Since talking with my RE's nurse on cycle day 1 and after the reality that the same protocol was the plan, I have been much much better. The plan was Femara 10mg CD 3-7 with an ultrasound on CD6 or Friday Sept. 26. On cycle day 2 I ended up calling the on call nurse because I didn't have enough medicine so I needed another prescription and I also had some pressure on my right side that I was worried was a cyst. Luckily my RE was able to get me squeezed in this morning (CD4) for an ultrasound to check to make sure I didn't have a cyst! I also planned to bring an IVF grant application that I found online for my RE to look at and hopefully fill out for me.
I have been trying to look for scholarships or grants online for IVF assistance in order to help with IVF costs if we were to choose that route. I found one that looked pretty good so I thought I would give it a shot. I know it is a very very long shot and usually these organizations are looking for people with extravagant stories, and ours is pretty normal so my chances are slim to none. But you know what they say about the lottery! You won't win if you don't play! I figured it wouldn't hurt to at least try.
Fast forward to today's ultrasound:
Hubby and I went in this morning for our ultrasound. The desk clerks at my RE's office are hilarious and I love eavesdropping into their conversations. We waited about 30 minutes with a few other women in the waiting room. We texted each other guesses as to what the other women were doing here and what procedure they were getting ready for. I could tell they were both pretty comfortable with the RE's office so they weren't newbies. I can always tell when its someone's first time!
The nurses were wonderful as usual. They all checked on me, padded me on the back to see how I was since my BFN last week. They are just so awesome! I talked to nurse B about the IVF grant application and she knew that Dr. P would have no qualms about helping me in any way he could.
Ultrasound time! I knew the drill, bottoms off. This was the first time hubby had been with me for an ultrasound while I was still bleeding. That was a little different but all went well. A very nice resident did my ultrasound with my RE sitting right next to him. My RE comment on how my hubby "always wears the best Dave Matthews Band T-shirts", so you know my RE is awesome. It turns out I don't have a cyst. But, I do have a few pretty good follicles already. I have maybe 3 around 8cm on my left and a 13cm on my right (that's why I was feeling pressure!!). He said everything was on track and moving a little faster than he expected. At first I felt like I was crying wolf with calling for an ultrasound for fear of a cyst, but I am glad I did because Dr. P ended up moving up my follicle check ultrasound to Thursday instead of Friday. He said that I will probably trigger Thursday night, so that would bring IUI#6 on Saturday.
Unfortunitly I work on Thursday so I will have to work that out, and on Saturday I had a 5k planned that I had already paid for. This would be the second 5k that I signed up for since C25K and the second one I would have to miss after already paying for it (boo!!). But, it will be ok.
I told Dr. P about the IVF grant and he said he will do whatever he can to help us out and would be more than happy to sign the application for me. He agreed that it was a long shot but he also agreed that you have to play to win! I sort of thought he would take the application and fill it out during the week sometime and give it back to me Thursday. Nope! He filled it out then and there! There was part of the application about how the IVF is broken up financially, so they kept the application for the financial counselor to fill out. They are so awesome!!
We also got to talk to Nurse B about IVF costs and such. I was pleasantly surprised by it all! I think it was $8,500 for IVF, but this does not include the medications which can cost upwards of 3k. So, this is what the $8,500 pays for!
IVF (anesthesia, lab fees, all retrieval fees, embryo transfer fees, etc)
1 Therapy session
Freezing of extra embryos
1 FET (frozen embryo transfer).
I was very pleasantly surprised that not only does this price pay for an IVF, which could result in baby #1, but it would also cover a FET, which could result in baby #2. We still have to talk in more detail to the nurses about this. We aren't sure if you get the FET only if the first IVF doesn't work, or say the IVF works and a few years down the road you want to have another, if you could use that FET that was paid for.
My thought is though, that if you only get the FET if the IVF doesn't work...that is still 2 for the price of 1! I still feel good about that and so does my hubby. We had a nice conversation about it and he feels much better about IVF knowing that we get that extra FET. We haven't set this in stone, but things are looking a little better right now.
Of course we are hoping this IUI works, but we definitely have a better plan in place and seem to be on agreement (today anyways) that IVF may be our best option for our next plan. We just need to figure out how long we want to wait to do it. I imagine we are talking years, rather than months. We still are sticking to our plan to build up our savings account so I imagine we will wait a year or two before we do this. But, I feel a lot better about things!
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| This is how I feel = ) |
I'm so glad you are feeling positive! GL with this cycle and I hope you can trigger on Thurs!
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