Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Interesting Opportunity (I Hope)

My wife has a voicemail on her phone from the nurse at Dr. S.'s office asking if she wants to participate in a study ... no details provided on the study itself, but it instantly triggers thoughts of "FREE IN VITRO!" in my head. If you would have told me 10 years ago that such a thought would ever be generated by my brain, let alone that I would be excited by it, I wouldn't have believed it.

I will be calling them tomorrow to find out more details. Apparently we have to have a consultation to see if we qualify. Stay tuned ...

Perhaps this is an elaborate way for Dr. S's office to find out who is writing this blog ... maybe they came across it, found what could be deemed disparaging remarks about their clinic and wanted to smoke out the culprit. They entice us with an opportunity like I hope this study to be, fully expecting that if it is indeed the author of this blog to whom the offer was extended, a story such as the one I am currently writing would end up on it. I'm thinking that is not really the case, but sleuth activity such as this would definitely spice up the whole infertility thing.

I should make a disclaimer: I intend no disrespect to Dr. S. or IVF Michigan in my posts on this blog - they are a very successful clinic, and I'm sure that success is driven primarily by the capabilities and talents of their staff. We just wanted to explore other options. We haven't made any decisions yet as we feel more data needs to be collected to tell the full story. We may very well end up back with Dr. S. for a 2nd round (especially if it's free!)

7 comments:

Tracy said...

Ok. Well, as you know, in spite of 2 failed IVF attempts, I am a huge fan of Dr. Shamma's. Knowing that, you can take what I have to say with a grain of salt.

Our ER was originally scheduled or last week. It ended up being pushed back to this week due to some extra stims needed, but prior to knowing that, I received a call from his office asking if it was okay if one of his colleagues conduct the ER. They told me that Dr. Shamma was heading up a study, and needed to attend a meeting in Florida with some other colleagues. You may not know this, but he works closely with MSU med school on reproductive endocrinology.

I don't think it's a plot to ferret out bloggers. :)

If you get the chance, I'd go for it.

IdleMindOfBeth said...

new to reading your blog (found you from Nancy's blog), and wondered which other IVF clinics you're looking at.

I live in the Detroit area, and am looking for a new RE. 2 years ago, I was with Dr. Kowalczyk @ MI Center for Fertility, but now I'm thinking of RMA Michigan in Troy. Thoughts, opinions?

And SO nice to 'meet' another MI blogger!

Joe said...

Beth - thanks for the note. Nice to meet another Michigan person too. On that note, you should really check out Tracy's blog at: http://www.orlifeisabedofroses.wordpress.com

It is the best blog out there.

We're considering working with Dr. Magyar out of Oakwood hospital (Michigan Comprehensive Fertility Center). You can find our rationale for doing so in my previous posts. We're not 100% sure what we'll do, or who we'll do it with ... all we know right now is that we have two very different opinions from two different doctors. In the name of being 100% sure of our next move, we are going to pursue further testing with Dr. Magyar until we get to a point where we'll have to put real money on the table. At that point we may take our files to a third Doctor, just for sanity. Not sure where we would go, but some options include U of M or a place in Birmingham (Center for Reproductive Medicine and Surgery) ... I've assembled all of the SART data for all clinics in SE Michigan. If you're interested I could send it to you ... let me know, and good luck.

IdleMindOfBeth said...

Thanks Joe!

I've already added Tracy to my google reader (from her comment above). I would love love LOVE to get my hands on those statistics! Can you email them to bethswan AT hotmail? Thanks SO much!

And, as an aside, I was happy with Dr Kowalczyk (other than, you know, the little detail that she didn't get me pg, but we were only under her care for 4 cycles), BUT, I'm being forced to find a new ob/gyn, and so I thought a new RE made sense, too.

Dr Wolf @ RMA came highly recommended from a friend in OH that was a patient (ob/gyn patient, not IVF) of hers at her last clinic, so I figured that was as good a reason as any to at least have a consult.

and now that I've hi-jacked your post, I'll shoosh!

Anonymous said...

My husband has male fertility issues with low morphology and we went to see Dr. S at IVF Michigan. He was nice, but we wanted a second opinion (we also got the letter for the study and calls about it.) So we switched to the University of Michigan Reproductive Center in Ann Arbor. They have a higher success rate (#1clinic in Michigan) and tested for sperm antibodies that were the infertility cause. IVF Michigan never tested for any antibody issues. But stay with who you trust, just know their are other options out there!

Lillie Family said...

We live in A2 and have a similar story to Annonymous. IVF Michigan - Dr. A - told us over the course of 3 mos in early 2009 that we should just have a bottle of wine and relax to get preggo. Seriously, that was what he said. He did try a round of stimulated IUI but he hyperstimmed me b/c he did not do an AFC before determining my FSH dose (which I now know is not correct).

Since seeing IVF Michigan, we have found out DH has a varricelle (and repair) & I have endometrosis. By the time we found this out we had been through 2 years of IUI and went for adoption for #2. Thanks for nothing IVF Michigan is what I want to say now.

We are now at U of M for #3. I think the lab is the best in Michigan and we see Dr. Will -- who is fantastic! I am not sure I like the other individuals working there but Dr. Will is really good.

SO glad I found this blog, looking forward to 'following' going forward and checking out Tracy and other blogs as well! We start our IVF cycle in May, yea!!

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