Last night, we had our consultation with Dr. Ahlering. He is the RE that practices in Tulsa and Columbia, Missouri, but currently lives in St. Louis where he is about to end a non-compete contract.
The first bad news we received is that
he does not plan to do anymore cycles (after the one he is here for this week)
in Tulsa. He’s going back to doing them
only in St. Louis until at least 2015.
Oh, buggers! That means we would
still use his OBGYN, Dr. Nilson, to do our blood work and ultrasounds. Then, we would have to travel 6 hours to him
for the retrieval and transfer. It’s not
the worst option in the world, but it sure makes you wonder. I just wish there were more than 2 options
for clinics in Tulsa. Le sigh.
The good news is that was the only bad
news we received last night. Yippee!
Our appointment with Ahlering went
really well, overall. He’s very
long-winded, which we didn’t know going into the appointment but loved. It was kind of humorous after the appointment
how overwhelming all of the information was.
We spent almost TWO HOURS with him.
Sadly, he had an appointment after us, so I have no idea how long they
were waiting by the time we left.
Oops! Sorry, mystery couple.
Anyway, as I said, he gave us a lot of great information! Basically, he thinks I was stimulated all
wrong in my previous cycles. He would
start me on a Lupron shot for 7-10 days before moving to the stim shots like we
have done before. When he said that,
Todd said, “Oh no!” (Remember, I was on
Lupron for 4 months at the end of 2012.
It was a miserable time in our lives with my depression kicking in at an
all-time worst for our relationship.
Other fun side effects were hot flashes and night sweats. Todd still tells people he’s surprised I didn’t
spontaneously combust during that 4 months.
Ha!) Anyway, Ahlering quickly
reassured him that this would be a much different form of Lupron with much
different side effects. I think he meant
that this round, my head would just spin in circles. No big deal.
Much better than some sweating. J Also, he would change the amount of stim shots
I would take in order to produce more eggs than what we have in the past.
He said he does not believe my endometriosis has done anything to harm my
eggs. He does not believe I have PCOS,
which I have been told I do and I don’t by different doctors. He thinks my eggs are just fine, but we need
to get more of them in the right follicle size to improve our chances.
The other big change he would make
would be Todd’s side of things. During
our first cycle, they used MESA (Microepididymal Sperm Aspiration) to obtain
his sperm. Second cycle, we used frozen
sperm from the first cycle. Dr. Ahlering
prefers to use TESA (Testicular Sperm Aspiration). This is more invasive and painful. Poor Todd.
Without going into a whole lot of detail, he thinks that the quality of
the sperm they extracted before was poor.
He thinks that getting younger sperm from the testicle instead of older
sperm from the epididymis will give us sperm with better DNA make-up. He said something about the DNA quality can start
to lower when the sperm is stuck in the system for so long due to the blockage
of the vasectomy. It’s hard to remember
his exact words, but it was the first time that an RE has talked to us so much
about the sperm. He seems to be more
into researching that than the others we have met. Our only concern was that he couldn’t remember
the name of the urologist he uses in Tulsa.
That is because they have only done approximately 2 TESA procedures in
the last year. However, he did know the
urologist’s name we would use in St. Louis for our actual procedure. I’m not sure if that gives me any extra
confidence or not.
Also, he told me to just take an
over-the-counter pre-natal vitamin. I’m
pretty stoked about lowering my number of daily pill intake. Whew! Plus,
he said that he doesn’t believe acupuncture, massage, hypnosis, yoga, or any
other relaxation technique increases your chances of IVF working. He said that if they lower your anxiety and
make this process less stressful, go for them.
However, don’t do them if you think it’s going to improve your chances. I asked him to insist I still get my
massages, though, to which he smiled.
I think the one thing we really learned
last night is that there are no reproductive endocrinologists that are alike. So far, we have been given three different
stories. If we were overwhelmed before, we
are more overwhelmed, now. The good thing
is that I woke-up this morning with a peaceful feeling. We have one more consultation next Friday
with a doctor that does cycle in
Tulsa. After that, I have a feeling that
we might be throwing a dart at a dartboard to decide who to use. If that doesn’t work, we’ll choose a
different doctor for our fourth cycle. What’s
hard is when you realize you’re starting to discuss cycle 4 before cycle 3 has
even happened. Is that us losing hope
and being pessimistic or us learning to be realistic and go into these cycles
with back-up plans? I like to think it’s
the latter. Back-up plans may be what
helps me keep my sanity! Plus, the
better prepared we are, the less wait time there is in between cycles.
On a completely different note, I decided
to do some research into Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine. My cousin brought them to my attention this
week, and I’ve been following the blog of a girl who goes to them. They are supposed to be the most
well-renowned IVF clinic in the states.
Maybe the world. ??? Anyone want to guess what they cost? $25,000-$30,000 for one cycle, not including
Todd’s MESA/TESA procedure. That’s
roughly $12,000-$17,000 more than we pay in Oklahoma. What?!
I’m putting them on the list for cycle 10. If we haven’t found a Midwest doctor to get
us pregnant in the first 9 cycles, we’re going to Colorado! Ski trip, anyone?! J
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| I might have used this one before, but I like it. |
Thank you so much foe giving an update on this appointment. It is disappointing that he won't be doing ivf in Tulsa anymore! But I am so hopeful we won't need that. I have been praying you will find the place and will know overwhelmingly it is THE place!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Allison. I hope after Friday, we will know what THE place is, too! I hope you don't get to IVF, either. I'm praying that isn't your road. *hugs*
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