Trigger time

Scan went ok today. After 25 minutes waiting we were taken through and saw my right ovary stagnating again and my left one plummeting again. One follicle was 24mm, which didn't happen last cycle. I was told it's trigger time for me today. Yay.
After the scan we went downstairs to the ward for the intralipid infusion. We waited a bit more and then had my blood pressure and temperature measured, read and signed a few forms and we were ready. The cannula hurt but nothing terrible. The infusion looked like milk, haha. It was basically just soya, fat and oils. It's supposed to help with implantation if IVF failed before or after having miscarriage in the past. Let's hope it works.
After the intralipids we went back upstairs to outpatient department and waited for the pharmacy. I got my last Zomacton and Ovitrelle (trigger). Finally, at 4pm we were allowed to go home.
Later today I got a phone call with information about time for the trigger which is in about 17 minutes, at 9:30pm and some information about Wednesday egg collection. Getting up at 6am that day as we are supposed to be at the clinic at 8am. Whoohoo.

S9, a bit disappointed

At the scan today my right ovary for me looked worse than 2 days ago. There is one quite a big follicle, it has around 14mm, and four smaller ones under 10mm. The left ovary looked much better, one follicle over 16mm and about seven smaller ones between 14 and 11mm. The nurse said it's going nice and steady which is what we want but I feel like the Zomacton injections are not working as they should. Next scan is on Monday which will be S12, which is one day more than last time when I had trigger. Hopefully the timeframe is going to be very similar to the last cycle. Intralipids are scheduled for Monday as well. If I do trigger on Monday, the egg collection is going to be Wednesday and 5d transfer on Monday after, yay.

S7, first monitoring scan

It was my first monitoring scan yesterday. No waiting again, we were taken through straight away. It was a new nurse doing the scan. All good, follicles are growing, it's very similar to the first cycle. Left ovary is better again. The nurse asked a doctor to review my notes in case they wanted to increase my dose of Gonal F but they didn't. Next scan is tomorrow and then on Monday.

S4 = Rainbow belly

S4 means stimulation day number 4. I'm on two, respectively three injections a day (the extra one is Zomacton, which is somatotropin - human growth hormone, which I'm having every other day). I already don't know where to put another needle because my lower belly looks like a rainbow. Just with three colours though - purple, blue and yellow, depending on the stage of the bruise. They are small, not like the massive one I made last cycle. My left side of belly still hurts, right one is fine. Since the start of stimulation phase the buserelin injections have been bitches, some of them hurt so so much. Hopefully there is only about a week left, the first monitoring scan is on Wednesday.

Baseline scan

Today we went for the baseline scan. When we got there, they were already waiting for us, no waiting time whatsoever which was nice but it kind of made me feel that we came late although we still had 5 odd minutes spare.

Two nurses took me through which was unusual but it looked like the one who was actually doing the scan was learning. The second nurse I recognised but didn't remember her name. Oh well. Scan went well, not too uncomfortable at this stage. I wasn't told exactly how many follicles she could see but apparently it was good number on each side, left ovary being the 'better' one again. Lining was thin as well so we were given all clear for starting Gonal F injections from today. Yay!

After the scan we waited only a few minutes until a nurse from pharmacy picked us up in the waiting room. I got two big white paper bags full of drugs. There was Gonal F, then Zomacton with two sets of needles plus syringes, then aspirin and folic acid. I already did my injections today, 'only' two but tomorrow it will be full house - all three injections plus the tablets. Can't wait.

Pill worked

My last pill was on Tuesday 21st of June and my period started on Sunday 26th. So no stressing about delayed bleeding before baseline scan. That's scheduled for this Thursday. Let's hope my lining is thin enough so I'll be able to start stimulation straight away.
My mum came over for almost a week and left on Thursday. As we were coming home from the airport around 6pm, I started having the worst headache in my life. I never had migraines so can't tell if it was like one but it was terrible. I felt sick, I couldn't get comfortable and two paracetamols didn't help. After about two hours of torture I asked Rick to call out of hours emergency number to ask if we should go to hospital if it was related to the treatment drugs. The doctor on call got back to us really quickly and said it's nothing to worry about as I was on buserelin for 10 days already and also this is our second cycle. I fell asleep after all and when I woke up at 11pm, I was fine. Hopefully I will never get the same pain ever in my life.

Endometrial scratch

I was supposed to get a phone call on Saturday to confirm time of the procedure. No one bothered. I left them a voice mail on Saturday night. A nurse called me this morning around 8:20 and told me to come at 1pm with a comfortably full bladder.
When we got there, we were sat in the corridor by quite a grumpy nurse who told us that someone will take care of us soon. After 15 minutes another nurse asked us if we were being helped. My bladder was very full by then. After another few minutes we were taken through to a tiny room just to have a little chat about what's going to happen today. We had a little moan about what's been happening, how chaotic and unprofessional the team has been. She asked us if we wanted to talk to someone just to put our minds to peace and we agreed. We saw noone.
We were taken to the waiting room and my bladder started screaming, we ended up waiting another 20 minutes. After that another nurse picked me up and took me to the same theatre I had my embryo transfer done. The doctor and yet another nurse were very lovely. I got changed into a theatre gown and got on the chair. The procedure itself took maybe 3 minutes. The scratching part was quite painful, short intense pain but as quickly as it arrived, it was gone. A few seconds of pain and we were done. It wasn't bad at all. The best part of it all was I could go to the toilet straight after. Back in the waiting room I got my antibiotic tablets (just routine) and we were free to go. We went upstairs to the pharmacy to pick up my medications. We got to the check in point and again, we were not on the system. I was getting quite annoyed by that point. They took us to the waiting room though and even gave us a free coffee (in our case hot chocolate) token. Yay. Within a few minutes a nice nurse picked me up and took me through. I got my buserelin, syringes and sharps box so I'm all good to go and start my injections tomorrow. :) Baseline scan is scheduled for July 7th.

Ready, set and... Countdown!

After I sent the email to the clinic on Wednesday, I got a phone call from them about an hour later. The nurse was quite confused/confusing because according to my notes I started the down regulation for IVF #2 on 26/04! I couldn't believe they actually thought that when it was the same team who told me to wait for my next period and cancelled the treatment after I started bleeding on day 18. She told me that she was going to have a doctor review my notes and that she would call me back later that day. She never did.
I though to myself, they are probably busy, she is definitely going to call me on Thursday or send me an email. No, nothing happened. Rick was starting to get a bit annoyed as well so he said he was going to call them. All good, they are going to let us know. Cool.
Went to walk our new puppy (Alfie, the German sheprador) and didn't hear my phone ring. I had a voicemail saying that the doctor wants me to start oral contraceptive pill as soon as possible and that I will have to go there to collect them if I don't have any. To be honest, birth control pills are not a thing to be found in my cupboard when we are trying to have a baby... Haha.
I got all panicky because I remember when I was younger and on the pill, they have to be taken from day 1. It was too late to go to the clinic so would have to go the next day (today) which would already be my day 3. I thought that we would have to wait for my next cycle AGAIN to plan the treatment. But fortunately the nurses told me that missing just a couple of pills is fine since I'm taking them only to regulate my hormones and make sure that I'll bleed before my baseline scan. So today I'll start taking the pill and I'll be going back to the clinic on 20/06 for endometrial scratch and will start down regulation on 21/06.