Day 1 – but no EC – but Noosa

Source: http://www.tourismsunshinecoast.com.au

Well today is definitely Day 1. I rang the PDG nurses, who confirmed that they just have absolutely no availability this month to do an EC. But that’s fine, if they did, I would’ve had to take the drugs away with me (in a cooler bag with ice, on a plane), store them in the fridge in the holiday house we’re staying at with my entire family (including my parents and my brother and his family), fend off questions about what we were doing (which would be particularly difficult as we’re not telling anyone what we’re up to any more due to difficult past experiences – mums!), and have a scan as soon as I stepped off the plane when we got back! I have a feeling that we wouldn’t have been able to get to the clinic in time…

Anyway, the nurse I spoke to was lovely. She’s booked me in for a tentative EC in November – based on my assumed cycle! I hope I got it right! And one of the good news stories out of this is, as we’re doing a no-pill cycle, I’d only need to do five days of injections – bonus!

So that’s it. Signing off now to go enjoy my holiday. See you next month!

xo

New era

Ok, we met our new doctor today. Well, we’ve met him a couple of other times when he’s filled in for our last doctor. But anyway, we like him.

We had a much longer conversation than we’ve previously had with him, being our first proper consultation. It was good. He went through Hubby’s medical history briefly (the reason why we’re doing PDG), then went over our IVF history, looked at all the tests we’ve, looked at how we’ve done our cycles, let us ask questions, talked about evidence-based findings to guide things that we can do now, and then talked about next steps.

So, the only things that I’m going to change:

• limit myself to one coffee a day and only herbal teas (I’ve been having at least one coffee a day and many cups of teas, both teas with caffeine and herbal ones – having said that, I only really started this after we took our extended break from IVF – the doc assured me that having no more than two coffees a day is fine. I mean, I need something to enjoy in life, right?!)
• try to increase the amount of fresh fruit and veg that we eat – we’re pretty good with this one already. And we already have a lot of whole foods. Guess we’ll just amp that up a little.

The doc suggested that we try our next cycle without the pill. Hurrah! The pill really messes with my mind! I mean, the other drugs do too, but at least I’m somewhat able to keep myself in check for that part of the cycle now. He says that it’s almost the only thing that we haven’t done. And that this time we’ll do everything on a “natural” cycle, so the stimulation and the *fingers crossed* transfer.

So then he asked me when I was expecting my next day one. I said, “Tomorrow!” So he called up the nursing team straight away to see if he could get us booked in for this month, but they said no. But that’s fine with us as we’re heading up the coast later this week for a family, beach holiday. However, the doc told us to make sure that when my day one is here, to definitely call the nursing team so that there’s a record of me getting knocked back. That way when I call up the next time, they’ll (hopefully *fingers crossed*) be ready for me!

That’s that! It was a good session. Both hubby and I, but importantly hubby, are very comfortable with the new doc. We didn’t feel rushed during the consultation and it really felt as if he was taking the time and effort to explain things to us. I mean, I must be one of the few IVF-illiterate people out there – of people who go through IVF anyway. Coz at one stage when he was asking me about my cycle and if I get a sep-something. I was like,  huh? [TMI warning: he was talking about the mid-cycle mucus discharge.] He also explained about how based on the number of eggs and unaffected embryos we’ve actually managed to get, we’re still very much in the “normal” spectrum, despite our failed transfers. And that I’m no where near at risk of using up all my eggs, despite the number of eggs we’ve collected! [Ha – are you IVF literate people laughing at me?]

So what we’re going to do now is go on our beach holiday later this week (with my parents, brother and his family!), come back and enjoy a little bit of family-free time at home, wait a few weeks until my next cycle and then, I suppose, get stuck into it!

In some ways it feels like we’re only doing our first cycle, given that we’ve had a break and switched docs. Fingers crossed that we really are a step closer this time.

In other news…

…we switched our IVF doctor. The one we’ve gone with I’ve seen before when our old one had been away. I always said that I’d be happy to see him as he was always really down-to-earth, good people skills, explained things really well. I mean, I was happy with our other doctor too.

Anyway, when I went to our GP for a referral, she was like, “Oh, [Doctor Doc], he’s very good. Very well known in the circles.” It’s kind of nice to hear that.

So we catch up with him in a couple of weeks. Then we go on holiday. Part of me thinks, I’m happy to not try again until next year. But we’ll see what he has to say and then make a decision.

In the meantime, it’s so nice to be drug-free. First time properly drug free in 1.5 years. I haven’t lost it once, had any meltdowns or swore. My tolerance for dealing with sh*t and sh*tty people in general has increased dramatically. And my skin has returned to normal!

I must rant!

Yesterday, for the first time in a long time, we asked the MIL to take care of bubsy. Why had there been a bit of a hiatus with her care? Well, because she makes bad decisions. Class example: last time we let (noted – pointed use of word “let”) her take care of bubsy, she drove in back to our house with him sitting in a baby car seat. I kid you f’n not! Baby car seat is small. Bubsy is FOUR! He is TALL. In fact, he is TALL FOR HIS AGE! He was lying down in the baby car seat (coz you know, that’s how they’re designed, as babies can’t sit up) with his head hanging over the top of it. So basically his neck rested on the top of the car seat (the baby one) and his head was lying down flat.

I did not lose it that time. But we did go out and buy a proper toddler car seat for the MIL and left it at her house and told her to get it changed over (she won’t let us do it for her). Because, you know, she also cares for our toddler nieces and drives them around. Speaking of which, what the hell is wrong with the SIL? She knows what her mother has in her car and she has no problem with her driving her kids around with inappropriate seating that provides absolutely no head and neck support? I ain’t no pessimist, but let’s do a risk analysis. Chance of a car crash = low to moderate; potential consequence with child seated inappropriately = death! Acceptance of risk? Nil!

Does the MIL see an issue with this? No. Has she changed the seat over in the past 2 months that she’s had the new seat in possession? No. Why? Because, according to her, Niece 1 will be out of her booster seat in January, which is only a couple of months away (last time I checked, there’s still quite a few months until the new year), at which time Niece 2 can go in the booster seat. Firstly, no. Niece 1 is currently 6 and much taller than Niece 2. Niece 2 is 3 and can not go into the big booster seat in January. And if you follow our domestic guidelines, Niece 1 should not get out of the booster seat until she is 145cm tall. She… is… not… going… to… be… 145cm… tall… come… January.

Ok, sorry, I went a bit off topic. So, based on decisions such as the above, we no longer let the MIL take care of bubsy. And it’s not just that, there’s heaps of other issues, none of which are our doing. Yes, this is one side of the story, but it’s my blog after all.

Yesterday, we let MIL take care of bubsy on the condition that she come to our house, keeps him indoor all day and does not take him in the car. The last statement might be redundant, but we really had to emphasise the point. I left the house at 7am as to avoid seeing the MIL first thing in the morning. You might think that that seems petty and stupid, but I’m not a morning person. And there are some people that I definitely don’t want to see in the morning.

All day I was imagining what the MIL would’ve brought around to our house. My predictions were:

• carton of milk
• bread
• fruit
• newspaper
• snacks and lunch for bubsy
• teabags

When I returned home, we invited the MIL to come out with us for cheap dinner, she said no, no, no. [Why????? It was 6pm, we all had to eat, why not just eat with us before heading home?] Things the MIL had left:

• carton of milk, opened, despite the fact that we had an opened bottle of milk in the fridge
• a loaf of bread, opened, despite the fact that we had a loaf of bread sitting on our bench
• two apples and two orange (in addition to the fruit she gave to bubsy during the day)
• a newspaper

She let me know that bubsy ate carrots, potatoes and broccoli for lunch. Aside from broccoli, we had those in the house. Not that she used ours. I don’t know if she brought her own teabags, but she certainly didn’t use any of ours, and she’s a massive tea drinker. She left the house with her cooler bag and handbag and other huge plastic bag. I noted that there was no rubbish in our bin whatsoever (it was a fresh bag that morning), despite the fact that she had peeled the veggies to make lunch.

What – is – wrong – with – her? Who does BYO milk and bread, and fruit and lunch and teabags, to someone else’s house? Who takes their rubbish with them instead of putting it in the bin? Seriously, wtf is wrong with her?

You know what her thinking is? She does not want to inconvenience us in any way, financially or personally. But she takes it to the extreme, to the point where it is crazy, stupid and just not right. Using our milk, when we’ve asked you to come take care of bubsy, is not intrusive or an inconvenience. I expect you to drink all of our drinks, eat all of our food and to use our frickin’ bin! Omg, do you think she brought along her own toilet paper and took any used ones home too?

Rant over.

Thanks for listening.