IVF Stim day 4 and acupuncture session

Had my acupuncture session with Dr Jin Jin hua this morning. As usual, she put needles on my legs, tummy, right ear and hands. She use an external heating equipment to heat up my legs and tummy. The heating equipment looks like a standing lamp.
She asked me if my tummy feels bloated from the stimulation drugs, i told her not much, except for some twingling sensation once in a while. That got me thinking, am i suppose to start feeling heavy around my ovaries at day 4 of stimulation? I better check the internet for some information to put my mind at ease.

Video clip on ICSI

I found a really cool clip on ICSI.

TCM as an IVF Booster

I have included TCM as a booster to my current IVF round. I started taking chinese herb daily for a month in dec/jan followed by accupunture once a week starting mid jan and now i have progressed into twice weekly accupunture. The accupunturist recommended that i do one session each before and after for both egg retreival and embryo transfer. My physician Xia Rong was from Yu Ren Seng clinic at paragon, i decided use the Accupunturist Jin JinHua at Raffles Hospital TCM since my IVF gynae is from there. I find both of them to be very professional and friendly. During my accupunture session, i feel a tingling sensation when the needles are entered, followed by a numbing sensation at the needle area.

Some cost information. For the 1 month supply of chinese herb including consultation fee at Yu Ren Seng, it cost me sgd$280. For the IVF booster package for accupunture, i paid sgd$380 for 5 sessions package. I will need 2 of such packages.

Stimulation day 2 - Gonal F 450

Today is my second stim day, just taken my second injection of Gonal F 450. Not much side effect except for tiredness. A friend called earlier and we chatted for a while, she asked me " Do you think the drugs will cause harm to the body?". I answered, " i think its a calculated risk, considering the noble cause of it, i think its all worth it, even if ...even if the drugs may cause some harm to my body, but having said that, i think it should be safe." My friend shared that she been battling with infertility for over 4 years and i honestly can feel her pain. Infertility is really a shitty thing.

Some information on the cost of my drugs. I need an estimation of 11 days of 450iu.
11x450 = 4950iu
i bought 4 bottles of 1050iu and 2 bottles of 75iu. The 1050iu vial actually contains 1200iu.
(1200x4) +75+75 = 4950iu
The 1050iu vial costs SGD$1100 each and the 75iu vial costs SGD$90 each. Oh mine, the drugs are really expensive.

day 1 of stimulation cycle - doctor's appt

My menses came on sunday and was scheduled for a scan today to count my antral follicles in my ovaries. Numbers are not so good, i have a total of baseline 8 follicles prior to stimulation drugs. These are low numbers for a 31 years old person like me. the number reflects roughly the best maximum numbers of follicles that may be retrieved. I feel pressured and scared to know that i may not have many eggs to retrieve, afriad that some of these follicles may not grow to be recruited to be viable. I will be starting my Gonal F injection at a dose of 450iu tonight and for the next 4 nights till my next scan. God please help me, please bless me with at least 8 fertilized eggs thru this IVF, please let me be pregnant this time.

Right after my appt, i walked over to the nearby mall in town and loitered around aimlessly. I feel anxious about this IVF, with every new hope of a successful outcome, there is new fear of failure... Its mind boggling. I so wish to run up to a stranger and get a hug and a shoulder to cry on, in the end i decided to seek comfort in a big meal of yoshinoya chicken and beef don with miso soup at 10am in the morning.

IVF #04

After 1 child and 3 round of IVF, I am ready for my 4th attempt.
I am on an antagonist protocol this round, it is a shorter cycle with no lucrin.
I will be on Gonal-F 450 and cetrodite. Tomorrow will be my stim day 1.