Happy Friday. I hope everyone enjoyed their Veteran's Day holiday. We spent our Veteran's Day morning at the REACH Clinic where we spoke with our doctor about our plan of action. He informed us that my bloodwork came back normal, I just seem to have hyperactive ovaries, a luteal phase defect, and NO PCOS!!
He recommended that if we wanted to take the most basic route toward achieving a pregnancy, we could do ovulation induction aka Clomid or similar drugs. Or, we could take the fast track toward pregnancy, we could do IVF (70-75% of pregnancy for a female like me). My eyes were immediately overtaken by tears bc we strongly feel that we are spinning our wheels on Clomid. We informed the doctor that the Clomid route was not enough, and we were taking Clomid before we came to the clinic. He then suggested IVF, which has great chances of achieving a pregnancy, but it also comes with a price tag, for us, of $11k. OUCH!
Charlie asked about IUI. The doctor told him, in most of his cases, he uses IUI only when the male has a bolder line "swimmer" analysis. Charlie does not seem to have any problems in this area, therefore, it would only increase our normal chance of pregnancy from 20% to 25%. He stated that he would do IUI for us, but he wanted us to take time to decide. Apparently this doctor does not know who he is talking to...bc we have wanted to pursue this route for quite some time. I explained to the doctor that I would LOVE to have all the stress of conceiving taken away from us and that I would give almost anything to be able to spend time with Charlie without the constant thought of baby baby baby. This would allow us to get back to being just US....the way it should be.
Sooo, with that said, we are going to pursue IUI in December, and we could not be more excited. We are going to go through 4 cycles and see what happens; if not, IVF here come The Cagle's. On day 1 of my next cycle, I am supposed to call the clinic and set up a day 3 appointment for bloodwork and an ultrasound. Please continue to pray for us on our journey, and I will keep you updated.
Mary,
ReplyDeleteI am so HAPPY that you have a plan! Doesn't it feel wonderful to walk away with a course of action :)
I'm so happy you are now with an RE, as they have one agenda, to give you the miracle that you desire and they understand the urgency.
As for your decision to proceed with the IUI, I think that is a great decision. My husband and I were presented with both IUI and IVF options. Our RE suggested we give IUI a try for 3 cycles (clomid + ovidrel trigger) and if no results then we move on to IVF. Which by the way, the cost was $10,198.00 plus meds. However, he left the decision up to us. We opted to start with IUI.
I had reservations as to whether or not it would work, but as you know it did. My encouragement to you is this:
1) IUI is painless and non invasive
2) It lessens all the stress of using OPK's and baby dancing "hoping" to hit the right window
3) Everything is perfectly timed, no guess work :)
Go into this with the attitude that you have wonderful options. I feel certain that your and Charlie's miracle is on the horizon and I will be praying for you always. If you ever have questions don't hesitate to ask...I'm an open book :)
So excited for you!!!! Loads of December baby dust!