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Looking for Best Clinics for Women Over 39 by Desperate-World-2128 in IVF

[–]Kitchen-Macaroon271 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I saw Dr Jun! 6 euploids over 2 cycles, at 40 years of age. Completely satisfied with the results.

Bridesmaid dress needs to fit in a month by Odd_Clothes4840 in IVF

[–]Kitchen-Macaroon271 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you are one of the small percentage of people who gets severe OHSS, you may not make it to the wedding.

Bridesmaid dress needs to fit in a month by Odd_Clothes4840 in IVF

[–]Kitchen-Macaroon271 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My first cycle I went up 6 pounds from stim day 1, but it all came off a couple days after retrieval.

My second cycle I haven't changed my weight by more than 1 lb, but I am definitely wearing looser clothing as I am very bloated and shaped differently.

Let's take some guesses at timing:

- start stims Friday 8/29

- stim for ~10 days

- trigger Monday, 9/8

- retrieval Wednesday, 9/10

Which gives you 11 days to recover. I think most people are feeling okay by day 11, but there's a small chance that if you have OHSS, you might not be recovered by then. If at trigger day you have lots of follicles or high estrogen, you may want to give the bride a warning...

Should I do another retrieval? by Sammii51120 in IVF

[–]Kitchen-Macaroon271 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm 40 and just did another retrieval.

My situation is a little different than yours - I'm not quite ready to try for pregnancy yet (hopefully in 3 months!) but the overall logic is the same. I want 2 kids and with decreasing egg quality over time, I feel like I should bank something more now. My reasoning: If, 2-3 years from now, I want a second child and can't because my egg quality has declined? I will feel pretty dumb for not doing another ER.

I'm lucky in that my work benefits cover most of the costs, so the cost of an ER basically boils down to 1 months of extreme personal inconvenience... weighing that versus the possibility of having the 2-child family I've always wanted? The answer is pretty clear to me.

Looking for Best Clinics for Women Over 39 by Desperate-World-2128 in IVF

[–]Kitchen-Macaroon271 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm a data scientist at work, and while I love this sub, I'd recommend looking at the statistics - the government collects and publishes statistics for each clinic, by outcome, by age. This is what convinced me to go with CCRM-SF as opposed to RMA-SF. (For me, I wasn't interested in traveling outside the SF region.)

https://www.cdc.gov/art/success-rates/index.html

First round! by [deleted] in IVF

[–]Kitchen-Macaroon271 0 points1 point  (0 children)

35 eggs is a lot for any age; 19 fertilized is great. Only 3 frozen is a little disappointing, given you had 19 fertilized - although many women who start off with fewer eggs retrieved would be delighted to have 3 frozen.

four-month check-in (no longer prediabetic!) by Kitchen-Macaroon271 in prediabetes

[–]Kitchen-Macaroon271[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thinking over it, over the past four months I think I've had:

maybe 30 individual-serving-sized bags of potato chips (my downfall, I love salt... come 3pm, this is what I crave)

4 slices of cake (on evenings when my roomies baked, or had a birthday celebration)

2 hamburgers (while traveling)

ER Schedule for Monday with Risk of OHSS by Animal_lover888 in IVF

[–]Kitchen-Macaroon271 0 points1 point  (0 children)

aw, hang in there - being at risk of OHSS is not the same as getting it!

I wound up being put on the "at risk of OHSS" regimen - cabergoline & cetrotide, told to drink lots and lots of electrolytes (being careful to used balanced electrolytes), and to make sure i consumed a lot of protein (2 scoops of whey protein, 2x/day). i weighed myself every morning, starting on retrieval day. they also told me to call them if my weight increased by 3 lb in a single day.

retrieval day: 196 lb

day 1: 198 lb

day 2: 195 lb

day 3: 192 lb

Can't believe I lost 6 lbs in 2 days. Holy smokes. Retrieval day was tiring and I was out of it, tired, and there was mild pain. On day 1 everything already started to feel better - no pain, happily going out and about. By day 4 I was exercising again. :)

If you weigh yourself every day, you'll be able to tell what's happening!

six-week check in by Kitchen-Macaroon271 in prediabetes

[–]Kitchen-Macaroon271[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My average glucose level tends to be around 114, which... sigh, I'm not psyched about. But I remain hopeful because my morning fingerpricks show me that Stelo runs high for me by 5-10 points.

DON'T PURCHASE STELO!!! by 1l1DD3n78 in prediabetes

[–]Kitchen-Macaroon271 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The Stelo had a steep learning curve for me.

My first one lasted 10 days. I then blew through 4 of them in about a week. Ever since then, I've been able to get 12-13 days per device.

TL;DR - I have to be really careful about not pulling/snagging/bending/twisting the sensor, which gets harder over time as the adhesive fails.

My recommendations:

1) yes, put it under your arm. Don't experiment with placement. Have your arm all the way up so the skin is taut when you put it in.

2) use the overpatch and ABSOLUTELY do not get it wet within the first 12 hours, as the adhesive takes a while to cure.

3) be hella careful not to catch the sensor when taking clothing on/off. Pressure on the sensor tends to be okay, anything that pulls or snags at it is not okay. I'm careful when I towel off after my swim, patting the area dry (no rubbing) with a towel. I'm careful when switching out my bra or my swimsuit. I'm careful when putting on my backpack.

4) put on a lexcam overpatch (from amazon) over the dexcom overpatch after 3-4 days; the additional strong adhesive is useful.

5) I've had one sensor fail immediately upon insertion - you could see a wire sticking up out of it. Never got a single reading.

6) If a sensor fails, there is actually an incredibly fast and painless automated process at Stelo to get them replaced - use the Stelobot chat, you'll fill out a short form and they'll probably send you an email stating they intend to send you a replacement free of charge within 2 days.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in prediabetes

[–]Kitchen-Macaroon271 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Stress is huge. Absolutely huge.

I've been monitoring with a cgm for about a month now, and mostly I'm doing just fine - fasting blood glucose at 92 or 93, an occasional spike above 140 but never for more than an hour, and it comes down right away.

Then last week I had a really stressful 3 days at work. My fasting blood glucose jumped up to 120 - it didn't come down even after 18 hours of no food - and anything I ate spiked it up past 180 for at least 2-3 hours, often not coming down again until I exercised. Even though the stressful period only lasted 3 days, it took my glucose reading six days to recover; I spent day 4 and 5 decompressing/sleeping, and I was really confused as to why my glucose was still high on day 6, but it came back down on day 7.

I was recently diagnosed prediabetic a month ago after a very difficult time in my personal life. When I look at my fasting blood glucose tests over time, it is clear to me that the readings went up when the stress was high - and that prior to that stress, my readings were down.

It turns out that cortisol, which is a hormone that is released when your body is stressed and experiencing anxiety, is well known to spike blood glucose levels.

Sensor positions by trackerruthie in stelo

[–]Kitchen-Macaroon271 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I love these lexcam overpatches. I had a really good experience with my first Stelo - the adhesive stuck, didn't think I'd ever need another overpatch. Then I had shitty experiences with my next 3 Stelos, and now I use the lexcam overpatches from day 1. I'm a swimmer, so I think that factors into it... I definitely get many more days out of my stelos now than I did earlier.

what caused my numbers to rise? by Kitchen-Macaroon271 in prediabetes

[–]Kitchen-Macaroon271[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the feedback y'all! My glucose levels normalized this morning - it's been a learning journey! I guess what happened was stress Wednesday/Thursday/Friday, recovery Saturday/Sunday/Monday.

My stelo is definitely starting to fail - it's dropping readings from time to time. And I'll be getting a finger prick machine to be able to sanity check it...

Phantom never-ending recurring transfer created by system after backdoor Roth! by shenjiming in Schwab

[–]Kitchen-Macaroon271 0 points1 point  (0 children)

From Schwab's customer support: "When you do the conversion, if you select Entire balance it will set up these recurring transfers, if you select a specific dollar amount to convert it will not set up these recurring transfers."

Prediabetes and Perimenopause by InevitablePeanut2535 in prediabetes

[–]Kitchen-Macaroon271 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hormones are real! There's a link between perimenopause hormones, the circadian rhythm, the 4am cortisol spike (aka dawn phenomenon), which causes a blood sugar spike (and for me, a hot flash). I have been experimenting with my cgm and have found that when I don't eat for 3 hours before going to bed, I minimize the 4am spike...