Working Lady Parts and Money Matters

Hi everyone!  Sorry for not posting for over a week.  Last week I was busy listening to the Mind Belly Summit that was posted by GradualChanges.  Thanks girl!  I learned a lot from it, although receiving all the information was very dizzying.  I was forever trying to play catch up since I didn’t want to pay for the upgrade.  In hindsight, I should’ve just paid the $47 upgrade fee so that I can listen to it without the time crunch.  It’s kind of too late now since the upgrade price has gone up to $97 and I really am not going to pay that.  Oh well.  I would like to learn more about all the meditation techniques and maybe learn how to quiet my mind down.

Okay onto updates.  Thanks everyone for being there for me last time when I felt super lonely.  It hits me once in a while when I don’t expect it.  Thanks for the encouragement and I have felt much better since then.

There was finally a glimpse of hope for my long cycle to end.  My temperature finally spiked about one week ago, out of the blue, on cycle day 30.  That was about six days after the last bit of egg white cervical fluid and the last baby dancing session.  We had lost steam and momentum following the every-other-day ritual for a few weeks.  When my temperature rose, I almost cursed aloud because I felt that we didn’t time it well.  How could one time it well when the egg was so elusive?  My hope is that ovulation actually happened a couple of days before the actual temperature spike.  It happened before so I am hoping that this was the case.  I doubt it that we had caught the egg.

Today was the big ultrasound day to check on the cyst and antral follicles.  It felt kind of surreal to go back to the office since it has been such a long wait for the cycle to get moving.  My expectation was low; Given our past cycles, it was kind of difficult to get excited.  Apparently I was still nervous (although I didn’t feel it) as my blood pressure was a bit high.

Dr. E entered with a huge smile.  She first looked at the lining and commented on how beautiful it looked.  Then she pointed out how beautiful the corpus luteum looked.  I was nodding but really didn’t see the physical beauty of it on the screen.  Only REs would say that a corpus luteum looks beautiful.  I wonder how she defines beauty for such a thing.  Apparently on the left ovary, which is usually the dormant one, there were two follicles.  She couldn’t really see on the right side since the corpus luteum was so round and nice and blocked the view.  We should have about three follicles if not more.  And the greatest news of all is the cyst is gone!  From the looks of it, my lady parts all seem to be working properly this time.  The antral follicle count is a bit low but it doesn’t stop us from trying for another cycle.  My best AFC has been six and I haven’t really seen that since our first IVF.  The plan now is to move forward with this cycle and see if the drugs could stimulate any of the follicles to grow.  She said she has seen recently that some people respond well to alternating two Femara and three Femara and then adding Menopur on day five of stims.  Why?  She has no idea.  But it’s worth a try.  She does not suggest bombarding the ovaries with Menopur right away when it’s under five antral follicles.  We can see how the follicles react.  Regardless of how result of this cycle, we will thaw Clay.  Dr. E said that successful thawing rate is 98% so the odds are good.  We have a plan.  🙂

When we drove by the IVF center where the retrieval took place, we waved to Clay in its direction.  Mama and Daddy are coming to get you very very soon.

I presented our new insurance card today to the clinic.  I knew that treatment will not be covered but was hoping that consultation and ultrasound would.  This afternoon I got an email from Dr. E’s finance lady saying that she checked the coverage and unfortunately infertility is not covered regardless of preferred or non-preferred providers.  My heart jumped out of my chest for a tiny bit.  Well, I really do not want to pay for the office visits and ultrasound scans of course.  So I called my new insurance and got hung up twice by the automatic recording.  Good thing I did not give up after two failures.  I finally spoke to somebody live on the phone.  “Steven” said that an office consultation with an in-network reproductive endocrinologist will be covered with a $25 copayment.  Any scans like an ultrasound will be covered at 75% (we pay 25%) after we meet a $500 deductible.  I made sure and asked one more time that yes, if it’s not treatment but consultation, it will be covered.  I thanked him and emailed Dr. E’s finance lady back.

She wrote back quickly, “That is very interesting and thank you for the information because the codes we use will all be infertility therefore should be denied.  We will try it under different things to get it covered for you.”

It’s worth a try and it’s always good to advocate for yourself.  Fingers crossed that these visits were covered.  Otherwise, I am sure we’re looking into $150/office visit and $300/ultrasound.  Yikes.

AF should arrive in about a week.  IVF #4 and/or FET #1 should start then.  I’m hoping for the best and am thankful that God is taking care of my body so the lady parts are working the way they should.  I am still not too late in reaching my goal of having a baby in my arms by the end of this year.  🙂