Cycle 3 away!

So just on the fees, I had told my folks about it, had a whinge, but said we'd work it out okay. I got a call the next morning from my beautiful 80 year old grandmother, she had been talking to my Dad and was calling to tell me a cheque was in the mail to help us out. I promptly burst into tears of gratitude. What a generous, kind thing to do.

Meanwhile, also yesterday morning, I began spotting. 9 day LP, go me!!! Pathetic. So, today we're full force, and I am waiting for the nurses to call me back and confirm all systems are go. I get nervous waiting for this call, because whilst it seems in theory, to be a routine thing, in practice they did forget to schedule my down reg! So, until it is confirmed things are underway, I get touchy and nervous. Ring, damn you, RING!



30 minutes later...

100mg clomid for 5 days starting Thursday.
200iu puregon for 5 days starting Friday.
First scan next Wednesday morning, 9am.

I feel sick with nerves after the cancelled cycle. Here we go again...

$$$$$$$ & Resources

So I discovered last night that a stim/ICSI cycle is going up by almost $1000 at the end of March. We had initially factored into our budget a cycle every 2 months until the years end, at which time its time to reassess if we intend to go on. An extra thousand per cycle means we will go from cycling every 2 months, to every 3, and thereby reduce things from 5 this year to 3 or 4 if lucky.. (talking fresh cycles). So I am a bit bummed, but I remind myself that a few years ago, we couldn't have dreamed of doing IVF at all, and that compared to other countries, we have it bloody good here in Australia. And even further to that, our clinic only charges the part we are responsible for, and bills medicare their element directly, so we only need to find a portion if the true upfront fee at the beginning of a cycle. I know we are lucky, but its still a disappointment that plans change, and waiting time increases. It makes me feel a little like I really have to hope this cycle we are due to begin next week works, before the new fees kick in March 31. No pressure or anything.



I was making a list recently, of books and resources that I have found helpful in relation to IVF and Infertility. I thought I would copy it over here. Please feel free to add any you are aware of or have found helpful in your journey via the comments. These are largely Australian and some international resources.

* Infertility Books website (American)

* Why Me? The Real-Life Guide to Infertility by Loraine Brown. (1998, Simon & Schuster, Sydney).

* The Psychological Impact of Infertility: A comparison with Patients with Other Medical Conditions, by A.D. Domar, P.C. Zuttermeister and R. Friedman (1993). A medical study.

* So Close: Infertile and Addicted to Hope by Tertia Albertyn

* Getting Pregnant The Hard Way: A Husbands Tale by Mikael Svanstrom. A mans perspective of IVF

* Sex at 6pm: A Personal Journey Through IVF by Annarosa Berman (2006).New Holland Publishers.

* The Couple's Guide to In Vitro Fertilization: Everything you need to know to maximise your chances of success" by Liza Charlesworth. (There is nothing amazing in there, just a good intro if its all unfamiliar).

* Inconceivable by Ben Elton (humourous, not for all).

* Baby Steps: A Bloke's Eye View of IVF by Jason Davies

* The Baby Trail by Sinead Moriarty (Humour)

* A Perfect Match by Sinead Moriarty (Humour, sequel)

* A Few Good Eggs: Two Chicks Dish on Overcoming the Insanity of Infertility by Julie Vargo and Maureen Regan

* Battles with the Baby Gods: Infertility: Stories of Hope by Amanda Hampson

* The Infertility Handbook - A Guide to Making Babies by Jacqueline Tomlins

* The Lost and Found Connections Abound Blogroll

* Making Babies by Theresa Miller

* Conception Chronicles: The Uncensored Truth about Sex, Love and Marriage when you are trying to get pregnant By Patty Doyle Debano and Courtney Menzal

* The Stork Club: One Womans Journey to the Front Line of Fertility Treatment by Imogen Edwards-Jones

* IVF Shoot 'Em Up

* International Infertility Film Festival

* Expecting Miracles: On the Path of Hope from Infertility to Parenthood by Christo Zouves, MD

* IVF & Ever After: The Emotional Needs of Families by Nichola Bedos - Personally, I am skeptical of this one. Its a privately practicing counsellor drumming up business by mentioning the many difficulties IVF patients suffer not only during treatment but as parents etc.. This article makes me think that, it sounds so negative, and neglects to mention she is a counsellor. Maybe I am just cynical!

Consuming thoughts...

Amazing how many times you can google things like :success with low grade embryo's" and "grade 3 embryo" and "day 2 transfer" and get different stories. Sigh. It seems some babies are born from shite embies, and some top grade embies result in failed cycles. So there is no real way of knowing. Though the chances are obviously lower, doesn't mean there is NO chance. So, we wait. And we wait, and we wait, and we wait. Its hard to go from appointments every few days and being very much in go go go mode, to the epu and transfer and pain and watching for OHSS... to now trying to switch it all off and forget about it. Its SO hard not to let ti consume my every waking thought. It is hard when you invest SO much in so many ways, to try and let it go and ce la vie...

Rationally, I have worked out when we will be able to go again (need a cycle off for the recovery, and to get xmas and first terms school fees over with); so probably February... but am glad that we will be on flare cycles now, not down regulated. This means no pill stage. Once I get a period, its straight to the fsh injections, no pill! So instead of 6 weeks+ cycles, it will be 4ish. Means we can easily get through 4 or more cycles by the years end. At which point its crunch time again if we are not successful. I still believe by end next year, we will be. Geez. I have so said that before...

Anyway, I have made those back up plans, and I know that if this is negative, I will be disappointed, and devastated... but I know I will recover eventually, and get back on that horse. In the meantime... we wait.

Decisions, decisions.

Ok, in chatting to other ltttc/ACers both in my little circle and on bellybelly, the amount required for the acup/herbs is too much for the potential affect. I think what I will do is get myself some herbs for complementary meds to the IVF, and have the occasional massage for relaxation throughout treatment. Weekly or fortnightly, depending where I am at. I think that will give me much the same affect, or close to. I would like to do the acup, but IVF will cost a bomb and I don't want to struggle to afford it.

So decision made! Now to get Tuesday over with so I know where we are at... Am so nervous about it. I want her to say IVF lets go... and then for the preliminary stuff to take a little bit of time til we have the cashola in our hands in November! We'll see how we go. Fingers crossed. :)

To acupuncture or not to?

It was great, I feel very relaxed and floopy. But, its gonna cost. A lot. She wants to start biweekly for a bit, then reduce. She wants me on herbs also. Its going to cost me a little over $120 a week for at least 5 weeks... I guess I have to weigh it all up.

Herbs are: bupleurum and danggui formula and also ginseng and danggui eight combination. She also wants me to get some flaxseed oil and Vitex (chaste tree). And acupuncture twice a week for about 5 weeks, then weekly and so on.

I don't know, it is a LOT of money. But if it helps us conceive first go, its worth it. Maybe once I have seen the specialist on Tuesday and know when and what we are doing re treatment it will help.

Need to talk it all over with J and sort money etc out properly I think! a

Acupuncture ahoy!

I made an appointment to start acupuncture tomorrow. The therapist, Margaret, specialises in womens issues etc and certainly knows her stuff. She is also endearingly Canadian, and reminds me of my Canadian mate, Erika, who I spent many fun times with in 01. I love that accent. teehee! When I said I wanted to do it in conjunction with IVF but that I thought I needed to start this first, she agreed and seemed to know exactly what I was on about so thats good.

Anyhoo, I will probably need 8-14 weeks of weekly therapy, then it will scale back. Cost is $50 per 45min session, more for herbs if required. Not a fan of herbs though! Not the gunky funky tasting ones anyhoo! So, bit nervous, but also curious about it - will let you know how it goes, am scheduled for 11am tomorrow!

More stuff

Ballarat is not looking good:

Hi Kelly,
Your initial consult fee do see Dr Bardsley will be $167.00 of which $99.25 will not be claimable from medicare. IVF fees vary depending on whether you have private health insurance. The up front fee will be approx $4,500, you will be eliglble for a medicare rebate the amount being dependant on your medicare safety net. Blood tests will need tobe done through St John of God Pathology and scans through Lake Imaging so I imagine Ballarat will be your closest providers. Hope you can make sense of all this! We can clarify and give you detailed quotes when you see Dr Bardsley.

Bugger. Never mind, if all goes well on Tuesday with MIVF, I will cancel that appointment all together.

Also received this email in reply to another query I had with our PHI -

The item number 13212 is covered under your policy. You have Public Hospital cover with a $400 excess. The item is only covered in a public hospital with the doctor of your own choice.

Which surprised me, although I think our excess will be more than MIVF charge anyway!!

Extra info

I made the appt to see a Dr at MIVF and then realised she was not the Sunshine (closest) clinic Dr. I rang MIVF this morning though, and asked does it have to be that clinics Dr or can I see Dr Foster at her rooms but still do all my bloods and scans at sunshine?

Yes! Dr is irrelevant. Thats good because the Dr at Sunshine is only there Wed arvo and because of small mans school hours, afternoons are not suitable. So I would have had to see him elsewhere at other times anyway.

Also realised that to get to that clinic, its not TOO bad in terms of traffic because I only go as far down the Calder as Sydenham then turn off, and it doesn't get hectic really, until from and after the Sydenham on ramp (as far as I can recall anyway). And if I tried it once and found it was busy, I could always go the back way thereafter, which would be just an extra 10 mins or so. Not so bad after all...

I emailed Ballarat IVF today also, and asked if IVF is required, how do the payment options all work, and I am going to call MIVF accounts later and ask the same. Am hoping one or both, allow you to pay just the gap fee upfront, and bill medicare directly for their share. This would mean the difference between needing to find $3000 (which we can currently do by mid November); and $5000 which would not be possible til Jan/Feb next year.

We will try something before the years end (from Nov) - whether that is IVF or IUI is yet to be seen. Because we already have a child, our safety net for medicare is far lower, at $520 of which we already have $120 toward, and given I am still to see a GP for referrals and have these 2 specialist appointments, we are obviously going to be close to it anyway, so might as well start now. Oh correction, I think we are now on 1029 safety net coz we dont get family tax A anymore, only B. Bugger! Thats 500 less we get back! Oh well. Otherwise, costs are as I imagined, although next weeks appointment just to see the Dr is $170-. Yowsers!