Sunday, September 27, 2009

possible problem

Our insurance statement says that my sonohysterogram is not covered, which makes me think my hysteroscopy/laparoscopy is not going to be covered either. That will significantly reduce our savings plan. I'm thinking a call to the insurance people is in order.

another one bites the dust

Well, yet another friend is pregnant. And on her second month of trying. I wonder what that even feels like. She is one of my best friends, so she knows all of what D and I are going through, and I am glad that she never had to go through it. That's not to say I am not jealous at all, because I am, but I am happy for her too. The common paradoxical emotion of a member of an infertile couple: jealousy mixed with happiness.

In good news for me and D, I was paying my share of the bills today. D and I decided that we would pay only the minimums on our debts, and the rest that we normally pay would go in to savings for IVF. Well, just from my portion, I was able to sock away $800!! Once I get my pay increase for earning my masters degree, that will be at least $1000. Add in D's portion, and we should be good to go by December. Holy shit.

Friday, September 25, 2009

the results are in

Well, our options are either donor sperm or IVF. D's parents are pretty supportive (they want a grandbaby last year!), so they are going to give us some money to help pay for IVF if we decide to go that route. D is not too keen on the idea of donor sperm, and I don't blame him. I could see us using donor eggs if our issue was my eggs, simply because it would be D's sperm, and the baby would grow in my uterus, so we'd both have a connection. It would be much harder for D to feel a connection if we used donor sperm.

D made an appointment with a urologist for November 4th, just to see if there could be a cause for all his numbers being good except for the motility being SUPER low. Post-wash, there were only 180,000 viable sperm left, after starting with 160,000,000. So not only IVF, but ICSI as well.

So while we wait for the urologist appointment and the subsequent waiting for the results, we will be figuring out how to pay for the rest of the IVF treatments, or as I like to call it, our threeway with science. We both want to at least TRY for a baby that is part of both of us before we look into adoption.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

bills

So we just got our first bill from the RE's office. A couple days ago, we got the statement from the insurance company of what wasn't covered. Although it was very vague. Example: cost of $19 was not covered. WHAT was that? Then we got the bill from the RE, so we could compare. According to the RE bill, blood work and our initial visit (with a free bonus probing!) were not covered, but D's SA, my sono, and my surgery, including the preliminary exam were. And we have enough in our accounts to cover it! Whew!!

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Less Than a Week!!!!

Until our "plan of attack" meeting with the RE.

We got several insurance statements today, and so far NOTHING has been covered. On our first appointment, the financial lady checked into our insurance and told us that testing was covered but not treatment. Better than I had been hoping for. So now the question is "who is wrong?" Did the financial lady make a mistake or did the insurance?

In light of the $1500 bill we will be getting, which doesn't include my sonohysterogram or my surgery from Monday, I am REALLY hoping they say IUI and not IVF. Here's hoping that D's motility looks better than it did in his previous two tests. This third test cost 10 times as much as the other two, so I hope it was worth it!

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Surgery Details

Sunday I had to drink 10 ounces of magnesium citrate. It was lemon flavored. I smelled it before I drank any of it, and told D it smelled like cleaning fluid; he said "because it is." hahahha! It didn't taste that bad, but its effects were not pleasant. Not as bad as I was expecting, but still not pleasant. After I took that, I could only eat clear foods, so it was chicken broth and jello for dinner. And then no fluids after midnight. So I was starving and thirsty the morning of my surgery.

We arrived at the clinic about 12:30; after about 20 minutes, I was taken back to pre-op. Put on my fancy hospital gown, and my cap over my hair, then the nurse took my vitals, and put an IV in my hand. D got to come back and sit with me after that. A couple hours later (the surgery Dr. G was performing before mine took longer than anticipated), D kissed me goodbye/good luck and I was taken to the operating room. There is so much equipment in there! I was scooted onto the gynecological bed, and the anesthesiologist told me he was going to get started. And that's the last thing I remember before waking up in recovery.

D met with Dr. G while I was waking up and she told him the polyp/fibroid came out easily, she saw no endometriosis, and she made an incision in my belly button (so now it feels like I was stabbed in it...D said "because you were." hahaha!) to look at my ovaries. The right one seemed fine, but she wanted a closer look at the left one, so she made another incision on the left side. She popped a couple of the cysts to make sure they weren't anything bad, and determined that they are most likely residual effects from the Clomid.

So I had lay around in recovery for a while, and D got to sit with me again. Then the nurse helped me get dressed. First she asked if I wanted D to leave the room while I got dressed, and I said he could stay, I mean, he's seen it all before. She said she asked another woman the same question, and she didn't want her husband back there at all because she had no make-up on. I bet they have a wonderfully solid relationship. ;) So I got dressed, and they made me wear a maternity menstrual pad in case of any bleeding. Then I got to sit in a chair and have some ice chips (SOOOOOO good after being so thirsty and the anesthesia and breathing mask made my throat very dry and hoarse) and some apple sauce. Then I had to go to the bathroom, which was a little burny since they had to use a catheter to drain my bladder, in order to avoid puncturing it. Once I had accomplished that, the nurse removed my IV, and we were sent on our way.

After we were home for a while, I went to the bathroom, and my belly button is completely bruised inside it, and there is about a 4 inch bruise over the left incision. It looks really gross and black and purple. I can move around OK, just a little slower than normal. And a little drowsy from the pain meds, and my throat still hurts. So I'm drinking tea and sucking on throat lozenges.

But that's about it.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

drunk advice

Last night, D and I met up with some friends at Oktoberfest. Great food, great beer, awesome time. One of our friends knows that D and I have been trying, but doesn't know all the details about our fertility issues. She waved me over (after I don't know how many beers) to have a "private" conversation. She asked me how it was going, so I told her that I had to have surgery on Monday (tomorrow, yikes!) to remove a fibroid from my uterus. She didn't know what that meant, so I explained to her what it was and what problems it can cause. Then she told me that D and I should have lots of sex, and asked if I knew when I was ovulating. Because she was drunk, I just smiled and said yes. I realized it was pointless to explain infertility to her. After this, every five minutes or so, she would wave me over and say "I don't really know anything, but I think you're going to have a girl." Okay. Then she waved me over again, and asked if I was "on my cycle." I thought that meant if I was on my period, so I said it just finished. She then replied with "I think tonight's the night." Sure. We'll get pregnant, magically, and then I'll go for surgery on Monday to scrape it all out. Good timing! Of course, that's why they schedule the surgery for when they do in your cycle...to avoid the magical pregnancy.

Then when she hugged D goodbye, she whispered "have fun, knock her up already." D was a little weirded out by that until I told him about her earlier conversation with me. Then he thought it was hilarious.

In about three hours, I will start drinking the magnesium citrate that is supposed to clean out my bowels, in preparation for the surgery. It's lemon flavored. I bet it tastes awesome.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

it's all set

Surgery is set for Monday, the 14th. I have a pre-op appointment Thursday morning to determine if I need the laparoscopy too or just the hysteroscopy. I know my period should be done by Monday for the main surgery, but it definitely will not be done for Thursday's exam. I know they've seen bleeding before, but it still grosses me out to be bleeding on the exam table.

Trying to actually speak to someone during my plan time today at school was a nightmare. Of course, the nurses were busy, so I had to leave a voicemail, and then worry that they'd be calling me back during class. Do I take the call, and try to have a private conversation in the hallway, or do I let it go to voicemail and continue the phone tag? I missed one call and so was forced to continue the fun fun game of tag, but I did catch one from the nurse at the site of the surgery. When I went back in to my classroom, one of the kids goes "are you dying?" Very sensitive. I teach high school, by the way, and this was my class of seniors. Nice, right?

surprise!

The past couple of days, my boobs have been sore and I've had some minor cramping. All things that I get in the week prior to my period. I was expecting my period to show up on Friday, but it came this morning. I was all "oh!" Which means I can call and set up my surgery, and it definitely will not land on a day my husband is out of town. When we were first looking at the calendar and saw that if my period came on time, there was a possibility of the surgery landing on the 21st, when D is out of town for training, I asked my two best girls if they would be able to take off work to take me to and from the surgery. Being the awesome women they are, they both said "absolutely."

Monday, September 7, 2009

treats

Every time D or I have to go to the doctor for a "fun" exam/procedure, we get a treat, usually ice cream. D is going in for his SA at the RE's on Thursday, and season 5 of The Office comes out on Tuesday; I'm thinking that would make an excellent treat. Although that means that when I go in for my hysteroscopy, I better get something REALLY good. But if we have that season, it will give us something to lay around and watch while I recuperate (not that we don't already own a crap ton of DVDs or have an additional crap ton of movies queued up on Netflix).

support

It still amazes me how much support can be gained from the internet. I'm fairly new to blogging about our fertility journey, even though it's been going on for more than a year. I don't know anyone else (in real life) who has had any trouble getting pregnant, so it helps just to read about others dealing with issues like my husband and I are. It helps me to not feel so alone, and since I often tell my husband about what I read, I hope it helps him too.