Round 2

Yes, that's right! We are at it again. This morning we had an 8am IVF Consult/Orientation. They forgot to mention that this is typically a 4-hour orientation, and we didn't finish until noon. Sorry Greg's boss! Does it count that he went into the office at 6:30am before leaving for the consult?

I had some anxiety about going back today. The last time I was at Emory was a heart-breaking experience when I confirmed my miscarriage. But once I met with Dr. Session this morning, I felt fine again. I haven't had Dr. Session before, but she's the head of the reproductive center so I thought I would start with the top. She definitely knows her stuff, and has worked at Mayo and Columbia. I liked her a lot.

Donna Session

Alright, so here are the dates. I leave for China this Sunday and will start my cycle sometime when I'm there. When I do, I will begin birth control pills (bcp's). Dr. Session doesn't normally do bcp's, but the lab is closing in July and so they are force starting me early. I am always happy to start earlier than later.

Sometime around May 27th I will begin Lupron, which is the crazy drug. Watch out Arizona people - I will be on this during the IDRS conference! I stop taking bcp's around June 1st, jump starting my cycle by a week, but keep taking the Lupron all the way until retrieval.

Sometime during the first full week of June I will get my baseline ultrasound and hopefully start stims (Follicle Stimulating Hormone drugs) the following day. I will do 200 mg of Follistim (for the IVF vets out there) along with 10 units of Lupron (decreasing from the prior 20 units) until the day I trigger ovulation.

Ovulation trigger will be around June 20th, Retrieval on June 22nd, and Transfer on June 25th or 27th depending on the quality of the embryos and if we do a 3-day or 5-day transfer. There are a lot of debates about what is better. Dr. Session would rather wait and see what we're dealing with before we make that decision, and go with the recommendation of the embryologist.

Unfortunately this time I will have to wait 9-12 days to test for pregnancy, rather than the 7 days I waited for with New Hope. Other than that, I can't say I'd prefer New Hope over Emory in any way!!! (Well, maybe the free part.)

That puts the pregnancy test, or beta, sometime during the first full week of July. I've been asked to teach at a summer music festival near Sao Paulo, Brazil from July 20th-30th, and it looks like if the transfer is done by June I will be able to go. Dr. Session was concerned that I would leave right after my 6-wk ultrasound, and if things weren't going well I might have a miscarriage in Brazil. Based on my last experience, it doesn't seem to matter where I have a miscarriage. And I waited 10 days between ultrasounds to confirm the miscarriage anyway. But I'm still torn. It will make me worried about my IVF schedule, which I've learned is a thing I cannot control, but on the otherhand, it's a free trip to Brazil!

Here are the things that are going to be different from New Hope.

1. I have a nurse, and her name is Lois, and she is going to call me and communicate everything to me.

2. I like Lois.

3. I like Dr. Session.

4. I like Emory.

5. They are going to let us make the decisions. We will ultimately be in charge of whether we want a 3-day or 5-day transfer, how many embryos we want to implant, and how many we want to freeze.

6. Lois (the nurse) said she was going to order 1 inch needles for me instead of the 1 1/2 inch needles because I'm petite. She could not believe that New Hope had me sticking 1 inch needles into my belly! The 1 inch needles are for the behind. :)

7. Rather than being a 3-4 month process like New Hope was, this will be over and done with 6 weeks. I can do anything for 6 weeks!

8. I will be hopped up on a lot more medication. I did not do Lupron, Follistim, Progesterone through shots, or Estrogen patches on my belly the first time. I do not have to take Clomid again though, thank goodness. But please, do not expect me to be normal from the end of May through June! (Greg is already dreading it.)

9. We will not be using ICSI (inserting one sperm into the egg) or assisted hatching, both which cost a lot more money.

10. Speaking of money, this IVF is not free. It costs $10,169, plus the cost of medication which will probably be from $2,000-3,000. However, we do have an option to use ARC which is a financing company that offers package deals. I haven't investigated this completely yet, but we will probably do their 2 cycle package. It costs $9,441.79 (so less than if we go straight through Emory) and we would get one fresh IVF cyle, and one embryo transfer. So in the case that the fresh transfer doesn't work and we have frozen embryos, we will have the frozen cycle paid for as well, which usually costs another $3,000. I think it's a no-brainer, since it actually costs LESS than just one IVF cycle paying Emory directly.

Dr. Session answered my bizillion questions (Greg probably could have been done an hour earlier if he was married to somebody else), and was very kind and straight-forward. I also asked if they had any bottled water and she came back with the little orange juice containers after searching around the hospital for an hour. It was very nice.

Round 2, ready or not, here I come. But for the record, I am ready. :)