IVF begins (My Journey - Part 3)

4 years…. 


4 years….that’s how long it took me to get to this stage. They were a  long hard 4 years, especially when all your friends were having babies and you would go round for hugs and cuddles, but secretly a small part of you was dying inside.  I found it particularly hard when my nieces and nephews came along…I don’t know why, I was elated for them, but found it really upsetting at the same time, continuously thinking “why not us”?.  It just seemed so unfair when some people could fall pregnant without even trying, yet I had to jump through all these hoops……😢

 

I can remember how happy I was when I got my letter through to say that my name had reached the top of the IVF waiting list, inviting me to go for a screening appointment.  We both had to provide photographic identification, fill in forms and be screened for HIV and Hepatitis B and C, my husband also had to do his bit…..ha 😜.  We were also lucky, because the NHS that we came under funded 3 treatment cycles, other areas only get 2 (there is a campaign right now about this issue scream4ivf).  I can also remember sitting in the hospital waiting room on that first appointment, overwhelmed by how busy it was and realising just how common a problem infertility was!!!!

I’ve decided to go into a wee bit of detail about my first cycle, just in case anyone who is reading this needs the info for their own comparison, so please bear with me…😊.

This is where the fun began….not!  Healthy eating and no drinking and the rollercoaster ride of emotions that was ensured to happen!!!  I had to go for a hormone profile and was given my Prostap injection home to self-administer and depending on my bloods (as you know from my previous posts, I don’t have a cycle as such, so this was to determine where I was by my hormone levels).  Prostap is given approximately 21 days into your cycle to supress your cycle, this then brings on your period.  I then had to go for bloods tests and an internal scan to see if I was ready to go onto the next stage. 

The results of this showed that I was ready to start my hormone injections…..eeeek!  And to this day, I still think my husband secretly loved injecting me…because I couldn’t do it myself!! 

I was on injections for around 8-10 days and then I had to go for another internal scan to check the progress.  The hormone injections were to help increase the number of eggs your ovaries produce.  I can remember being sooo nervous when I went for my scan to check on my progress, because this is where my journey could have ended for my first cycle.  If you don’t meet the criteria for the amount/size of eggs produced then you don’t go to the next stage, this being egg retrieval.  Thank god I did and my egg collection date was set. 

I had to take ‘Snuff’, this was inhaled in one nostril 4 times a day and it had to be done 3 days before my egg retrieval.  Then 2 days before, a booster injection had to be self-administered, then I was ready to rock and roll!

 The day of egg retrieval came and I couldn’t eat or drink because egg retrieval is done under sedation and my husband had to play his part ….and I can remember him saying he was mortified as he could hear people laughing outside the room, while he was doing his bit for society 😳 Well, it’s hardly a barrel of laughs having your legs up in stirrups on a regular basis….was my response!

When I came to, I was informed that 5 eggs were collected and I would have to wait a couple of days to see if any of them fertilised.  Those couple of days were awful, it’s all you can think about…you just want to know, and nothing takes your mind off it.  Sadly when I phoned to find out how they had gone, none of them had fertilised😢!!  I was devastated, there was no consoling me, although my husband and family tried to comfort me…there was nothing they could say or do that could make the situation any better and I know my husband felt helpless.  I can’t describe how I felt at the time, it was just devastation, but I had to pick myself back up, as I still had two attempts left.

 As it was coming up to Christmas, I decided to enjoy my time over the festive period and booked myself in to start my second attempt at the end of February.

 Please subscribe and hang in there to find out what’s in store in my next blog.