GYN Visit: Words of Wisdom

Back in September 2013, I called my Gynecologist's office because I was having mid-cycle bleeding. The nurse told me this was normal and not to worry.


I come to find out many months later that it's a polyp that is causing this bleeding. If I had this addressed back in September I wouldn't be in this torture chamber called: WAITING TO GET THIS SHOW ON THE ROAD!


I've never had spotting until about a year ago. Sometimes it would be so bad that I needed to bust into my monthly lady supplies just to deal with it.


Looking back I wish I had been more persistent. My words of wisdom to myself and every woman out there is this:


You know your body, if something doesn't feel right, get it checked out. Who cares if there are guidelines that doctors follow. You know what is and isn't right. Go with your GUT!


I'm scheduled to have my annual exam tomorrow, and we're going to have a nice long chat. More to follow :)

To Tell or Not to Tell? Who to inform.

After our May Day appointment, I told my mom. I'm very fortunate to have a wonderful relationship with my mother. My mom is the least obtrusive, inquisitive person you will ever meet. She may be the epitome of social etiquette.  I know she is there for anything I need. As I've mentioned in a previous post, I come from a large family, lots of brothers and I'm the only girl.

We had some struggles in my late teens, mostly me growing up. But I really feel like she's one of the most amazing people that I've ever had the fortune of knowing, and to have her as my mom, what more could anyone ask for?

I called her the afternoon of the appointment. I told her what we know right now. She hasn't told my Dad yet. We finally agreed to bring him in when we had a more full diagnosis. 

This weekend, I spoke with my husband about the possibility of speaking with his mom and telling her. After many broken conversations (where you start a conversation and discuss it here and there) we decided to tell her after we had the results of the hysteroscopy and the removal of the polyp. 

My husband is an only child and he is his mother's whole world. When you are thinking of telling someone, you have to remember that you will be bringing them into your world. They become a part of this journey. They are invested. Updates need to be made and you have to worry how they are handling everything. Telling her is a big deal because she worries so much. I love her so much and we have a great relationship and I don't want to make her worry.

I've been married to my husband for almost 3 years and so much has happened in these past 3 years. Sometimes I think about our ten year anniversary and imagine renewing our vows. Mine would go something like this:
You are my best friend. We've had a tumultuous first 10 years, so many ups and downs and I want the next 30 years to be some of the most boring years. I want time to creep by, and to enjoy our lives in the mundane happiness of every day.

But I digress...We decided to tell her after I have my diagnostic testing and after we have all the facts. 

The issue now is that she's visiting us in the next few weeks. I'm supposed to call the clinic when I get my next period so we can figure out when to schedule the surgery. I'm expected to get my period around the time of her visit, which is also our 3rd year anniversary. Should be an interesting time!

We decided not to tell our closest friends until we tell my husband's mom. We figure the less people know, the less questions we'll be asked. We need to figure out our game plan. 

We're not making any plans for the summer, and are almost being hermits. 
Thinking about our infertility, the treatment, and outcomes, we've got enough on our plates. Deciding on who to tell is an important decision. You will need to do what's right for your personalities. Do you need a constant influx of concern and questions, or do you want to figure things out first, and then bring people up to speed? I think we're somewhere in the middle. 

More to come. God Bless, and have a good week! :)

Show Me the Money!

We met with our Financial Counselor Cathy. Woman knows her stuff! She went over our options, and apparently there are tons of them. Treatment costs will vary depending on your insurance coverage, and area you live in. 

We will be spending our own, hard earned cash to pay for this process as our insurance only pays for the diagnosis and not the treatment of infertility.

Cathy first went through the cost of a treatment cycle. Between ultrasounds, blood work, and embryology lab fees, our cost would be $9,000.00. This does not include medication. Medication ranges from $4,000-$6,000. We were presented with two medication discount programs that offer a percentage off of the medications. (anywhere from 15-75% off depending on our financial need) I'm always skeptical when presented with discount programs. I went online after our appointment to see what other kind of discounts were out there for us. I confirmed that these were our best options. 
But don't be afraid to do your own digging. 

Cathy then spoke about their treatment packages. Their 'most popular' included an entire fresh cycle, and then a frozen cycle if the the fresh cycle didn't work. This was $11,700 (no meds included)

The doctor asked her to speak about their other option which was 6 cycles for $20,000. This is a refund guarantee program. If we don't get pregnant after 6 cycles, we get our money back. If we are successful after one cycle, the package is deemed complete. 

My husband, ever the comic says, "I'd like to see something in a leather interior with maple wood accents." Love this man!

There were a lot of other packages available to us, but those two seemed to be the big contenders. We aren't able to make a decision at this moment because we won't have our full diagnosis until after my hysteroscopy and polyp removal. 

The clinic also offers a discount program to those who qualify. You can't combine the discount program to the guarantee program. I knew to ask about that because I saw it on their website. Couples have to qualify financially which means that you have to provide two years of tax returns. 

Also, there are grants available to those who qualify. They are very specific and may be available to you if you qualify. 

Stay tuned for more! 

WTF!?! IVF!?! aka Our First Fertility Appointment

Thursday May 1^st, 2014 – WTF!?! IVF!?!  aka Our First Fertility Appointment!

Ever the planner, I was focused on all aspects of our appointment, down to the most frequent question all women ask themselves when preparing for an important meeting…What will I wear? My mother always said when you are feeling down, or unsure of yourself, at least look fabulous! I think there is some truth in that. I’ve had several days were I felt like crap inside, but I looked good on the outside.

With the printed New Patient paperwork in our hands and having decided on my newly dry-cleaned favorite maroon ankle pants, cream blouse and blue cardigan, we set out for our appointment.

I don’t think I've ever been as nervous for anything in my life as I was for this appointment.  My husband and I were driving separately because I had to go into work after the appointment for an important work meeting.

As we walked into the office, the front desk ladies knew who I was when we walked in. They were very welcoming. There goes those warm and fuzzies!

Because we live in one of the many states in these United States that does not offer coverage for Infertility treatment, I knew what we were in for. 
On a positive note, my insurance and my husbands covers the diagnosis of infertility. So many tests and procedures leading up to treatment are covered. Check your medical benefits policy to see if this is covered. If you have any questions about this topic, please e-mail me!

Our wait was very short, and a very pleasant nurse brought us in to take my blood pressure, height and weight, (she let me write it down because don't most women know their weight?) She then went over how the appointment would unfold. We would meet with Dr. C for about 20-30 minutes, then he would perform a baseline ultrasound and then another nurse would do our blood draws and collect urine sample, and we would meet with the financial counselor, and then the physician again if we had any additional questions.

Blood pressure was perfect: 120/80. I thought for sure it would be high because my nerves were going insane. Thank you empty stomach and 1/2 cup of coffee!
Suppose now is the time to tell you a little about me and my husband. We're both 33 years old and carry a little 'happy to be married' weight. My husband is 6'1" and built like a football player. And he has the most amazing hazel eyes. In the past few weeks we've really started to take our weight seriously, knowing what could lie ahead for us. Last year we both lost a bunch of weight, and over Christmas, Santa gave us a few extra LB's. I come from a large family and I always knew I wanted to be a mom. My husband is an only child and always wanted a large family. Win-Win!

The nurse then brought us into Dr. C's office and he was very calming. He got right into it. I was worried he would suggest trying to bring up my husbands sperm count and then several rounds of IUI before suggesting IVF. 

When I say I was worried, it's because we only have a certain amount of money to work with. Remember that retched job I mentioned? Yes, it was awful, but when I walked away from it, I left with enough stock for a rainy day or some fertility treatments. Dr. C said, 

"I like seeing patients like you. Young, with male factor. We'll see what's what with you and if everything looks good, we'll get you pregnant."

 I like this guy. He goes through our potential treatment plan and then gets into some science. Having done my fair share of research, I knew a lot about what he was speaking about. My husband was following because I gave him the Cliffnotes version of my findings. 

He said that IUI wouldn't work for us because we don't have much sperm to work with and our only option would be IVF using ICSI, which is Intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection. They can take a single sperm and inject it directly into the egg to fertilize it. Traditional IVF would have an egg in the petri-dish and then sperm would be added and one of the millions of normal sperm would make its way into the egg. ICSI does the fertilization for you. Science!

Next, we had the baseline vaginal ultrasound (u/s). I also have to mention that I've never had a male doctor as my lady doctor. So, there is a whole other layer to my nerves. But he's very professional, and makes me feel at ease. 

If you don't know what this kind of ultrasound is, please look it up. Be prepared.

After a quick peek around, Dr. C. immediately said that I had a polyp in my uterus. A uterine polyp can make it hard for an embryo to implant into the uterine wall, and should be removed. If we don't remove it, an embryo could attach to the polyp, and miscarriage is very likely. If my husband didn't have his issue, my issue would be a serious hindrance in achieving/maintaining pregnancy because of it's location. Right ovary looked good, and left ovary, 'looks even better!'

Doctor said we still had to check out my fallopian tubes. We would need to schedule surgery to remove the polyp and could do all of the other diagnostic tests at the time of the surgery.  

We then met with the nurse who told us about screening for cerebral palsy and an optional genetic test we could request by a company called counsyl. https://www.counsyl.com/ We decided to get this additional testing done because we have already come this far. I asked the nurse how many patients get this genetic testing done and she said, about 50/50.

The nurse only took one vial for the counsyl testing, and about a million other for the diagnostic testing, (ok, maybe 7 or 8) and just one tube for my husband. 

Dr. C. stopped in to check-in on us, and I asked him about the spotting I've been having between cycles. He said, it's most likely because of the polyp. 

Next came the Financial Counselor...dun dun dun!

Our financial counselor was very knowledgeable and she was able to explain our options in a clear and concise way. I know she talks about this subject multiple times a day and still she had enthusiasm and took her time making sure we understood everything. I'm going to create another post just to talk about affording IVF.