First Appointment with the RE

I have some renewed faith that I am indeed doing the right thing. My appt went really well. I was slowly getting nervous while I was waiting in the waiting room but I was not as nervous as the couple sitting next to me (their first appt with the RE too). The husband was pacing the room back and forth while his wife would pick up a magazine, flip through it for a second, set it down, look at her watch, pick the magazine up again. I felt really bad for them and wanted to tell them it would be ok, but I felt it would be too personal so I continued to read the book I brought.

After 30 minutes in the waiting room, the nurse called me in and sat me down in a small conference room decorated with a fantastic plastic uterus and penis. She quickly went over some basic medical questions (allergies, past surgeries and such) and then told me the doctor would be in to see me.

The doctor was really friendly and outgoing. The last few nights I kept having nightmares that he would scold me for trying to pursue this dream. Definitely not the case. He assured me he had done this many times before. He then explained the procedure and discussed his plan with me. I will be using injectables (Ovidrel and Gonal F). While your in your 20's you ovulate around 9x's a year but once your in your early 30's that number goes down to 5 or 6x's a year. He felt that injectables were the best approach for me. He promised that there would be no "Jon and Kate plus eight" situations and that they would cancel the cycle if I had too many mature eggs. They said they will not do more than 3 cycles of IUI and if I am not pregnant by then that they would try another approach. The clinic has a success rate of 35% per cycle with this approach with a 20% chance for twins and a 1 to 2% chance of triplets.

Please god, NO triplets! Twins.......maybe manageable.

I have a meeting with the counselor Wednesday the 14th. She will go over the process of choosing a donor. The RE was very particular about what sperm banks they will allow. He explained that they will only allow me to use certain sperm banks because they allow the FDA to monitor (not required by law)and examine their collection and storage methods. It gave me some peace of mind knowing that.

After the meeting with the counselor it will be time to buy my "specimen". They want it at the clinic before I start my cycle. I will be inseminated twice per cycle. As was explained to me, they want me to buy unwashed sperm because it will have better numbers and motility. Yippee.

I have been on prenatal vitamins, but they also want me to take an extra folic acid (understand) and a baby aspirin (?). Thought that was interesting.

So the big plan....have the sperm delivered to the doc's office before the 28th of April. Call the doctor on CD1 to schedule an appt on CD3 to do all my blood work. If all goes well, I do an HSG (Hysterosalpingogram) on CD 7-11 and then I will be ready to do my first IUI!

After the appointment with the doctor, I had a meeting with the office financial counselor. I thought it would be a lot more money. So far (knock on wood) it looks like my insurance will pick up the tab on my meds, ultrasounds, blood work, and HSG.
My total cost out of pocket (minus the sperm) is around $770. I was totally preparing myself for $2000 a try. The counselor said that the sperm shouldn't cost that much because it will be purchased unwashed (they do it at the doctor's office lab). So right now I'm thinking around $1300 a try.

Out of curiosity, I asked what the total would be for a cycle if I didn't have insurance. The doctor has a package that covers the cost of the IUI and monitoring for $2000. I am almost positive that this package does not include medication which in my case is around $1000. Thank god for insurance!

I feel so much better now that I have a better idea of how this process is going to be.

I talked on the phone to a friend who I will be visiting around memorial weekend. While we were making plans for my visit, she reminded me that I might be pregnant by the time I get to visit her. Let's hope she is right!