IVF #4 Update

Life has been crazy around here since this cycle started. The day before CD 1, I had to attend to a family emergency on my husband’s side of the family. Let’s just say I spent several hours frantically helping pack up a household with my one year old nephew strapped to my chest. Not a good situation, but things are moving in the right direction. Then my husband insisted on driving to see his family for a couple of days after the family emergency. We left to visit after my CD 2 monitoring appointment. Then we got back the day before all of my family descended on our home. I spent the week entertaining and trying to keep our home clean. Hopped up hormones and the need to keep my home a clean oasis clashed this week. I’m proud to say I only cried into my pillow twice. Thankfully everyone left this morning. I don’t know if I could have handled much more family time.

Today I had my second monitoring appointment. CD 9 today. On CD 2 I had 17 antral follicles, but four of them were larger than 8mm. Dr. Y changed my protocol a bit this time. I am on half the dose of clomid – 25mg and so far I have not been instructed to do any booster shots. Today’s ultrasound was hard to tell for sure, but I think I have at least 2-3 large follicles with another 2-3 not far behind and then some smaller ones. I don’t think the tech I had today was very good. I’ve had enough ultrasounds done and it didn’t seem like she was measuring very accurately. We shall see. I’ll get the final report from the clinic later today. Last cycle I had more follicles growing at this point. I don’t think we will retrieve as many eggs, but it’s all about quality. I would think the retrieval will be Friday, but with the size of the larger follicles, I almost wonder if I won’t trigger tonight. I am scheduled to fly out to California tomorrow.

It’s looking like we may not end up using our insurance much. I feel that typically I am reasonable and level headed, but I lost it when talking to the insurance company today. I absolutely hate losing my cool like that. I need them to approve IVF before I have the retrieval this week. They received the request from the clinic over a week ago. The end of last week they sent out a notice by SNAIL MAIL stating the clinic needed to submit more documentation. Yea. My clinic hasn’t even received the letter yet. Specifically they need 2 years of clinical documentation to support IVF. Well, to provide that much, we have to go back to my previous clinics. I’ve been making phone calls and scrambling to get this all to go through in time. I no longer have any faith insurance is going to get their act together. And it is near impossible to get a straight answer from them. Basically every conversation is me asking them questions, them putting me on hold for 10 minutes while they ‘go ask someone else’, then getting back to me without answering my questions in the first place. I’ve had it. We’re just going to finish paying for the package pricing for the three cycles and just submit monitoring and pharmacy fees to insurance. It’s not worth delaying IVF to jump through all of their ridiculous hoops.

I’ve done all I can at this point. It’s time for me to sit back and relax and just let all the frustration go. We never thought we would have insurance coverage so even though it will be frustrating to not be able to use it, it will be ok. I have to get my suitcase packed. Sunshine and beaches, here I come!