IVF Cycle 5 - Paying Bills & Organizing Meds

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

I haven’t updated this blog log as often as I had planned.  It’s been a busy few weeks.

Since the March 20 appointment, a lot has happened.  We took the kids on a cruise for Spring Break.  When we returned, we hit the ground running.

Let me just say that keeping this IVF planning so quiet has been really difficult.  I don’t enjoy lying to people.  However, I know that this is a good plan because Todd and I have said this is how we would do cycle 5 for quite a long time.

Anyway, since the cruise, I have been emailing with Dr. Ahlering’s IVF coordinator, Shawnie, about my cycle.  She’s fast and detailed.  We work well together.  I send her a list of my questions, and she responds to every. single. one!  That’s actually a really big deal because I’m used to no communication from Bundren, pretty good communication from McKinney, and decent communication from others in Ahlering’s/Nilson’s offices.  Shawnie takes the cake, though!

Anyway, we paid our deposit for a May IVF cycle last week.  I’m excited and nervous.  It seems so close.  I will have a baseline ultrasound on April 28 and probably head to St. Louis for appointments around May 13.  We even paid for nanoselection beads, which is some sort of new technology that helps to pick the strongest sperm.  At $500 per cycle, we felt that was quite a bargain.  Plus, Ahlering’s embryologist suggested we use them, so we called in the payment without even thinking twice.

I also received pricing from 2 of the 3 pharmacies that I’m having quote my meds.  A couple of months ago, I had a very kind stranger offer to give me her leftover medications for free.  I was completely shocked.  After speaking to Shawnie, it looks like I may only need to order the trigger shot, Ovidrel, to get through this first cycle.  Last cycle, we paid just over $6,000 for my meds.  This cycle, we will start by only paying $69.50.  Don’t worry, that decimal is in the correct place.  J  There is a chance I will have to order a little more of one medication, Gonal-F, but at this point, we are good with what I have.  Todd and I were floored and felt that was God telling us that this med donation was a good thing.  (I have anxiety about my meds and how they have been taken care of.  Normally, I would be nervous about taking free meds from anyone in case they forgot to keep something refrigerated.  Not this time.  Worry is nowhere to be found with this decision.)  This donation was such an act of kindness and love.  I could never thank this stranger enough.  Joanna is quite an angel to us!

Tomorrow is my D&C.  I’m ready to have it complete, so I will know for sure that we can move forward with a May cycle.  For the record, in May, we plan to go through with stimulating me, retrieving eggs from me and sperm from Todd (surgically for both), fertilizing the eggs with the sperm, allowing them to grow for 5-6 days, and freezing them for later use.  That is what Dr. Ahlering feels will be our best option.  I feel like he’s told us why he likes this plan, but I can’t seem to remember what it was.  Anyway, we will do the same steps in August.  Then, we will transfer some of the frozen embryos back into my uterus in September or October.

I believe that captures everything that has happened over the last week.  I’m excited for tomorrow.  I wish this workday would end!  J