Follow Up Appointment

So yesterday I had my follow up appointment, and it went really well.

Bongo and I had a chat before we left, even though we had initially decided to go unmedicated, reasons being that we have tried the medicated route and it didn't work, so lets see what my body can do naturally, plus, I AM ovulating on my own after the IVF. But we had decided to go medicated because of timings with work for Bongo and wasting a cycle if I ovulate at the weekends, as they won't do a weekend transfer.

So we get there, and I am told my appointment had been changed from the Senior Consultant because he was caught up with another patient, which I can completely forgive, as he left consulting patients on the day of my transfer to come down to the lab and do my transfer for me.

We are called in, by a lady I kind of recognise, and she says she remembers us, Bongo smiled and said 'yep, I remember you too', I look completely blank, and she explains she was the lovely lady pushing down on my bladder for 3 hours during the nightmare transfer! I apologise for not remembering, and she smiled and said don't worry, I'm not surprised. I thanked her for being there with me all the way through, and knew it was going to be a good meeting because I had someone who was with me the whole time.
She asked how we wanted the meeting to go? We decided that she would go through the previous cycle, explain about FET and then we would be asked if we had any questions. Well, we didn't need to ask any questions by the time she had done talking, she had answered them all for us!

Firstly, she went through the previous cycle, she said I had a text book cycle, everything was perfect, normally they have a 60% fertilisation rate, I had 90% of my eggs fertilise, I had a good number of eggs collected, my lining was spot on, they transferred a 4BB grade blastocysts, apart from the transfer, everything was perfect, so it was just bad luck and chance that I didn't get my bfp.

Then we talk about FET, I have 5 blastos of at least 4BB grade frozen and ready to rock and roll.
It was explained to me that it is a 35% success rate per cycle, not per embryo transferred, because I asked about having more than one transferred. She said she would rather I had 5 chances of 35%, rather than waste an embryo by putting more than one back at a time.
She also suggested before I asked, that I could be sedated during the transfer, but would have to have a medicated cycle because they have to arrange for the anaesthetist to be there for my transfer, which is fine with us because we had already decided to do that. Although it will mean that I have to pay £200-£400 more per cycle for the medications.
I also requested that I down regulate with injections, rather than the nasal spray, as I didn't like using the nasal spray, that is fine, so more injections, maybe I just enjoy it ;))
My cervix does not need to be dilated, as it isn't narrow, its just twisty, so theres really no point dilating it.
Bongo asked if I could lay down for longer after the transfer, which I obviously will be because of the sedation, but she did explain that your uterus has like a vacuum to it, so once the embryo is in, its in. Another analogy is that your uterus is like two slices of bread like a sandwich, the embryo is placed between the two slices of bread and isn't going anywhere.

So she said I'm good to go next AF, due in about 5 days, but Bongo and I have decided to wait until April/May time, give ourselves some time and hopefully the warmer weather will help.

I have decided to do acupuncture throughout the whole treatment cycle, and I am making an appointment to go and see her in the next couple of weeks. I am convinced I have a cold uterus, so I am starting to keep warmer (that's hard in this crap weather we have at the moment) I am going to start drinking ginger and brown sugar, always wear socks, and put a hot water bottle on my back and tummy for half an hour mornings and evenings. Never eat or drink anything colder than room temperature and no milk.

Apart from all the TTC/ART talk, I am feeling a lot better mentally, I felt myself come out of it last Thursday night, and I have been pretty OK ever since, so fingers crossed, I can stop taking the meds in the next few days!! Yay!