starting home ICI & scared

ababy4me

Hi I have done a few rounds of IUI with BFN each time. I decided to give home ICI a try.

I am real nervous about the entire home ICI process. The tank is freaking me out because I am not sure what I am supposed to do with it. I am afraid to open it. My directions say I need to use gloves to handle tank. Anybody know why that is?

Then I am concerned about the retrieval of the vial from the tank as well as thawing it out. I just dont want to screw it up.

Also does anyone have suggestions on the timing of the ICI? I was planning on doing a double ICI, 1 on each day of my peak.

It would be very helpful to me if someone here could share their experience with me. Maybe it would calm my nerves a bit.

Thanks & good luck to all!

karenman

I just wrote this up - good luck!
Attempting home or self insemination? Me too!! I looked around a lot on the net and am now writing up my own experiences in hopes of helping someone else out. I haven’t tried this yet, but did put a lot of thought into it. I’ve got an engineering and biology background so have some experiences. I’ll know in two weeks how well it goes….

Syringe choices - If you’re lucky and have a partner to help you out and want to use a speculum, I recommend buying either of the insemination kits at this site: http://shopsite.nwcryobank.com/page3.html These are designed for fresh specimens. I don’t know if you called CCB yet or not, but they told me our ICI premium specimens (the ones we have to get) are less than 1cc. These kits are good in that we know that the catheter they supply can draw up the sample. The tip of a syringe won’t fit down into that tiny vial. I was struggling with how to get the sample up! Whatever you do, don’t pull the plunger out of the back of the syringe and dump the sample down in there. No matter how careful you are, and even if you put the cap on, you are guaranteed to lose some of the sample when you try to put the plunger back in. Practice with water and you’ll see what I mean. I, personally, don’t have a partner and am therefore going with a 30cc syringe. I haven’t seen the 5cc syringes that come with the kit yet, but I’m guessing based on my past experience that they’re only 2-3 inches long. My thought is that I want to get the sample as close as possible to the cervix because the vagina has been known to kill off the little guys. I think 5” is a good length. A 30cc Becton Dickinson syringe is about 5” long. I’m lucky in that I have a few at work to snag. I did find some syringes and needles in a catalog at work but am not sure if they sell to consumers, nor am I sure how long they are. I also read that syringes are available in drug stores and I’ve seen some in pet/vet supply catalogs. If I had to buy them I’d have bought these: www.mcmaster.com 7510A655 and 6710A24. I don’t know how thin of a needle we can use without it clogging or damaging the cells so was thinking the 17 gauge was probably the best choice. Anyway the needle is only to help draw the sample out of the vial – I doubt you’d want to attempt to use it inside of you.

I guess I’ll quickly go over some safety (I’m thinking in my head of what I have to do in a couple of weeks when I do this). The vials are arriving in liquid nitrogen. Be sure to wear safety glasses when opening the dewar and don’t touch the vial with your fingers or you’ll be sure to get frostbite (or maybe get it stuck to you –ow!). Put on some ski gloves. I used to have to wear a face shield when handling at a previous job – be careful!

Thawing – get a few cups of water ready. I read somewhere to thaw slowly. Supposedly these are coming with thawing instructions. My doctor said she thaws in cool water first, which is what I read on another site. Don’t overheat them!! I’d get a few cups of 97-98F water ready (buy a thermometer!!) and move from cup to cup since it will cool down the cup as we go.

The procedure itself – I’m planning to lie in bed, inject myself, attempt to have an orgasm and then stay there for 30 minutes with my pelvis tilted up with a pillow. This is based on stuff I read as well as after talking to my doctor. I don’t know how I’m going to be able to have an orgasm with all of this work and thoughts of a child in my head, but the mucus stimulation and movement are supposed to help the sperm move up through the cervix. Good luck. I also bought some little caps which I read are supposed to help too: http://www.early-pregnancy-tests.com/softcup.html I figure after the 30 minutes I’ll stick that little cup in there for a few hours – couldn’t hurt.

Preparation – I bought some other stuff, too. I got a fertility monitor. The one I got is the clue blue easy fertility monitor. I figure if I’m spending all of this money on the sperm, I want to make sure I get the best possible day to inject it. I found one on www.craigslist.com from a woman only a half an hour from my house. She said she had a hard time conceiving and it worked on her first try! I don’t know much about the monitors out there but this one seems to be more accurate than just using sticks on your own because it tracks the info for you and gets to know you for 6 months.

I had a friend who just got an egg donor and is 8 months pregnant tell me to try yoga. So I got this http://www.early-pregnancy-tests.com/yoga-for-fertility-dvd.html I also read an article my mom sent me that mentioned vitamins and stuff. Her article said the only one that has had a lot of research and studies is www.fertilityblend.com . I also got some stuff that is supposed to help the mucus http://www.fairhavenhealth.com/fertility-fertilecm-info.html but after talking to my doctor am reluctant. She said be careful of anything containing estrogens and don’t spend too much money. So I’ll give it a shot a couple of times I guess. I also can’t have the estrogen screw up my fertility monitor hormone level.

My mom sent me a good article www.naturalhealthmag.com March 2008 that had a bunch of fertility fixes: elmininate or reduce white sugar and flour, eat enough protein. Try meat, fish , eggs, dairy products, lentils, beans, brown rice, quinoa, sunflower seeds. It suggested acupuncture, yoga, etc.

Okay, I have to go!! Good luck!!! -Karen

karenman

I just got my first tank and there is no liquid nitrogen actually in it, so it is not as much of a safety hazard as I thought. How did it go for you? I'm doing mine in a couple of days.