Showing posts with label appointments. Show all posts
Showing posts with label appointments. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Trigger shot dilemma

I am sick and tired of dealing with doctors. They basically run a conveyor belt system, where they hand you a protocol and expect you to get on with it. I cannot operate like that. I have questions, and I need answers, and I get frustrated not getting any. I cannot do things without getting an explanation, especially when my health is concerned.
Take this trigger shot situation. I emailed the Dr, twice, asking whatever brought this change of plan - were the follicles too small, or their amount too insufficient, and does he really think I need it? There was no reply, and we mulled it over on our own.
I was thinking about how, to get the shot, I need to get to the office and back in time to pick up the kid from the preschool. It's a half-day tomorrow, so it leaves a very small window to operate - the office is out of town. My husband would be out of town until Thursday and would not be able to drive me/pick up the kid. So logistically, it's a challenge. There are ways around it, but we need to plan these things in advance.
And then, of course, I've read about OHHS. I realize it's highly unlikely to get this particular complication with oral medication and two measly follicles. However, being a sole adult at home for a day and having even a slight possibility that things could go wrong... this is too scary.
So after some more Googling and seeing that many people don't do the trigger shot - and especially people who have no problems ovulating on their own, like me - we decided to skip it, at least for this cycle. I fully realize that we might not get to even discuss it the next cycle - if the cyst doesn't disappear, I wouldn't be doing any Letrozole.
I feel depressed by how things turned out. To get the answers, I have to ask the right questions at the right time, i.e. during appointment. But during appointment I usually don't know half of it - they arise later, after I receive the information, think it over, and do some Googling - and then nobody ever cares to answer them properly. I feel like I am playing catch up with the doctors, and failing again and again.
And yes, I received the Dr's answer around 9 pm. It was short: yes, he agrees with Dr who did an ultrasound, and he thinks the shot is a good idea. Nothing re: why. Nothing re: follicle size.
It's midnight now, and too late to change my mind anyway.
On a different note, somehow my parents got wind of us having been to a doctor's appointment. How? I have no idea, not me nor my husband told them. Anyway, my mom asked me what it was for, and I gave her the highly edited version of our visit to my RE. I've got sympathy and the requisite "be happy with what you have" spiel, and then I was fighting tears for the rest of the day. There was a reason I did not want to share my journey with her - it's too hard to look at it as it is, in all its hopeless glory.

Thursday, May 7, 2015

RE consultation

Yesterday we went for a consultation with our RE. On our way there, I was talking to my husband and feeling more and more frustrated by the minute. Frankly, I was feeling very confrontational and wanted so much to stick it out to her. However, as my husband correctly pointed out, we cannot afford a luxury of a confrontation. She cannot do anything majorly useful for us, but she can order routine tests, which are at least covered by our insurance. So we talked about that, and I agreed to try to be civil. My resolve wavered, though, when it turned out we still had to pay out of pocket for this consultation, since it's a repeat visit (wtf?!). I wanted very much to yell, "No way in hell I am paying that much to see this doctor! I'd rather pay for someone who's professional, dammit!" But we paid and we waited.
She started with a question along the lines of "what can I do for you", and I got very angry. I allowed myself to allude to her insufficient testing a year ago. Her response was, but then you were getting pregnant! Apparently testing for RPL is different from testing used for just plain infertility (yeah riiiight). Anyway, I asked what can we do now, given the situation we have. Basically she told us they can do two things: it is either IUI with Menopur and Bravelle ($3,000 - 5,000), or IVF with PGS ($25,000), using the antagonist protocol and ISCI. I asked why didn't she suggest donor eggs IVF. She replied that she remembered me being against it, and that the price is high, around $40,000.
By an unspoken agreement, we did not tell her we're seeing another Dr. and that I am on Letrozole. We did ask her about Clomid and Letrozole, and she told that my FSH is high and therefore more FSH does not make sense (and then I Googled and apparently Menopur and Bravelle work to elevate the FSH as well, wtf?). She also told us she does not do natural cycle IVF or minimal stimulation IVF ("I know about this, but we don't do that here").
And finally there was the icing on the cake. I asked her something about success rate for all the options she mentioned, and she said something along the lines of - oh but you cannot really do any of that, because your FSH is too high! This was priceless. Why did she spent so much time talking about the options that I cannot have anyway?! Her point was, I might have checked my FSH too early after the surgery, so let's recheck it in couple of months and see where we are. As much as I want to hope that there's some reason for this absurd number of 17.5, I cannot really count on that.
There were some relatively good news as well. As it happens, she did a follicle count in 2014 (she just chose not to tell me about it, and she did it on a day when I couldn't even tell where in the cycle I was - my period still hadn't returned after my 2nd miscarriage). I had the same 6 follicles I have now. My AMH is lower, but not "significantly", so it doesn't concern her as well. (I don't think she's concerned about my situation at all, though). So basically no drastic changes have occurred since the last year.
So, her advice is: go try naturally for couple of months, maybe try some acupuncture. Come back and redo the Day 3 tests, and then we'll talk.
What do I think about it? I am going to order wheatgrass and whatever shit there is out there to work with aging eggs. I am not sure I want to go to her even if my FSH gets down (because her estimate of IVF success is 10%, and while trying naturally we have just 2% chance - both numbers are too low for my taste). What we need is to find a clinic nearby (okay, at least in our state) which does natural cycle IVF, and talk to them about my options. I wish we could go to New York or Colorado, but travel is expensive (we hardly have money for IVF with PGS as it is), and there are some logistical considerations as well.