Our Story

What a day! After seven failed IUIs (four with Clomid and three with injectible Bravelle), we had a follow-up consultation this morning. Luckily, we were able to do it by phone since our RE is about 100 miles away. The good Doctor called and basically told us what we suspected: we have to move onto IVF.

A little history here... I am 32 years old (almost 33) and my wonderfully supportive husband Mike is 38. We've been married 10 years this month and first began trying to start a family on our first anniversary. It took about two months for us to conceive back then. After miscarriages and a moler pregnancy, I was diagnosed with Gestational Trophoblastic Disorder (GTD) and was sent to the wonderfully caring and competent people at the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital. I received several rounds of chemotherapy before being declared "cancer-free." We then had to be patient and wait awhile before we could start trying again. A couple years later, we started trying again. And trying, and trying. After three years trying to conceive on our own, we consulted a reproductive endocrinologist (RE) in 2004. And back to the beginning....

Seven failed IUIs and now we're off to In-Vitro Fertilization. The Doctor said he would have an IVF packet mailed out to us today. I'm excited and nervous all at once. He threw out terms and medications I had heard/read on my favorite infertility bulletin board but had not yet associated with me. He told us our infertility is unexplained, otherwise known as idiopathic... idio because the doctor is an idiot for not knowing why we can't get pregnant, pathic because it's pathetic that we have to go through all this to get pregnant. He's a funny man. We talk about the intake meeting and all the meds: Lupron, Gonal-F, Repronex, Medrol, Progesterone in Oil, HcG. And then he turns me over to the nurse.

This nurse is one of my favorites. I'll call her Nurse Kind. Nurse Kind scheduled us for our IVF intake meeting in mid-September and told us what that would entail: an hour of the Doc speaking, an hour of the IVF lab director speaking, and then an hour about the medications. She also said we could probably sneak out of that last bit a little early since we've already experienced the whole injectible thing. Both of us are able to administer a virtually pain-free shot into my abdomen now (there's something to brag about), and Mike is great at giving those intra-muscular shots in my "hip area." They hurt afterwards, but that's through no fault of Mike's. Yes, I still blame him when they hurt... SOMEBODY'S got to take the blame, right?!? LOL We also have to give more blood for testing and have a few other tests performed that afternoon. Another fun-filled day!

The estimated cost for this procedure (in 2004 at my clinic) is a whopping $10,817. The medications alone run about $3362.00. Thankfully, my insurance is going to cover the bulk of that. I called the pharmacy to see how much would be covered, and the tech ran them all through the computer and found that they are all covered. I'll be responsible for the co-pays, which will amount to right around $100. WOW! Can you say thank God for insurance?!?! Granted, that still leaves a lot of uncovered expenses, but we're working with our insurance companies to see what will and won't be covered. We're pretty sure none of the costs associated with the egg retrieval and transfer will be covered, but we'll see what we can do. Hopefully the numerous blood tests, office visits and ultrasounds will be covered.

I'll post an entry with a lot of the common abbreviations we use in the near future. That'll save a lot of questions. If you want to add a comment, you can do so. Just click on the link at the bottom of each post where it says 0 comments (or any other number) and it'll take you to where you can do that. I'll try to make sure this is set up right so that's possible.

We want you all to know how supportive you have been throughout this long and stressful journey, and we want to keep you all informed, but sometimes it's just very hard to talk about. So, I will keep this blog updated with any and all pertinient information so you all can check it as often as you like, or not. Granted, it probably won't be updated every day, but then again, it might be. We'll all have to wait and see there. Some of it could be considered "overshare" or "too much information" (TMI) but I won't apologize for that. It's all stuff we're enduring in our quest to have children.

Love,
Mike & Gwen