Our First IUI

Last Friday at the doctor, my follicles weren't mature yet, so I had to continue taking the Follistim injections on Friday night and Saturday morning, and then Saturday night I had to get my HCG trigger shot to make me ovulate.  Wednesday and Thursday night when I had to start taking my Follistim injections in the thigh with the bigger needles instead of my stomach with the injection pen, I wasn't sure about doing it and went to my friend Heather's house and her sister, and my friend, Brandi came over and gave them to me.  Friday night I braved up and did it myself.  I can definitely say I prefer Nurse Brandi doing them.  HAHA!  After I filled the syringe and put the needle on, I turned it upside down and lost almost all the medicine and had to start over.  Thank goodness I bought the extra vial, just in case I had anymore mishaps! I also didn't stick myself hard enough in the thigh, so I had to do it again.  Yikes!  Saturday afternoon's injection went alot better!  Saturday evening I did have to go to Heather's and have Brandi come over and give me my trigger shot.  It had to go in my hip so I wasn't sure about doing that one myself.  

This morning Shawn and I had our doctor appointment for our very first, and hopefully only, IUI.  Once again another successful doctor appointment!  While I was excited to do this IUI, my biggest fear going into this appointment was whether or not they would be able to cath me to do the insemination.  We went to see Dr. Gentry almost two and a half years ago to do artificial insemination and at that time, Dr. G wanted to do a hysterosalpingogram on me to make sure my tubes weren't blocked.  At that procedure, because of the fibroid's and my tilted uterus, he wasn't able to cath me then and said that since he couldn't cath me then, he wouldn't be able to cath me to do the insemination.  Thus began the journey of "the surgery from h3ll" and another fibroid surgery.  

We had to be at the doctor's office at 8:30 this morning.  When we got there, there was three other couples in there, so needless to say, I knew we wouldn't get called back right away.  When we did get called back, we had to sign a consent form allowing them to inject Shawn's semen into me.  We were given a number that we needed to use to verify everything when the actual procedure took place.  Shawn went and collected his specimen, and then we left while they washed it and had to come back in an hour.  We went and had breakfast at Hardee's and then drove around the Evansville State Hospital grounds.

Once back at the doctor's office, there was more waiting in the lobby and then we were called back for the insemination.  You can't tell in the picture, but I have a serious nervous belly!  

The nurses came in and Shawn had to verify his number against a dozen different papers, tubes, etc.  The insemination itself was went quick and smooth.  The worst part was the nurses trying to put the speculum in.  She tried the longer metal one first just because my uterus is tilted and my cervix hard to get too.  When that didn't work, she used the shorter plastic one and that worked great.  She was able to get the cath in really quick and easy, so that was awesome in my book.  She injected the semen and that was it.  Quick and easy.  After the insemination, I had to lay with my hips tilted for 20 minutes and then Shawn and I were free to go. 

My view for the next 20 minutes!  HAHA!

 I did have some mild cramping and have had some cramping and aches in my abdomen most of the day.  I know it's because of the insemination and ovulating.  We got our homework instructions, Thursday I start using the Progesterone inserts, and then it's just a waiting game.

Insurance has paid for the ultrasounds and blood tests for the IUI, but not the actual IUI itself.  I learned at the check out that if we paid cash, it would be $40 cheaper than paying with a debit card, so I had to run down to the ATM and get some greenbacks!

I can't say enough how much we appreciate everyone's prayers, thoughts, phone calls, and texts during this trying time for us. The last 7 years of TTC has definitely taken a toll on the both of us, both mentally, physically, and financially.  I'm so thankful that God has provided for us, he's a miracle working God!

2nd Follicle U/S = Blessings!

Today's doctor appointment went SO.MUCH.BETTER than I could of ever dreamed off!!  So many times we've left that office with such disappointment!  But today, oh, be still my heart!

Remember back to Wednesday this week at my follicle u/s appointment, I had one 10mm follicle (it needed to be about 18mm in order to trigger) and my estrogen blood draw level was 111 (for every 100 you have one mature follicle).  I had to take two more days of Follistim injections (plus order another 300 unit vial in case I needed some more tonight....more on that later!), and I started taking them in my thigh instead of my stomach. By injecting them in the thigh muscle, the body absorbs it better the nurse told me.  THANKS SO MUCH to my friend Brandi who is a nurse and has been giving me those injections, and to my friend Heather for letting me use her house as a meeting point and not charging me a facility charge!  HAHA!!  I'm fine with using the small needle for the stomach, but that bigger needle in the thigh seriously has me concerned.

Fast forward to this mornings follicle u/s appointment.  Today I had THREE follicles!!  THREE!  Are you kidding me? I've never had THREE.  I've been lucky to have one!!  Their sizes were 10mm, 12mm, & 14mm.  The nurse said I was really responding to the medicine in the thigh!  Since they aren't mature just yet (they grow about 2mm a day), I have to take another Follistim injection tonight in my thigh and again tomorrow morning in the thigh (I *might* try to attempt these myself).  Tomorrow night between 8:30 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. I will have to get my trigger shot in my hip (I'll ovulate 24-36 hours after getting it, which is why it has to be administered at a specific time).  The nurse already has that medicine mixed up for me.  I'm definitely going to have to call on a nurse friend for that one though.  Shawn said he could do them.  I said no way Jose!  We also have our "homework" plan too!  Monday morning we go in at 8:30 a.m. to begin the actual artificial insemination (IUI) process.  PRAY PEOPLE PRAY!!

I also left with a prescription for Progesterone that I'll have to use for 2 weeks after the insemination so I've been calling insurance and pharmacies to see if my insurance covers it and and where to get it.  And three pharmacies later, I found one that has a supply of them so after work I'll go get that prescription filled.

Remember how I mentioned earlier I needed to order another vial of the Follistim medicine, just in case I needed it for another day or two.  I thought for sure I had some leftover, or even a new vial of it, at home in the cabinet from 2 years ago when we were doing the injections, but neither Shawn nor I could find it.  The drug company called on Wednesday to verify the order and collect payment...almost $300.  Well that night I was at home and I had a light bulb go off....why don't you look in the actual injection pen that you used for the injections.  Sure enough, there it was, and it had about 300 units of medicine in it still!  And guess what....it expires this month so it is STILL good!  I thought, oh Shawn is going to kill me!!  He didn't thankfully!  HAHA!!  I called the drug company first thing yesterday morning to see if I could refuse the package and the unopened package of medicine be returned to them and get a refund for the $300, but she said it couldn't since it has to be refrigerated.  I reminded her that it actually doesn't need to be refrigerated, and that they say that and put it on ice so that it isn't getting contaminated sitting in a hot warehouse or a hot delivery truck.  She said they still couldn't accept it back.  Well I tried.  So I'll use the medicine that expires this month first, and then use the new vial if needed.

Follicle u/s = good news & bad news

Shawn and I headed to Dr. Gentry's office for my follicle u/s this morning.  My appointment was at 8:30 a.m. I had my estrogen (E2) blood draw first and then the nurse called me back for my u/s.  Luckily for me there was only one nurse working on me, unlike last time when I had a nurse using the "Bob Barker's microphone from the Price is Right" digging in me to try and see my ovaries and another nurse standing over me pressing on my ovaries!

I'm going to be honest in saying that I went into the appointment already discouraged, defeated, and not feeling hopeful.  Probably comes from all the times when it's been like that.  It's hard to be excited for something that, in the past, has always been disappointment!  I did get a little bit of good news though.  I had one follicle that they could see.  Granted it wasn't mature enough yet, but it was there.  It was 10mm in size and the Dr. wants it to be at least around 18mm in size for it to be mature enough for me to get my trigger shot.  The nurse said she's going to get the results of my E2 blood draw and then talk to Dr. G to see what he recommends.  Chances are though that I'll continue taking the Follistim injections for a couple more nights and then go back into the office for another follicle u/s to see how much the follicle has grown.  When I ordered my medicine last time, I ordered it in three 300 unit vials so that I would have a little extra medicine in each vial versus just a little extra in one 900 unit vial.  That extra should buy me two more days at least.  And then they'll probably have to call me in a refill for another 300 unit vial.

I wrote the above paragraphs this morning.

I just got a call from Dr. G's office.  My estrogen level was 111, which was higher than the nurse expected it to be with the size of the follicle.  Normal is about 100 for each mature follicle.  Dr. G wants me to take another 150 units tonight and tomorrow night and inject them into my thigh.  Then we will go back on Friday for a repeat performance of today's activities.  I also had to order another 300 unit vial of Follistim just in case I needed to take more medicine on Friday and over the weekend.

Metro called shortly after I got off the phone with the nurse to confirm my order and get payment and my meds should be here tomorrow.

Fingers crossed!  Prayers appreciated!  Love to all!

Lookie what I got...

My fertility package arrived Thursday of last week!  All of the contents were in tact.  I also picked up the Femara pills from the pharmacy.  I started the pills Tuesday night and take 2 a day for 5 days, and the Follistim injections tonight by injecting 150 units once a night for 6 nights.  Wednesday we go in for the bloodwork and a follicle ultrasound.  If I have enough mature follicles, I'll get my trigger shot to make me ovulate and then Shawn and I will go back on Friday to get our first IUI.  If I don't have enough mature follicles, then it's all wasted time and money and I'll come home and have a pity party for myself.  I'm trying to be positive and excited, but after 7 years of trying and having disappointment each month and each time we try something, it's hard to be happy and have a smile.

I appreciate all of your prayers, thoughts, and kind words from my last post.  I truly appreciate them!  

Time to Hop Back on the Emotional Roller Coaster

Why is my body designed the way it is?  Why can I not pop babies out left and right like everyone else in my family can?  Why can insurance companies not be simple to deal with?  Why do I feel like I am being punished by God for something?  Why?  Why?  Why?

Welcome to my pity party.

I haven't blogged about our journey of TTC in quite some time.  I've been jotting down little notes on our TTC page, but not actually devoted a whole entry to it.

Rewind back to February 2012 when Shawn and I went to see Dr. Gentry after a 2 year hiatus of using fertility medicines and TTC on our own.  It still wasn't working and we wanted to try using the fertility medicine again and to try artificial insemination (IUI).  However, because of the extra large fibroid that didn't get removed from my first surgery, in October 2012 I ended up having to have an artery embolization (aka the surgery from h3LL), and then again in November 2013 I had to have another surgery, a laparodomy myomectomy, like I did in 2008.

Fast forward to 2014, since my surgery last year, my blood work and levels appear to be fine, however now Shawn is having problems with his little fellas. Shawn had to start taking Clomid in February and has been daily since then.  His numbers have raised a little bit according to the blood tests (that's awhole different situation!).  He was only supposed to take it for 2-3 months, but it's been 5 months and he's still taking them.  Early this month Shawn and I were talking and I told him that I was done with TTC and taking fertility medicine and going to doctors.  I was spent with everything and wore out from dissappointment.  He wanted us to try the IUI at least one time since that's what we went in to do in 2012.  I agreed to it.  

We met with Dr. Gentry on July 9 to discuss moving forward with the IUI that we wanted to do in 2012.  Shawn has to continue taking the Clomid pills, and I was to call back when I started my period.  The nurse gave me the name of the medicines and dosages that I would be taking so that I could call and get prices and get enrolled in some discount programs to help offset the cost of the medicines, and then the name of a company that would call my insurance and draft a letter to the doctor office so they would know my coverage for all of infertility treatments.  Because my deductible hasn't been met yet, and because my insurance only pays for 50% of the medicine once the deductible has been met, we are considered self-pay and are paying for the total cost of the medicine.  I spent a couple different days making phones calls, writing notes, filling out and faxing forms, and making more phone calls until I had everything figured out and knew what the costs of everything was going to be.

On Sunday, July 27, I started my period and Monday morning I called Dr. Gentry's nurse to let them know that I had started and we wanted to start our IUI.  She called back and made an appointment for me for Tuesday morning for a baseline u/s.  I went in to today's appointment confident in what our plan was.  The baseline u/s was successful, despite the fact that it felt like they had crammed Bob Barker's microphone from the Price is Right in my cooter and was checking my heart instead of my ovaries!  All the while another nurse was standing on top of me pressing on my ovaries!

After the u/s, when I went in the hall to talk to the nurses to get our "plan" they changed the type of medicine I was supposed to take and which pharmacy I needed to go to and rambled on about insurance and I have to use this, and here's a discount coupon card for co-pays, and here's a prescription for this, and here's what you owe today, and Kristi will make your other appointments, etc.  I was so confused and wasn't prepared to research everything again especially since I need to start the medicine in the next day or two.  

I knew my insurance covered all of my visits for ultrasounds and blood work, just not the actual IUI, IVF, etc.  At the checkout window Kristi told me I needed to pay for today's appointment because I didn't have insurance coverage for infertility.  Again, I was confused cause I've had insurance in the past and we've got nothing at work about insurance changes.  The doctor's office always ran it through insurance and then billed us for the rest.  I wasn't prepared to pay or for that and got a little loud and rude with Kristi, who in turn gave it back to me.  Hee (I can laugh about this now, we've got it all worked out!).  Kristi said she would call my insurance to double check and would call me back.  She also gave me my appointments for the follicle ultra sound and the actual IUI.

I left the office mad and aggravated!  I didn't even want to go through all of this again!  I didn't want to have to research everything again or make numerous phone calls to figure everything out.  I just sat in the car and cried.  My friend Heather called me on my way to work to talk about it so that helped let me vent.  Thanks for being a great friend Heather! 

I was able to call the fertility drug company to get the prices of the medicines, get the discount coupon card for co-pays activated, and vent to a couple more friends who asked me how my appointment went.  The mail order fertility pharmacy called me to get my insurance information and then was going to call me back to place my order.  I missed their call back cause I was out doing deliveries so I had to call them back.  She processed my order, took my payment of $847, and then emailed me a form to fill out for yet another discount program.  I filled out the forms and scanned and emailed them to that company.  Then I went back to my inbox in my email and had an email from my bank that said "suspicious activity detected" and that "Unusual spending has been identified on your account. For your security, card x3326 has been blocked and can no longer be used."  Well just freaking great!  So I had to call the bank, be transferred to and explain the situation 3 different times until I finally got to someone who could remove the block so that I could use my debit card at the pharmacy to buy more medicine that I have to start tonight.  Ugh!

Tomorrow I'll be stalking the sound of the elevator dinging so I can see if the Fed Ex guy brings my package.  It's supposed to arrive between 8 and noon.  Tonight I stopped at the pharmacy and got my Femara pills which I have to take twice a day for the next 5 days.  Thursday I start the Follistim injections.  

Until next time...

TTC: It's a Go!

I had an appointment at Dr. Gentry's office on Friday at 8:30 a.m. and by 9:45 a.m., we were actually hearing them call our name. Sometimes, there is nothing fast about that place. Although Dr. Gentry and the girls there are great, they are usually overbooked and you always have to wait. Once we were back in the room, the nurse did a baseline u/s to make sure I didn't have cycts or polyps which were causing me to not get pregnant, which I didn't. So that meant everything was good for me to get started on my fertility medicines. The nurse gave me a calendar plan, my prescription for Femara and told me that the drug company would call me to get my Follistim injection order, and showed me how to give myself injections. Bleh! I also got a new prescription for prenatals cause the ones I have are old and I really need to start taking them again. The drug company called me later that day to get my order. I had my credit card out handy to pay the bill. I knew the injections were going to cost anywhere from $600 - $900 so I was ready to hear the cost and pay the price. I couldn't believe it when she told me that all I had to pay was my $20 co-pay. I asked her if she was sure that's all it was? She said that's all your insurance said you had to pay. I was so excited I was doing a happy dance! Of course, I needed the injections by Tuesday so I choose to pay $20 for them to be overnighted, so the total cost was $40. Saturday morning around 10:30 a.m. the FedEx man showed up with my box. I was so excited. My sister is going to give me the injections. I really thought I was fine with giving them to myself, until I saw the size of the needle at the doctor's office. Like I said earlier, bleh! Shawn could give them to me, but he gets home too late at night and I honestly don't think he could do it either. But I trust Tootie to do it, plus I'll get to see my little nephew for the next 6 nights. I started the Femara pills on Sunday. I have to take two twice a day for 5 days and then I start my injections on Tuesday night and get a 100cc unit shot each night for 6 nights. She said it's better to take the injections at night that way I am crabby while I sleep instead of during the day. Everyone should thank me for that. LOL! Then on August 31, I go back to Dr. Gentry's office for another follicle u/s. If there are any mature eggs that are 17.5 mm or bigger, then I'll get a trigger shot of HCG to make me ovulate and then we get "groovy". LOL. I laugh at that word cause a friend on Facebook asked me when our "groovy days" were so she could concentrate on prayer on those days in particular. LOL!! So if I get the trigger shot on the 31st, then our groovy days are that night and every other night for the next week. That seems like a lot of groovy to me! Please pray that everything works the way it should work with this first round of medicines.

TTC: No Follicles :(

I had a doctor appointment on Monday, May 4 to go in for a follicle ultrasound to see how many, if any, follicles I produced from taking the Clomid. Before the u/s, I told the nurse that for the last few days, I've had some light cramping/movement around my right ovary area and she said that it sounded like the medicine must be working and that my eggs were probably having a party. Then she proceeded with the u/s and there was nothing there. No follicles, no eggs, no nothing. I was heart-broken and immediately started crying. After I got dressed and dried up the tears somewhat, Shawn and I went out to the nurses station and she said that she would need to talk to Dr. Gentry, but that he will probably want to start me on the Femara Pills/Follistim Injections Therapy, which is a combination of pills and injections to stimulate my ovaries to make eggs. Before I start the medicines, I'll go in for a baseline u/s while my ovaries are at rest. The nurse will then instruct me on the dosage of medicine and how to take them and how to give myself the injections. After so many days of taking the medicines, they will do another follicle u/s and an estrogen blood draw to check my response. The goal is to have 2-3 eggs mature. Of course this will raise my chance of having multiples, but I am completely OK with this. When you want children and have trouble having them, I think the more you can have at one time, the better, because you are going to love those children so much more. At least I know I will.

So she gives me the names of the medicine and some mail order drug companies to call to get prices since most insurance companies don't pay for anything related to fertility. At least mine doesn't, or so I thought it didn't. I called two different companies - Freedom Fertility Pharmacies (FFP) and Metro Drugs (MD). FFP quoted me a price of $13.63 per pill for the Femara pills and $807.20 for a 600 unit of the Follistim injections. MD couldn't quote me a per pill price, but it was $410.89 for 30 pills and $503. 20 for a 600 unit of the Follistim injections. Naturally I plan on going with the cheaper company. However I started thinking about things and thought to myself, my insurance paid for my Clomid and for the HCG injection which I didn't get to use because I didn't have an follicles. And then I started remembering that, at either the end of the year last year or the beginning of the year this year, we had a firm-wide insurance meeting and got a new Schedule of Benefits and I think our insurance does pay for some infertility things. So I dug out the SOB (that stands for schedule of benefits and not what some might be thinking….LOL!) and sure enough, my insurance does pay for a minimal amount of infertility treatment/prescription drugs once I meet my deductible. Granted it's minimal, every penny is going to count now.

So that's my visit in a nutshell. Now I'm just waiting on Dr. Gentry's office to call me back so we can focus on what we can do next.