ICLW Welcome – Finally!

Phew, it’s been a crazy week! I’ve been working like crazy this week… I usually have a good 2-3 hours each day when I can look at blogs, write on blogs, google like crazy – you know, the usual tasks of an infertile at work. But this week, I’ve been working at least 12 hour days, with not a minute to spare! I’m hopefully going to slow down soon, as I haven’t been keeping up my ICLW duties! But I wanted to do a quick ICLW welcome, and give everyone an update on this week.

For a quick recap for those of you that are new, I’m 35, been TTC for over 1 ½ years, been going to an RE for almost a year, have found no issues except recently I was diagnosed with compound heterozygous MTHFR mutations, have done 3 IUI’s, 2 of which have been technically successful. The first resulted in an ectopic pregnancy, the second resulted in a pregnancy that seemed like everything was going perfectly…until the ultrasound at 8 ½ weeks determined that my baby no longer had a heartbeat. And I just completed my 3rd IUI, with a BFN beta just a few days ago…

So now I’m moving forward! I have a consult scheduled on November 1 with my regular RE to see what he thinks should be the next steps, and if we should move towards IVF. AND I have a phone consult this Monday – October 25 – with Dr. Sher of SIRM. It’s amazing, I called them yesterday, and he’s available for an appointment on Monday! I had to fill out this huge questionnaire with all the tests and results and pregnancies and every kind of information possible, I just sent it in, and then we discuss it on Monday. Then Dr. Sher may have more tests run, and we’ll go over the results of those and go over his recommended plan on another consult on November 22. Both of the consults with Dr. Sher are free, and the tests should be covered by my current insurance.

Thanks for everyone’s comments a few days ago about SIRM, and whether I should talk to someone other than my current doc. I definitely considered going to the SIRM that is in Dallas (I’m in Houston), but I figured if I wanted to talk to a top doc, I may as well go to Dr. Sher – right? This is only for a consultation, and who knows if I’ll even go the IVF route. But I want to see what he says. I talked to the new patient coordinator about the time commitment for an IVF in Vegas, and she said that people need to be in Vegas for 10-14 days. Wow – this is crazy. But I think I could do it in March. I also think I may be able to convince my boss to let me work some from Vegas, which would allow me to not have to take the whole time as vacation, but that would involve coming clean completely with him. He has no idea I’ve done any infertility treatments… Something to think about – later. I’m getting ahead of myself.

So I’m very excited to see what the docs say should be next steps. I think no matter what, that we probably won’t do IVF before the end of the year, that it will be in February if with the local doc, and in March if with Dr. Sher. So in that case, we will likely do an IUI in late November/December, assuming of course we can get the new insurance thing worked out by then. I really don’t want to pay OOP for another IUI if we’re moving towards IVF. But we’ll see!

Oh, and everyone will be real proud of me. I handled my super-fertile friend at work announce to our whole department that she’s pregnant with twins (accidentally!) very well. I didn’t say much, but I sat there were a forced smile on my face, and I didn’t cry or anything! Interesting though – I’m amazed at how many people ask her if she has twins in her family, and if she was trying, and all kinds of personal questions. Weird – I wonder how that would be after coming out that you’re pregnant with multiples, but it was the result of infertility treatments. Oh well – it would be a good problem to have. Oh and the other fabulous (not) thing is she’s been doing a good job at hiding her belly, but now that she’s out and proud, let the tight belly-showing clothes come out! I love this woman, and she’s one of my closest friends, but I have such a hard time paying attention to anything when her cute little super skinny but pregnant with twins belly is sticking out everywhere!!!