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Lifeslurper resides in a big brown land called Auuustralia. Her early years remain a mystery cloaked in a veil of depression. Age 42 Lifeslurper meets the vague but gorgeous Wobbles. “What took him so long to arrive?” She asks. They make their way together in the world just fine, but are not fine to make a baby – not without some outside help. Enter ART and 2008 the year of 4 IVF cycles & one lousy big fat negative. Lifeslurper is now 46 years old! Time for a baby is running out fast, so too is her sanity. Now it's 2010 - Lifeslurper and Wobbles are getting serious about this baby making business. Donor Egg Cycles are the way of the future and the future is NOW!

Turning to Dorothy the Dinosaur and Thomas the Tank Engine

Well it is now over a month since our latest IVF cycle not so much ended with a bang, but died with a whimper. Wobbles and I are still scratching our heads as to which way to go. We are officially on the clinic’s donor egg top 100 list, languishing somewhere near the end of that number. The marching on of time means we are compelled to keep trying with our own eggs, and hope we turn up a non-‘degenerate’ one or eventually are in receipt of a donated version.

Continue reading Turning to Dorothy the Dinosaur and Thomas the Tank Engine

The agony of the agonist…a cycle by any other name

Since moving into this crazy world of infertility treatments, I have caught a bad case of a related habit: the obsessive compulsive quest for information. It never ceases to amaze me just how many ways there are to make a baby (or not!)

Sure, if you are not fertility challenged there is one sure fire way to do this. For the rest of us poor deluded souls, there appears to be an infinite number of permutations on what seems to be a few standard ideas. Lifeslurper is slowly becoming convinced that endless array of ART protocol and medication names are put forward by fertility specialists, clinics and pharmaceutical companies the world over just to astound and confuse us the unfortunate recipients of these less than standardised treatment names and terms. Continue reading The agony of the agonist…a cycle by any other name

Stitching up the IVF game

It seems no matter how prepared you are for the ‘worst’ with IVF there are always greater depths to be explored.

Our fourth IVF cycle has now ground its way to a complete end.

There were a few close calls. Just when we thought we had it worked out, we were side-blinded – again.

Leaving before dawn yesterday morning we got to the clinic without a hitch. Considering our recent travel incidents, this was an excellent start. Continue reading Stitching up the IVF game

The Numbers Game

The equation goes something like this:

 

X follicles divided by Z ultrasounds plus ? mm expected daily growth injected with 47 subcutaneous 0.5ml antagonist from Day 6 less 3 Clomid headaches multiplied by Wobbles’ optimism diminished by my negative thoughts add a touch of our combined hopes and dreams balancing on the point of devastation equals zero eggs.

 

Clearly mathematics is not my strong point. Nor is follicle production for that matter.

 

Yesterday the mood around my Day 8 ultrasound was sombre. While Lifeslurper is never known to display great hope, the thought of the all singing all dancing antagonist cycle protocol had brought some secret thoughts of improvements in this broken down chemical ridden egg factory.

Continue reading The Numbers Game