Next steps

RE meeting actually went well. I wouldn’t say I’m perfectly calm about all this but I have a better measure of the process and what to expect and actually feel a bit better about everything. One freeing realization is that I actually don’t have many decisions at this stage. Another is realizing that it really isn’t that long a process. Because I was on birth control, it’s really just a 4 week cycle. So it’s 2 weeks of icky shots, 1 shitty day of the egg retrieval, a couple of recovery days and then it’s pretty easy. Ok, so I’d still have the PIO shots but I feel like at that point, what’s one more injection. And the transfer itself feels like it’ll be a trivial process.

So where are we – well, tubes are out, ovaries are enh but so far, nothing wrong (that we know of) with the uterus or eggs (and really praying it stays that way). One possibility for the tubes being wonky that I have an undiagnosed case of endometriosis but honestly, the solution for that anyways is IVF so on some level, I don’t care.

Also, hah, I think I have a reputation as person who asks a lot. I printed out all our questions, sorted by topic with one topic per page so there was space for the answers. RE saw page 1 and was like “oh, I’m surprised that’s all you have to ask.”

To my consternation, we’re waiting a few weeks to start. Too many new things and as much as I want to start NOW, the doctor wants to wait for a less stressful time (post-starting new job and post-move) so we’ll start at the end of August. It’s a little frustrating but on the other hand, I don’t want to waste a cycle just because I’m stressed. On the plus side, this give a little time to work out the logistics and the financials. And a few more weeks to enjoy coffee and wine. 🙂

Financials – it’s mostly covered. Medical stuff is fully covered and I think with this, we’ll hit our out of pocket max and be done with that. Prescriptions are.. sorta? I haven’t been able to get a read on how much we’ll owe but presumably not a huge amount since technically, IVF is covered? Sperm freezing isn’t (to be used as a backup). That kinda makes sense. Embryo freezing isn’t either (which makes no sense – after all, it cuts down on their costs if I use frozen embryos rather than restart a whole cycle).

The financials are worrying me primarily because we had a bunch of hits this month between car expenses/new car, additional fees for the HSG, moving, etc. Plus, I’m not getting paid for the month. But hopefully these will even off after August. Sometimes, I really feel the hit of both hubby and myself being in academia.