Updates

Well, alot has happened since my last post.  The clinical manager (the main person I've been dealing with) calls and asks if I ever went to get my fasting homocysteine drawn.  I told her yes & gave her the number to the lab.  She then goes on to tell me that I was positive for homozygeous something.  I was driving and all I understood was a bunch of letter.  She said if my homocysteine level was normal then I won't have to worry about the clotting issue.  If it comes back abnormal, I will need to be put on Lovenox injections.  Well, I never heard back from her for a few days so I called the Wed before Thanksgiving thinking I could get some answers.  Of course she wasn't in the office that day so I left a message for another nurse.  She calls back & tells me the homocysteine is normal so no need to worry about the Lovenox...YAY!!!!!  I also asked if my autoimmune results were in yet.  She wouldn't give me any results & said that the manager will call me on Monday.

So Monday rolls around & she calls me.  She says that hubby & I have a 50% alloimmune match.  In a nutshell I would need to do Intralipid therapy in order to get & stay pregnant.  Apparently we have similar genetic makeup and if the embryo carries it the NK cells in my uterus will kill it off.  Like we don't have enough issues on our own, now we add this to the mix.  After that I told her we still want to go on owith IVF so she transferred me to the office manager so I can get on the Jan cycle.  I talked to her & told her which plan we wanted to do & she gave me 2 places for financing (did I mention my insurance sucks & doesn't cover this?!?).  She said she would fill out the worksheet & send it off for approval.  In the meantime I emailed the contact for financing, which they are out of Nevada.  The guy responds and says the rules have changed & they only finance for the state of Nevada.....great.

The next day I got a call from MY coordinator.  She said she is going to go over the labs with Dr H & will be sending out a calendar soon.  FINALLY!!!!  The next day I got it!  Lupron will start on 1/5 & stims will start on 1/18.  She then emailed & said since I'm out of town she is mailing me the calendar along with the consents I will need to get notarized & signed.  She told me to call when i get the packet & we will go from there. 

A few days later I decide to email her to ask if she can order my meds thru my hospital pharmacy since my insurance is changing and my copay is cheaper thru there.  Also, I asked if she can hold off on the Follistim & Menopur until Jan since they aren't covered right now.  A few emails back & forth (which she was VERY nice & helpful) she said she will order all the meds on Jan 3rd since the 1st is a holiday & Saturday but I need to make sure I get them by the 4th.  I will have to call the pharmacy the week before to make sure they have at least the Lupron in stock so I start that on the 5th.

I got the packet in the mail on Monday & left the coordinator a message.  I never heard back yet so I sent her an email to call me whenever she has time to go over all the consents.  I know the Dec cycle is going on now so I didn't want to be pushy.  So that's my update!

Results are in

So last week when I got a call from the coordinator about getting my results they told me it would be about a 45 minute conversation.  I expected it to take up most of my lunch...HA!!!!!

Dr H comes on the phone & pretty much says he didn't see anything out of the ordinary.  All of my labs were good.  He did say there was 1 weird thing that came up though.......apparently I have a high clotting factor but they are worried when it's low??  Leave it to my body.  I asked about the u/s & he said everything was good & clear.  It was seriously about a 2-3 minute conversation!  Then he said someone would be getting in touch with me soon.

So I guess we continue waiting.  I really hope someone calls me soon so I know what comes next!!!!

Pre-testing.......check

So Tuesday was our appt for a whole bunch of labs & a few u/s's.  We were scheduled for 1:30 so we could get there in plenty of time since there is a good 2 1/2 hour drive from us.  About 8:15 I get a call from the nurse to see if we can come in  earlier in the morning.  I tell her about the drive & tell her we can be there by noon.  DH decided to dilly dally that morning!!!!

So we drive........and drive.........and drive so more....LOL!!!  It actually wasn't too bad.  We get to the parking lot at noon.  As soon as we pull in I get a call from the nurse to see how far we've gotten & tell her we will be there in a few minutes.

We checked in & they took us back right away.  I went in the u/s room & the RE was very patient & nice to me. :-)  Even though I've had this done before he still explained what he was doing & why.  He showed me the catheter & everything.  First went in the speculum which was the worst of it.  After that he added the fluid so my uterus would open up & did the mock transfer.  He then checked my ovaries & off I went!

As I was leaving the room DH finished with his labs.  They needed to take about 15 tubes of my blood!!!!!  Now I knew these autoimmune labs would cost us a few bucks but I nearly passed out when the tech told us they came to $1100 for the both of us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Oh well, not much we could do at that point, they needed to be done.  We were out of there in about an hour then went ot get some lunch.  I was a little uncomfortable with some cramping but it was A-OK!  I just need to get 1 lab done here locally since it needs to be a fasting blood test & all my pre-testing is DONE!!!

As I'm finishing up this blog post I got a call that my results are in so I'm scheuled for a phone appt on Monday to get those.  Hopefully all is good & we are on our way!!!!  I will update after that unless something else comes up before then. :-)

Gearing Up........

So tomorrow we are heading down state for the 1st RE visit with the new clinic.  I sit here very nervous & excited about this journey.  We are sooooo ready for this but I hate to have the "what if's" rolling through my mind.  I got a call from the office manager this morning reminding me to bring $$ for our autoimmune blood tests.......UGH!!!  Then a few hours later I got a call from a nurse telling me that one of the blood tests ordered, homosystiene, is a fasting test.  Well, that won't work too well since my appt isn't until 1:30pm.  We've decided to do the autoimmune & infectious disease panels tomorrow & they will give me a script for the rest to do here locally this week sometime.  I asked how many tubes will be taken total & she said about 16....HOLY HELL!!!!!!!  I guess I'm glad I can break it up with 2 days.  I will be sure to update how it all goes tomorrow.

We're back in the game!!

So we've been down this road before without success.  Back in 2008 we did IVF & due to OHSS we needed to freeze all of our embryos.  We then did 2 FET cycles and both BFN's.  I couldn't take it anymore so we took a year break.  Not to mention the RE & staff just wasn't doing it for me anymore.  In the past few months I've been diagnosed with Hashimoto's Disease.  So along with my PCOS & DH's male factor we have alot of things to overcome.

Fast forward to last Friday.  We had a phone consult with an new clinic.  The RE was AWESOME & we both feel like we are in great hands.  He went over our history and said since my lining was a little thin he thinks natural killer cells can be attacking my endometrial lining.  WOW, why didn't anyone ever tell me this before dishing out thousands of $$$!!!!  He thinks doing intralipid therapy will fix the problem.  Since we live about 2 1/2 hours away he said as long as he can trust the place, I can be monitored locally & travel down there for ER & ET!  What wonderful news!!!!  After that I spoke with the clinical manager.  She is sending out a packet & I am to call with CD 1. 

On Monday AF made an appearance.  I called and left a message for the nurse with that.  Then I also spoke with the office manager to get all the finacials under control.  As much as we liked the RE & staff, money is a big factor since we don't have coverage for these services.  After speaking with her we decided to go for it!  They were decently priced.  I got a call back from the nurse & she wanted me to get day 3 labs done.  I also need to get immunology labs for me & DH and they will check ovarian reserve, do a fluid u/s & mock ET.  For all of these we need to go to the clinic.  We are heading there next week on Tuesday.

Since today was day 3, I went to get the labs drawn.  I also am to start birth control pills starting TODAY!!!!  We are planning a January IVF cycle so this is definitely exciting.  I'm hoping we have made the right decision & this RE make our dream ome true of becoming PARENTS!!!