Car crash, car broke down and no medication....

Today has been the most horrific day we have ever experienced... As we got in the car this morning to drive to Nottingham for our fourth scan both of us were feeling extremely weary however we knew this could be the last scan so we pushed ourselves just that little bit more. 

Just before we were due to enter Spratton there is an extremely sharp corner (where many accidents have occurred) which Jay took a little bit too fast, we crashed into the barrier and the car also slipped on mud. It was a lucky escape as it is a very dangerous corner and we were even more lucky that no cars were coming on the other side of the road. Neither of us were hurt but it badly shook us up, it happened so fast...

So we rang my mum and we went home immediately as we didn't know what damage was done to the car. When we got home the car appeared to be unscathed, just a lot of the paint work scratched off on my side where it hit the barrier and a small dent. It was decided that mum would drive us to Nottingham instead until Jay could get the car checked out properly. We all got in mum's car and was at a roundabout that leads to the M1 when disaster struck again! Suddenly mum couldn't change gear and the car appeared to be stuck right on a very busy roundabout! She finally managed to get the car to a safe place on a grass verge and then we rang up the breakdown cover but we all couldn't believe that mum's car had broke down!!! 

An hour and a half later the breakdown recovery man arrived and said that the clutch had gone on mum's car and he was going to tow it to a garage. In the meantime we had been frantically trying to get hold of CARE Fertility and let them know that we couldn't get to Nottingham today. So they said I could come in for my scan tomorrow however we had a problem...I had run out of Menopur! I had no medication left as on Wednesday the clinic had only given me enough till Friday. The clinic said that we may well have to buy the Menopur (which as you know is very expensive!) 

Luckily the breakdown man ended up driving through our village in order to take mum's car to the garage so Jay and I got out and walked home. As soon as we got in we rang up CARE Fertility and was told that we had to ring round as many pharmacies as we could and find out if they had any Menopur. In the meantime Mary (our nurse) had rang CARE Fertility in Northampton and they had refused to help!!! Jay and I got on the phone and guess what?! No pharmacies in Northampton stocked Menopur. Our day just got even worse. If I didn't take the Menopur tonight then the whole IVF treatment would be all over...

Finally we had some good news Mary rang back and said that CARE Fertility in Northampton would provide us with the 3 ampoules of Menopur that we needed. Jay and I risked taking the car out (to see how it ran as well) and drove to CARE Fertility Northampton to pick up the Menopur. So we now have the Menopur to take tonight and we still have to go to Nottingham tomorrow morning for my scan. The car appears to be fine and Jay has checked it over several times. The only thing we can do is leave super early in the morning to give plenty of time to get to Nottingham. Worst day ever!!!!!!!!

Third Scan...

Today we went for our third scan at Nottingham. Happily I didn't need a blood test just a scan. Sizes of follicles are slowly increasing but not quite there yet. We had however ran out of Menopur yesterday so the nurse wrote us a prescription for 6 more ampoules of Menopur. We were then told to go to the Pharmacy round the corner to collect the medicine. 

So as we were leaving the clinic Jay pulled his glasses out of his pocket and they snapped almost in half!! I burst out laughing as it was typical that this should occur right before Jay needed to drive home on the M1! So we drove to the Pharmacy and there was a Wilkinsons right next door and Jay decided to go and buy some superglue while I was waiting in the Pharmacy! As I picked up my Menopur I was shocked to see that the total cost was £108.20 (of course we were not paying that as we are on the NHS) for only 6 ampoules! It certainly made me feel even more lucky that we have been given this opportunity. 

Jay did superglue his glasses back together (I have no idea how he did it!) and we got back on the M1 home. Both of us are starting to feel a little weary now with the continuous trips back and forth to Nottingham but I keep telling myself that it is all so worth it in the end. We then had a phone call in the afternoon from the nurse saying that we have another scan booked for Friday at 10.30am and my medication is staying the same. I intend to have a good rest tomorrow and hopefully I will feel a bit stronger then! 

Cetrotide, A&E and a second scan...

Well it has been an eventful weekend to say the least! I will rewind back to Saturday evening and my first injection of Cetrotide. It got to 7.00pm and we did the Menopur injection first of 150IU. All was going well so we moved onto the Cetrotide injection, we were told by the clinic to inject on the same side as the Menopur and no mention was made about how long a gap should be left between both injections so we did it immediately. The Cetrotide needle was quite a lot bigger than the Menopur and as Jay gave me the injection it was quite painful. A few minutes later quite a large red itchy rash came out around the injection site. Apart from that we had no other problems and I assumed everything had gone well. 

So I was watching TV and relaxing when about an hour and a half later sudden cramps occurred in my stomach and I began to feel hot. I went up to the toilet and had terrible diarrhea (please excuse the graphic detail haha!) I felt nauseous, light-headed and did not feel right at all. Jay tried to ring up Nottingham clinic but the line was dead. My initial worry was that I had Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome as the symptoms matched. We couldn't get hold of anyone at the clinic and we didn't know what to do! I didn't know how to treat myself so the only option was to go to A&E. We had already rang up the emergency 111 number and they suggested that we go to A&E. By this time it was about 11.00pm so mum, Jay and I piled into the car down to the hospital. Luckily it was quite empty in there and I got seen fairly quickly by a nurse, they gave me some Codeine for pain relief and put us in a room. We then had to wait for a doctor to see me, he came eventually at gone midnight, a young Chinese man. He was very understanding however he didn't seem to know anything about Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome or IVF in general. 

2 hours later, I had given a urine sample which came back normal and had been left in the room with Jay and mum to be monitored. I also had a lucky escape from what could have been a difficult blood test! A Jamaican woman come in to take my blood and took one look at my arm, then turned it over, looked at me and said 'You have no veins!' She seemed really reluctant to take my blood and luckily was relieved from her task by the arrival of the other nurse who said that the doctor didn't need my blood anymore. Finally we were discharged not knowing anymore than when we came in, however the pain relief had helped me a lot. 

We slept most of Sunday but around 1.00pm we rang up Nottingham clinic to try and find out what to do. Eventually we got hold of someone who explained that the phone line had gone down due to the storm we had in the day. Dr. Maruthini rang us back half an hour later and I explained everything that had happened. She then told me that it was definitely not OHSS as my blood test had come back with normal hormone levels. There were several things that could have possibly caused the diarrhea and stomach pains such as a virus (pure coincidence that it occurred on the first day of my Cetrotide) or in a very rare case I may well have had a reaction to it. Therefore Dr. Maruthini wanted me to try the Cetrotide again on Sunday evening, she set up that Karen (nurse) was to ring me to check it went well and if I had a bad reaction go straight to A&E. The evening came and Jay did both injections. It seemed even better this time as I had no reaction occur at the injection site. Karen rang and said that it most probably was a rare case of me reacting to it. 

So today we went for our second scan at Nottingham. I had another blood test and the scan went very well. We had a phone call later on to let us know that our next scan is Wednesday at 10.30am and my Menopur is now being increased to 225IU. Just about to have my injections for this evening... 

First Scan...

Today was our very first scan of the IVF cycle. We had an early start, left here at 8.15am and got on the road to Nottingham. This time we thankfully arrived early and without getting lost! 

Appointment was at 10.00am. Firstly I had a blood test to check my hormone levels and also to check for signs of Ovarian Hyperstimulation syndrome. Then there was a bit of a long wait for my scan as there was a lot of couples in the waiting room today! Finally we got called around 10.15am and this time Jay came in to see the scan (he missed the first one as he was off giving his sperm sample!) Turned out things are going well, I already have some egg follicles growing and they are very happy with my progress. We were then told to wait for a phone call this afternoon in which we would find out our next scan and whether anything needs to be changed...

And we just received that phone call! My Menopur medication is now being increased to 150 IU from today (so that is exactly 2 ampoules of Menopur) and my next scan is Monday at 11.00am. Tonight I also begin the Cetrotide, which is used to prevent me from ovulating (losing eggs haha!) I can happily say that if I ever did have a fear of needles (which luckily I didn't) I definitely do not now!! 

Menopur Kit

Injections, tears and sad news...

The past two days have been a whirlwind of emotions... Yesterday was the first of my Menopur injections and I was feeling extremely excited! 

Firstly I better explain about the Menopur injection. Unfortunately with this type of injection it requires you to mix it yourself as every person needs different amounts of Menopur. Each ampoule contains 0.75 IU (International Units). As there is a risk of stimulating the ovaries too much and developing Ovarian hyperstimulation Syndrome the clinic decided to start me off on a relatively small dose of 112.5 IU. This is a particularly awkward number as it meant that we need to use two ampoules of Menopur and then get rid of some as it would be too much. The syringe is in millilitres which makes it even more confusing! Anyway to give a rough picture of what we have to do:

• Firstly snap the top of a small bottle which contains sterile water (make sure you flick the top so that no water gets caught in the neck of the bottle).
• Open the pink needle which is the mixing needle and attach to syringe. 
• Remove the lids off of the two ampoules of Menopur.
• Gently stab through the top of the ampoule bottle and slowly empty the syringe into the bottle (the Menopur comes in powder form and dissolves immediately).
• Suck the liquid back into the syringe and repeat on the second ampoule of Menopur. 
• Then remove the mixing needle and put the yellow needle on which is the needle we will inject me with. 
• Now the confusing part the liquid in the syringe has to be at 0.75 ml and the excess has to be removed. 
• Then Jay injects the needle into my stomach. 

Now we had already double-checked several times about the measurements of the drug and was well and truly reassured. So the evening came yesterday and at 7.00pm we followed all the above instructions and got right to the part about measurements and there wasn't enough liquid in the syringe!!! It was 7.30pm by this point and I began to panic and so did Jay. We knew that we couldn't ring the clinic as it was shut and it just didn't make sense. I couldn't believe how all this was happening on our very first injection and Mary (our nurse) had wanted me to be relaxed when taking them. In the end Jay came to the conclusion that we must have been told wrong and decided to still give me the amount that was in the needle as it was less but in the morning he was going to ring up the clinic. I had become so overwhelmed that when I tried to inject myself I burst into tears. I had become the complete opposite of relaxed. However Jay, my wonderful rock, took over, reassured me and I gave him the injection to do. He injected me swiftly and without any hesitation. 

So when the morning came Jay rang up the clinic and spoke to Mary and she discovered the problem- we had forgot to flick the small bottle with the sterile fluid (the very first step!) therefore we lost some of the fluid! How silly we both felt and I felt even more silly this morning after getting overwhelmed last night but this is a journey and it will most certainly have its ups and downs. We are both learning along the way! 

I felt much happier about the injections today knowing now what we had done wrong. The first one was over and that will always be the hardest one! The only thing I have to make sure I do is drink lots of water as it helps with the side-affects. So I have been drinking all day and feel as bloated as a balloon! All was going well today until the mail man arrived and bought sad news with him... My Nana passed away on 5th January, her battle with Huntington's disease has ended. I felt all different emotions on receiving this news, sadness, glad that she isn't suffering anymore, regret that I never got to meet her, worry of how my Dad was going to take the news... Yet as the day went on one thing stood out alone from all these feelings - courage. I have even more reason now to be doing this IVF/PGD, I will not let anymore suffer from this terrible disease! It will end after me! I am doing this for my Nana, my Dad, my husband and most importantly for the life of our future child... No more suffering in my family, it ends with me! 

This evening we did the injection and it went wonderfully (Jay has definately got a promising future as a doctor haha!) I am blessed with a wonderful husband and we will do this together! I will keep you updated! 

Norethisterone

Today I have begun my IVF treatment! As I woke up this morning I took my first Norethisterone tablet. I have to take these tablets once in the morning and in the evening up until 16th January. The Norethisterone will delay my period from coming, this is the suppressing stage of the process. 

So not much else to tell you at the moment but I will keep you informed!