[carina]

Disney,
I stopped taking my meds on Fri the 28th & AF arrived Tues. 10/2 .... I know what you mean about closure, but I was really depressed when AF came. I am a co-leader of the national holistic mom's network & that Tues was our monthly meeting & one of the other co-leaders even said to me 'I feel bad, you look really sad' .... She knows how it is cause she got preg w/her 1st child via 1st IVF cycle, then her 2nd child came along naturally. Lucky lady, I know!

Hang in there

[carina]

Pixxi,
Yeh you'll find out on Thur how many lil ones you got in there. I will personally be shocked if you are not preggo w/twins. With a 1st beta above 3000! Holy S! My 1st beta when I was preggo w/ 1 babe was 176....

[carina]

Gina,
I was just reading your history again & noticed that you orginally had 31 embies fertilized ... do you have more frozen?

[CaribbeanQueen]

It's interesting to read about the insurance coverage that you ladies have.

We were never candidates for IUI, so we went straight to IVF. Our insurance paid for 3 cycles (but no cryo storage). When we started the process for the FET over the summer, the financial coordinator at our RE's office told us that part of the protocol would be covered since we had a live birth on our 3rd cycle. We also found out that we would have two additional IVF cycles paid for if we chose to use them (who knew?). I think that for the FET, we're paying for the thaw and anything associated with it. It was a pleasant surprise since we had planned to pay for it out of pocket.

If it hadn't worked, we had tossed around the idea of doing a fresh cycle again (which would've involved another procedure for him on ER day as well). Because of his work schedule, we wouldn't have been able to try until the spring. I was reluctant because I wasn't sure how I'd take going through all that and to not get pregnant. We've had our adoption homestudy approved since 2004, and we were ready to move full speed ahead with our plans on that front.

I hear you, Gina, on not wanting to try during the school year. I remember my first go-around--Nov. 2003. I was telling my supervisor, "I have a female issue and need to be out sometime next week. I'm just not sure when." I am sure that some people figured out that we were doing fertility stuff, but I didn't want everyone to know.

For those of you who paid for the FET, how much did it cost? Just curious.

Our embryo storage was $360/year for the first 3 years. For our older embryo, we paid $600 for storage this past year. If we had kept it frozen for another year, it would've cost $1200. Our clinic only stores embryos for 5 years. After that, you have to transfer them to another facility or "dispose" of them.

Pixxi--good luck with your u/s. I think that we all believe there's more than one Little Pumpkin in there!

[mom2davis]

Pixxi-I'm with everybody, I think you have 2 on board!

Queen- My cost for FET was $2,300 plus meds which came to about $3,000 that we spent. My insurance only covers diagnosis of infertility and treatment of the underlying cause. The only treatment I know for PCOS would be ovluating induced drugs, but they won't go for it.

Carina- We have a football team and more frozen. I'm waiting actually for the embryologist to give me a count, I think it's around 15 blast.

My observation went great so I'm done with drama for now. Ohh yeah- you'll never guess what my MIL said to me- She was sweet and said sorry and then "ohh, and I really wanted another grandbaby" Ughh- I know she didn't mean it how it came out, but gee what more can I do. Next time I'll have her foot the bill!

[PixxiDusst]

I'm really worried right now. Two days ago (in the afternoon) I noticed a very light brownish discharge. Yesterday afternoon (around the same time) I noticed a very light pink discharge. Today (again, in the afternoon) I just noticed a pink/red discharge (like the beginning of a period).

Even though I'm going in tomorrow for my ultrasound, I called and spoke to the nurse and she made me feel better...she said it's normal and it's probably from the progesterone vaginal suppositories. That actually makes sense b/c the spotting seems to be happening about 10 hours after I insert one. I hope that's all it is! Guess I'll find out for sure tomorrow. My appt. is at 11:15 am ET. Once I get back to work, I'll post the results and let y'all know if you were right about it being twins .

Sending lots of to everyone!

[carina]

CQ ~
What state do you live in? I was 99% sure that I had a lifetime limit of 4 retreivals, but since we also had a live birth on our 2nd cycle I just called my insurance to double check - yep I was right. We only have 2 retrievals left - the thought of that makes me so nervous! I do still have those unlimited IUI's to depend on - lets hope it works

Our insurance covered most of the drugs - we paid around 350, office visits (w/co-pay of 40) & transfer associated with FET. We we responsible for freezing them @1K, 2 years of storage @500yr (our RE locks in your storage fee, so it never goes up. However thier fees have doubled since), & 1750 to thaw them out. All in all I think it cost us around 5K.

Gina ~
I know it costs a small fortune & is allot to deal with, but its great that you have so many snowbabies left!

Pixxi ~
That is scary. No one wants to see blood when there preggo. I'm sure its ok though. That certainly is a side effect of proj.. Good luck with your u/s today.

[CaribbeanQueen]

Carina--we are in Maryland, though I am not sure if all insurance providers offer additional coverage after a live birth. We have Blue Cross/Blue Shield. I hear ya on trying the IUIs...

Gina--I can't believe that your MIL said that... Ugh. Sometimes it's best if people shut up or just say, "I'm sorry." That's why it's nice to have this forum. Everyone knows exactly what you're going through.

This go-around, we only told my MIL. She was here taking care of our DD while we had the ET and while I was on bed rest. I didn't want a bizillion people knowing what was going on, then to have to tell people that it didn't work. I am sure that she would've been great if it hadn't worked out.

I am still a little bit nervous. I do need the u/s to confirm that everything is okay. With just numbers to go on, it's a little hard to believe that I am really p/g.

Pixxi--we'll be awaiting your u/s results. My friend who also did IVF had the same issue with spotting as you did. She was around 10 weeks when it happened. Everything was fine with her... Some women do get spotting or even menstrual-type flow. I am sure that it's unnerving...

[PixxiDusst]

So I had my ultrasound and all of you were right...it's twins!! I'm still in shock. He was able to see the heartbeat in Twin A, but not Twin B. He said it was still early though. I go back next Thursday for another ultrasound. He also said not to worry about the spotting, that it's completely normal (whew).

Thanks to everyone for your positive thoughts!

[carina]

Pixxi,
Congrats on the twins! What an amazing gift after all that you've been through! Wonderful!

[CaribbeanQueen]

I second Carina! What great news! Please keep us posted on u/s #2!

[Disneybaby05]

Pixxi- Congrats!!! Just like we suspected! What a double blessing!

CQ- when is your u/s? I remember being so much more at ease after finally "seeing" it to believe it.

I really am not sure what we paid out of pocket for this FET. One thing about NJ is that we have great coverage for IF treatments/procedures. I do know that we did have to pay a storage fee of $750/yr. out of pocket. Our meds were covered, thank goodness, and there were no co-pays for any office visits.

Gina-I'm glad your observation went well. I saw a whole bunch of teachers that I haven't seen in awhile at a workshop a few days after my whole ordeal and of course they said, "so, when is # 2 coming along?" I love how people make it their business! I felt like saying I'm in the process of miscarrying #2, just to put them in their places!

Well, I'm STILL awaiting ....this is getting really frustrating. My body must still be coming off all of the hormones because I'm constantly having hot flashes, feel really sick to my stomach a lot, and my BBs are still very sore. If I didn't know better, I'd think I was PG!

[rjbishop]

It's so nice to hear about so many successfull FET....I just got the bad news yesterday that my first IVF cycle did not work out the way I had planned....no pregnancy =( I had 4 blastocyst embies frozen...have a flup appt with the DR on 11/08 (he's on vacation....can you imagine the NERVE...I want to talk to him NOW hahahaha) to see whether or not we can move forward with the FET.....I got an email estimating the cost to be $3600 plus medications....it sounds alot better than the $10,400 I shelled out for my IFV thought.....All of the happy stories are helping me get my composure back.....thanks ladies!~

[mom2davis]

Well first I must say how much I hate insurance. My new plan started Oct. 1 so I called to see if anything changed. Of course it hasn't! In plain english they will help diagnosis but will not help you conceive. People have asked- are you going to do it again? I want to say hand over 3 grand please and I'm be happy to. My DH doesn't think much of it, but I'm so scared of doing it again and it not working. SPending $3000 and it didn't work is one thing and spending $6000 and not getting PG seems just so bad. I'm just kind of confused about what I want to do. I'm not getting any younger. I do want a new house, but if we stayed here then we'd have more money to keep trying. I didn't want to fall into the infertility and getting Pg is all I think about and I am. UGHH

Pixxi- We told you: congrats. What a blessing!

Disney- AF is leaving today so she's coming. My aunt called me and said how did you get out of b-day dinner with Grandma- I need to know how you pulled that off. I"m thinking no you don't need to know, It wasn't fun.

[carina]

Disney,
I am dying to know what insurance you have & what Dr you are using because we are in NJ too & this FET business cost us 5000 out of pocket because our insurance/nj family building act does not cover cyropreservation. I am so very interested because I am thinking that if I go through IVF again I will not freeze because #1 it didn't work for me this time & #2 I can't keep on spending like this. I have baby #1's private education & we too would like to upgrade our house one day. So please share. I had to pay a 40 copay every time I walked into RE's office, which I have always thought was kind of questionable because most of the time it was just for blood work & I don't even see the Dr., yet my insurance is billed as an office visit? If I went to a lab there would be no copay...but since the lab is in their office?

Gina,
I know the money thing hits below the belt! My DH is like yours. He just keeps on saying its just money we'll make more. But I am a massage therapist & work outside of the home only 6 hours a week, so the 5000 that we spent for this FET was about a whole years salary for me! We are very lucky that DH has a good job which has allowed me to stay home to raise our DD, but we are not rich, so I have a habit of thinking of all the things we could have done with 5000, like an entire years tution for DD preschool next year, a trip to Europe, whatever. I feel like I threw 5000 in the fireplace. Oh, but you know whats great - if we had gotten pregnant 5000 would be a drop in the bucket! And thats how come I know that no matter how I feel or what I say I'd spend every last dollar in savings to fund this baby project!