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After an 8 year battle with infertility and countless struggles, our family is finally complete. This blog chronicles the journey it took for us to start and build the family we always wanted. Background on the blog (started in 2012, just days before I found out the embryo transfer for our son worked).... I decided to start a blog after realizing I have only been able to make it through my TWW's (two week waits) with the help of Google and with the openness of other women suffering from infertility sharing their own stories and giving others hope. I have time and time again found my exact symptoms on other women's blogs and felt an overwhelming sense of calmness they provided me. I thought it was time to pay it forward and hopefully provide this same thing to other women on their own journeys.

Sunday, January 3, 2016

A New Hope

Okay, so the post title was/is a Star Wars nod.... but it's also how I feel about 2016.   This year is our LAST year attempting to TTC.  Hopefully.  I hope we either end our story with another baby in our arms, or at peace that we never gave Victor a sibling.

A look up until now:

52   Eggs retrieved
32   Mature eggs
25   Fertilized eggs turned embryos
17   Made it to a transferable state
13   Have been transferred so far
7     Embryos transfers
4     Untransferred embryos
4     Pregnancies
3     Miscarriages (including 1 after a heartbeat was detected)
1     Baby - the absolute light of my life.

We made life 25 times and only have 1 baby to show for it.  Thank GOD we have him.  Don't get me wrong, I'd be nothing without him.  He's the light of my life.  I just want to give him a sibling so badly.  Especially after almost giving him a sister (who would be due in less than 2 months now if she didn't leave us on 8/18/2015 at 9.5 weeks).

I called the insurance company tomorrow to ask my list of questions.   I'll find out if I can proceed with an IVF, but more likely than not, they'll make me use the 4 embryos we have left.  To recap, we wanted to do another fresh IVF to make new embryos, and PGD those embryos as well as our 4 frozen embryos.   But there is an exclussion clause on our insurance that we can't do any egg retrievals until we use all embryos.  So, looks like we are going to try and get the insurance company to pay the $5,000 to PGD test our 4 lone embryos.  I pray 1 or 2 are normal.  I made them when I was 33 so chances are 2 are normal.  Maaaaaaaybe 3.  My heart would break if it was 1 or 0.  Anyways, the questions I'll hopefully get answers to tomorrow are:

1. Are you a senior member of RRS?      I have a lengthy history including numerous IVF cycles, and 7 embryo transfers.  I need someone who knows their stuff.   (Basically, I'm going to be a douche and ask this up front because I don't want to waste my time with someone who doesn't know the difference between IUI, IVF, ICSI, PGD, etc.)

2. What is the deductible we need to hit before we can tap into the 10k-20k family planning limit?

3. Already have been a patient of the Cleveland Clinic for 6+ years, I’d like to stay there.  Is Cleveland Clinic a COE?  (60 miles?)

4. My RE (reproductive endocrinologist) recommends doing IVF, creating embryos and testing those using PGD.   I do, however, currently have 4 UNTESTED frozen embryos.  Do those embryos exclude me from being able to do an egg retrieval because of the stated exclusion (even though I paid to get those embryos out of pocket): “Embryo or oocyte accumulation defined as fresh oocyte retrieval prior to the depletion of previously banked frozen embryos or oocytes.”  

5. Can my RE submit any documentation to allow me to proceed with IVF?

6. The next plan would be to thaw those 4 embryos and do PGD on only those four.   What does my RE need / “what forms are required” to do have PGD covered by insurance?

7. Could the PGD be covered on my husband’s insurance since the embryos are half his? (and not eat into my 20k)?

8. What does my RE need to do, what forms need to be filled out, to have IVF covered under my insurance?

9. I used to use Walgreens Specialty pharmacy for all of my specialty/fertility drugs, UHC no longer covers them in network.  Who will fill my fertility drugs now?

2 comments:

  1. I would not recommend doing PGD on frozen and thawed embryos. After my 9 week IVF loss last summer, I wanted to prevent any further miscarriages so we paid to have PGS. We had one abnormal, 3 normal. I have had 2 chemicals and a BFN with those 3 normal embryos. I think the thaw and refreeze compromised our embryos. Since your baby girl was normal, it seems your embryos are perfect. There seems to be something immune related in my opinion. We wish I had used the money we spent on PGS for Immune testing with Dr Braverman in NY instead. I will be praying for you to have your THB in 2016!

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