The Road to IVF

I’ve always wanted children but was always waiting for the right time. When I married my 1^st husband in 2003 we had the talk and agreed that we’d start trying a year after we married i.e. June 2004. Unfortunately the marriage didn’t last. I was lucky enough to then meet the love of my Life Chris in April 2004. Pretty much a year to the day in June 2004 my biological clock kicked in and I wanted to start a family!

Fast forward to December 2009, Chris and I had been married just over a year so it was time to have the ‘talk’, he reluctantly agreed for me to come off the pill and for us to start a family, which in fact was perfect timing as was just at the same time as my best friend decided to try as well.

It was great fun knowing I had someone else close who was also trying.  A year down the line and nothing, come February 2011 I found out that my best friend was expecting, while I was very much over the moon for her I was also upset it wasn’t me. 

By April 2011 still nothing so we went to the doctors, they ran the normal blood tests for me, which came back ok, so Hubby was asked to do a test. Tests came back as low, we were told to wait 3 months + and then Chris would get tested again. This was the start of knowing something was wrong.

In Sept 2011 after some advice from a friend I started Acupuncture and also took the bold move of becoming a weight watcher leader in the hope it would take my mind of things. My 1^st session of acupuncture went well, I was initially scared as I’m not a huge fan of needles, but Susannah made me feel so at easy. She’s based in Reading and I would differently recommend her http://www.susannah-fone.co.uk/. She warned me I might feel strange that 1^st night and she wasn’t kidding, not sure if it was just the acupuncture or the fact I’d travelled to Leeds for my weight watcher leader training but I was very emotional. We agreed to start with that I would see her every 2 weeks, also she suggested that I looked at the zita west tablets, which I did do later on.

In October 2011 I decided to get hubby to start taking the Wellman conception, wasn’t quite early enough for his 2^nd test in Nov 2011 which again came back low. I so felt for hubby as he felt he was a failure, I tried to tell him he wasn’t. Due to this the doctor referred us for IVF.

We had to wait a long 4 months till March 2012 for our 1^st consultant appointment at the Royal Berks. I think the worse part of this clinic is its right by the maternity ward. Appointment was fine, I was asked to go for a scan of my ovaries so they could see what was going on inside me. That happened 4 days later, unfortunately hubby couldn’t come with me so I went alone, worse decision I ever made! I came out in tears as they told me I had a right stuck ovary. I remember phoning Hubby and telling him I was broken too! Think in some ways that helped him to except the fact we needed help.

We then had another consultant appointment on the 25^th April 2012, we found out there that this would be our last as he was sending all the approval forms off for the IVF, he asked us where we wanted to go, think we had 3 choices one of them being Oxford. We asked his opinion and he said Oxford so that what we went for. I think we had to wait a month or so for the approval but once that came the process was pretty quick.

I had already had a twitter account but I decided to create a new account for my IVF so I could find like minded people to support me. One of the best accounts I found to follow was @ivfdivas created by the 3 amazing women who had been through IVF.

IVF

 

Under Oxford http://www.oxfordfertilityunit.com/ they invite all couples to an open evening where they explain the process of IVF/ICSI, we attended the evening on Wednesday 13^th June. From this they invite you to a booking in appointment to go through all the forms you have to sign, we were lucky we were able to use Oxford’s Satellite clinic at the Berkshire Independent in Reading. This was on the 6^th July 2012. Due to a mess up by me we had to book another appointment to have my base line scan which we were lucky enough that we got an appointment the following week on the 12^th July.

About this time I started taking the some of the zita west tablets, I took: Vital DHA & Vitafem Boost and hubby took Vitamen Boost this was on top of the wellwoman and wellman tablets. I also was continuing with the Acupuncture.

What I failed to say earlier that during this time hubby and I had decided move, after to sell our house previously when we found a new buyer we knew that we weren’t going to let this one slip and therefore decided to sell and move out before we had brought anywhere else. We were lucky enough to be able to move into my parent’s house, so on the 25^th June just shy of 6 years from buying our house we moved out. Lucky we found a house we liked but after the survey we found it had a few problems.

12^th July 2012 was a day I will never forget. Morning started off very stressful as it was the day we were meant to exchange on the new house, we had asked for an additional £8k off the house we wanted to buy due to the problems raised in the survey, but the sellers weren’t moving on this! Hubby and I decided that we weren’t either. So by lunch time we had pulled out of buying the new house. That evening was my scan at Oxford. Time again for that lovely dido camera and yet again another slight blow although everything was fine and we could go ahead I was told I had Polycystic ovaries. I was told I didn’t have the syndrome but they would have to keep a closer eye on me. Now all we had to do was wait for my next period to start and call the clinic. I remember having to stop on the way home for petrol and when hubby got back in the car I was in tears. I had always said that we would only start IVF if the house was all sorted. Hubby asked me what was wrong and my response was well we can’t start it now can we as we have no house! Hubby said well that doesn’t matter we can go ahead anyway! By the 21^st July we’d found an even better house and put in an offer which was accepted.

1^st August 2012 came along with my period so the call to oxford went in, I was given the option of going with this cycle and having to have all my appointments in Oxford or waiting to see if next time they would have space for us at Reading for the 1^st part of the scans. I decided that it was best to go for now at Oxford but asked for the 1^st appointments of the days. They arranged for all my drug to be sent to home. I would have to use nasel spray for my down reg and then Menopur injections for ovary simulation.

My down reg started in the 21^st August 2012. All I can say is this is not a pleasant experience as it brings on the menopause, basically causes mood swings, headaches and hot flushes. Do not under estimate this; the headaches can be quite bad I found 4head a great friend over this time. I had 22 days of down regging before I went for my scan to check everything was ok. We were relived to find out it was and were given the approval to start the ovary simulation - stims the next day, which happened to be the day we completed and moved into our new house!

Due to the polycystic ovaries I was put on a slightly lower dose of menopur and also had an extra scan. 1^st scan was on the 19^th Sept and all was looking well, 2^nd scan on the 21^st Sept all looking well and had quite a few follicles but due to them not looking big enough I had to increase my dose and carry on with the stims for a few extra day to have another scan on Monday 24^th September. The final scan went well and we were told we could do the trigger that night; this basically gets your body ready for egg collection and is the last day of drugs. I meant to say pretty much at every scan you are scanned internally and also have blood taken. I didn’t find the scans too bad, just slightly uncomfortable. By this time I was also finding it too much being a weight watcher leader so I asked for some time off. I found that I was emotional and tired during the stimms process and again had lots of headaches even though I was drinking lots of water. I was also watching what I was eating making sure I was getting lots of protein. The @ivfdivas sent me a great list.

D day and egg collection, I was told nil by mouth from 10pm the previous night though I could slip water as I was going to have general anaesthesia, bar this I didn’t want to know much else, I purposely avoided looking up anything to do with what would happen and therefore apologies I will not describe it here, but feel free to Google it.

We turned up and were shown to our private room, very basic and not highly comfortable. Hubby was taken off to do his thing as they were running late for me. Finally about 10:30 I think, the nurse came and got me and walked me across to the room where it was going to happen, I remember being very scared and crying even when asked to lay down. Next think I can remember is waking up back in the room with Hubby and him telling me we got 4 eggies and they were going to do ISCI for us. Pretty much I was in and out of sleep for about an hour or so. Finally around lunch time we were allowed to leave. I seem to remember going to Waitrose but to be honest that day after EC is pretty much a blur.

The call!

The next stage was the horrible 24 hours waiting for THE CALL! The one when you find out if any of the eggs have fertilized. I’d taken the day off work to recover from EC but hubby had gone back so I was waiting by my self. Then finally my mobile rang to say we had 3 embies I remember crying down the phone to the lady, bless her she was great they must get it all the time. All looking good and egg transfer would be Saturday (Day 3) or Monday (Day 5) but they would call me again Saturday to let me know. Think the next 2 days were the longest ever! I remember making hubby take me food shopping the Saturday at like 7am just in case we had to go in that morning, we were actually walking around Sainsbury’s when the call came, we were told all were doing great at that we were booked in at 10:30 on the Monday for the transfer! Rest of the weekend was spent on a high! I also had to email work to let them know I wouldn’t be in Monday, have to say they were great will allowing me the time out of the office, although I wasn’t allowed paid leave I had to make my time up.

Monday 1^st October 2012 day was the day I got my little embie or beanie put on board. Was lovely hubby came to all my appointments but we both knew this would be the most special one. I was dying for a wee when we got there but you have to have a full bladder so I wasn’t allowed to go. Had to do the normal confirm your name etc, then the embryologist came out to tell us all 3 were grade A blasto’s which means they are the best they could possibly be and the would be transferring one back. I think with Oxford on your 1^st go they do pretty much only allow you one back. Hubby and I had decided that all we wanted. Seeing the little embie being put back inside me was amazing. I’m glad Oxford uses an ulta sound scan to know where to place. So that was it I was pregnant until proven otherwise! PUPO.

The 2 week Wait 

I had the rest of my egg transfer day off work but went back the following day Tuesday 2^nd Oct. 1^st things was to have a catch up with my boss, think she wanted to see how I was etc. Ended up being one of the worse meetings of my life, as this was the day I was told that one of my other close colleagues was just over 12 weeks pregnant! Great just what I didn’t want to know, I was happy for her but I couldn’t bloody believe it! As the day wore on the worse I got emotion wise and I ended up spending the next 2 days in the loo crying, bless my other work colleague she was great during this time, she’d also been through IVF unsuccessfully so knew how I felt, by the Thursday she told me I was doing my self no favours being at work and to go home via the doctors to get signed off. So that’s what I did, called the doctors got an appointment and then left. I did feel bad for my pregnant colleague as I knew she knew her news was the reason for my emotional state.

Again my doctor was brilliant and signed me off for 2 weeks until 18^th October. I spent the next week or so mixed emotions, caught up with a few friends which was lovely but spent quite a lot of the time on the sofa. You also have to follow a diet as if you’re pregnant. http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/pages/healthy-pregnancy-diet.aspx

The clinic gives you a pregnancy test as asks you to test 2 weeks later so my official test date was the 12^th October.

During this time my IVF twitter account was a great support, I found there was quite a few of us going through the process at the same time. One of the girls sent me this link www.nyufertilitycenter.org/ivf/embryo_transfer , which I liked looking at most days. From this I knew that any day after Wednesday 10^th I could test.

I had a right mix of systems, from cramps feeling nauseous, tired, sore boobs etc, I was so convinced that my period was going to start any day. Hubby kept telling me to be positive and that it would be ok. At some point you have to use bum pestaries and then that swaps to front think this is around the 2ww. I have to say I preferred having them in the bum than the front a lot less mess! My only advice is put it in the front then go back to bed for 30 minutes or more and were sanitary pads.