1.27.2014

[Insert Clever Title Here]

It is Monday. I have looked back at my blog from January 21st several times today. If you missed that blog, you can read it here Wow. I was so excited, happy, and HOPEFUL. Today those feelings feel so distant even though it was only a mere six days ago. Maybe it's the hormones? Maybe it's my desire to send my Follistim back to the clinic since it won't be put to use for a while? It just blows my mind how excited and hopeful we were last week, but here we are feeling like every ounce of our hope has been drained from our beings with each phone call from NFC.

**I'm still adjusting to the concept of talking to the nurse more than the doctor. This is totally foreign to me considering I spent 8 months under Dr. Williams' care. Dr. Williams would call me on his way home from the office sometimes just to give me a pep talk!**

It began with a call on Friday from my sweet nurse. She was playing messenger for the doctor. Our new doctor is strongly encouraging us to do a few more genetic blood tests before we start a cycle. Lets back track a little first. Apparently it is common practice for couples to undergo genetic screening prior to beginning a cycle with a fertility clinic. Correct me if I'm wrong. If you are reading this and you have no clue what a genetic screening test is, be thankful. They are stupid. I realize they offer wonderful information but to our bank account and my patience, they are just stupid. A few weeks later Trey and I received our results. I'm a carrier for Cystic Fibrosis. Trey is not. I took a few biology classes in high school. I know how to do a pedigree chart. I sketched one out in my handy dandy infertility notebook. I wasn't alarmed by the results. It was kinda nice to know so I could share it with my family, but I wasn't too alarmed. Trey wasn't a carrier. All is right in the world, right? Umm... Apparently not. A few days later the clinic called and suggested we complete genetic counseling so we can understand our results and decide if we wanted to proceed with fertility treatment. As I said before, I wasn't too alarmed. There was never a part of me that wanted to drop everything and give up on having a baby with Trey after seeing the results. So we did as we were told. We talked to the genetic counselor. She also didn't think the results were alarming. She explained the odds. She explained what Cystic Fibrosis is and how it is typically treated. She explained it all very well and answered any questions we had. We felt GREAT after speaking with the counselor! Go Team Go! About a week later the clinic called again to inform me that we needed to do some more blood work before we proceed. Fast forward to last Friday. On Friday my nurse told me they were still trying to get the pre-certs to insurance for the additional testing. I was confused. She did go ahead and tell me that the doctor is strongly encouraging us to do the further testing, but they clearly cannot force us to do the testing. She advised me that she has seen the tests run anywhere from $1,500- $3,000. She said we need to be comfortable with our decision to proceed with testing. Great. 

Today I received a call from the finance department at NFC. They told me they are sending a letter of medical necessity for the testing to our insurance. She went over our coverage and told me our out of pocket expense would be $1,870. Fabulous [insert sarcasm]. I was super excited last week to find out we could get our meds at 75% off the original price. I guess those savings on the meds can now go towards this test. Sigh. We haven't even begun a cycle yet and we are already looking at spending $2,500 on testing and meds just to get ready for a cycle! 

I have to find the humor in this. Hopefully we will still have money left after this is all over so we can actually clothe and feed our babies. 

4 comments:

  1. What kind of additional bloodworm? Let testing you to see if you are ovulating? Has ur husband done a semen analysis?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They know I'm not ovulating. We had the SA done 4 or 5 months ago. The SA was normal. The bloodwork they are wanting to do is in relation to our original genetic screening. They are wanting to check for genetic disorders that we may be carriers of. The first screening revealed that I'm a Cystic Fibrosis carrier, but it didn't reveal that my husband is a carrier for anything except for a folic acid deficiency... Which isn't a big deal. I'm not sure why exactly they want to to do further genetic testing. :-/ so frustrating. I'm ready to do some injections!

      Delete
  2. "Hopefully we will still have money left after this is all over so we can actually clothe and feed our babies."----If I look back at my journal from when I started IVF I believe I wrote this exact same sentence! It is so expensive and just like house repairs, expenses you didn't see coming or knew you had will just pop up out of nowhere! I'm praying for you girl!!

    waitingforbabybird.com

    ReplyDelete