pre-IVF anxiety... Help!!

Nima said:

Some mid-IVF anxiety here... I have 25 follicles and some of them are already about 15mm in diameter, and it seems that my egg pick up will only be on Wednesday. I am so afraid that it's too late. Plus I am worried that it's too many follicles and that I will have ohss. And generally, I am just so anxious...

Click to expand...

I totally understand the anxiety! I had quite a high response, probably higher than they even expected. I have bad health anxiety so I was already nervous about the possibility of getting OHSS, but when they retrieved 36 follicles, I was definitely nervous about it. About 4-5 days before retrieval, I remember having at least 8-10 around the 14-15mm size but they wanted me to have more of my follicles in the mature size range, so they had me continue stims. After your monitoring appointments, they will move the egg retrieval up if they believe you have enough mature follicles. I know it's hard not to be anxious, but I think it sounds like everything is good and you are on the right track . By the day of my retrieval, I had tons of follicles in the 18-22mm range, some even slightly larger.

Nima said:

Thank you lovely ladies! It feels so comforting to be understood, not even my partner gets it, i feel.

We arrived in Denmark and it's beautiful and our apartment has sooooo many stairs my toddler is basically at life danger all the time... lol I guess she'll learn very quickly how to climb up and down (she can do it but not very well).

Tomorrow I have my appointment and I plan to walk there (30 minutes) and try and mentally prepare for whatever comes.

Megan how are you doing? Do you feel better?

Click to expand...

I don't think my partner fully understood either, I think it's hard to understand unless you go through it yourself. Every step of IVF is very anxiety-inducing. Let us know how your appointment goes

I'm doing okay, my partner's grandma passed away early this morning so I've been doing my best to comfort her and just be supportive during this time. We have an ultrasound tomorrow morning (5/16), and then again on 5/19 to see my uterine lining thickness, and I'm hoping we could get a more solid embryo transfer date. It looks like we will very likely be leaving next week for the funeral over next weekend, so the plan is to be able to go to our appointment on 5/19 and leave right after to go to the funeral. If it all works out that way, we will return a few days before the embryo transfer. It's so much to even think about, but this all happened so suddenly, so we are going to try our hardest to make it work.

@Nima Thank you very much. And that all sounds pretty promising. I think it's a good idea to plan on a fresh transfer, and if you are showing signs of OHSS on the day of transfer, they will likely reschedule it. As long as you drink lots of water and electrolytes and eat a high protein diet, I think you will be okay I know, it's so stressful during a time when we are supposed to be keeping our stress levels low. My fingers are crossed for you, it's so exciting!

@WinterBub Thank you, we are doing okay. My partner is sad as her grandma raised her, but she had been suffering, so we are glad she is out of pain. As far as our FET plan goes though, everything is looking really good. My lining has thickened to 10mm (goal is at least 7mm), but my estradiol still isn't quite where they want it, so we added an estradiol patch I wear on my abdomen. We are taking a road trip out to Texas for the funeral on Thursday, immediately after my final lining check. My doctor is so great and gave us both a hug and assured us that our treatment plan will not change, so the plan is still to do an FET next week after we return . Since we are driving, it will be easy for us to travel with all of my many meds since I will probably have to start progesterone injections while we are there.

Nima said:

Thank you so much @Megan0625 and @WinterBub

Megan your doctor sounds like a real person, that is so good to know you are in good hands.

I am going to my retrieval in 10 minutes, hoping for the best but definitely preparing for worst case scenarios, so scary. I will buy some yarn before I go in so I can knit through the next day or so when I can't do much else. Knitting is a new hobby that calms me like magic... weird, i know.
My daughter is with a fever though so I hope I can really rest.

I'll update you here about how it went.

Click to expand...

Yes, I couldn't have asked for a better doctor, he is so kind and has the best bedside manners. I hope your retrieval went well, and I hope your daughter is feeling better!

@Nima Congratulations! You are pregnant until proven otherwise. I wish you so much luck and have my fingers crossed for you. It's so exciting! My embryo transfer is on 5/26! I started my progesterone injections a few days ago.

@Anke82 I'm sorry, I totally understanding how disappointing that is. My IVF cycle was postponed a few weeks due to my cyst they found, but luckily they were able to move ahead once it was suppressed and stopped producing estrogen. It ended up resolving after a couple of weeks of Lupron injections. Next cycle will be here before you know it!