of getting our dream. 

We got to see the nasal spray I will use twice a day for the first part of the process, which is called down regging.  We also got to see the needle I will use for the second stage stim injections, which to my relief, is in a pen format making it easier to inject.  I will get full training for that part once I go back to check I have down regged completely after the nasal spray. 

I now need to wait for my next cycle, I estimate by early June but who knows with my cycles, to call Oxford and book in. At this point I will be sent a schedule of when I need to take each drug and go for scans/blood tests etc. The drug company will also then send me everything I need for my first cycle.

They also confirmed we will be having ICSI instead of standard IVF.  This means they inject the sperm directly into the egg so it's more complex, but hopefully more successful.

It is still a daunting process, but I am excited that this could make our dream a reality.  I am also so lucky to have so much support, so thank you xx

I will update again once I have more information.

As always, baby dust to all and keep those fingers crossed! Xxx