Copenhagen January 2011

Copenhagen January 2011
A cold November in Copenhagen...

Wednesday 3 August 2011

Roller coaster

It seems my will to live has decided to take off to Australia.  Not sure it's coming back, maybe just bought a one way ticket.  Hence the lack of blogging. You see, I thought it was game over before I started, as per my last post.  But then... Symptoms started to appear, exactly like those I had when I fell pregnant in March.  Weird indigestion, cramps that were poking rather than dragging in sensation.  And so I began to hope. It seemed that, in spite of the odds of having an IUI on the day of an LH surge as opposed to the recommended day after, I might have been lucky after all.  Around day 8-9 post IUI I was convinced I was pregnant.  So much so that I calculated a due date and trawled the 'trying to conceive' forums.  Well, it's usually me that warns you about those, so I only have myself to blame. 

I had all the symptoms. Fatigue, check.  Constipation, check.  Bloating, check.  Weird poking pains, check.  Just feeling pregnant, check. Veins like a road map on breasts, check. Overheating, check. So persuaded was I that I ignored the tell tale shivers on Day 11 and the odd, low blood sugar, shaky feeling that appeared momentarily.  I now recognise this as progesterone plummet and it's a sure sign that I am about to see the red devil.  I began to spot on Day 11 post IUI, but brown spotting, very light.  I was actually pleased, believing that this was implantation bleeding because my new cycle length, post miscarriage, was 32 days so it couldn't possibly be my period.  Perhaps the early ovulation on Day 9 of my cycle should have clued me into the fact that my body had reverted back to it's 24 day cycle. So, on Saturday 30th, on my 25th day, my period began.  I was absolutely floored.  Disappointment didn't cover it.  I actually felt grief.  Again.  This roller coaster of up and down - am I pregnant, am I not pregnant - it is utterly stressful.

And so here I am.  Exhausted, weary and skint.  Nothing new there then.  I can't do this again in August because the flights are too, too expensive last minute.  Next time I will take the Clomid and I will do it in late September.  As I am 44 in exactly one month's time,  time is slipping away faster than a speeding bullet and I am feeling very panicked.

I am still worried about the Clomid.  Will it thin my lining?  If my ovulation is pushed to Day 12 of my cycle won't my luteal phase be too short if my period is due on Day 25?  Should I take progesterone after the IUI?  If so how much, when and for how long?  I've made an appointment with my GP, but I'm sure he won't know the answers because he's not a gynaecologist.  Copenhagen Fertility Centre gave me the Clomid, but are not , it seems, really going to advise me beyond that.  The NHS won't refer me to a gynae.  I feel stressed out, to be quite frank.  Think I might just join my will to live in Australia.

However, let's see what my GP has to say tomorrow.  Perhaps it's time to get a little bolshy and demand some sort of help.  I may be over 40 and single, but I'm not asking for free assisted reproduction treatment, just some bloody help in asking what I should take to help myself.  Surely after paying tax for umpteen years, and after having major gynaecological surgery, that's not too much to ask?