So it looks like my cycle that started out so crappy has turned out to be a superstar.
Of course things aren't over, but I am just basking in the glory right now that I have the most follicles ever going into ER.
Today's Estrogen was 1420 and I have 11 measurable follicles ranging from 15-20 (the largest being 20.4). For comparison my last cycle I had an estrogen value of just over 1000 going into ER and only 6 follicles from 14-18mm (with a bunch of 11's thrown in there as well). Not surprisely we only got 6 eggs.
I took my last dose of gonal-f and menopur at 4 today and tonight at 9pm I trigger. Retrival is set for Thursday at 9am with an arrival time of 8am. I have told dh we will have to get up that morning at 5 with plans to get out the door between 5:30-5:45. It sucks that the weather is suppose to be very bad. There is now a winter storm warning for all of Wednesday and Thursday. This is what I was afraid of with cycling in the winter, but I was confident that things would be okay since it has been such a mild winter. I guess that is Murphy's law for you. This will be the only 2nd storm and probably 3rd time it has snowed all winter and of course it has to happen when we have to have ER and take dd over to my inlaws. Just like the last snow storm was only time I received a call this winter for a housecall. Well I hadn't received a call all February and now today 2 calls come in. So I had to book them on Saturday and Monday. Poor dd I am going to have work on her birthday and the day of her party.
Anyways I am just hoping that we can get through these next couple of days okay. This storm is just coming at the worse timing. I have to bring dd over to my inlaws tomorrow so not sure when I will do that. I had planned to do it in the evening when she is about to go to bed, but now with the storm, I am not too sure that is such a great idea. Then I am scared to death for Thursday. Not for the ER itself, that is a piece of cake, but I am worried about getting in a car accident on the way over there because of the roads being iced covered, worried about not getting there in time, ovulating before they can get the eggs, worried dh will have stage fright, and then there is the worry that even though everything looks great today that they will not find any eggs or they will all be of poor quality or that the trigger will fail and not mature my eggs. All of these things are a possiblity and will ruin the cycle and this is the reason why ivf is so stressful.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Monday, February 27, 2012
nothing ever goes right
Since this cycle started I had pinpointed ER date. My last 2 cycles I had ER on day 14 and so I figured it would be the same this time and after this morning's scan it seemed like that was going to be true.
I now have 10 measurable follicles:
A 12.4 and 16.5 on the left and
A 9, 15.7, 16.7, 16.8, 16.9, 17.2, 17.9, 18.3 on the right.
I figured since I am now over 18 that tonight would be trigger day as I had planned for all along, but this just goes to show you how you can't plan anything with ivf.
My RE wants me to go another day. To make matters worse she also wants me to stim tomorrow night as well as do the trigger and since I only have enough meds for tonight I had to pay $60 to refill the gonal-f and menopur only for one dose. I am beyond pissed. Also I have to make sure that the meds arrive tomorrow so dh will have to stay home the whole day (since I need to take dd out to the doctors and then to school) and cross our fingers that Fedex knocks on the door instead of just assume we are not here or deliver the package to the neighbors (has happened many times before).
And for more bad news I have to go back to Providence tomorrow morning for bloodwork and u/s. This marks 4 freaking days in a row and probably my 10th monitoring appt. I am not happy about this at all. I don't even want to add up how much money I have wasted on gas and driving for this cycle.
And the 3rd reason this sucks is now it makes day 3 transfer day be Sunday (the day of my dd's birthday party). I had to shoot everyone an email saying the date is now Saturday and hope that they get the message.
And lastly on why this sucks, it is going to snow here on Wednesday and Thursday. It has only snowed twice this whole freaking winter and it decides to snow on those 2 days. I had hoped if ER was on Wednesday that we could get on the road before the snow came, now we don't have that option and will need to drive in the middle of the storm :(
Oh just thought of a 5th reason - dd speech therapy will now be cancelled for this week since we will not be here on Thursday.
I really hope this cycle works out because I have had to put up with way too much and it isn't right.
I now have 10 measurable follicles:
A 12.4 and 16.5 on the left and
A 9, 15.7, 16.7, 16.8, 16.9, 17.2, 17.9, 18.3 on the right.
I figured since I am now over 18 that tonight would be trigger day as I had planned for all along, but this just goes to show you how you can't plan anything with ivf.
My RE wants me to go another day. To make matters worse she also wants me to stim tomorrow night as well as do the trigger and since I only have enough meds for tonight I had to pay $60 to refill the gonal-f and menopur only for one dose. I am beyond pissed. Also I have to make sure that the meds arrive tomorrow so dh will have to stay home the whole day (since I need to take dd out to the doctors and then to school) and cross our fingers that Fedex knocks on the door instead of just assume we are not here or deliver the package to the neighbors (has happened many times before).
And for more bad news I have to go back to Providence tomorrow morning for bloodwork and u/s. This marks 4 freaking days in a row and probably my 10th monitoring appt. I am not happy about this at all. I don't even want to add up how much money I have wasted on gas and driving for this cycle.
And the 3rd reason this sucks is now it makes day 3 transfer day be Sunday (the day of my dd's birthday party). I had to shoot everyone an email saying the date is now Saturday and hope that they get the message.
And lastly on why this sucks, it is going to snow here on Wednesday and Thursday. It has only snowed twice this whole freaking winter and it decides to snow on those 2 days. I had hoped if ER was on Wednesday that we could get on the road before the snow came, now we don't have that option and will need to drive in the middle of the storm :(
Oh just thought of a 5th reason - dd speech therapy will now be cancelled for this week since we will not be here on Thursday.
I really hope this cycle works out because I have had to put up with way too much and it isn't right.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Upset
So I had to drive all the way up to Lexington this morning because my RE couldn't wait to do monitoring again tomorrow. Luckily there was hardly any traffic at 8 on a Sunday morning. Unfortunately this is the only good thing about this morning. I got to the clinic at 9. My u/s time was 9:45 (the latest slot) but I figured if I got there earlier I could leave earlier. It was packed, I signed in and sat down.
For those who have never sat at a RE's waiting for monitoring there is are a few basic rules.
1. don't bring your kids. I had to break this a few weeks back, but luckily at the Providence office there is always no one there so it isn't a problem.
Rule #2. Don't talk or look at anyone else. This rule surprises you the first time you have to sit in the reception area. I really don't know why it is this way, but it seems like an unspoken rule that no one can talk to other people waiting, etc. This morning I didn't mind though because I actually didn't care to speak or see anyone. I just wanted one thing and that was to be done so I could leave. Luckily I now have an iphone to keep me entertained while I wait. When I was doing my first ivf I wasn't as lucky and magazines in the waiting room can only last you so long.
Anyways wait is what I did. I waited and waited. Finally 9:45 came (my scheduled time) and I still waited. By 10:30 I called dh and told him not to expect me back before lunch. Finally at 11 there was no one else left. I went up to the desk because I was seriously pissed and upset at this point. The receptist said I was next (of course I was next there was no one else there). Well I waited some more and finally the last u/s tech comes out and says she shut down her machine and was going to join the other tech upstairs in the OR. When the receptionist said I was still waiting, she didn't believe I had signed in. I had to physically showed them that at 9am I signed my name. Appartently they skipped right over me. Well that made me even more upset. It is one thing to wait because they are busy and behind (which they said they were), but to physically miss me and keep on going down the list is another thing. This combined with being very hormonal was not a good mix. The tech apologized and after confirming with the OR took me back. It wasn't much consolutes though since I wasted 2 hours of my time waiting and 3 hours driving and they almost were going to leave without even doing me.
She then goes on about how they want her upstairs but she told them they have to wait because she had to scan me. Well of course you have to scan me first, you should have OVER AN HOUR AGO!
Anyways the results from today are:
estrogen 936
9 follicles between 12-17 (the top 2 are 16 and 17 - she wouldn't tell me any other individual numbers)
I have to continue the meds tonight and go again for monitoring tomorrow in Providence.
So now I am pissed because the trip to Lexington today was a waste like I had known. I wasted over $20 gas and 5 hours of my day to travel 150 miles and I am still not ready to trigger and have to go back to Providence again tomorrow. I can understand my RE thinking my follicles may have grown more, but she should know that I have slow growers.
Anyways I am just hoping that things look good for tomorrow so I can trigger tomorrow night because I really can't do ER on Thursday and ET on Sunday because it is dd's birthday party.
For those who have never sat at a RE's waiting for monitoring there is are a few basic rules.
1. don't bring your kids. I had to break this a few weeks back, but luckily at the Providence office there is always no one there so it isn't a problem.
Rule #2. Don't talk or look at anyone else. This rule surprises you the first time you have to sit in the reception area. I really don't know why it is this way, but it seems like an unspoken rule that no one can talk to other people waiting, etc. This morning I didn't mind though because I actually didn't care to speak or see anyone. I just wanted one thing and that was to be done so I could leave. Luckily I now have an iphone to keep me entertained while I wait. When I was doing my first ivf I wasn't as lucky and magazines in the waiting room can only last you so long.
Anyways wait is what I did. I waited and waited. Finally 9:45 came (my scheduled time) and I still waited. By 10:30 I called dh and told him not to expect me back before lunch. Finally at 11 there was no one else left. I went up to the desk because I was seriously pissed and upset at this point. The receptist said I was next (of course I was next there was no one else there). Well I waited some more and finally the last u/s tech comes out and says she shut down her machine and was going to join the other tech upstairs in the OR. When the receptionist said I was still waiting, she didn't believe I had signed in. I had to physically showed them that at 9am I signed my name. Appartently they skipped right over me. Well that made me even more upset. It is one thing to wait because they are busy and behind (which they said they were), but to physically miss me and keep on going down the list is another thing. This combined with being very hormonal was not a good mix. The tech apologized and after confirming with the OR took me back. It wasn't much consolutes though since I wasted 2 hours of my time waiting and 3 hours driving and they almost were going to leave without even doing me.
She then goes on about how they want her upstairs but she told them they have to wait because she had to scan me. Well of course you have to scan me first, you should have OVER AN HOUR AGO!
Anyways the results from today are:
estrogen 936
9 follicles between 12-17 (the top 2 are 16 and 17 - she wouldn't tell me any other individual numbers)
I have to continue the meds tonight and go again for monitoring tomorrow in Providence.
So now I am pissed because the trip to Lexington today was a waste like I had known. I wasted over $20 gas and 5 hours of my day to travel 150 miles and I am still not ready to trigger and have to go back to Providence again tomorrow. I can understand my RE thinking my follicles may have grown more, but she should know that I have slow growers.
Anyways I am just hoping that things look good for tomorrow so I can trigger tomorrow night because I really can't do ER on Thursday and ET on Sunday because it is dd's birthday party.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Results
Well I have good news and bad news.
Good news looks like there are 8 follicles, not 7 like the tech said.
Left ovary - 12, 13
Right ovary - 11, 14, 14, 15, 15, 16
Not sure what my estrogen is because a different nurse called because it is the weekend and all she said was that the bloodwork was good, but didn't tell the numbers.
Now the bad news - they don't want me to wait until Monday so I have to go back for bloodwork and u/s tomorrow and since it is Sunday the Providence office is closed so I have to drive all the way up to the main office in Lexington. The only good news is that hopefully with it being a Sunday traffic shouldn't be bad and they put me in at 9:45 so I don't have to worry about leaving too too early, but it still sucks having to drive 1.5 hours each way just for bloodwork and u/s and with gas prices the way they are there is another $20 that I wasn't planning for, especially when we will likely have to go to Lexington twice this coming week for ER and ET.
So there you have it. I was hoping to get a definate answer on when ER will be today and looks like I will have to wait for tomorrow. The only definate I can say is it will be either Tuesday or Wednesday. I was really hoping for Wednesday since dd has an ENT appt and her school on Tuesday so if ER is on that day I will need to cancel both of those. At least me and dh will be able to make it for our Monday counselling appt. We haven't been for 2 months because of different things coming up on that day so I am glad I didn't have to cancel another appt again.
Oh and I also received the insurance statement for dh's testing and dd's stuff. The good news is we are only $290 away from reaching our $4000 family deducible so the ivf will cost us basically nothing. The bad news is dh is being charged over $900 for just his testing. I am hoping to see if MassHealth will pick up the tab for the hormones and genetic testing, but not to sure if they will. The hospital charged us over $500 just to test fsh, estrogen, and testosterone on him. The insurance gave no discount on the charges the hospital gave which is BS! Also dd has $1500 of charges just from December appts. Masshealth though should cover all of her stuff so we should be all set on that.
So glad I signed the both of them up for it.
Good news looks like there are 8 follicles, not 7 like the tech said.
Left ovary - 12, 13
Right ovary - 11, 14, 14, 15, 15, 16
Not sure what my estrogen is because a different nurse called because it is the weekend and all she said was that the bloodwork was good, but didn't tell the numbers.
Now the bad news - they don't want me to wait until Monday so I have to go back for bloodwork and u/s tomorrow and since it is Sunday the Providence office is closed so I have to drive all the way up to the main office in Lexington. The only good news is that hopefully with it being a Sunday traffic shouldn't be bad and they put me in at 9:45 so I don't have to worry about leaving too too early, but it still sucks having to drive 1.5 hours each way just for bloodwork and u/s and with gas prices the way they are there is another $20 that I wasn't planning for, especially when we will likely have to go to Lexington twice this coming week for ER and ET.
So there you have it. I was hoping to get a definate answer on when ER will be today and looks like I will have to wait for tomorrow. The only definate I can say is it will be either Tuesday or Wednesday. I was really hoping for Wednesday since dd has an ENT appt and her school on Tuesday so if ER is on that day I will need to cancel both of those. At least me and dh will be able to make it for our Monday counselling appt. We haven't been for 2 months because of different things coming up on that day so I am glad I didn't have to cancel another appt again.
Oh and I also received the insurance statement for dh's testing and dd's stuff. The good news is we are only $290 away from reaching our $4000 family deducible so the ivf will cost us basically nothing. The bad news is dh is being charged over $900 for just his testing. I am hoping to see if MassHealth will pick up the tab for the hormones and genetic testing, but not to sure if they will. The hospital charged us over $500 just to test fsh, estrogen, and testosterone on him. The insurance gave no discount on the charges the hospital gave which is BS! Also dd has $1500 of charges just from December appts. Masshealth though should cover all of her stuff so we should be all set on that.
So glad I signed the both of them up for it.
The roller coaster called ivf
Well today my day 10 u/s and bloodwork. Most of my ovarian symptoms have disappeared. The bloating was still there, but seemed less today, and my cm has seemed to be pretty lagging (you would think with a regular cycle that a person gets lots of good ewcm when there is one dominant follicle that I would be dipping (sorry tmi) of ewcm with doing ivf and having way elevated estrogen compared to a normal cycle, but nope. So I was kind worried about this morning's appt. Also since the results today will likely tell me ER day and anticipated egg count.
I had my blood drawn first and since all my previous blood draws have been on my left, I decided to give it a break and have her do the right. Well it was a fail so I ended up being poked twice and still needing the left poked.
Then for my u/s the tech was impressed right from the start. I have 5 large follicles on my right and 2 on my left. I couldn't believe it. All the last appts she was only seeing 2. I thought we were game over. And the good news is the lead follicles didn't grow much so they are only measuring 16-17 so hopefully I can get a few more days of stims in before triggering to get the max amount of mature eggs. I will find out the full results when the nurse calls this afternoon.
Oh and on other good news, I got my insurance statement yesterday and Quest balanced billed me again. Good thing I didn't call them on Wednesday because I really only owe them $166 instead of $355. I was so happy my bill dropped almost $200. Of course the insurance statement did say I had a $300 something genetic charge that I have received the bill for so I have to prepare for that. But the good news is so far $1200 of my deducible has been charged so the ivf itself will only be an additional $800.
Anyways I hope this good news lasts, but we all know a cycle doesn't always work that way. I think that is what is so hard about ivf. I have been miserable the last week thinking I would get at most 2 eggs at ER and likely won't make it to ET and now things have completely changed around and if our luck stays maybe we can even do a 5dt. However it is this emotional rollercoaster that makes ivf so difficult and is the reason a bfn is so much harder to take. When you think about it, we started trying for this cycle December 16 and we will find out our results 3 months later. We have invested as much energy into this as someone does with being pregnant for 12 weeks and then finding out the baby died, and we haven't even gotten to the pregnancy stage yet!
I had my blood drawn first and since all my previous blood draws have been on my left, I decided to give it a break and have her do the right. Well it was a fail so I ended up being poked twice and still needing the left poked.
Then for my u/s the tech was impressed right from the start. I have 5 large follicles on my right and 2 on my left. I couldn't believe it. All the last appts she was only seeing 2. I thought we were game over. And the good news is the lead follicles didn't grow much so they are only measuring 16-17 so hopefully I can get a few more days of stims in before triggering to get the max amount of mature eggs. I will find out the full results when the nurse calls this afternoon.
Oh and on other good news, I got my insurance statement yesterday and Quest balanced billed me again. Good thing I didn't call them on Wednesday because I really only owe them $166 instead of $355. I was so happy my bill dropped almost $200. Of course the insurance statement did say I had a $300 something genetic charge that I have received the bill for so I have to prepare for that. But the good news is so far $1200 of my deducible has been charged so the ivf itself will only be an additional $800.
Anyways I hope this good news lasts, but we all know a cycle doesn't always work that way. I think that is what is so hard about ivf. I have been miserable the last week thinking I would get at most 2 eggs at ER and likely won't make it to ET and now things have completely changed around and if our luck stays maybe we can even do a 5dt. However it is this emotional rollercoaster that makes ivf so difficult and is the reason a bfn is so much harder to take. When you think about it, we started trying for this cycle December 16 and we will find out our results 3 months later. We have invested as much energy into this as someone does with being pregnant for 12 weeks and then finding out the baby died, and we haven't even gotten to the pregnancy stage yet!
Friday, February 24, 2012
Things I used to think and believe
When I was younger (teens and 20s) I hated having my blood drawn. In fact during those years I never had my blood drawn because I thought it was the worst thing possible. When I was 18 I was a candy stripper at the hospital and remember new mothers having to get their blood drawn before being discharged and so I swore at that time I didn't want kids because I didn't want my blood drawn. Oh how IF changes things. During ivf I have my blood drawn every other day, I also give myself shots in my stomach at least 3 times a day. When I had my dd 2 years ago and was in the hospital for 3 weeks with pre-eclampsia I had my blood taken every single morning at 5am (of course they would do a nst at midnight and then a biophysical at 1am so by the time I am woken up at 5 I only had a few hours sleep). If only my only worry was getting a couple blood draws to have a baby.
Another thing I used to believe was that people had a set amount of bad things that happened to them in life. That if you had bad stuff happen early in life that your later years will be bliss and vice versa. Now in my 30s I know this is not true. I used to think we could not possibly face IF since me and dh had already experienced enough bad things and IF only happened to people that had things easy in their life because everyone needs a struggle. I used to be sympathetic to couples going through IF, but was confident that would never be me. Boy was I wrong.
The third thing I believed and still do believe is that our IF isn't as bad as it is. I think maybe this is a coping mechanism to get through this. I remember when I joined ff and reading people stories feeling sorry for them that they have been through so much, and now I realize these people have had things better than us. I even remember reading about other mfi couples and thinking to myself how horrible it must be for these women to be fertile but not able to conceive because of their dh's. Little did I know that we fit that bill and we didn't just fit that bill, but we fitted in the classification of mfi couples that nothing beside ivf can be done. Then reading about couples that were on the path to ivf and how hard they must have it. Well here we are on our third ivf cycle and it likely won't be our last since I am lucky to only get a few eggs at ER and this is on max stims. I think part of the problem is we were diagnosised so early so it wasn't easy to accept the IF diagnosis at the time because I could justify things saying we haven't been trying for long and maybe we could have gotten pregnant naturally if we waited. Well now I know this is false. I took getting pregnant easily after each ivf cycle to see that our problem was fertilization. I wonder if people are looking at me the same way I looked at other IF women a few years ago - with pity.
Another thing I used to believe was that people had a set amount of bad things that happened to them in life. That if you had bad stuff happen early in life that your later years will be bliss and vice versa. Now in my 30s I know this is not true. I used to think we could not possibly face IF since me and dh had already experienced enough bad things and IF only happened to people that had things easy in their life because everyone needs a struggle. I used to be sympathetic to couples going through IF, but was confident that would never be me. Boy was I wrong.
The third thing I believed and still do believe is that our IF isn't as bad as it is. I think maybe this is a coping mechanism to get through this. I remember when I joined ff and reading people stories feeling sorry for them that they have been through so much, and now I realize these people have had things better than us. I even remember reading about other mfi couples and thinking to myself how horrible it must be for these women to be fertile but not able to conceive because of their dh's. Little did I know that we fit that bill and we didn't just fit that bill, but we fitted in the classification of mfi couples that nothing beside ivf can be done. Then reading about couples that were on the path to ivf and how hard they must have it. Well here we are on our third ivf cycle and it likely won't be our last since I am lucky to only get a few eggs at ER and this is on max stims. I think part of the problem is we were diagnosised so early so it wasn't easy to accept the IF diagnosis at the time because I could justify things saying we haven't been trying for long and maybe we could have gotten pregnant naturally if we waited. Well now I know this is false. I took getting pregnant easily after each ivf cycle to see that our problem was fertilization. I wonder if people are looking at me the same way I looked at other IF women a few years ago - with pity.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
day 8
So today was day 8 of stims and looks about the same. I may have some smaller follicles popping up but they are too small to count just yet.
Left ovary I think I have a 9 and 10 (not quite sure on these since the tech said nothing and I had a hard time hearing the nurse on the phone).
Right ovary I have a 13.5 and 14.5 (the tech did say they were a bunch of smaller ones. The nurse never mentioned them).
My estrogen was 359 so that seemed to have doubled.
I start ganirelix tomorrow morning.
I am a bit worried about other follicles catching up since I already have 2 that are almost mature. My previous cycles on this date I had my largest follicle measured an 11 and I had 5 in the 10-11 range and my estrogen was in the 500s.
I know having 2 follicles can still mean a baby, but it worries me since my last 2 cycles I only produced 6 eggs and they only made 2 embryos by day 2 so if history repeats itself I will need at least 3 eggs just to make 1 good embryo.
Trying to stay positive, but it is hard. I go back on Saturday, hopefully by then more will have popped up.
Left ovary I think I have a 9 and 10 (not quite sure on these since the tech said nothing and I had a hard time hearing the nurse on the phone).
Right ovary I have a 13.5 and 14.5 (the tech did say they were a bunch of smaller ones. The nurse never mentioned them).
My estrogen was 359 so that seemed to have doubled.
I start ganirelix tomorrow morning.
I am a bit worried about other follicles catching up since I already have 2 that are almost mature. My previous cycles on this date I had my largest follicle measured an 11 and I had 5 in the 10-11 range and my estrogen was in the 500s.
I know having 2 follicles can still mean a baby, but it worries me since my last 2 cycles I only produced 6 eggs and they only made 2 embryos by day 2 so if history repeats itself I will need at least 3 eggs just to make 1 good embryo.
Trying to stay positive, but it is hard. I go back on Saturday, hopefully by then more will have popped up.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Bills
So yesterday I received my bills from my testing in January - all the bloodwork (hormones, STD, and APA) and the day 3 u/s and sono hsg. It came to $355 to the lab for the STD and APA testing and $625 to the RE for the hormone testing and u/s's. Surprisely the karyotyping wasn't included in the bills and still haven't received a single bill from anything done on DH and that was over 2 months ago. I also never received the insurance statement for any of these charges, so was kinda surprised to get bills already because I usually receive the insurance statement a week or two in advance.
Anyways I was hoping to do a payment plan of $50 a month for each bill like I did for medical bills we had last year. I called RSC up and asked them and they said since I was an active patient that they can't do a payment plan. I told them that I was already in the middle of a cycle and so have ER next week which will add another $1000 to the bill. I asked if I can do a payment plan then and they said no unless I get discharged from treatment, meaning I am pregnant. Then they will do a payment plan and it will be only over 3 months, so $1700 divided by 3 is almost $600 a month, not really worth it.
If I don't get pregnant and don't pay the outstanding balance in full we will not be able to cycle again. So looks like my only choice is to put it on my credit card because then I can pay a very low amount every month and take years to pay it off, only problem is the bill will rise a bit from interest, but paying an extra $14 a month in interest and having money for food and rent is better than paying all the money up front and being screwed in a couple of months because all of our savings are gone.
I do have until March 16 to pay the bill so I will wait close until then and then put it on my card so hopefully it gets on the next billing cycle.
Haven't called Quest yet about the $355 bill. I think I am going to wait until I get the insurance statement since Quest screwed us last time with balance billing so I want to make sure the charges are really correct. Hopefully they will be easier to work with than RSC. You would think an ivf clinic that deals with treatments that cost tens of thousands of dollars would be more accompating of payment plans.
Just pissed that we have to pay thousands of dollars just for a chance of a pregnancy when most of the population can do it for free. I know I shouldn't be complaining because we are luckier than most people to at least have insurance coverage, it just sucks that we have a very high deducible plan so have to pay the first 2 thousand and being low income 2 thousand is a heck of a lot of money for us.
Anyways I was hoping to do a payment plan of $50 a month for each bill like I did for medical bills we had last year. I called RSC up and asked them and they said since I was an active patient that they can't do a payment plan. I told them that I was already in the middle of a cycle and so have ER next week which will add another $1000 to the bill. I asked if I can do a payment plan then and they said no unless I get discharged from treatment, meaning I am pregnant. Then they will do a payment plan and it will be only over 3 months, so $1700 divided by 3 is almost $600 a month, not really worth it.
If I don't get pregnant and don't pay the outstanding balance in full we will not be able to cycle again. So looks like my only choice is to put it on my credit card because then I can pay a very low amount every month and take years to pay it off, only problem is the bill will rise a bit from interest, but paying an extra $14 a month in interest and having money for food and rent is better than paying all the money up front and being screwed in a couple of months because all of our savings are gone.
I do have until March 16 to pay the bill so I will wait close until then and then put it on my card so hopefully it gets on the next billing cycle.
Haven't called Quest yet about the $355 bill. I think I am going to wait until I get the insurance statement since Quest screwed us last time with balance billing so I want to make sure the charges are really correct. Hopefully they will be easier to work with than RSC. You would think an ivf clinic that deals with treatments that cost tens of thousands of dollars would be more accompating of payment plans.
Just pissed that we have to pay thousands of dollars just for a chance of a pregnancy when most of the population can do it for free. I know I shouldn't be complaining because we are luckier than most people to at least have insurance coverage, it just sucks that we have a very high deducible plan so have to pay the first 2 thousand and being low income 2 thousand is a heck of a lot of money for us.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
1st results
So yesterday I had to go for my first monitoring appt after being on the stims for 4 days.
It was a pretty quick appt - the u/s literally took 30 seconds. I wasn't expecting much since I knew that I just started, but I was a bit concerned when the tech said there were 2-3 follicles. I know they don't measure them this early, but still expected that there would be a lot of small ones. The nurse called at 1:30 while I was napping so I was still half asleep when she was talking to me. I think she said my estrogen was 175 (though it may have been 75) and my lh was point something. I think she then said to give 450 gonal-f and 150 menopur for the next 3 days and recheck on Thursday. At first I thought this was the same dose, but then I remembered I was on 375 gonal-f before and I am 95% positive she said 450 and not 375 on the phone (I couldn't call back because they never answer their phones). So last night I gave the higher dose. Hopefully some more follicles will pop up at Thursday u/s, but I don't count on it. From what I have read it seems the first few days of stims is the most important in determining follicle number.
Also since I only got 6 eggs my last 2 cycles which were 3 years ago I guess 2-3 is normal for me now with being 3 years older and having a higher fsh. Which really sucks since I am not even 34 yet.
I know in the end 1 is all I need, but it is frustrating when you are on max dose and only produce a few follicles when others produce 15-20 on much smaller drug doses. Also since my last 2 cycles I only got 2 good embryos out of those 6 eggs each time I am worried that 2 or 3 eggs will produce no viable embryos.
All I want is to make it to ET with one good embryo. If that happens I can at least relax for a bit and just wait for the beta.
It was a pretty quick appt - the u/s literally took 30 seconds. I wasn't expecting much since I knew that I just started, but I was a bit concerned when the tech said there were 2-3 follicles. I know they don't measure them this early, but still expected that there would be a lot of small ones. The nurse called at 1:30 while I was napping so I was still half asleep when she was talking to me. I think she said my estrogen was 175 (though it may have been 75) and my lh was point something. I think she then said to give 450 gonal-f and 150 menopur for the next 3 days and recheck on Thursday. At first I thought this was the same dose, but then I remembered I was on 375 gonal-f before and I am 95% positive she said 450 and not 375 on the phone (I couldn't call back because they never answer their phones). So last night I gave the higher dose. Hopefully some more follicles will pop up at Thursday u/s, but I don't count on it. From what I have read it seems the first few days of stims is the most important in determining follicle number.
Also since I only got 6 eggs my last 2 cycles which were 3 years ago I guess 2-3 is normal for me now with being 3 years older and having a higher fsh. Which really sucks since I am not even 34 yet.
I know in the end 1 is all I need, but it is frustrating when you are on max dose and only produce a few follicles when others produce 15-20 on much smaller drug doses. Also since my last 2 cycles I only got 2 good embryos out of those 6 eggs each time I am worried that 2 or 3 eggs will produce no viable embryos.
All I want is to make it to ET with one good embryo. If that happens I can at least relax for a bit and just wait for the beta.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Murphy's law
I was in Target yesterday and since I was out of pads and knew AF was going to come with stopping the pill I had to stock up. I brought 4 large packs - not on purpose - I had coupons that were expiring that day too so I wanted to make the most of them. Anyways, I hope this is a good sign that buying this many pads means AF will stay away after this month.
Also it was a good thing I did buy some yesterday because I started spotting last night before I went to bed. Guess AF will be here a lot sooner than Saturday.
I start the injections tomorrow night. Shall see how that goes.
Also it was a good thing I did buy some yesterday because I started spotting last night before I went to bed. Guess AF will be here a lot sooner than Saturday.
I start the injections tomorrow night. Shall see how that goes.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
FF psychic
A week ago ff updated must have updated their calendar system because when I logged on my bare calendar was highlighted with future AF and ovulation dates. Now here is the crazy thing, even though I have been on bcp for this past week and my cycle should be off with doing ivf, somehow ff predicted the correct days for my next cycle.
It has AF arriving on the 18th which likely will be true since it takes almost a week off the pill for AF to start. I start stims on the 16th so my RE is counting that day 1, but I know I likely won't start bleeding until the 18th because it was like that for my past 2 cycles.
It then has my fertile period from Feb 25-27 and predicted ovulation dates of Feb 28-29. If everything goes as planned like my last 2 cycles I will be having ER on the 29th.
Weird. Hopefully this is a good sign that this cycle is suppose to work. I am also taking the fact that ER is right now looking like it will be on Feb 29 as a sign too. How many people can claim that they were conceived on Feb 29.
It has AF arriving on the 18th which likely will be true since it takes almost a week off the pill for AF to start. I start stims on the 16th so my RE is counting that day 1, but I know I likely won't start bleeding until the 18th because it was like that for my past 2 cycles.
It then has my fertile period from Feb 25-27 and predicted ovulation dates of Feb 28-29. If everything goes as planned like my last 2 cycles I will be having ER on the 29th.
Weird. Hopefully this is a good sign that this cycle is suppose to work. I am also taking the fact that ER is right now looking like it will be on Feb 29 as a sign too. How many people can claim that they were conceived on Feb 29.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Suppression check
Today I had to go for my supression check after being on the pill for 2.5 weeks.
Good news my ovaries are nice and quiet and my hormones must be good.
I start the stims on Thurday and then we check on day 5 (Monday). I figured that would be the case. Looks like if everything goes as planned we will do ER on the 29th and then ET on March 3. The only problem with this is dd is having her 2nd birthday party on the 4th. Looks like dh will have to do all the cleaning and preparing for it since I will be on bedrest for her party and birthday on the 5th.
I will be taking 375 gonal-f and 150 menupur so a very high dose of meds. Hopefully this dose the trick to increase our egg count and doesn't cause a counter action and ruin the quality.
Good news my ovaries are nice and quiet and my hormones must be good.
I start the stims on Thurday and then we check on day 5 (Monday). I figured that would be the case. Looks like if everything goes as planned we will do ER on the 29th and then ET on March 3. The only problem with this is dd is having her 2nd birthday party on the 4th. Looks like dh will have to do all the cleaning and preparing for it since I will be on bedrest for her party and birthday on the 5th.
I will be taking 375 gonal-f and 150 menupur so a very high dose of meds. Hopefully this dose the trick to increase our egg count and doesn't cause a counter action and ruin the quality.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Meds
My meds came today, and the best thing was it only cost me $165.
That is so much better than I thought since it was going to be especially with needing so many drugs.
This is what I received:
5 boxes of gonal-f 900 $30
5 boxes of menupur $30
5 boxes of ganirelix $30
1 bottle of hcg $30
1 bottle of estrace $15
1 and a half boxes of crinone $30
And the other good news, if this cycle doesn't work I will only need to spend $165 to cycle again until July or if I get pregnant it will only be another $30 on top of this price.
That is so much better than I thought since it was going to be especially with needing so many drugs.
This is what I received:
5 boxes of gonal-f 900 $30
5 boxes of menupur $30
5 boxes of ganirelix $30
1 bottle of hcg $30
1 bottle of estrace $15
1 and a half boxes of crinone $30
And the other good news, if this cycle doesn't work I will only need to spend $165 to cycle again until July or if I get pregnant it will only be another $30 on top of this price.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Approval
So we got the insurance approval on Friday so everything is set to go.
My drugs will come on Thursday and I take my last bcp on Sunday night and Monday morning have my suspression check. Hopefully everything is good with that and then we can start stimming.
I had a bit of a scare last week with getting some ewcm on cd11. I hope it is just from the combo pill and not that I am ovulating through the pill.
On the topic of my last post about my dd's due date board, seems like I was close on the target. They just posted a poll and currently there are 22 pregnant women, 3 who have already given birth (this will change to 4 since one women is giving birth today), 3 who are ttc (us being one of them), 3 who will ttc in the future but not right now, and 11 who are done having kids. So basically everyone who wanted to have another child has or is currently pregnant with one, except for us, and to make me feel even worse is that we were probably one of the firsts to start ttc again (20 months ago) compared to the 25 women who are pregnant or had another baby who all only ttc from 0-3 months.
In other news, I have been thinking about the number to transfer again. I have always said I will only just do one unless we only have two again or they don't look good, etc. However, now with the added stress of only having the next 4 months to try for good I don't know if I want to risk a eST. I know it is silly since putting in two will likely only increase the multiple percent and not the pregnancy percent, but I really don't want to risk just doing one and then wasting that time if I get a bfn or m/c. Of course I really don't want to take the chance carrying twins either. I'm already scared that history will repeat itself, since I don't know why Caleb's placenta died at 15 weeks and I know I can't go through another high risk pregnancy like that again and develop pre-eclampsia especially now since I am working and am self-employed so I get no time off. I don't know why things have to be so complicated for me. Why do I have to deal with all these pregnancy complications ontop of the IF crap. It isn't fair. I want my innocence back!
My drugs will come on Thursday and I take my last bcp on Sunday night and Monday morning have my suspression check. Hopefully everything is good with that and then we can start stimming.
I had a bit of a scare last week with getting some ewcm on cd11. I hope it is just from the combo pill and not that I am ovulating through the pill.
On the topic of my last post about my dd's due date board, seems like I was close on the target. They just posted a poll and currently there are 22 pregnant women, 3 who have already given birth (this will change to 4 since one women is giving birth today), 3 who are ttc (us being one of them), 3 who will ttc in the future but not right now, and 11 who are done having kids. So basically everyone who wanted to have another child has or is currently pregnant with one, except for us, and to make me feel even worse is that we were probably one of the firsts to start ttc again (20 months ago) compared to the 25 women who are pregnant or had another baby who all only ttc from 0-3 months.
In other news, I have been thinking about the number to transfer again. I have always said I will only just do one unless we only have two again or they don't look good, etc. However, now with the added stress of only having the next 4 months to try for good I don't know if I want to risk a eST. I know it is silly since putting in two will likely only increase the multiple percent and not the pregnancy percent, but I really don't want to risk just doing one and then wasting that time if I get a bfn or m/c. Of course I really don't want to take the chance carrying twins either. I'm already scared that history will repeat itself, since I don't know why Caleb's placenta died at 15 weeks and I know I can't go through another high risk pregnancy like that again and develop pre-eclampsia especially now since I am working and am self-employed so I get no time off. I don't know why things have to be so complicated for me. Why do I have to deal with all these pregnancy complications ontop of the IF crap. It isn't fair. I want my innocence back!
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