Monday, January 5, 2009

Back to work

It's been a while since my last post - took some time to enjoy the holidays, at home.

And I discarded a theory that not blogging about infertility would result in a pregnancy - our last cycle was a bust, just like all the others.

We met with Dr. M to discuss our next steps. He came out and told us that we are officially "unexplained infertiles" - he doesn't know why we're not getting pregnant. All signs indicate that we're normal in every way, except for 15 months of natural methods, a failed IVF cycle, cured endometriosis, 7 IUI cycles (3 medicated), etc. He said that all he would be able to offer is IVF. Sort of difficult to be back at the beginning of the circle.

We're going to take the next month off and move our efforts to a new clinic. This time it's purely for convenience. Since we began our treatment under Dr. M, we moved to a new house - the drive, combined with wintry Michigan weather makes for a huge inconvenience for my wife (she was driving there nearly every day during certain stretches of our most recent cycles, for ultrasounds and blood work) We're not sure which clinic we're going to go with yet, but it will be closer to home (around Birmingham, MI - recommendations anyone?). And we've pretty much agreed that we are going to proceed with IVF again. We're hoping that some insights can be pulled from our first failed cycle and the course for this round can be modified as required. Dr. M offered no real convincing words on what his clinic would do differently - we will miss meeting with him, and are regretful at abandoning his care - he is a fantastic Doctor.

Either way, it puts the new year in perspective. 2009 is going to be a crazy year ... and we hope that it will bring us some finality about our infertility situation. Money is not an issue for us anymore - we have sufficient funds to proceed with IVF ... and I think we've pretty much agreed to do so. I think we're going to look into the financial programs that guarantee results (the name of the program escapes me, but I have paperwork on it in our files - you pay for two cycles, but are promised three, and if they don't work, you get a large portion of your money back, something like that - if anyone reading this has experience with these programs, would love to hear about it)

So, by year's end we will either be pregnant, or will have completely moved on to adoption, or will have decided to steal a baby from somebody else. Either way, we will get as much closure on the topic as we can. I will toil away as a consultant to provide the financial means while my wife finishes her Masters Degree. This time next year I will have hung up this blog, or will have converted it to an adoption theme (so be sure to enjoy my crappy prose while you can, because time's winding down)

Best of luck to everyone who reads this - I hope you are parent or pregnant by year's end.

5 comments:

I Believe in Miracles said...

You can post the clinic question on L&F. It might be a good way to solicit a wide crowd of recommendations.

I didn't think we'd ever get to IVF either. Surprisingly, it's not as scary as it seems. Although there is no guarantee. I do hear those payment programs are decent if you have to do more than one cycle.

Good luck!

Anonymous said...

Good luck! I am sending prayers your way for the next IVF.

Martin said...

Sorry your 'undercover' cycle was a bust. I often wondered that myself, was I 'jinxing' thing by blogging.

Continued good luck.

Anonymous said...

Our clinic calls what I think you're talking about a Shared Risk plan. We're doing it now. Our plan covers 3 fresh cycles and as many frozen transfers as we have embryos for. We chose it because if we had to do anything beyond 1 fresh cycle, we were coming out ahead financially. When our first fresh cycle failed, it was comforting to know we were still in the running.

Smoochie said...

I love my IVF clinic in Troy. It's Big Beaver and Crooks I think. I'm from downriver so it's a little far from me, but not too far from you I think. It's thru Henry Ford Health System... let me know if you want more info, they are really great there.