4 – 7 March 2016
Our journey for another fresh round of IVF starts today and the difference between KKH and NUH is that the injections would be done between 6pm – 9pm instead of doing it in the morning. For the 1st few jabs, I am given 150 units of the Gonal F pen. Prof suggested the amount since in KKH, I was given 187.5 units.

The husband has always been the one doing the injections for me and on the 1st day of injection, I was asking if my mum, dad or brother could do it. But turns out, everyone was afraid of needles. I think my dad couldn’t bear myself doing it on my own, he eventually agreed to help with the 1st injection. So off I went to my parents and before I prep for it, I showed my dad this video.

Great video for 1st timers doing on their own but I think it made him even more nervous. So here I was preparing the Gonal-F pen for injection, and I clean the stomach area for him to jab. But I can see the fear in his eyes… hahahha I told him its ok, I took it and without hesitation, I jabbed myself! Funny thing is when I was injecting myself, my dad covered his face with his hands!! Hahahhahah… *papa oh papa*

8 – 10March 2016
I came for my scan by Prof then off for my first blood test at CHR. Here are my results. You need your follicle to be at least 18mm in size and lining to be at least 10mm in order for the egg retrieval to go ahead.

Right Ovary – 8 follicles (8 & 8mm)
Left Ovary – 8 follicles (7 & 9mm)
Uterine Lining – 5mm
Blood Count – 1046

I continued with Gonal-F 150 units till my next scan on the 11th.

11 – 13 March 2016
Right Ovary – 10 follicles (8 & 9mm)
Left Ovary – 11 follicles (8, 8, 9mm)
Uterine Lining – not stated
Blood Count – 582

Notice my blood count went down by almost half? That raised an alarm for them and the nurses mentioned that even if your follicles are growing but your blood count is low, it would not work. Prof decided to give me an additional injection, 75 units of Menopur.

If after taking these additional injections, my blood count do not rise, I will have to forgo this cycle… By then I broke down in my car later on. One dugaan after another!

Haissss… PS: This Menopur injection causes the area around the injection to itch!

14 – 19 March 2016
So if you notice, its coming to 2.5 weeks of injections for me. Thankfully, Alhamdullilah, the blood count increased and that the eggs are growing steadily. Here are my readings for the next 3 sessions. By then, you would have though that I kinda got over squirming at each injection session but each time without failll… same only! I’d close my eyes and make the husband tell me that it’s over.

14 March 2016
Right Ovary – 12 follicles (15, 12, 11.5, 10.5 mm)
Left Ovary – 11 follicles (8, 8, 9, 10 mm) – notice how the left one is still not wanting to grow!
Uterine Lining – 11 mm
Blood Count – 3412

17 March 2016
Right Ovary – 12 follicles (18, 15, 14.5, 13, 15, 13.5, 13.5 mm)
Left Ovary – 11 follicles (14, 11, 13, 14, 13, 11, 12 mm)
Uterine Lining – 10 mm
Blood Count – 17327

17 March 2016
Right Ovary – 12 follicles (14.5, 17.5, 24, 19, 14.5, 16, 15, 16, 17.5 mm)
Left Ovary – 11 follicles (18, 17, 17.5, 17.5, 16.5 mm)
Uterine Lining – 11 mm
Blood Count – 21590

Yeay they grew! But I guess this was because of the additional Progestrone injections that Prof gave that I had to get on the butt! It’s oil based and it’s blardy painful. Each tube was 50mg but I had to take a 100 mg shot twice weekly! The pain comes now from the shots but from the after effect I guess, when the meds are pssisng through. >_____<  I guess these shots helped and the eggs grew.

So with that I was scheduled for extraction on Monday, 21 March 2016 and tentative egg insertion on 26 March 2016. My only concern was getting OHSS again but at the same time I did not want to have the eggs frozen and then count it as a frozen cycle. That would actually be a seperate cost. This cycle itself, I has to fork out quite a fair bit of cash on our end. I shall update you with the costings on another post.