Tea Party in New York

I finally got around to setting up my laptop, thank goodness for wireless modems!

So guess what I did last night?! I jumped on the subway and headed down to City Hall in Manhattan. I participated in my first political protest/rally! It was pretty cool, I'd guess anywhere from 5,000-10,000 people showed up for the Tax Day Tea Party. It was a very friendly crowd, but they were fired up about the state of our political affairs!

I stayed for about two hours, but the cold got to me and I left around 9:30, it took me forever to get back because the sidewalks were so blocked off, I had to walk around a few city blocks just to get back to the subway.

I really hope this grassroots movement makes it somewhere, I don't want my future (?) children to owe for what our politicians are doing now!

Polyps=Fun

I survived the Saline Sonohysterogram! It wasn't nearly as bad as I feared it would be. It was similar to an IUI, but maybe a touch more cramping. I'm still feeling the effects now, but it's not too bad. I took the advice found on Stirrup Queens blog and took two advil beforehand.

I ended up going to the radiology clinic instead of my gynecologist. When I spoke to the gynecologists nurse, she informed me that I would have to pay out of pocket, as it's related to IF...blah, blah, blah. When I called up the radiology clinic, they were much more cooperative and were going to let insurance pick up the tab.

The tech that did the wanding was awesome, she has plenty of experience doing Sonohysterograms and let the marketing department of the clinic know that the yahoos answering the phone (I told her that I was nervous because they didn't even know what a Sonohysterogram was when I called to make the appointment) aren't on top of things.

She was also impressed with my wanding experience. She was having a hard time finding my left ovary, so I offered to press down on it for her. She started laughing and shared with the other tech. Ahhhh...funny yet a little sad.

Now for the bad news. I failed the test, I have more polyps. She and the Dr. saw at least three polyps while they were poking around. I'm still waiting to hear back from Emily in NY to find out what will happen next. Obviously the polyps have to come out first which most likely means there is a hysteroscopy in my future (where, I don't know).

I'm hoping that I won't have to postpone the IVF if I can get the polyps removed in a timely manner, but I don't know how likely that is. I also don't know if they require a waiting period before proceeding with IVF afterwards. I hope it's minimal, as I don't want to grow more polyps while I'm waiting!

Did I mention I just bought the plane tickets for NY yesterday? Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Buying Drugs and Severing Ties

I bought drugs today, but not all of them! Thanks to Kym and her friend Kimmy, I was hooked up with 6 menopur!!! AWESOME...thanks again for being so generous and donating unused meds, it really helps.

So today is officially CD1 and I'm going in for my CD3 scan tomorrow. I'm sure you've noticed that tomorrow is really CD2...I've been reassured that it's cool to go a day early (my local clinic doesn't want to see me on Saturday).

On a different topic...

Today I dropped of the few items that my former friend, K left at my house. I stopped by her office and left everything, including a card and note with the receptionist. While I was there, I saw a co-worker of K's that I had met at K's bridal shower and wedding, she was very pleasant when she saw me. She chatted with me and told me that K is expecting a boy and what his name will be.

Surprisingly, this didn't really bother me much. I feel a sense of relief to have put this behind me. Thanks for all of your advice and support, hopefully this is the end of the drama :)

Sticker Shock

In yesterdays post, I called my IVF coordinator Kim, but that's the name of my local coordinator, my NY coordinators name is Emily. Ooops. Anyway, Emily called me back and we talked dates etc. I explained the situation and she said that I could stay on bcp for 25 days to allow for test taking. :)

I'm not overly excited about the length of time I'll have to be on the pill (the pill usually makes me feel like complete shit) but it's better than waiting another cycle.

So today, Emily called me again to say that she talked to Kim and my local office doesn't do the Salinesongogram, I didn't even ask why. Now I have to make a seperate appointment for that at a radiologists office. The thing is, when I called around, the outpatient clinics don't often perform this procedure, so now I'm nervous about the quality of care they will provide. I'm going to call Emily tomorrow and see what she recommends.

She also gave me a list of my meds and called it in to Freed.om Pharmacy for me. I asked her if I had to use them or if I could call around. She seemed surprised that I would want to take the time, but she said sure.

Now for the sticker shock...I called Freed.om Pharmacy to find out the total...OMG, I think my heart may have stopped for a second. They quoted $8000. Maybe compared to some of your cycles out there, it's not so bad, but I was expecting around $5,000 (still too high IMO).

Fortunately I had my quotes from the last IVF and started calling around to all of the major pharmacies. So far the best quote has come from The Apoth.ecary Shop at about $5,000. Much more reasonable which is why I used them last time too.

I also just rememberd the stash of leftover IVF-1 drugs I had in my bedroom closet! I have four of the five ganirelix and a few menopur! Hopefully I'll make it far enough to need it this time. ;) If only my follistim hadn't already expired...

Scheduling Conflict

I just spoke with my IVF coordinator, Kim in NY today. I woke up this morning with some spotting, so AF is just around the corner. I wanted to let her know, and find out about getting my bcp prescription and discuss protocol/timeline.

According to the information they sent in the mail, I would be on bcp anywhere from 14-28 days. I've always had it in my head that I'd take it for the full 28 and then begin stims. Well today, she said I'd take it for 10 days!!!

Whoa, 10 days is not long at all, I could possibly be stimming in 14-16 days if we stick to that time line. I'm all for getting things overwith, but this could cause some unexpected scheduling conflicts.

I'm going to stay with friends in NY for most of the monitoring and probably stay at a hotel with M when he comes up for the retrieval. I'm sure everything will work out fine with that, no biggie, I just wasn't planning to go to NY in March.

The most troublesome is this would put me out of town during the time I'm to sit for my Interior Design license. If the test was offered more often, I'd just take it the next time, but it only comes around twice a year. So if I don't sit for it in April, I won't be able to take it again until October. Not to mention that I've already put in over $700 to take it and I won't get a full refund if I reschedule.

I'm waiting for Kim to call me back, she said she'd set up the schedule and give me the info for my meds. I hope it's not a big deal, but I'm going to ask her if I can stay on bcp for 25 days so that I can take the test.

I'd hate to postpone IVF another month, I'm ready to get this over with now!!!

600 IU of Follistim Anyone?

I was poking around in my fridge today and decided to have a peak at my stash sitting in the deli drawer. I opened up the Ziploc bag where my Follistim has been chillin' and looked over the expiration date. To my horror, the 600 IU pack expires this month!!!

So...that means I'm giving away a 600 IU cartridge of Follistim to anyone who wants to claim it. Please realize that the expiration is 1/2009 so I recommend that you use it ASAP, if you're cycling now this is for you! I live in Orlando, Fl, the closer you are to me, the better! Put the word out :)

Please let me know by this Friday, as I am heading out of town to visit family.

Getting Back on the Horse

Okay, so I haven't kept my New Years resolution to blog frequently. I'll try to post at least once a week, that seems like a reasonable goal. :)

I guess it's mostly that my life isn't very interesting these days. I'm not sure that it ever was, but at least I had IF treatment to share. Since I haven't been to the RE since about May 2008 I haven't had much to blog about.

My job prospects aren't looking any better, the company that I was going to interview with has layed off a majority of their employees, so I'm not expecting an interview anytime soon. I've come to basically accept that I'm going to be (very) underemployed for probably the next year or so. Maybe longer if Obama goes through with the "bail out"/government expansion.

Hopefully M and I will be able to survive reasonably well on our 1 and a 1/4 salaries until things turn around. It really makes me wonder if it's irresponsible to keep trying to build a family with the state of the economy as it is. M doesn't want that to stop us, and I think he's probably right. It will eventually pass and we will be okay.

So I guess I should share how we would proceed with the IF situation, seeing as how we aren't exactly rolling in $. M finally announced what everyone in his family has been gossiping about for some time. He told his grandparents (and everyone else) that we will probably need to do IVF to have children. Gasp!

His grandparents have generously offered to spot us the obscene amount of money required for said IVF. They want more great-grandchildren, especially from their only grandson that could carry on their name. No pressure or anything.

That said, we *might* try this spring sometime. I'm still somewhat ambivilant about the whole thing. I'm slightly excited, but mostly apprehensive about what it all means. I hate that his family is now so involved. I don't know if they'll be chill about it, or expect a play by play. If it fails, I'll probably feel horribly guilty. Both for letting them down (again) in the baby making department, but also if we waste their money on an unsuccessful attempt. That would just plain suck.

I've basically taken a somewhat detatched position on this for now. I'm letting M do most of the decision making. I hate that when we fight about things, it's usually about the stupid decisions I've made and how he would have made the "right" decision (like buying a house sooner or choosing a different neighborhood, or not adopting the dog we did, etc).

So...he feels like this is the thing to do, and I don't want to hear how I made the wrong decision by not doing IVF now when we have the option. Also, he doesn't want to use the Drs. in Orlando, so again, I'm not going to fight it, I'll go to NY and see the Dr. he chooses. It's his turn to be in charge of this, so I'm going with the flow.

Time For a New RE?

Yesterday I left another v-mail with the clinic making it clear that I am very unhappy with the way they are handling my money. I finally heard back from the Director of Finance just now.

She did apologize and explained that they have a new system, blah blah blah and this is not typical. But here's the kicker, I won't be seeing my $5,000+ for at least another week. I'll be lucky if I have it by next Friday.

She said that the clinic is now partners with Integra.med and they have to send all "claims" up to their corporate headquarters in NY for processing. Well, she hasn't even done that yet.

I am so angry with them right now. If that's the case, it will take nearly a full month to get my refund. What if I was planning on going to another clinic for treatment and needed the money? I'd be delayed just because their accounting department is a bunch of idiots.

I really wish there was something I could do about this, but I guess I have to sit back and take it. Thanks for letting me know that I'm not crazy for expecting better service.

______________________________

M thinks we should consider other clinics, big surprise. For some reason he thinks a clinic up north might be the answer. Maybe he's right, I need to keep my options open and look around for the best treatment we can afford. So far no one locally has been able to help me in any significant way. I don't know if I've given them a proper chance or not though. It's *only* been 15 months since I first started with them and I haven't done a proper IVF.

Would you change RE's at this point?

I don't know much about it, but Cornell keeps popping up as one of the best. It seems to be a go-to clinic for difficult patients. That said, I have a suspicion that they are very pricey and may not be a real option for us.

I've tried looking up the rankings, but haven't had much luck, I found one but it seemed a little out of date (2004 maybe). Let me know if you've come across a good list or have any recommendations.

Missing Money

In case you're wondering, I'm alive. I just don't have much to report. Oh, I am kinda pissed at my RE's office. So I'll tell you about that.

As you may recall, my mini-stim IVF was cancelled March 29th. M and I went for the post IVF consult April 10th. At that time we were asked if we wanted a refund or if we wanted to leave the balance of our IVF money with them to use towards another round.

We weren't sure at that moment, as we hadn't had time to digest everything. We elected to leave the money with them until further notice.

Well, a few days later, the tax man came calling... remember April 15th? We ended up owing a good bit (bleh) due to my former contract position. That pretty much made up our minds for us and we decided we would like our money back. I called the main office and left a detailed message with the finance administrator that we do indeed want our money back.

A week went by and I didn't hear from her, but I thought maybe the check was in the mail. I called again and still no return call. So I called again (see a theme?) the next day and insisted that I speak to someone. The only information I was given was that it would be an additional 7-10 days. I never did speak to the woman in charge of finances!

I understand that it sometimes takes a while to get a check cut, but two and a half weeks? Geez. Tomorrow will be 9 days since the last conversation and I think I'm gonna call again if it doesn't appear in my mailbox. M is pretty annoyed about the situation, and I don't really blame him. I'm most upset that they never once returned a phone call or apologized for the poor communication.

I feel like once treatment fails or ends they could care less. I hope that's not true, but I'm frustrated with how difficult they're making this.