It's been a busy day. RE appt went fairly well. He seemed surprised that I lost the pregnancy b/c the embryos were of such high quality. I was definitely pg but lost it fairly quickly so he was trying to figure out why. He didn't think it was a chromosomal issue/embryo quality and all my fears about lifting gallons of milk, maybe my shower was too hot, Mattea kicking me several times in the belly ,etc ... he said that wouldn't have caused me to lose the pregnancy. So, he said it could be progesterone as that's what keeps the pg going. I had to remind him I was on suppositories ... that I had a bad rxn to shots last time around and had switched to them during the cycle. He said he couldn't be sure how much progesterone my body was absorbing if I was using suppositories and I had to do the shots. Only other factor he thought of was to increase my intake of medrol from 4 days to a week.

I am a bit frustrated as to why he allowed me to use suppositories if he thought that would be a problem. Then again, he did say with embies this high quality, the transfers almost always succeed ... so I guess he was a bit overconfident the way I was.

The good thing is that he cut his fee by 50% for my next attempt which is what i was hoping for. It would have been great if he waived the whole fee but I had a feeling that wouldn't happen and was hoping for half off and that is what I got.

He also said I didn't have to wait for another cycle (as I did when I had my m/c) and since today was D2 of my cycle, he just did an u/s, said things looked good, start estrace on Sunday and see him again on next Friday.

We did discuss putting more embies in but he's concerned b/c CDC is now getting after REs about putting too many back. They really want singleton births only. However, as I'm willing to reduce to a singleton, I need to stress to Dr. Vermesh that he won't have to report anything more b/c I can't handle another twin birth.

I think I'm going to hold out on the mother's helper for now. If I do get pg and it sticks, I'll just get one when the baby arrives.

Have a great wkend too!
((((hugs))))

Wow Michele,
Thanks for the update. Your RE rocks! I've never heard of them reducing their fees by half - EVER! My 2nd RE doesn't like the suppositories, pills or crinone too much either, he has seen cases where pregnancy stuck for a short time and then was lost with his patients that were not on the PIO shots. So, needless to say I had to do PIO shots untill the last few weeks of P4 supplementation during my pregnancy w/ July and then he let me use crinione gel but as I said, only for a few weeks. I had a reaction to PIO shots one of my cycles and I think it was the oil, then I did P4 in the oleate (spelling) and it seemed to not be as harsh for whatever reason.

So good news on the reduced fee, great news that you can start your cycle right away, but bummer on the PIO shots this time...

Do you have any more totsicles that your RE considers high quality?
Hugs to you and wishing you a perfect cycle this time!

Yes, he's great but I wish he had forced me to do the PIO shots instead of letting me do the suppositories. I"m sorry but he should have known better. I am grateful he's helping me out but hate having to go thru it again. I've done PIO shots for all my fresh and frozen cycles. Last one I did which resulted in the girls, I switched to suppositories after about a month or so on shots b/c my butt looked like a disaster area. As I'm not a dr., I didn't think it was a big deal to use suppositories but now I know and that's why I'm a bit upset at my RE.
I think I have 3 more hatching blast As left (or is it 5, have to look) and you can't get much better than that. Still, it doesn't guarantee a live birth as I just found out.
Seeing dr. again on Friday for a lining check.
Should be doing FET on 3/21 if all goes well.

I know what you mean, the whole IVF, FET process is not fun, to say the least. Too bad he didn't insist on PIO shots.

3 or 5 hatching blasts sound awesome!!! Good luck with your lining check, where do they want your lining to be? I think my RE wanted tri-lanier (sp?) and 9, if my memory serves me well.

The 21st will be here before you know it! Did you have to do Lupron last time and this as well? That was the one drug I really didn't like - gave me major headaches! Are you doing estrogen shots as well?

Thanks. Yes, lining should be trilinear (sp). Mine was only 8 this last time and I was concerned b/c it's always been 9. He said 8 was fine and not to worry.
FET is so easy. Just estrace and baby aspirin. Medrol for 4 days (but now my RE will up it to a week) and then the dreaded PIO. No lupron...that's only for fresh cycle. Wish it were lupron instead of PIO b/c I have no problem giving myself a needle in the belly :-) Oh estrace is pills.

Did you do a natural cycle FET? Did you have to do a trigger shot or just OPK? Lucky your RE lets you do pills for E2, my re is big on shots, estradiol valerate shots is his preference - ugg!
Where are you in your cycle now, any idea when you'll do your transfer? I hope this cycle is going well and wish you lots of luck w/ the PIO shots, hopefully you've got someone who can give them to you because I can't imagine having to give those to myself (I know some brave ladies on this site have done it though).

Hmm, what do you mean by a natural cycle FET? No trigger shot...that's just to make sure you ovulate for an egg retrieval. What's OPK? Could you ask your RE is you could do estrace pills instead of shots. I've had 2 successful pregnancies with pills.
I just saw Vermesh again yesterday which is the last time I will see him until my transfer. My lining is at 8mm which is fine. I never had to up my dosage of estrace to 3x/day (from 2x) as I did with my last cycle b/c my lining got thicker faster this time around. Guess it's b/c my body's remembering I just had a chemical pg.
I could do my transfer as early as Monday but as I can't work as a f/a once I do the FET, I'm going to work on M, Tu and Th and have my transfer on Friday. Have to start the shots on Sunday and I'm sooooo dreading it. Nope, I have to do them on my own...start on Sunday. If it's too difficult, then on Wed, I'm going to stop by a fertility clinic nearby (about 10 miles away) & ask if they could give me my shot...hoping they won't charge more than $10. We shall see.
When are you thinking about doing your FET?

Well, from what I've been reading on line, a natural cycle is where you don't do birth control pills, or lupron, and just do lining checks and follicle size checks at the docs office and when one of your follies gets to 14mm, you do an OPK (ovulation predictor test) and the HCG shot a few days (as many days before the transfer as your embies are old, i.e. 5 days before a 5 day blast transfer) before the frozen embryo transfer. You also do progesterone supplementation after the transfer, I believe as well as medrol prior to transfer. I've never done an FET, but I always assumed it was about the same protocol as a donor egg cycle.

I've read some gals on here were able to do the PIO shots in the thigh and said they weren't too bad. Good luck to you on that - ugg! Too bad you don't have any nurse friends who live close by who could give you your PIO shots. I had a friend give me one of mine when I was at a girls getaway when I was newly preggo w/ July (she wasn't even a nurse), only one of 3 friends on the getaway was willing to give me the shot though, most people are too squeemish (sp?).

That's cool that you can choose the day of your transfer. Good luck to you on Friday! Just about a week and you'll be PUPO!

We are in the middle of lots of household stuff (had a roof leak that caused water damage in our house), so I haven't had a chance to discuss the when of our FET w/ DH. I am getting my pap and mammo this week in anticpation of getting ready for my RE consult (I know they always like you to be up to date on that stuff).

Did you have to do a mock transfer and fluid sonogram before your most recent cycle before the one you're currently in now? I think I'll have to do those again, since I did have a pregnancy since my last IVF cycle - big fun.

Hmmm, well I guess FETs are natural cycles in that you don't do bcps or lupron as you do with a fresh cycle using DE or even with your own eggs. Although, with your own eggs you will do a HCG shot but not with DE fresh (as donor does it) and never with FETs. As I mentioned, FETs are incredibly easy except for PIO shots. I asked about doing shot in hip and nurse said you could do it in the thigh but it's very painful. I need to look at my sheet with IM sites but I think I'll try the butt first. I made the mistake be4 of doing it too low (or should I say, having Steve give it to me too low), more on the cheeks instead of at the top of the pants pocket line. That's where the nurse said the shot should be. I thought if it were lower, where there's more fat, it wouldn't hurt as much but the nurse said it would hurt even more down there plus, the shot needs to be in the muscle. So, we'll see how it goes tomorrow night (after kids are in bed or perhaps when girls nap and Liam is out). Actually, I have a friend coming over tomorrow to go on a hike with me and the kids in the afternoon so I'll see if she can do it. She said she'd rather not as she's squeamish but I'll at least try to get her to help. I actually had a dream about the shots last night...can't remember the details but it means it's kinda on my mind :-)

Ask your RE when you do your FET but you do have a 4-5 day window as to when you can do the transfer.

I'm so sorry to hear about your roof leak. When I bought my house last year, the inspector said the roof was in bad shape and would last maybe one rainy season at most. I decided to just bite the bullet and get it done so now I won't ever have to worry about it again.

Yes, my RE did a mock transfer in his office at my 3rd u/s and lining check exam. Didn't do one this time around since he just did one a month ago. One of his partners mentioned my maybe having to have a hysterosonogram (whatever that's called) b/c of a fibroid I had but Vermesh confirmed what I thought which was the fibroid was in a place where it wouldn't interfere with implantation. So, always get a 2nd opinion, if you can, b/c those are expensive and not covered by insurance...at least not mine.

Have a great wkend!

So smart to bite the bullet and get the roof done. We got 1/3 of ours redone and it's new now, but we really should think about biting the bullet and getting the other 2/3rd done - so much $$$ though! The damages inside the house are coverd by insurance (minus our $1K deductible), but the roof was our expense. I also had a freak sharp rock fly up from the road and hit my a/c condenser in my car and had to have that replaced to the tune of $1200 this week. And as good things come in 3's, we found more water damage, but this time it's not related to the roof leak, seems we have an old wax ring in our toilet and it's caused under the floor leaking in one of our upstairs bathrooms, so now we have a large hole cut out of our ceiing in the garage - just when we were about to get our house back together again after the first bout of water damage!

How did your friend do w/ your PIO shot? I hope all is going well in your cycle so far. And, most importantly good luck with your transfer tomorrow!!! Sending you lots and lots of sticky baby dust.

Yeah, my first RE saw that I had good insurance (at the time, not now) and had me do two hysterosonograms in a 6 month time frame, and the 2nd one was for no good reason since, I hadn't gotten pregnant or had any fibroids or any medical reason for which she should do another one. One of the reasons I switched REs.

I actually got 4 estimates for the roof and all kept going down...from 18k, which was absurd, to 16k, to 11k and finally 8k. Last one was a handyman who does all types of work on homes and has his own employees. A great guy and I will hire him again to take care of my backyard (it's disgusting) once I get the money from my dad's estate...taking forever for that to happen.

I'm so sorry about all of the repairs you've had going on lately. Hopefully you're done now that you've hit 3.

What happened to your insurance...did you switch to your DH or vice versa? Ours at American has just gotten worse. I have Blue Cross but can also choose either UHC or Aetna (although they may cost a bit more) but I've heard the coverage is much better than BC...something to research next Oct.

My friend did well with the PIO shot...she was so afraid of hurting me but I didn't feel a thing. Asked a f/a on my trip on Monday to do so and she felt the same way as my friend, afraid of hurting me but did it and it didn't hurt. I had another Dallas turn on Tues and this time, a good friend I hadn't seen in ages had sit time in DFW at the same time I was there. As she also finished nursing school a couple of years ago, I had her do the shot. Yesterday I chickened out and did suppositories. Was supposed to see my f/a/nurse friend again during sit time at DFW but I got sick this morning...stomach flu which Liam had on Tues/Wed and so I couldn't work. Finally did the shot on my own and it wasn't bad...but I did it on my right side so I could use my right hand...not sure about the left side/left hand. Don't have to worry about it tomorrow or Sat b/c I'll be with friends and I may just have them do the left side 2 days in a row so I can do the right side again on Sun.
Feeling much better after sleeping most of the day ... and I mean sleeping, not watching tv!
Transfer's at 1:30p tomorrow. It just has to work this time!

Good luck with transfer! and want to day that i did my own pio shots for about 3 weeks. good luck

It actually wasn't too bad doing shot with my right hand but haven't done so with my left yet...lol!

Transfer went well...now the 10day wait :-)

Very impressed that you've done a few of your own PIO shots - don't know if I could do that!

So glad your transfer went well. How many and what grades did you transfer? I hope you enjoy your bedrest and have a great weekend!

I guess when you have to do so , somehow it works out!. It's actually not been that bad but, I've only given myself one shot so far. However, now I'm gonna have to give them to myself everyday since I'm not flying this week.

This time I transferred 3 embies instead of 2. One was 90% survival, hatching Blast A (same as 1st time). 2nd was 90% survival hatching blast B (last time it was only 85% survival but hatching blast A). 3rd one was 80% survival hatching early blast so that's so-so. I don't feel anything but i never do so it's just a waiting game til 4/1. Thank goodness I'm busy til then. So hoping it works b/c I can't afford to do so again.
BTW, bedrest was only 1 day, less than 24 hours.