One Year Old

Just a quick update  – I started this blog to detail my treatment in Brno for anyone who was googling for information and try to make it as detailed as I could.

I had a text book pregnancy and Baby arrived 3 weeks early by C-Section due to low amnio fluid and is getting ready to turn ONE.  It has been the best year of my life.

Best of luck to all those still trying and are researching Reprofit.  I am forever grateful to this clinc and to MyIVFAlternative.com for their services.

 

 

U/S #1 – 6w6d

Phew!! I have one sac, with one baby who’s heart is beating at 136. Thank you Lord. Dr McLovely gave me a pic.   He could also  see one collapsed sac, so they both implanted, but one didn’t make it. This makes me happy with my decision to transfer two, even though the thought of managing twins on my own sounded like a nightmare. One baby. Please keep growing as I am now entering the period of ‘the womb of doom’ (weeks 7-9). Although I do feel a little more cautiously optimistic now that I am using a donor egg, and I hope this comment doesn’t bite me in the butt!! Yeah, one baby!!!  Follow up sonogram in 2 weeks.

Czech Souvenirs

I am finally back home in the States and had a wonderful time visiting Vienna and Prague.  Here’s a pic of the embryos I had transferred.

My two souvenirs from Czech, hopefully they are making a comfy home for themselves, and I would really only love for one to make it as being a SMC I am not sure I can handle twins.  I did POAS yesterday morning and was beyond excited to see a very faint line appear at 7dp5dt and it was still there this morning.  Yes, I am definitely pregnant at this time and hoping everything continues to go well.  It feels good to finally be in the 65% group for once.

I thought I would post some pics of the clinic as well.  I wanted to mention that you get Tram #1 from the Bus station and you need to go 5 stops to the Reprofit Clinic.

Reprofit is the orange/tan building

After transfer, you get to lay down for 10 minutes and relax.  The rooms are very modern and clean, with your own bathroom cubicle inside the room to strip down.  They give you a cotton sheet to cover yourself with, you get into position and they put the embryos onto the large screen for you to look at before the transfer.  They do not give out pictures and if you want a copy, you need to take your camera.

All the equipment is new and updated, just as it is here in the States.

When I got back and checked my emails, I did have a message from Štěpán Machač MD telling me that I did have two blastocyst embryos frozen on Day 6 for future use.  I do know for certain that they will not transfer the embryos  to the States so you do have to go back to Czech for further treatment.

Wishing everyone good luck if you decide to use the Reprofit Clinic, I can only say how fabulous both My IVF Alternative and the Reprofit Clinic were to work with.  One big hurdle over, 6 more to go.

 

 

 

 

Transfer – PUPO

Wow, I am sitting back at the apartment with a huge smile on my face, the sun is finally shining and its warm.  Transferred two, 1xHBgr.1 (hatching blastocyst grade 1) and 1xXBgr.1 (expanding blastocyst grade 1), may have two to freeze, but is uncertain at this point – see how they progress as they are not quite where they should be and are 2xEBgr.II (early blastocysts grade 2) They may continue and are given a grade 2 as they are a little slow and are behind where they should be to date.  The last one is not good and is 1xMgr.III. (morola grade 3).

 Denisa met me at the apartment and took me to the clinic which was literally 2 minutes by car.  The staff at Reprofit were all so nice and the nurse spoke better english than the doctor.  The doctor I had for transfer was Marcel and he was very nice.  It was just a little crampy getting the cervix open and putting in the embryos, but not painful at all.  I did remember to take my camera with me to get a pic of the embryos, and once I was on the table, I remembered it was in my bag and had to get up and get it from the bathroom.  The screen was quite far away and not that clear, but I did take one pic 4.5X so who knows how clear it will be.  I will try to transfer them from my camera, but right now I am using a borrowed computer at the apartment.

 I am very happy with my decision to use myivfalternative and the clinic Reprofit. I would definitely use them again if necessary, but I am remaining hopeful that my body is going to incubate these babies.  My lining today was at 7.5mm so definitely less than when I was in the States, but I also did one shot of the Lupron Depot as opposed to the daily two week shots. I am glad I paid the extra money to use Mags’ business rather than going straight to the clinic as it took a lot of the worry out of things and meant I could concentrate on business at home before coming over here.  I didn’t have to worry about a language barrier or getting a hotel or figuring out how to get to and from the apartment or clinic. Also the apartment was on a special deal for the month of July – 4 nights FREE.  Now its just wait and see.  HCG test is due 19 July, but I can guarantee I will be testing as soon as I get back home in a week.  Tomorrow Denisa is going to pick us up and take us back to the coach station as we are off to Vienna for 2 days and and then back to Prague for 3 days.  I am excited to check out both these cities.

Embryo Update

Called into the clinic today to get the updated information on the embryos and I have five grade one embryos, three are at 8 cell and 2 are at 7 cell and was informed they are of excellent quality.  My transfer got pushed back slightly to 10am on Tuesday.  It is cold and rainy in Brno today, so after we went out for lunch we are back at the apartment relaxing with a cuppa tea.  Tomorrow the weather should be better and we will get out to see the Brno dam.

Please keep growing/expanding and be healthy.  Please let my body nuture them and make them welcome for the next 9 months.

Retrieval – Update

Quick update. Delta airlines was 2 hours late leaving Detroit for Amsterdam last night and inevitably I missed my connection and have several hours in here before meeting up with my mum in Prague.

Got an update from MIA my donor had 9 eggs, 8 mature and 6 fertilized. Let’s hope these 6 are healthy and continue to grow. Transfer Tuesday 9.30am. YEAH!!!

Edited:

 My mum calls me from Prague whilst I am still in Amsterdam and when she got to the hotel and they informed her that because of some computer glitch they lost our reservation and are moving us to another hotel.  I chose the Hotel Mucha soley because it was on the same block as the bus station so it would be easy for us to get to it in the morning.  Oh well, shit happens and they gave us free taxi rides, one for my mum to get to the new hotel Bishops Place, one for me from the airport and then one in the morning to take us to the bus station.

 We got on the Student Agency bus this morning, I had booked the tickets and seats back in May and although the roads are very bumpy, they played a movie and offered free hot drinks.  The seats were leather, comfortable and also reclined!  It was a great way to get to Brno for $11 one way.  My Czech co-ordinator, Denisa met us at the bus station and gave us a ride to the apartment and showed us a couple of restaurants she recommends and where to get groceries close by etc.  She is going to pick me up on Tuesday 9.15am and take me to my appointment and then drop me back to the apartment.

 I have a number to call tomorrow to check on the embryos so I will post again when I have some more information.  Please pray that they are all healthy and dividing as they are supposed to and are a great grade as they implant the best two and only freeze additional eggs if they are a grade 1.

Clinic Update

Got an email from Sue – the clinic informed her that my donor is responding nicely to the meds and retrieval is set for  Thursday as planned. I will have to wait until I get there on 2 July to find out how many embryos and how they are.

Other than that, I am still in disbelief that there is someone out there growing eggs for me.  Its getting to feel real.

6 Days To Go

I went for my ultrasound on Wednesday and I am doing great – at 6mm with a triple lining (whatever this is – never ever heard of this at the old clinic) – so they seem very pleased and I am to continue with the protocol unchanged. I had been on the estrace 8 days when I had the ultrasound.   

Once I got there the Receptionist couldn’t find the original script from the clinic and thankfully I had upgraded my telephone and now have internet access and could pull up my mail. I emailed it to her and then she said its not signed by the Doctor so she checked with her office manager to see if this was okay. My contact is in Los Angeles and it was only 6.20am pacific time. Thankfully it was accepted. I sat and waited in the most spacious lounge with a TV and watched CNN. The doctor and nurse were just as lovely and no-one was put out that I was late and not a patient, although they did make a quick $220 off me for a 2 minute u/s. Oh, how I wish I had found these people before now.

Sue did call back the next day and asked me to increase my estrogen by one tablet vaginally at night, so now I am taking 3 orally and 1 vaginally a day.   I was a little concerned that we were 4 days late starting the estrace than originally planned, but she said its just a safety precaution.  Its been hard to find any info on the net regarding how much the lining grows daily and how it grows when the ovaries have been shut down via the lupron.  I am totally against taking more estrogen than is necessary, but I feel I don’t really have a choice right now.  For my cancelled DEmb FET, my lining was at 8mm after being on the patches for 10 days, so I feel there’s still hope.

 6 days to go, 6 days to go!!

Meds

I officially started the meds yesterday. Estrace once a day orally for 4 days, then twice a day for 4 days and then it will be 3 times a day until Beta day.  I will also start the prometrium on the evening of the 29th as I will be travelling on the 30th (which originally was going to be the day I started) and the 30th is also my fairy egg maker’s retrieval date.  I will take these three times a day until Beta also. 

I also joined in the fertilityfriends.co.uk board and they have been getting some great BFP’s so far this month and there are several ladies on there going to Reprofit around the same time as me.  It’s a relief to see all the positives coming up.  One lady has been on the Reprofit waiting list for a year – and with My Ivf Alternative, I got an appointment within 2 1/2 months, for what basically cost $2K extra, plus they were running a special for a one bedroom apartment in Brno for 4 night for free.  Money well spent for me and with all the support and information I have received from Mags and Sue, I couldn’t be happier.  If I have a question, Sue has been very quick to reply to me by email.  I definitely feel very relaxed having them in my corner!!

Money has been ordered and is at the bank waiting for me to pick it up. 

 

 

 

 

Fairy Egg Maker Has Been Chosen

I received my donor information today via email and all my basic requirements were met.  By law it has to be anonymous and thus the information you receive is minimal at best.  Both for egg and sperm donors.

One sticking point for me was the level of education.  I was expecting her to be in university, and S, my MIA rep,  pointed out that their education standards are different from the US and a secondary education is considered the same as a Bachelor’s degree. They only go onto university to become lawyers, doctors, architects etc.  My sperm donor is in university.   Everything else was spot on.  I couldn’t have asked for better.  She is an unproven donor though, even though she is very young and should have good quality, it is her first time.  We are both Reprofit virgins together.  I had read somewhere that ‘proven’ just means egg retrieval was successful.  I could have declined this donor, and asked for another, but this could possibly delay my procedure and other requirements may not be met.  Overall, I am extremely happy.  I am hoping her selfless generosity will afford me the child I have been waiting over 3 years for.

My period is still so very light, am I actually having a period?  S wants me to wait until tomorrow evening to make sure that I could still get full flow and then start on the estrace.

Just a little over 2 weeks until I leave.  Ultrasound a week from tomorrow.   It’s really happening!!