Making Some Progress

Today I received two packages from Dr. Hopeful's clinic in the mail.  The first was from Melissa, the financial contact.  Included in the packet were some brochures on how to finance the IVF, payment information, comparison between paying by the cycle vs. the AttainIVF (shared risk) program, estimate of charges, etc.  Boring but important stuff.  I can't believe we have to put down a prepayment of almost $10K by the middle of next month!

The second package was from a nurse, which included an IVF handbook, letter with list of testing required and estimated dates, consent forms for IVF and cryopreservation of embryos, a list of medications that I will be taking, and a prescription for my BCPs.  It's been years since I've been on any kind of birth control.  Hmm..... I have to take BCPs, which are meant to prevent pregnancies, to help me get pregnant.  Feels weird.....

I'm excited though, I found out I 'm getting Folli.stim, Viv.elle and Endome.trin free from the clinic!  I'm not sure how much this is going to save me yet, but either way, I'm pretty happy.  Anything free is super at this point!

Next step, research the cheapest place to get my meds.  Any suggestions?  I heard Freedom is the cheapest?

It feels good to finally be making some progress.

Countdown to RE Appointment

It is almost exactly one month to our next appointment with the RE on January 13th.  The last time we were at the clinic was February 2008.  We were supposed to have a conference with our RE in April 2008, but we cancelled our appointment.  We knew that the next step would be to pursue IVF and at that point, DH was not ready for that.  So we decided to take some time off from fertility treatments.  Well it will be almost 2 years by the time we go back in January.  How time flies!

I have not had much to update about our TTC efforts since I started the blog last month, but infertililty has always been on my mind.  For now, I am trying to prep myself both mentally and emotionally for the first appointment.  A few big things:

1. Biggest concern:  Cost of IVF!
2. Biggest question: Should we do the Shared Risk program if we qualify?  Will we qualify?  For those not familiar with the Shared Risk program, it is like an "insurance".  For our clinic, you pay a set price of about $24K for up to 3 fresh cycles of IVF, and 3 frozen embryo transfers.  If you don't bring home a baby after that, you can get refunded up to 70% of the cost back.  However this does  not include the cost of fertility meds that can cost $3K - $5K per cycle.  But if you get pregnant, and bring home a baby on the first try, you pay the full amount (I'll probably blog about this more in a different post).
3. Biggest fear:  Intramuscular shots!  I have no issues doing sub-Q shots, but I am terrified of having to do IM shots.  Not sure if I can do it myself, or if I will need DH to do those!
4. Biggest to do list: Get a list of questions to ask the RE at the appointment.

So if you have gone through IVF, what are your opinions on the above?