Thursday, 29 August 2019
Tuesday, 9 April 2019
Happy Ending... Happy Beginning
Happy 100 days young my dear baby J!
Before you were born, mummy took 249 clexane jabs and countless pills (4 types of medicine in first trimester) to keep you alive. You would have 2 elder siblings if they haven’t gone to be little angels.
Daddy and mummy wish you will grow up to be a healthy and happy boy. We will always love you!
Tuesday, 14 November 2017
Monday, 6 November 2017
Miscarriage #2
I wish I'm sharing about my pregnancy progress, but instead, I'm posting about my miscarriage that happened almost 2 weeks ago. This is a quick summary of what happened.
20 Oct (Fri)
Went to see Dr Lisa Chin because I was having very minor spotting since Monday. Had a scan, doctor commented that the sac is a little low. Told to continue with duphaston thrice a day. Up folic acid dose to thrice a day after I told doctor I have MTHFR gene mutation. Given 1 week of HL to rest at home.
21 Oct (Sat)
Woke up at about 5.30 am because I feel a blood clot coming out. Rushed to KKH 24-hour O&G, had a scan, requested for progesterone in oil jab.
23 Oct (Mon)
Bleeding got worse in the morning. Joined the peak hour traffic, got back to KKH 24-hour O&G and had another scan. Sent for a detailed scan in the Diagnostic Imaging department. Doctor in 24-hour O&G reviewed the detailed scan and comment the sac is in a low position. Requested for crinone (because I cannot get another progesterone jab). Went toilet before leaving KKH and a big ball of blood clot came out. Went back to 24-hour O&G, had yet another scan, this time doctor said the sac had gone down even further and miscarriage is inevitable. Opted to stay in hospital to collect pregnancy tissue sample for karotyping.
24 Oct (Tue)
No tissue passed out yet. Went for another detailed scan.
25 Oct (Wed)
Given tablets to speed things up. After 2 hours, the bleeding started to get heavier. Few hours later, after passing out many blood clots, I finally passed out a tiny piece of tissue. (Someone wrote about her experience at NUH which is quite similar to mine.)
Now, it's just waiting for the karotyping result to be out.
Despite being on many medication to manage the sticky blood issue, I still couldn't maintain the pregnancy beyond week 6. I don't know if the doctors can help me anymore.
20 Oct (Fri)
Went to see Dr Lisa Chin because I was having very minor spotting since Monday. Had a scan, doctor commented that the sac is a little low. Told to continue with duphaston thrice a day. Up folic acid dose to thrice a day after I told doctor I have MTHFR gene mutation. Given 1 week of HL to rest at home.
21 Oct (Sat)
Woke up at about 5.30 am because I feel a blood clot coming out. Rushed to KKH 24-hour O&G, had a scan, requested for progesterone in oil jab.
23 Oct (Mon)
Bleeding got worse in the morning. Joined the peak hour traffic, got back to KKH 24-hour O&G and had another scan. Sent for a detailed scan in the Diagnostic Imaging department. Doctor in 24-hour O&G reviewed the detailed scan and comment the sac is in a low position. Requested for crinone (because I cannot get another progesterone jab). Went toilet before leaving KKH and a big ball of blood clot came out. Went back to 24-hour O&G, had yet another scan, this time doctor said the sac had gone down even further and miscarriage is inevitable. Opted to stay in hospital to collect pregnancy tissue sample for karotyping.
24 Oct (Tue)
No tissue passed out yet. Went for another detailed scan.
25 Oct (Wed)
Given tablets to speed things up. After 2 hours, the bleeding started to get heavier. Few hours later, after passing out many blood clots, I finally passed out a tiny piece of tissue. (Someone wrote about her experience at NUH which is quite similar to mine.)
Now, it's just waiting for the karotyping result to be out.
Despite being on many medication to manage the sticky blood issue, I still couldn't maintain the pregnancy beyond week 6. I don't know if the doctors can help me anymore.
Saturday, 14 October 2017
Friday, 29 September 2017
IVF Frozen #5 Day 24
It was long while since my last consultation with Dr Sadhana. Between then and today, DH and I met Dr Sheila Vasoo who figured out that I have sticky blood due to MTHFR genes mutation. She drew up a plan for me to start aspirin, vitamin D and folic acid right away. Few days before ET, I am to add prednisolone and clexane on top of the usual FET medication (progynova).
This is what I have to deal with every morning until hCG BT.
As for the nights, I have to take another 1000IU vitamin D from day one and start injecting myself with clexane from CD19 (5 days before ET). The very first self-injection already gave me small bruise on my tummy. Oh yes, the jab is painful! Not unbearably painful; kind of like the same level of pain as the orgalutran jabs.
My 4-week supply of clexane that costed $490.
Today, DH and I reached KKIVF at 8.30 am as instructed. Unfortunately, my blastie didn't survive the thaw and the embryologist had to spend another 3 hours thawing another blastie.
Here's my little blastie. My darling, please grow well. Mummy hopes to see a bigger you and see your flickering heartbeat in 4 weeks' time!
My 5th frozen cycle timeline:
This is what I have to deal with every morning until hCG BT.
As for the nights, I have to take another 1000IU vitamin D from day one and start injecting myself with clexane from CD19 (5 days before ET). The very first self-injection already gave me small bruise on my tummy. Oh yes, the jab is painful! Not unbearably painful; kind of like the same level of pain as the orgalutran jabs.
My 4-week supply of clexane that costed $490.
Today, DH and I reached KKIVF at 8.30 am as instructed. Unfortunately, my blastie didn't survive the thaw and the embryologist had to spend another 3 hours thawing another blastie.
Here's my little blastie. My darling, please grow well. Mummy hopes to see a bigger you and see your flickering heartbeat in 4 weeks' time!
My 5th frozen cycle timeline:
| CD1 | Call KKIVF |
| CD4 | 4 mg progynova daily for 5 days |
| CD9 | 6 mg progynova daily for 5 days |
| CD13 | Visit KKIVF for scan. Uterine lining 6.9 mm |
| CD14 | 8 mg progynova daily for 3 days |
| CD17 | Visit KKIVF for scan. Uterine lining 9.0 mm Continue with 8 mg progynova daily for 4 days |
| CD19 | Crinone gel inserts twice daily until BT 0.2 ml Clexane injections once daily until BT |
| CD21 | 6 mg progynova daily until BT 10 mg prednisolone daily until BT |
| CD24 / 0dp5dt | ET. 1 blastocyst transferred. TWW begins! |
| CD38 / 14dp5dt | BT |
Tuesday, 12 September 2017
Which Hospital?
Just to share (and a bookmark for myself): detailed comparison between KKH and NUH by a forum member for those who cannot decide which hospital to go to. After I've used up all my frozen embryos from my Fresh #1, I've also considered switching to another hospital. But I didn't because I'm already used to the KKH "SOP". Everyone's situation is different; just have to figure out what suit you best.
If you're selecting only betw these 2, I'll strongly recommend NUH. Not that NUH is optimal, but I think there are many areas which KKH can do better in.
1) Safety. KKH prescribes med at start of stim, and your next and possibly only scan is around day 8. If you're someone who over-responds to medicine like me, not good at all because I already had 40+ follicles fr 87.5IU or 112.5IU of med. For first timers, usually they'll prescribe at abt 150IU. NUH's first scan is abt day 4, so adjustment could be made accordingly, depending on how you respond to the med. On the other hand, if you don't respond well, you might end up wasting money. Case in point: I always thought my friend wasted a lot of money for stim, because they waited for 8 days for first scan before realizing that the med didn't work well for her. She ended up having to stim for an additional 7 days. That would have set her back hundreds of dollars as we all know the stim med is not cheap.
2) Support given after BFP. This one both hospitals seem to be on extreme ends. NUH gives progesterone in excess, from the recent posts you can read for yourself that KKH is not as liberal with that. I have another friend who had a miscarriage her first transfer. Her second transfer BFP again, she went to see a private gynae on top of KKH, and private gynae did a blood test and found out her progesterone levels were too low to support pregnancy. So she was getting support from private gynae instead of KKH. And she's still suspecting till today she lost her first one due to the same reason - lack of progesterone.
3) Ownership of scans and prescription - in NUH, scan is done by doc, on the spot will give you a preliminary prescription and actions to be taken (still need to wait for BT results to make sure your estradiol levels are good). The doc will look out for things during the scan to make the decision. In KKH, scans are not done by the doc. Sonographer scans, records down the number and measurements, then pass the document to "a team of docs" who makes the decision.
4) Mentioned by someone else, waiting time is a factor. Related to point 3. In NUH, doc scans, decides and talk to you, then you can go meet the nurse to collect med. In KKH, there's at least one more station at the start which you have to wait (sonographer, then doc).
5) Update of your embryos. To me it's an added service that NUH lab called me every morning to update me on the fertilization and growth of all my embryos. Even on New Year's Day (1 Jan). My friend with KKH, had no idea if her embryos made it, went for her transfer, waited for close to 4 hours in the hospital in the hospital gown, before her doc told her none of her embryos made it.
1) Safety. KKH prescribes med at start of stim, and your next and possibly only scan is around day 8. If you're someone who over-responds to medicine like me, not good at all because I already had 40+ follicles fr 87.5IU or 112.5IU of med. For first timers, usually they'll prescribe at abt 150IU. NUH's first scan is abt day 4, so adjustment could be made accordingly, depending on how you respond to the med. On the other hand, if you don't respond well, you might end up wasting money. Case in point: I always thought my friend wasted a lot of money for stim, because they waited for 8 days for first scan before realizing that the med didn't work well for her. She ended up having to stim for an additional 7 days. That would have set her back hundreds of dollars as we all know the stim med is not cheap.
2) Support given after BFP. This one both hospitals seem to be on extreme ends. NUH gives progesterone in excess, from the recent posts you can read for yourself that KKH is not as liberal with that. I have another friend who had a miscarriage her first transfer. Her second transfer BFP again, she went to see a private gynae on top of KKH, and private gynae did a blood test and found out her progesterone levels were too low to support pregnancy. So she was getting support from private gynae instead of KKH. And she's still suspecting till today she lost her first one due to the same reason - lack of progesterone.
3) Ownership of scans and prescription - in NUH, scan is done by doc, on the spot will give you a preliminary prescription and actions to be taken (still need to wait for BT results to make sure your estradiol levels are good). The doc will look out for things during the scan to make the decision. In KKH, scans are not done by the doc. Sonographer scans, records down the number and measurements, then pass the document to "a team of docs" who makes the decision.
4) Mentioned by someone else, waiting time is a factor. Related to point 3. In NUH, doc scans, decides and talk to you, then you can go meet the nurse to collect med. In KKH, there's at least one more station at the start which you have to wait (sonographer, then doc).
5) Update of your embryos. To me it's an added service that NUH lab called me every morning to update me on the fertilization and growth of all my embryos. Even on New Year's Day (1 Jan). My friend with KKH, had no idea if her embryos made it, went for her transfer, waited for close to 4 hours in the hospital in the hospital gown, before her doc told her none of her embryos made it.
Thursday, 31 August 2017
Monday, 28 August 2017
Instead of IVF
If only it is this easy...
Ask any IVFers, how many of us have already changed our lifestyle, followed a fertility diet, tracked our ovulation, drank that horrible bitter TCM herbs and got poked by countless acupuncture needles. If any of these worked for us, we wouldn't be going through IVF. It's not a matter of choice.
Monday, 14 August 2017
Problem Found
Back track a little, this is what happened between my last post and now: As recommended by Dr Roland, DH did the sperm DNA fragmentation test and the result came back as high fertility potential (i.e. low DNA fragmentation). Now that this issue is ruled out, I need to get myself checked. I pondered for a long time and decided not to go for SIS nor laparoscopy. Instead, I went to see Dr Sheila Vasoo at her ARC Clinic in Mount Elizabeth Novena. As expected, she ordered a series of blood tests for auto-immunity investigate. Total cost including consultation: $1455. Dr Sheila's staff gave me a slip of paper to bring to ParkwayHealth Laboratory (at ground floor of the same building). The phlebotomist drew 6 tubes of blood on the day of my first appointment and another 6 tubes on CD5.
We returned to see Dr Sheila Vasoo on Saturday to collect my blood test results. Turns out, I have sticky blood. Although this is not a good news, I feel relieved that we at least have a clear solution to our infertility now. The plan is for me to start taking aspirin, folic acid and Vitamin D right away. Then, I'll go back to Dr Sadhana for the frozen transfer in my next cycle. I'll have to start taking clexane jabs nearing ET too.
We returned to see Dr Sheila Vasoo on Saturday to collect my blood test results. Turns out, I have sticky blood. Although this is not a good news, I feel relieved that we at least have a clear solution to our infertility now. The plan is for me to start taking aspirin, folic acid and Vitamin D right away. Then, I'll go back to Dr Sadhana for the frozen transfer in my next cycle. I'll have to start taking clexane jabs nearing ET too.
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