IVF 2: Immune stuff

Today I went for my pre transfer intralipids infusion. It’s part of the borderline protocol from Dr S, for patients who have a borderline reaction to pregnancy. When they did the immune testing it was found that I had an elevated level of NK cells in a pregnancy situation, so whilst I’ve been doing IVF, I’ve also been doing some immune treatment on the side.

Up till today it was just taking some extra supplements. Then because it looks like I’ll have my egg collection next week, which means a potential transfer end of next week, I’m meant to get the intralipids 7-10 days before. Now who knows if the timings are correct – I might not end up having the egg collection until end of next week, but I was getting stressed about timings because I can’t have it tomorrow (they’re not doing it as the midwife isn’t in) and she thought I should do it on Monday or Tuesday otherwise, and I’ll only find out tomorrow if the transfer’s on Monday or Tuesday as they think it will be. So… It seemed easier, especially as they upped my stims dose to 300 last night, to think of it happening on Monday or Tuesday. Intralipids it was.

I finished up at work and headed off to the clinic (private clinic outside of London) for the afternoon. The good thing about working my notice is that I’m way more flexible in what I can do! At the moment I’m working for a guy I’m friendly with, and I’m doing him a favour, and they aren’t going to put me on any projects during my notice period, so it’s easy enough.

One thing I’ve noticed with this stims phase is that I’m so tired. I mean, dog tired. (Though my dog spends all day sleeping so not sure he’s ever got to the tired stage.) I went and got the infusion and it’s given via IV. I was so tired that I just sat back in the chair and snoozed for about an hour!

The IV intralipids…    

White stuff infusing into me!
 

I really think I may have snored a bit. I was sooooo tired! Also, my veins are a bit small and the infusion takes a while if you’re me. (I actually used to be a blood donor until they were like “Thanks but no thanks!” as it took soooo long to get half a pint!)

In terms of the sensation, it did start to ache a bit. I mean, it was going on for around an hour. But not so much that I didn’t just doze off! So on balance it wasn’t that bad.

Also tonight I had my normal Menopur stims injection, but as of yesterday evening (after my first progress scan) they told me to increase it to 300 instead of the previous 250. So I guess they’re stimulating me a bit more! 

The other thing (in addition to all the supplements which I take in the evening as part of the borderline protocol) was I starting the heparin injection. I did that this evening and it hurt! It’s a thicker needle (pre-loaded so no choice on needle) so I didn’t enjoy that much. I’m supposed to do those every day until the evening before egg collection, and then start again. Also if I have a positive pregnancy test (here’s hoping) I would have another intralipids infusion at 4 weeks.

In myself I’m feeling overall really tired. My stomach has swollen up to the point where I now look about 3 months pregnant, which is annoying! But I suppose it will go down after egg collection. My weight has gone up alarmingly… Again I suppose it’s the effect of the meds. I feel absolutely exhausted and can barely keep my eyes open. I’m telling myself it will pass! I have no idea how I managed to go through all this last year when I was working really long hours. Although I’m trying to remember and I think that maybe I felt different on Gonal F than I do on Menopur. 

So that’s the update – I really hope this is going to end well! At the moment we are thinking egg collection is early next week. If the follicles keep growing at this rate we will hopefully have a few eggs!