Monday 21 January 2013

My first appointment at a new clinic


This morning was my first appointment at a different clinic with a different doctor and I was apprehensive but as well in a word I found it encouraging.

Arriving at the clinic I was kinda surprised and maybe a bit taken back to find it appeared to be some rooms on the top floor of a four storey office block. I was expecting an all singing all dancing clinic it being in Brighton and from first impressions it doesn't seem like it.
Fortunately four flights of steps up and its a very different story. As I step into the waiting area I'm faced with a very welcoming, calm and friendly area. The colour scheme is very calming and relaxing which is a good thing as I'm a bag of nerves, I don't really know what to expect but I'm really hoping for some miracles today. :-)

My doctor is a nice but quiet woman who seems very capable and I'm hoping really knows her stuff!
Despite having a good feeling about her she has actually confused me a little by talking about antral follicles and saying that if I didn't have many follicles then I would have a better chance of success with 2 or 3 goes at DIUI (donor insemination). That really confused me as I was under the understanding that my only hope was with IVF and it was very little hope at that, even with the best of drugs available. I guess that's why I'm not a fertility doctor though huh?! :-)

I gave my doctor the notes I'd managed to get from the the first clinic I visited, which wasn't a lot to be honest. I tried a couple of times to get my notes before success and even then there wasn't any in
depth notes. There was nothing in the notes about the amount of antral follicles that were found first time round which was annoying and meant I had to have the scan done all over again. But apart from the extra cost of it I'm glad that they are as there may well be some different results. The doctor also wanted to retest my AMH as well as testing for my FSH the later of which my first clinic didn't do so that's a good thing.

I had more blood tests done there and then as fortunately the timing worked out well with my cycle and they were also able to do a scan for me as well which revealed two follicles on one side and six on the other. The one side isn't so great but the other was very encouraging after all I am nearly 40 now! So now I have to wait another two weeks before I have another appointment to find out all the results.

Friday 11 January 2013

Work call out


I haven't told you yet what I do for work have I?

Well for the last 17 years I've been flying as cabin crew/air hostess for a well known airline. I say cabin crew/air hostess cause to be fair it really depends on who you're talking to. I have absolutely no hang up about what other people call my job having started flying at a time when we were 'air hostesses', not 'cabin crew' and certainly not 'flight attendants'. Some people refuse to be associated with the title 'air hostess' but when you live in a town, like I do, where the vast majority of the population are over 70 years old they wouldn't even know what 'cabin crew' meant, but say 'air hostess' and they're right there with you. So for me I'm an air hostess and that's what I've been doing for so many years that I'm sure my car would get there on it's own if I let it.

It's not a job I've ever wanted to do as I was growing up and at times I'm not sure it's a job I particularly like all that much (for reasons other than the actual job) but over the years its been harder and harder to get out of purely because of the lifestyle and the perks. Its a great job if you want to travel and see the world but not a great job for your social life, love life and sex life and perhaps when I think about it, it's part of the reason why I'm in the situation I am now.

My first appointment at a different clinic is on 17th January but today work called to see if I'm available to do a couple of nights trip to Portsmouth, US. It's only a couple of days away but typically, sods law it's right over my aunts birthday and the first appointment with the first clinic. So what to do?!

The thing is I'm so keen to get started now I've made the decision that I'm really reluctant to miss this appointment but seeing as I've bought up the lack of longhaul so much recently with my boss I don't feel I can say no, yet I've waited a while already for an appointment and if I cancel this one I'll have to wait again but then I also have an appointment already booked with the second clinic for 21st January, a few days later. So apart from missing my aunts birthday which is disappointing, other than that all it means is I'll be going to a different clinic first than the one I thought....fate perhaps?

It's off to Portsmouth then.......now to pack......it's freezing in Portsmouth.

Tuesday 8 January 2013

Making appointments


So to get the best treatment I possibly can while not really knowing a lot about the fertility world is a hard call to make and the only way to make the decision is to go and actually check them out.
So here goes, I have appointments at both the clinics that Sue suggested so we'll just see how those go for now.
The earliest appointments I could get were 17th January at one and 21st January at the other, so till then I guess I just need to concentrate on eating better, doing some calming exercise and my upcoming 40th birthday!

Tuesday 1 January 2013

A new year, a new start


Christmas is always a bit of a trial for me, I miss my mum so much and Christmas was always a time she loved and it's such a special time for families that it seems to just make it all that much harder.

Christmas in our house is a quiet affair these days but this year it gave me plenty of time to think about things and look things up on the internet as well as order a book off of Amazon which 'is famous for getting women pregnant when everything else fails'. Yay....bring it on.

I made the decision over the holidays that this was it, I needed to do absolutely everything I could to make this work for me and that's just what I was going to do. Starting with lifestyle and healthy eating. As of today no alcohol, no caffeine, more exercise and loads of vegetables.......I don't think I even really like vegetables!

One of the things I have read about and seen reference to on the internet is acupuncture and its positive effects on fertility.
A couple of  years ago a sports therapist tried to do acupuncture on me but I really wasn't convinced and haven't done anything like that since but desperate times need desperate measures.

A bit of an internet search threw up a couple of places in my home town and one about a 20 minute drive away so I called them all. The first one I spoke to made me laugh and I vowed not to call them again as when I explained that I was interested in acupuncture to undertake alongside IVF he very strongly said instead of IVF!! Mmm right.....good luck with that one as without a bloke acupuncture on it's own is doing absolutely nothing for me!
The next one I called was the one a 20 minute drive away but a couple of comments on forums recommended her and shes also worked at The Zita West fertility clinic in London. On the phone Sue sounded so calm, honest and lovely, I was sold.
Unfortunately she didn't have an appointment free until 12th January but in the meantime asked me where I had gone for the consultation and suggested that I look at other clinics as being private I could, she suggested two other clinics not far from me to try and so I gave them both a call.

Of course any appointment I make is going to cost money but I do want the best treatment I can get so I just need to plow on right now.