Two days in one

6-4-10
Today I have hit the 12 week mark…….finally! Twelve weeks ago I thought this day would never get here. It seemed like a lifetime away and in a way it was. I feel like I have gone back to my old self in the last twelve weeks. Going through fertility treatments and the way it makes you feel is something completely out of the norm. It totally consumes your life and your thoughts. Not many minutes go by when you don’t drift off and think “God PLEASE let this work”. I do feel very fortunate that I have friends (those who know) that are very supportive and always give me encouragement. I also feel fortunate to have a husband like Wilson. He just listens to me and doesn’t complain if I am being a bit more bitchy than normal. He lets me cry and doesn’t get too wound up about much of anything. He just keeps reassuring me that “it will happen; it’s just not our time this round”.
I go back to Dr. Rodriguez on Friday for a saline sonogram. I guess so they can make sure everything is back in working order. Then Wilson and I have a consultation with Dr. Rod on Thursday the 10th to talk about all of our options and what he thinks we should do. Hopefully we can try the IUI again and I pray that it works this time with no problems. The IVF is soooo expensive (10K) and even though we have spent that so far it has been in short spurts. We will listen to what Dr. Rod has to say and then hopefully get this show back on the road in early July, after I finish the pack of b.c. pills I am taking. It seems so counter productive but it regulates my cycle so at least I get a little bit of insight on a timeline. All things have a silver lining; it just depends on how bad you want to find it.


6-21-10
So much has happened since the 4th (at least I feel like it has). All of our first appointments were cancelled. We went for our appointment on the 4th and he was still in surgery and while we were there she said they had to cancel our appointment for a consult on the 10th. We got all of them rescheduled for the next week. On the 15th I had the saline sonogram. I don’t remember it hurting this much last time. Actually I don’t remember having one of these at all but they say I have. After all of these tests I don’t know which is which anymore. He said everything looked good. We had our consult on Thursday the 17th. This is the appointment I was really worried about because I was afraid he was going to tell us that we can’t do the IUI’s any longer. He did say he would let us try one more time with the IUI because it worked last time….well kinda. Linda, his nurse, said there are women who don’t have insurance and they buy all of their medicines up front for the IUI’s and IVF’s and when they get pregnant and no longer need the meds they donate them back to patients like me who have insurance that won’t cover anything so they have to pay everything cash. She said with this next IUI we will add in injectables which will help with the ovary stimulation. Before we can start the next IUI he wants me to have another HSG. This is the test where they put dye in your tubes to make sure they are clear. This test is expensive ($1190) and it HURTS. The minute they told me I had to do it again tears just started rolling down my eyes. He said he would prescribe me valium for the day of the test. I have never taken valium before but hopefully it will take the edge off. Last time I was fine because I didn’t know what to expect until it was happening. This time I know! They will schedule that for sometime at the end of this week or beginning of next. Then they will cut my cycle short on my next pack of bc pills and we can start with the next IUI. Lord do I pray that this works.
This is the last time we can try the “less” expensive method. Our next venture will be to IVF. They did give me an information packet on IVF that includes everything they are going to do and the costs of each procedure. We are looking from anywhere to 8k to 13k. Depending on how many eggs they retrieve and how many mature. It’s all a crap shoot. With the IUI, even with injectables he is giving us an 8 to 12% chance of getting pregnant. With the IVF he is giving us a 40% chance.
Luckily we have an extra truck that we can sell and right now it’s worth about 12K. It’s actually my Mom’s truck but she is graciously giving us the truck proceeds to use. My first plan is to call Wilson’s insurance and see if I can get on his plan during their next open enrollment, which we believe to be in November. I have been doing some research and found out that in the state of Texas insurance companies are REQUIRED to offer you infertility insurance. The hitch is my company doesn’t have to because we have less than 50 employees. With Kroger that is not the case. So we are PLANNING on changing Wilson’s insurance to the top tier that is available and adding me on to his insurance. We know the cost will be significant (about $300 a month) but that is nothing compared to a possible 12K bill. I will keep my free insurance thru my job so as soon as we have the baby I can cancel my insurance thru him. I would cancel as soon as I found out I was pregnant but his deductible is only $750 whereas mine is 3K. I am praying that that works out too. We are still waiting to hear from his benefits coordinator.
Keeping my fingers crossed!!!