41 replies to this topic

[impatient]

Hopeful Honey - I just saw your post and I just wanted to make sure you realized that for many clinics it's not necessary to get a referral and if they do want one, your family doctor can make the phone call. Fertility clinics are private - they want your business. And don't feel limited by your city or province either. Many people travel to other cities or countries if the clinic in their area is too busy or not that great.

I would suggest that if you're sick of waiting that you do a little research and choose a clinic that you feel is right for you - you can always call and talk to the receptionist to get a sense. Then tell (don't ask) your ob/gyn where to send your files. It should NOT take six weeks!

Welcome to ivf.ca! I wish you all the best in your journey!

[keepingfaith]

Hey ladies,
I've been posting in the clinic part of the forum because I'm with the Edmonton clinic and wanted to see what others are up to there. I soon realized though that they are all a lot further in this journey than I am so I'd like to join in on this waiting game.

I've been diagnosed with POF for almost 2 years now and we are still waiting to start IVF (which is our only option, as DH has issues as well) it's just that everytime I went into the doctors for testing they found something else that needed to be 'done' first. Most recently I found out that I need gallbladder surgery (due to taking estrace over the last year, stones have built up) before we can start a mock cycle. We were also turned down not once, but twice by different egg donors (that was hard) but now have found a committed one!!! It's just that she doesn't have children of her own so she needs to be tested and scanned to see if the eggs are viable.

So that's where we are right now, waiting to hear back from the clinic about when she can get in to be screened. I hate waiting for phonecalls!!!
Thanks for reading

[~Audrey~]

Hi KF, I'm in kind of a waiting/limbo stage right now, too.

My DH has been diagnosed with both 0% normal morphology as well as a reciprocal translocation of 2 of his chromosomes (unrelated to each other)

Unfortunately, the chromosomal abnormality gives us an extremely high risk of an 'abnormal' fetus - i.e. one with severe mental disability (ANgelman's Syndrome). The 0% morph means that we can't get pregnant on our own, we need to do IVF + ICSI.

We've seen one genetic counsellor and have a second opinion appointment next week with another counsellor. At the end of this month, we'll be back to our clinic to see what the options are for us.

I know what you mean about being frustrated about waiting for phone calls and appointments. We've been to so many, and although we've found out why we're having problems, and the problems we could potentially have, I still don't feel like we're moving ahead at all.

Anywho, hi! right back at you!

-Audrey

[keepingfaith]

Good to see you here Audrey! I was talking with another lady in my clinic's forum and she gave the advice to be persistant. She was saying that in the beginning she was afriad to bother the people at the clinic with her calls, but she advised that the more you call the better. Sometimes there are cancellations and you can get in sooner. I'm typically not one to push like this, but for this cause I will!! Prayers for you in your hopes for a litle miracle in the new year, we hope 2010 is our year too!

[~Audrey~]

KF:

What's POF, if you don't mind me asking?

When do you have your GB surgery?

[keepingfaith]

KF:

What's POF, if you don't mind me asking?

When do you have your GB surgery?

POF stands for Premature Ovarian Failure. It basically means that although I'm 25, my ovaries, uterus etc. are that of a 45-50 yr old, in that I'm already in menopause. I no longer produce eggs and havn't had a period since early 2004. So I'm on hormone medication to get them back in balance and on estrace to try and grow my uterus and lining back to a healthy state so that IVF will be succesful

I go to see my surgeon this Tues (15th) to meet and talk about the surgery. I hope that it won't bee too long after that, maybe Jan. for the surgery. I've talked to a nurse and she siad typically it takes about a month to have the surgery after you've met with the dr.

[~Audrey~]

KF:

Thanks for answering my questions - I'm still relatively new to all of this, and obviously not quite down yet with the lingo...

I really hope that tomorrow you have a fantastic appointment with the surgeon, and he tells you he'll do your surgery nice and early in January - that would be nice! Waiting SUCKS!

What kind of hormone medication do you have to take to rebalance yourself?

My DH and I are off to the genetic counsellor on Wednesday (Dec 16), and then our follow-up with the FC will be on December 29. Ugh - can't come soon enough! I hate waiting, and I hate not having a game plan at least to wait for, KWIM?

Well, best of luck tomorrow, all my fingers and toes are crossed for you that you have a fantastic outcome from the appointment!

~A

[keepingfaith]

-A
Well I met the surgeon and my GB surgery is set for Jan 29th. It's later than I hoped but still in January. I also have a SIS exam booked for Jan 14, so starting off the New Year this year will be hard to forget!

Oh I have no idea about all the lingo. When I look at other posts where people have already done procedures and have names for everything, I feel so lost. Hopefuly I'll enter the 'lingo' world soon when we start our treatments!

I've been taking Prometrium (100mg/day on days 1-21) Eltroxin (2mg/day) and Estrace (0.05mg/day - to grow my uterus and lining back to a healthy state) I also need to take 1500mg of calcium and vit D for osteoperosis (which is a little un nerving b/c I'm only 25!!) and I take a pre-natal vit. everyday too. I never thought I'd taking so many pills, and there is only more to come once we get the IVF ball rolling!

Hope all goes well with the GC tomorrow, and you get the info and answers you need. I'm also praying for the days to go my fast, I agree the waiting games seems to be the hardest right now, just keep enjoying life and let me know how it goes!

-KF

[~Audrey~]

K-

Great news about your appointment! I know you wanted it earlier, but that's still really good, especially with what you hear some of the wait lists are for other things. I have to ask, 'cause again, I don't know the abbreviation - what is a 'SIS' exam? Man oh man, you are going to be really busy in January! You're right - it will certainly be a memorable month!

It's amazing the medications they can put all of us on to cure what ails us, isn't it? But that is a heck of a lot; I don't know how you remember to take all that! Ha ha ha. I sometimes find it difficult to remember to take my prenatals & miscellaneous vitamins every day! LOL. You're right - once IVF starts, it'll be INJECTABLES (eek!) on top of a bunch of pills!

Our counselling appointment today was more than a little frustrating, and we actually came away a little angry. We had already seen a GC at our FC about 2 months ago, and gone over everything with her. She actually suggested that we keep the appointment made by DH's urologist in the public system 3-4 months ago, which was the appointment we had today. The geneticist was extremely cold, and very 'beat-around-the bush'. The information that we received today doesn't even compare to the info we got months ago - plus, she really didn't get into any numbers other than what our percent chance of a "live, unbalanced birth" i.e. chances of a child with severe mental handicap/disability/retardation (their word, not mine).

Ugh - to put in perspective:

our clinic's GC: 3-8% chance of MR
public GC: 25% chance of MR

Excuse my french, but WTF? how can one number be 3 -8 times the other? Doesn't make sense. Plus, this GC today wasn't prepared, wasn't at all thorough, wouldn't answer any of my questions regarding increased chances of m/c, etc. She told us the "numbers are all theoretical. They're not set in stone. I just plug your genetic abnormality's information into a computer program that I have and it gives me this percentage."

Ugh. Thanks for doing your friggin' research.

Anywho. Enough complaining from me!

Do you celebrate the holidays at all?

-A

[keepingfaith]

-A
Oh I’m so sorry to hear about your appt. I can relate to you in terms of an appt feeling completely useless and coming away frustrated. I would suggest, taking a breather from it all and simply enjoy the holidays. I know it’s tough to ‘turn off’ your brain to all the infertility questions and concerns (it’s on my mind constantly, and sometimes I feel like I just want to give up to have some piece of mind) Just know that there are people out there with knowledge and who genuinely care!

My family lives about 2 hours south of us and DH family, 2 hours north, so we’ll be doing a lot of driving again to visit everyone. We plan on having DH side here in the city though, because my sister-in-law is going to have her baby any day, well any hour really. Her due date was yesterday. I’m looking forward to having my 2nd niece/nephew. We usually pick names and get a gift for that person. For the past 2 Christmas’s we have instead, been putting that money into a pot to use for this coming summer where we’ll rent a cabin in Sask. for a few days. DH and I hope to make a ski trip out to Panorama too, so we’ll see how it goes.

How ‘bout you? What are your plans and do you do something special during the season? Keep your chin, up and know that you can chat on here anytime! I’m so thankful I’ve found this IVF forum!

[~Audrey~]

KF-

Is there a new baby yet in the family? Sounds so exciting!

Man oh man, your holiday season is packed full, especially with all that driving around! My goodness.

Re: our appointment - you're right - we're taking it with a grain of salt. And kind of putting it aside until we meet again with our RE at the end of the month.

As for the holidays, we're keeping it really low-key, as are both sides of our family. I think we're just going to decide what we will do day by day. I think it'll be less stressful that way.

I'm really thankful for this forum - it's a wealth of knowledge and a great support system.

If I don't talk to you before then, ***Merry Christmas!!!***

I've got my early christmas gift. My first appointment at OFC tomorrow morning. Less than 24 hours away and the wait is still making me crazy...
I just need to feel like I have a plan

[~Audrey~]

HH -

Congratulations on getting your first FC appointment! Good luck today at OFC, I really hope everything goes well for you there, you'll have to come back and update us!

I know what you mean about needing a plan - it's frustrating, isn't it? We've been in that waiting-game phase since our first FC appointment back in June (?).

Hugs to you, a very Merry Christmas, and let us know how it goes!

The appointment went really well. Everything is going much more quickly than I anticipated u/s beginning of Jan, sign consents Jan 29 and then on from there. I feel like I can relax a bit now that I am "in the program". The lack of plan was making me crazy but having all the steps outlined on paper is enough for me to let go a bit (for now).

[~Audrey~]

HH-

That's awesome! Congratulations! It must feel so good to be finally moving forward. How did your appointment go? Do you like your doctor(s)? Now you have a timeline, you can start the countdown - less than a month! Woo hoo!


Well, I had my follow-up appointment with my FC and it looks like we have to wait another 3-4 months before we can start going on IVF. They're currently setting up their PGD program, so my DH and I will have to wait patiently for a while.

On the bright side, we'll be able to pay down our line of credit even more before we have to put the 15k on it. Hopefully we'll be able to get it close to zero in the next 3 months.

Happy New Year to everyone!

[BabyHope2010]

Hello Ladies,

I am also new to IVF. We had our consultation at the Calgary Foothills Hospital in Dec. 2009. We are on the waiting list which they say can take 2-4 months. I have called in my first period on Dec. 30th. I am getting anzty to get the call as well. Fingers crossed it happens sooner than later.

Is anyone one else new to IVF scared of the drugs, the Egg Retrieval and the HSG like I am?

[kajira]

We've done everything but IVF so far. and now our next step is IVF, so I am new to that entire process and requirements and all that fun stuff.

I am scared off the egg retrieval process, I worry it will hurt! LOL and I hate needles. I am hoping they can do something to help me so i am not totally aware of when they do it so I don't panic. I flinch easy.

I am not the worlds most patient person, so the last 4 years of struggling with infertility has been a total test for me.