If you hate infertility...

Irony?  That would be my afternoon.  In fact, it would have almost been comical if it wasn't so cruel!  I left the office this afternoon with my ARC contract (more about that below) for IVF in hand.. hot off the printer... and still had it in my hand when I slipped in to support a co-worker at her baby shower!  Something's wrong with that picture!  I slipped out quickly to go read the darn contract.  Who hates infertility, raise your hand!

 

Paying for a one cycle plus package at Advanced Reproductive Care (ARC) will save about $2000 if we have to proceed with a frozen transfer.  If the fresh IVF cycle results in a live birth, we lose about $900 for paying for a frozen cycle up front but let me be clear that I.would.not.care!  *If the fresh cycle is canceled before ER for any reason, the options are a refund for all except $500 for bullcrap administrative fees or to pay the clinic for all services up to that point and use the package price for the next cycle.  **They do not pay for anesthesia.  ***They pay for up to 5 u/s and bloodwork monitoring visits.  Someone please warn me if I'm about to get into something with a lot of fine print!  

PC sometimes refers to crappy circumstances as a 'kick in the nuts.'  Here was my kick in the nuts today:   I don't even qualify for ARC's refund guarantee program because the information from my fertility charts suggests to them that IVF is not going to work for me.  Hard Kick!!!  They based that on my highest FSH (10) highest estradiol (144) and antral follicle count (10).  Can anyone give me some hope with those numbers?   

*Let's hope this does not happen.

**About $750 for a one hour nap.

***Nurse LLD said the average is 4-6 visits. 

Ready (Jan) Set (Feb) Go (March)

We're at least moving into the 'Ready' phase here. Today was AF-Day 1, IVF-phone consult, MRI and Acupuncture! My body seems to be on the procrastinate and cram schedule!

I called the IVF nurse to let her know this is cycle day 1. For IVF/blog purposes, I'll refer to her as Nurse LLD, which stands for Lunch Lady Doris... this is her in the cartoon version. Same voice, same no-nonsense, same get it done attitude who (you get the impression) probably turns around and rolls her eyes...or takes a smoke break... when people irritate her. PC and I instantly liked Nurse LLD! She told me we will start lupron on day 21, do a baseline u/s & one other procedure with the next menses to get this IVF going. This will put injections/stims around mid to the end of February and ER/ET around the first of March. But nothing about the IVF timeline is truly predictable, right?

The MRI-
Conversation between me & PC earlier today.

Me-"This is really one of the last tests I know of to check my infertility/hormonal issues."
PC- "If this shows something is wrong, will it mean a plan B?"
Me- "If I have an active pituitary tumor, I guess it could mean removing it. Brain surgery."
PC- "Is that covered by insurance?"
Me- "It should be."
PC- "Then that would probably be cheaper than IVF."
Me- "Is that the bright side?"

Why can't we just come home and ask "How was your day today, honey?" Sigh.

Acupuncture 'Before IVF' #2-
Dr. C said there had been a lot of TTC ladies in his office today. Yep. He said I was my "usual tensed up self" and I gave him a recap of my day. Yep.

My constant racing thoughts problem was kind of fun during acupuncture today. I made a mental image/list of "good to great" things to get me through the next few weeks. A top 10 of things that I love + some honorable mentions in good (1) to great (10) order.

1. Sweet Tea, it can even be decaffeinated, just sweet+tea
2. A good book, a good movie, or both!
3. Birding
4. Reading/Writing/Stalking Blogs
5. Petting and brushing the puppies (super cheap calming effect)
6. A Girls Night Out
7. Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake, must work this in the schedule somewhere.
8. Thinking Dreaming about... spring & summer days ahead!
9. Thinking Dreaming about... two.pink.lines.
10. Dinner and Date Nights with sweet PC:]

This post has gotten too long for the honorable mentions but feel free to share some things on your good to great, get through IVF, list!