Starting IVF #1

Well, our first appt. with our RE to make our treatment plan for IVF #1 was Tuesday May 26th. Unfortunately my husband wasn't able to make it to this appointment with me as he had just taken a day off a couple weeks before to attend a '2nd opinion' appointment with another doctor, that ended up being a complete waste of both of our time.

The appointment with the RE went great!! I sat down in his office and we went over the timeline for an average IVF cycle and payment options. We have been very blessed with amazing insurance through my husband's employer, so for this IVF cycle we will mostly likely only end up paying about $1,000 out of pocket!! We have some money in savings and it's nice to know that for now we can keep it there instead of having to use it for IVF or other treatments. After talking with the Dr., the next step he needed to have accomplished was an ultrasound and saline check of my cervix (not sure of the actual name for that ...). Since we both had some time, he took me to the exam room and had this accomplished. He said my cervix, uterine lining and ovaries look great for IVF. This wasn't the most comfortable experience, but I'm hoping it's about the same procedure as the embryo transfer will be. He said this should be a very easy procedure for me, so that was a relief (as long as the rest of the cycle and procedures are the same)!! After this I had my final blood work completed to get the cycle started. And to end my 'marathon appointment,' I met with the financial advisor and spoke with her about our insurance benefits and what the best approach will be for us to pay for our IVF cycle.

It was such a relief to get so much done at the first appointment and feel like after 20 months of 'trying' we're FINALLY making some progress that will hopefully lead to our miracle child. Since this first appointment I have been in communication with my nurse and have set up several appointments.

Please keep us in your prayers as we have our next appointment Tuesday June 9th at 8 a.m. At this time we will go over all the consent forms with our doctor and sign these off. My husband will also have his blood work done (he's super nervous about this, as he HATES needles..), then I will have to get an up to date pap-smear done by my Doctor. So...it will be another marathon appointment for us, but so nice to get these things done in groups so that we don't have to make multiple trips to the clinic. We also have an appointment Wednesday afternoon for "Injection Instruction" where I will learn how to use and take all the medications I will be on this cycle (which is a HUGE list by the way ....I'll wait for another post about this!)

We have the IVF calendar pretty much planned out and as long as my body responds as planned we should be done with this cycle and know the outcome by the end of July.