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A Personal Blog About IVF Treatment & Infertility

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Role of the IVF Nurse

November 1, 2009 By Carol Leave a Comment

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One of the more positive aspects of IVF is actually having regular contact with your IVF nurse.  Your nurse will fill in all the gaps that your Doctor hasn’t told you about or that you have forgotten to ask. Your nurse who take you through the whole IVF treatment process step by step. She will get you to repeat everything that she has told to make sure that you understand everything that is going on.

The nurse is the person who will make all your blood test and ultrasound appointments for you – at times that they know are convenient for you!  They will be your first port of call if anything goes wrong while you are undergoing treatment – like breaking a vial of medicine, like having unusual pain when you shouldn’t.  They offer solace and advice when unusual things happen during the treatment process.

They will be the one who will be the one who rings you with your pregnancy test results – positive or negative. They will lead their ear in times of distress.  They will recognise when you are close to breaking point and get you in touch with a counseller of need be.  They may offer you some impartial advice and answer all your questions even though they have probably heard the same ones millions of time before.  They usually will also recommend those questions that you have that you should discuss with your doctor.

The nurses play an important role are the unsung heroes of the whole process.  In Friday, I discovered my nurse had moved on to look after another Doctors patients.  I was shocked – my trusted advisor was gone.  I now had to deal with a new nurse who knows nothing of my history, does not understand me or how I react to things.  This is a big change and one that I probably didn’t want to deal with now that I know I will soon be starting yet another IVF cycle.

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Filed Under: Emotional Impact, IVF Counselling, IVF Treatment Tagged With: Blood test, Infertility, Nurse

IVF Failure Confirmed

August 13, 2009 By Carol Leave a Comment

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Just as I suspected. I am not pregnant. Another failed IVF cycle. Get me a drink now. A bottle of red or 3 will do nicely thanks.

Whilst my tell-tale breasts gave it all away, my sneaky suspicion was reinforced last night when giving myself a dose of Crinone gel. That suspicion was also confirmed at a visit to ladies room around lunch time today.

It’s hard to believe that one could inspect toilet paper so thoroughly!!! Scouring through the folds to see if a flash of red has started to appear. Creepy I know but something any woman I know who hopes to get pregnant has done.

Another failed round of IVF. The last cycle was much more upsetting. After so many failures the expectation of pregnancy diminishes but the hope somehow gets stronger. Surely my turn will come. IVF is a numbers game – hopefully the more times you throw one in, eventually your odds come up. To add insult to the wound, I also have to sit through yet another blood test tomorrow to tell me what I already know. BFN (Big Fat Negative – for the uninitiated).

Expecting a week of intermittent tears. Interested friends – happy for you to make comments on this blog but please don’t ask any questions or offer any condolences if seeing me in a public venue – it brings up too much emotion. Me thinks I deserve a red.

Perhaps this is an idea for tomorrow’s blog – how friends can handle their fragile friends who are undergoing IVF. Now – where was that red. One glass will do fine given I have not had a drink in ages!!!!

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Filed Under: Emotional Impact, Success Rate Tagged With: Blood test, IVF Failure

IVF, Acupuncture and Male Infertility

August 11, 2009 By Carol Leave a Comment

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I spoke to our Chinese herbalist today. She has been a great source of support to both me and my husband. My husband sees her to help his sperm. His sperm count and motility have improved quite dramatically. However, his sperm morphology and the antibodies in his sperm are still a problem.

I have also been seeing her and have had acupuncture on a regular basis but this is the first time during treatment that I haven’t had it. There were a number of reasons for this.

The first was that I have developed an aversion to needles. I am so sick of needles, blood tests and injections that I just couldn’t face seeing any more. Whilst acupuncture does not hurt, I just couldn’t do it.

The second reason was that my transfer happened on Wednesday. Having acupuncture would mean that I would have to commute for a couple of hours after work in peak hour traffic three times in that week for treatment. I decided, probably selfishly, that my time was better spent relaxing at home rather than stressing out in traffic. Maybe I am trying to make myself feel better about not going, but it sure feels like all her good work is undone when I get back into the car and stress out in the traffic.

On a positive note, my lovely IVF nurse has arranged for me to have my pregnancy blood test on Friday which will be Day 14. So with a bit of luck or misfortune, I will get to find out if I am pregnant… or not.

Normally, the clinic asks you to have a blood test on Day 16 but that happens to fall on a Sunday but the clinic is closed on Sundays. I also think my nurse is feeling sorry for me and does not want to keep me in suspense. Mind you, my period is as regular as they come so I don’t think I will waiting the whole weekend to have an answer any way.

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Filed Under: Acupuncture and IVF, Male Infertility, Sperm Tagged With: Acupuncture, Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, Blood test, Sperm, Stress

IVF Tests, Scans and Costs

July 27, 2009 By Carol Leave a Comment

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Today marks the third scan and blood test that I have had in less than a week. The good news is that my follicles are coming along nicely and there are now 10 reasonably large follicles (hopefully with some eggs inside of them).

It seems that at certain point, the ultrasound team don’t measure the small follicles – just the larger ones. What I’d like to know is what happened to the other 20 plus follicles that were detected only a few days earlier!! I suppose they are still there in hiding.

In any case, that question goes unanswered as I learn that I am scheduled for egg collection this Friday 31st July. This means taking the day off on sick leave and not working at my part-time job on Saturday.

It also means two more injections tonight and two more tomorrow night and then a final one on Wednesday night to trigger ovulation. All good fun. My aversion to needles is back with a vengence. The veins in my arms have gone into hiding. My stomach is looking pretty bruised from all the needles. I am starting to feel bloated and uncomfortable again from my swollen ovaries. My purse is $166 lighter after paying for two more antagonist injections. Is it worth it? Definately if we get a positive result and a healthy baby at the end of it all.

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Filed Under: Cost of IVF, Egg collection, IVF Injections, IVF side effects Tagged With: Blood test, Injection, Medicine, Ovary, Ovulation, Ultrasound

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