The Scans

I had to scan and take a look at my follicles every 3 days. At HUKM, the scan is done by a technician, whom I am not even sure if capable of producing a decent result, or interpret what she sees. The then attending technician seemed rude and not bothered to explain to me how many follicles I had or showed me the screen. Infact, she rudely snapped at me and said..... she had not counted the follicles yet when I asked her how many I had.

So from the 3 scans I had before egg retrieval, according to the report:

1. First scan - 12 follicles, average size was about 7-8mm

2. Second scan - 12 follicles, average size about 12-16mm

3 3rd scan - 20 follicles! 12 from the first 2 scans were averaging 18-20mm and the rest were very small 4-6mm.

If you ask me, its a sure sign of OHSS to come. Of course at that time, I did not know that.

So at the final scan (day 12), I was also at the end of my Puregon shots. Oh and I was injecting Octogonyl at day 5 of the Puregon shots to mature the eggs. I was ready for egg retrieval on day 14. I was told to take an HCG shot exactly 48 hours before my egg retrieval appointment.

By this time, I still had no mood swings or any kind of side effects. Infact hubby and I were happy and positive going throught the procedure. 

The shots

I started my first shot a few days before Christmas 2008. My worst was the mood swing side effects. I was bracing for it to come. But one week into the shots, I felt nothing. No mood swings, no depression, infact, I was quite happy and cheerful!

My shots were Puregon, 250 IU. At that time, I had no clue if this dosage was too high or too low. I just trusted the Professor. I did think though, he did not do any blood test, or take my weight to see how much dosage will suit me. The shots were painless. The needle is very small, and I cou

ld hardly feel it go into my skin. However, if you do inject the Puregon while it is cold, it does feel a bit uncomfortable. So I usually leave it out for a few minutes or the ampule in my hands before loading the puregon pen.

Here are the steps I took for the puregon injections:

1. Load the needle onto the pen.

2. Dial in the dosage  

3. Load the pen with the puregon ampule. Mine was a 300IU ampule. The ampule is loaded last so that there is no spillage when dialing the dosage

4. Clean the area that is to be injected with alcohol swab. This is located 2 inches away from the belly button either left or right side.

5. Pinch the skin and insert the needle slowly. The needle must be 90 degrees from the suface of the skin. The needle has to be completely in before injecting.

6. Inject the puregon in slowly.

7. Count to 5 before removing the needle.

Since my ampule was 300 IU, and my dosage was 250IU I had some left overs, which I kept for my last shot where I will use up all the ampules with the leftovers.

Throughout my ivf treatment, I also took vitamins such as evening primrose oil, vitamin B & C and selenium. Maybe the evening primrose prevented the depression or mood swing symptoms.

The puregon ampules had to be kept in the fridge, in the vegetable case. Even when bring them home from the hospital, it has to be kept in an ice box.

The visit to the Prof

A friend recommended HUKM for ivf. Apparently they are good and its half the price of private hospitals! This friend of mine, lets call him BB has to go through ivf with his wife too, as they had male infertility problems. 

BB had already begun their treatment at HUKM and seemed to be going well. So he shared with me in great detail every single step that they were going through.

I decided to make an appointment with the Professor, who was the recommended doctor to see there.

His clinic was at the Klinik Pakar wing, 7th floor of HUKM, where all the specialist clinics are. As with any gynea clinics, the wait is long. With HUKM, its double the waiting time. We had to wait almost 4 hours to see him!

When we finally got to see him, we told him about our problems, and that we wanted to start ivf straight away. He said its good not to wait too long and filled out our prescription in a form like slip, where the whole record of our ivf procedure would be documented.

We were to start the next cycle (in December 2008), as we need to have a month break after our IUI procedure. 

Ok more to come....

IUI

Although we had out minds set on ivf, we thought we give IUI a try.

So after Eid, sometime in October 2008, we went for one cycle of IUI. Dr. Hamid Arshat prescribed 3 tablets of clomid (I can't remember what is the dose for tablet) and scans showed that I had one follicle on each ovary.

On the 14th day of my cycle, we did the procedure. Basically they injected hubby's sperm directly into my uterus. It was like a pap smear so it was painless but slightly uncomfortable. A large speculum was inserted "down there" and a long thin straw thing was inserted through the speculum right into the uterus. The sperm (which was in a pink liquid in a test tube) was injected via this straw and into my uterus.

I was told to rest for about half an hour, with the procedure table tilted slightly so my head is lower than my pelvis. No I did not have to stand on my head hehe.

With a 2 week wait, the results turned out to be negative.

So we made the move into our next action plan..... ivf

Stay tuned.....

Ready to start again

I took a year break throughout 2008 to prepare myself emotionally for ivf. My worst fear is the much talked about mood swings. I went for meditation classes, read many books, surfed the net, finally at the end of 2008, I was ready.

My posts here on, shall describe in detail, my journey through ivf. As I am writing right now, I had actually completed a cycle with an unfortunate BFN (Big Fat Negative). I felt lost and scared, with not much support or who to turn to. With this, I felt that it was important to revive this blog and hope to share as much as possible with others who might be going through the same predicament. 

 

What had happened

I have not updated in a while. I was rather depressed and not in the mood to write anything. Now that things are better, I am ready to talk.


This is what happened.

A few days before Ramadan I decided to pay doctor Hamid Arsyat, a famous fertility specialist a visit. I explained the whole thing, the blood tests, anovulation, the number of doctors I've seen. He also did the usual, vaginal ultrasound and normal ultrasound. He says that my uterus and ovaries looked fine. But he is unsure about my fallopian tubes. To check my fallopian tubes, I need to do a test called HSG, which is a type of scan where they would inject a die into the cervix to map out the uterus and Fallopian tubes.

I was nervous yet excited to do the test as I was keen to finally find out what was wrong. At the panel imaging center I did the HSG scan. They injected the die and it really hurt! It felt like a very severe period cramp, which I've never experienced before. It turns out that both my tubes were blocked which was why it was so painful. After the x-rays were taken, the radiologist attempted to help me unblock the tubes by injecting more die. The pain was unbearable! The assisting nurse announced that they managed to unblock one tube. Back at Dr. Hamid's clinick he suggests that I do a laproscopy. Just like what the other 2 doctors had recommended. We decided to get it over and done with.

So last Sunday I checked into pantai hospital for surgery on Monday. I was nervous as hell. I had a lot of fun activities over that weekend such as weddings, gatherings and parties. I thought I cancel all of than in anticipation that I would not feel up to it. It was on old, old friends wedding and I could not bear to miss it. I decided not to feel sorry for myself and decided to attend all my functions that weekend. I checked into the hospital on Sunday with good spirits.

I began my fast from mid night Sunday. My surgery was some time in the morning as I was third in line. I was in tears with fear and anxiety. The nurses did a great job in comforting me. They also gave me a jab to keep me calm. It worked very well!

At around 8 .3O am they wheeled me down to the operating theatre. The jab they gave me worked. I was very relaxed. I could not feel anything! After waiting for like eternity at the waiting area, they wheeled me into the operating theatre. There, they put me to sleep.

I woke up with a little pain on the left of my abdomen. Immediately I thought, "oh no, they did an open surgery". They gave me a jab for the pain. I drifted in and out of sleep. Finally they took me back to my room. There, my beloved husband and my parents were waiting for me.

It turns out that my left fallopian tube was blocked. The doctor did a laprotomy to unblock it. He says that the right tube was fine, which was probrably the tube that was unblocked during the HSG.

I rested in hospital for 5 days and now am I home on a months break from work.

I am relieved and happy that the problem is all sorted out. Now, I can look forward to trying again.

Second month on TCM (Traditional chinese meds)

Its going great so far. No side effects. Still feeling very positive. M trying to to think about it much, just relax and enjoy myself.

I have been toying on the idea of seeing another doctor. This time I want to see Dr. Hamid Arshad. He's meant to be really good. But I keep putting it off.

We are going for a holiday at Redang over the Merdeka weekend and going to London after Eid. So hopefully these get aways would kick in some happy and positive hormones.

Still hoping for the best.