Going for IVF

The IVF process.

By nature I guess we are both not a very active couple and everytime we want to have it, we sort of miss the timing completely or are too lazy in the end. With a low sperm count on my husband's side, we decided that the only way for me to have a kid by next year is to just go for IVF.

As I'm writing this I actually can't remember the first few visits I went but I did keep almost all of my receipts so I guess I can sort of remember what went on.

First visit 22 Mar

We decided to take our friend's recommendation to attend this hopsital. However I came at a very bad time when my period just ended, so the doctor was not able to check anything. We registered some basic information and took a survey on our health and sex life. The doctor gave some advice on vitamins to take, and when we should do the deed and we were advised to come back again. Nampyeon went on to order some vitamins that his friend recommended called Fathermin and Implamin (no need to guess who takes what).

Expenditure: 7,200 KRW

First ultrasound / pap smear and blood test 27 Mar

I was able to do an ultrasound & pap smear test while my husband took a blood test. I'm not sure why he didn't do a sperm test that day because we ended up coming back for that anyway. Probably because we did it previously at Davos hospital and the doctor said there wasn't any issues.

Expenditure: 118,960 KRW

Test analysis and Sperm test 5 Apr

Ended up having to do the sperm test. Nampyeon understood the doctor wrongly and thought that I wouldn't need to do the HSG test (test to see if fallopian tubes were blocked) if he was the main problem. But i told him that i needed to do that test no matter his outcome. And sure enough, the doc told us that I needed to do HSG....T_T

Expenditure: 38,200 KRW

Test analysis and Sperm test 6 Sep

Needed to go back to listen to the analysis of the sperm test. whilst Davos said that his semen was normal, this hospital gave quite an in depth analysis of the count and motility etc. there's also an indication of the acceptable levels for each section so if you're within the levels you're good.

Expenditure: 6,500 KRW

HSG test 18 Sep

Yup, there was a huuuuuge interval between Apr and Sep. On one hand I can only book once my period started so they can estimate when it's finished, and I will need to do the test on the 10th day from when my period starts. On the other hand, the hospitals are always booked fully!!! Nampyeon called when my period started, and there wasn't any dates. We ended up booking the dates for when my next period was estimated to start at, and thankfully my period started pretty on time and we made it to the test just on my 10th day. Additionally I was actually touring Europe in between so I didn't have time for doctor visits XDDD

BTW my husband told me that this is a SUPER DUPER painful test. When they insert the dye in and your fallopian tubes are blocked you're supposed to feel about 3000x your normal period pain. and so the doctor suggested for me to eat painkillers 15mins before. But when i asked my sis if she took the test, she said she didn't have any pain at all.... i really wonder where my husband is really all the articles from. he made me dread this test so so so much.

And surprisingly i didn't have any pain. i guess i have healthy fallopian tubes. duh. the doctor warned that it will be painful when she inserted the ink but there was no feeling at all so i was surprised when the whole thing was done. one of his friend said that she felt such pain she sat in the changing room staring into space and almost fainting until someone called out to her to check if she was still alive.

Expenditure: 35,500 (HSG check), 3,000 (painkillers) KRW

HSG Analysis 21 Sep

Yep, so no problems with my tubes. Not much for an analysis but we just have to decide what we want to proceed with next - IUI or IVF. we decided to just go with IVF since the sperm count wasn't high and they are basically wiped out before they reach the egg. IVF would at least help to filter out the better sperms and ensure the egg is fertilised.

Expenditure: 28,870 KRW

Start of IVF 29 Nov

Again, there was the time lapse because i thought i had to come when my period is over, but i actually should have went on my 2nd day of period. my next period happened in Singapore, so i couldn't go and i could only go on my 3rd cycle since my HSG analysis. Apparently i thought i would have the process right there and then but it seems that i have to prep my body for it. so i was given Gonal injections and some antibiotics (or antigens?) - it seems to be some medicine to not let my body reject the process that comes afterwards. i'm not very sure because EVERYTHING was explained in Korean and the korean that came with me don't even know what's happening x_x we were advised to take the antigens injections and of course buy some vitamins. i needed to take multivitamins while nampyeon needed some fertility vitamins.

Expenditure: 102,700 (injections), 7,720 (antibiotics), 79,640 (all the vitamins) KRW

Routine check 3 Dec

As we are fast approaching the maturity of my eggs, the doctor advised to come back on the 4th day of injection so that she can check the state. my eggs are growing well (of course) but i had to continue my injections (dammit, why doesn't the guy get some injections too). to top it off i have to have TWO injections everyday - Gonal and Cetrotide. Cetrotide is used for follicle stimulation when the eggs approach maturity. i'm not sure what that means but uh just follow what the doctor ask. the injections look really complicated though. i almost fainted when i saw the big needle but it was for mixing purpose. thank goodness. i also have to thank my stomach for having enough fats so i wouldn't feel so much pain when self-injecting. also cursing at why i have to inject all this shit when my guy is the issue *$^&#!(*!&$#; being a woman is SO SHITTY. i only have my mom to thank that i'm so healthy because i kinda avoided half the pains in the process thanks to my wonderful body. only praying it wouldn't crumble with all these process going on.......

Expenditure: 102,600 (injections) KRW


Routine check 7 Dec

Another check and more injections. Thankfully these will be the last batch. and i have to take a blood test to make sure that my hormone levels (i think) are ok to proceed. they said that if the levels weren't right i would have to redo the whole process (from my next period cycle... and restart all the injections...). so i only have to wait for a call to see if that happens after they are done with my blood test. for now i just have to do 2 injections on the day at very specific times and another 3 more the next day, and specific times again. i have to inject that complicated Cetrotide and the last 2 injections are suppose to prepare me for the final extraction and needs to be taken exactly 36hours before. forgot to take a pic of it cos i was too excited to throw it away but it looks something like this:

after that all my injections are over! here's a summary of all the shots i took.

Expenditure: 93,700 KRW

Extraction 10 Dec

D-day 1. This is probably the most feared process out of everything, because i would have to get completely anaesthesized while they stick a looooong needle up by vagina to reach the ovaries, then extract the eggs from there. i was advised to fast from 12am onwards the day before since this is akin to a minor surgery. first i had painkillers IV dripped in me, then i was moved to the surgical room where both my arms were strapped (like a mad man) and my legs on the holder. then the anaesthesia was IV dripped in me. i don't know how long it take but the last words i heard was 'now we're going to put anaesthesia in you...' and then i was completely knocked out. wooooah. my first time getting completely numbed. it wasn't too bad. i woke up like 2hrs late in the recovery room, having no recollection or whatsoever of what happened in the past 2 hours. the nurse took my blood pressure but it was between 60-90, which was too low so she asked me to remain resting. but the pressure didn't change after 30mins so she just let me go XD i've probably had low blood pressure all my life and i didn't know it. but i was feeling completely fine with no acute pain or whatsoever, as if nothing happened. there was only a slight stitch to the sides of my stomach but it was the same feeling as if you have eaten and ran afterwards.

the medicine i had to take was some antibiotics and this vagina detergent. i have push this pill up my vagina every 8 hours to wash the insides. ughhh. and yeah i have to wake up to do it even if i'm sleepy...... and because the pill might slid out, i was advised to lie down for at least 30mins each time i put the pill in x_x which means... i can't go out in the middle of the day anymore. ughhh i think... this is worse than having the self-injections...................................... T_T and i have to do this for 2 weeks...................... ughhhhhh

oh in the meantime, my lucky husband only had to have his sperm specimen taken out through a rather enjoyable process. puis.

Expenditure: 295,100 (egg extraction) + 30,300 (sperm extraction) KRW

Embryo Transfer 13 Dec

i was actually feeling rather ok except for the occasional stitch happening. the common effects after the extraction was pain, flatulence, dizziness and feeling like you wanna puke so i was pretty glad i wasn't getting any of the symptoms. but from the 2nd day onward i started to become rather bloated. i couldn't exert a lot of strength or walk too fast because the 'stitch' would then happen. i couldn't straighten my back cos it caused the stitch again. it was not a very painful stitch but it was still rather uncomfortable. i walked slowly and did everything slowly, so the stitch was still bearable. but the bloatedness wasn't. the doctor advised to drink lots of ion water to get rid of the gas inside and i regretted not doing that since day 1 T_T only started drinking from day 3 (which was the day before the transfer), which didn't help much. i would eat really little and feel really full and i would feel so hungry and full at the same time T_T it was so irritating. but anyway the transfer is really quick - it is similar to pap smear in a way. the really uncomfortable moment was you have to have a belly full of urine to do this process so that it doesn't hurt so much. we were told not to pee about 2 hrs before. during the process, the would press really hard on your bladder cos that's the only way they can see the insides clearly. i was bloated and full of pee and it was hurting but there was no way out - i only have to tolerate that for less than 5 mins. they inserted a loooong tube in me - i couldn't see what it was but i really hate things going up my vagina. after that they announced the transfer and the embryo slid in in just 5secs. i could see in the screen a tiny sparkle which was the embryo and the doctor announced that i'm half-pregnant.

i was moved to the recovery room to lie down for about 1 hr lest the egg drop out. the nurses told me i needed to have some vitamins drip and i was like - wait, no, more needles??? i didn't hear that before! but thankfully they were the ones who got mixed up so i didn't need to have anything injected into me. phewwww. so after staring at the ceiling for 1hr i was finally able to go home. it's unfortunate that AGF was the next day and i couldn't go since i need to rest... oh well....

Expenditure: 420,300 KRW

190923 Emide Titanium Blender

i bought a blender today! well actually i already own 2 blenders from taobao but this was so cheap i couldn't resist. i have been considering this for a few months since i first saw it at LOHBs and nampyeon says there isn't a big price difference between online and offline. this poor blender had like dust gathering on its box because no one paid attention to electronic devices in a beauty shop. but with such a posh design and priced at just 22,800won, it's just too good to miss!

and unpacking this excitedly at home!

comes with the blender device and the tumbler set. simple. it looks so prettyyyyyy and poshhh and elegant!

 the tumbler is good usage with a tea filter and a cap.

weirdly enough the ring at the top can be flipped up. i have no idea what it's for...

the instruction manual says to cut the fruits up in about 2-3cm big. i've prepared pear cubes and added about 40% water to it.

and then to start blending - just cap the cover and twist it in the machine.

it's done in just 10secs! the manual says you're not supposed to use it continuously for 1min, but i guess there's really no need. 10-15secs is more than enough. there's a slight burning motor smell probably because it's so high speed. but no cause for worry since it doesn't affect the taste. but i guess that's why you can't use it for more than 1min, it'll probably blow up... hahahah.

got my own juicy pear juice in a poshy posh tumbler. yum! i don't know why but i have problems sucking the juice from the hole even though the hole is so big.. it just doesn't come out smoothly. prob cos my pears are still in super small pieces and not totally watery...? but still it's a good, pretty and cheap machine!

190920 Fiona Fringe Roll

i bought this fringe roll sheet because there was a 50% discount at Olive & Young. It was just 3k won for 10pcs. cheappppp.

Each piece is individually packed and feels kinda like a wet tissue, only smaller. it can cover only half a medium size roll.

Anyway this is how my fringe looks like naturally. I had it permed twice? But i think everything was cut off so it is as good as being unpermed. It's so long and i always have difficulty trying to roll it.

 So here's me all dressed up with the roll. hurhur.

After approximately 5 mins, you can remove the roll but I just left it on while applying lipstick and this is how it looks. It's kinda wet and a little hard. and you can already see that my fringe has curled and has been shortened by 30%.

But the sheet is still wet and i thought i might just reuse it for the left and right side of my hair. lolol. You can probably use it for various other parts of your hair that requires curling?

and the final outlook. It looks half decent but that's just the beginning of the day. The moist dries up pretty fast (10-15mins?). use a hair dryer if you're in a rush but i was just afraid it might 'blow' the style away. and since i was reusing the sheet for other parts i didn't really need to dry it.

 OK i'm ready to go out! The weather in Korea is about 26degrees and not so humid. I think the most important factor in maintaining the fringe is probably humidity. i find that my fringe dies almost immediately after stepping out the door in singapore.

I was indoor most of the time so there's no wind. i went to Express Bus terminal to shop and had some good food with nampyeon. The fish cuisine at the NC shopping mall about 1 bus stop away from the terminal is so super delicious. YUMMMMMs.

and then i took the bus home. during the day i kept sweeping my hair to the side because it kinda affect my vision and makes my eyes ticklish but i guess it uh kinda holds up for a good 10hrs? i'd think if my fringe is shorter it would do a better job. at the end of the day it wasn't so hard anymore and felt like my natural fringe with a slight bounce at the top. oh and it was so warm in our bus i almost died since i was wearing furry clothes.

for 3k won, it's definitely a good buy. i think i'll get it if i don't want to take my electronic curler and for like short trips.... if my fringe is shorter. still don't really want to cut it!

Learning new things!

hmm, after the photobucket incident, i'm still contemplating on whether i should continue this blog. years of writing is wasted because stupid photobucket decide to suck money from their users and deactivate all my photo links. so if i do continue i'll have to upload a mess of photos to blogger, which doesn't seem to have any folder organisation. pwah..

but i do need somewhere to jot my memories, even if i do become lazy these days XD

but short update - i'm learning piano (started just 2 days ago) and golf (starting next week). i'm so excited!! here's my first golfing shoes and gloves. i would have loved to spend a longer time glossing over the products but i was kinda forced to pick one out in less than 10mins from our country club T_T love the shoe bag though lolol

 

i'm just scared that i'll do badly and then start to waste all the money there. having stayed near a golf course for well over 2 years, i had really wanted to swing those clubs at least once but since it's such an expensive sport, it's pretty hard to start it. i really like all those golfing bags i see at departmental stores though but the prices are too extravagant for a beginner like me!??!? if you're interested golf lessons are around 300k won a month for twice a week, for about 20min teaching each time and the rest of the 50mins as practice. however you need to rent the practice area for about 100k won/10times, with 70min duration each. you can however choose to pay an extra 40k for unlimited practice, but i'm not even sure if i'll come over on days without lessons since the place is a inaccessible to people without cars. it is said that you'll need to come at least 3 mths to fully know and play the game. so basically over 1k to learn golfing... @_@

and then i'm hopping over to piano later. it's a bit embarrassing to be one of the oldest there playing Mary had a Little Lamb while the young ones are on Mozart and Bach but nevermind, i can do it! nampyeon wanted to start a hobby together but we ended up taking lessons separately so i'm not sure if this still counts as doing something together.

the lessons i'm taking is about 150k won/mth, for a short 10-15mins teaching twice a week. but you can just come into the practice area anytime, any day for no extra charges. again, not that i'm likely to visit myself at any other times... i wish that it is within walking distance but i have no car! pwahhhh. i used to learn organ when i was little (like 4 or 5?!) but now my hands are no longer coordinated so it takes a bit of time to get used to playing with both hands. saddddd.

another 3 hours till my lesson later on so i'll probably start to organise all my trip photos and hopefully i'll be able to upload slowly to my blog... soon... x_x

190526 Jungang Sijang

The next day was mainly a shop and eat day. We went over to the terminal first to deposit our bags which we shouldn't have... the stalls selling the dried seafood doubles up as locker providers but they charged like 3k won a day!!! we headed to homefix near the central (jungang) sijang to find that homefix was renting lockers at 100 won a day........ what a HUGE difference.

we met up with osung who was also there too and hung out with him~

anyways, on with the food. we randomly ate at stalls that has loooong queue because that has to signify that the food is good right? and this omuk corokke is goooood!

we ordered cheese, kimchi and 2x sweet potato and it seems that sweet potato tasted the best, next to cheese! the layer of omuk around the filling was niceeeee.

i keep seeing the squid ink ice cream everywhere but we eventually didn't try it. perhaps next time.

tried the hoddeok ice cream as well. it's kinda like prata hurhur. it's another must-eat as well!

walked around homefix and it seems it's selling all the BTS blankets that laogong wants. so there goes her moneh! it was all sold out in seoul so she was eggstatic when she saw this. lol.

we went for a little shopping and then decided to go for ktv! got so many 100pts but didn't get any extra free songs. sad.

we ended our KTV session around 5 and decided to go to the sundufu town since it was pretty nearby. it took only 20mins by bus. the rest of the gang had already left around 3pm so there was only me and laogong left.

we kinda just randomly chose a sundufu place because there was like at least 10 restaurants selling the same thing around. this place sort of had some people so it wouldn't be bad to follow the crowd right?

wanted the seafood jangppong sundufu but was told that it will be too spicy for us so we ordered the normal one instead. it tastes so vastly different from the normal sundufu that we had but it's still not too bad, though i preferred our default version.

the catch was really the gelato outside. since i was having diarrhea for 2 days straight i was apprehensive about eating it so we just bought one to share. but since it's gelato, there's no milk and my diarrhea wasn't triggered. heheh.

we went back to homefix to get laogong's blanket and did my last shopping before leaving for yongin via the last bus at 8pm.