I went to the doctor on Monday - nothing exciting there. Just your average visit where they do some tests with 10 vials of blood. Oh, wait. She could take away one tiny vial - so really, just 9 of the largest vials I've ever seen. Sheesh. Vampires! I asked if this is common, and she said, "Usually, it's more". I guess I was lucky.....
More to follow in a few weeks when we get test results.....
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Friday, January 20, 2012
I'm in the club!
Today I called Aetna. The first call was strange. I went through the usual automated systems...."push this button and that button....ok, now hold for a while...." I was prepared to hold...when this gal answered the phone. She said that they are busy, but she is taking messages, if I'd like to leave one. I said I'd rather hold. She said, "No. That's not an option. Would you like to leave a message? Someone will call you back." I asked what the turn-around time is. She said 24 - 48 hours. That wouldn't work because my appointment is Monday. She hung up on me! Gotta love insurance call centers.
Anyway - all that just to tell you that I called back (and the call was answered almost immediately) and spoke to a very helpful woman named Joan. She asked all kinds of questions like "How long have you been trying? When was your last period?" - and I was very honest with her, saying that I have no uterus due to fibroids. She said, "That's ok. Have you had your tubes tied?" "No." "Ok. Then that's fine. We will still cover diagnostics to determine why you cannot get pregnant." I had all kinds of jokes to insert here, but I bit my tongue knowing this is the one person that can authorize my membership into this exclusive club.
In the end, I was approved to be in the Infertility Program! My dear friend (from an infertility group that I attended in Columbus) said, "I've been trying to get OUT of that group - and here you are trying to get IN!?" We had a good laugh over it because it is, after all this, pretty ironic that I'm trying to get IN. And, I'm IN!
The best part of the phone call (aside from the approval) was this: At the end of the call, Joan says, "If you should happen to get pregnant any time soon, please just let us know." Honey - If I get pregnant ANY time - I'm sure you will most certainly see me on the news. The whole world will know about it!
Anyway - This approval just means that the insurance will cover my appointment on Monday to determine if I have enough healthy eggs to proceed. Out of pocket savings for us: $360.
Thank you to everyone for your love, support, and funny anecdotes during this time! :)
Anyway - all that just to tell you that I called back (and the call was answered almost immediately) and spoke to a very helpful woman named Joan. She asked all kinds of questions like "How long have you been trying? When was your last period?" - and I was very honest with her, saying that I have no uterus due to fibroids. She said, "That's ok. Have you had your tubes tied?" "No." "Ok. Then that's fine. We will still cover diagnostics to determine why you cannot get pregnant." I had all kinds of jokes to insert here, but I bit my tongue knowing this is the one person that can authorize my membership into this exclusive club.
In the end, I was approved to be in the Infertility Program! My dear friend (from an infertility group that I attended in Columbus) said, "I've been trying to get OUT of that group - and here you are trying to get IN!?" We had a good laugh over it because it is, after all this, pretty ironic that I'm trying to get IN. And, I'm IN!
The best part of the phone call (aside from the approval) was this: At the end of the call, Joan says, "If you should happen to get pregnant any time soon, please just let us know." Honey - If I get pregnant ANY time - I'm sure you will most certainly see me on the news. The whole world will know about it!
Anyway - This approval just means that the insurance will cover my appointment on Monday to determine if I have enough healthy eggs to proceed. Out of pocket savings for us: $360.
Thank you to everyone for your love, support, and funny anecdotes during this time! :)
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Insurance - ugh - here we go!
Today I got a call from CORM - Center of Reproductive Medicine. (That is our doc's office). The nice girl in the billing office (Jennifer) told me that I need to call the insurance company to apply for a group that they call the "Infertility Group". I likely will not qualify for it since I have had a hysterectomy - no matter what the circumstances were that forced the surgery. A hysterectomy may deem me "sterile" instead of "infertile". If I'm sterile, I don't get to join their club - they won't cover ANYthing. Nothing - zip - zilch - nada. Not one red penny will be covered.
I just have to try to get into their club, I guess. I hope it's nothing like fraternity hazing, though I think it might just be.
So, I get to call the insurance carrier, answer a million questions - and see if they'll let me join their exclusive club.
The reason for this is that they are trying to help me save $$. The initial meeting with the doc is $360. This is a visit to determine if I have enough eggs to move forward with this procedure.
Next step: Apply to the exclusive club. This should be interesting.
I just have to try to get into their club, I guess. I hope it's nothing like fraternity hazing, though I think it might just be.
So, I get to call the insurance carrier, answer a million questions - and see if they'll let me join their exclusive club.
The reason for this is that they are trying to help me save $$. The initial meeting with the doc is $360. This is a visit to determine if I have enough eggs to move forward with this procedure.
Next step: Apply to the exclusive club. This should be interesting.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Sorry it's been so long.....
Hello Everyone,
Sorry it has been so long since our last update. We could say all kinds of things why we haven't posted - but the long and short of it is, we just didn't know what to say.
We went to Lutheran Social Services. We were so excited to go. We drove 3 hours round trip to sit in a little room to watch a webinar. It was very strange. We stayed and talked to the representative in the office for a while - and to put it kindly, she just didn't have a very good "sales pitch." We drove home in silence, just not knowing what to say. That is all we'll say about that.
Then, we went to another adoption agency. It's the same story with all of them. 'Pay us an outrageous amount and we'll find you a baby.' Only, this agency admits that they have more adoptive parents than they have pregnant women. They even had a couple come in with their adopted child. It was a sweet story, but very odd. The Adoptive Parents provided the Birthmother with a cell phone and established a "fake" phone number for themselves so they can call/text the birthmother whenever they have a question. The fake number has an area code of another city so the birthmother would think they live there. So, as they stated it, if she ever tried to find the kid, she'd start in the wrong place. It was so creepy to think about hiding from the birthmother in that way. Maybe it was the way they talked about it....but it was very odd. Again, maybe it was just a bad sales pitch.
We haven't given up hope. There's more.
There are all kinds of options out there. One of them is surrogacy - or more appropriately called "gestational carrier". It's our gene pool...we just find a carrier to "incubate" it. We have found a carrier, and are currently looking into this possibility. We met with a doctor's office yesterday and found out a ton of information. I'll try to spare you all the details of intimate medical stuff, but at the same time give you enough to understand what is going on. First, they are going to run some tests to see if I have enough eggs for this procedure. The appointment for that is at the end of January, and we should know by early-mid February if this is worth pursuing. I promise to update you when we know more.
Sorry it has been so long since our last update. We could say all kinds of things why we haven't posted - but the long and short of it is, we just didn't know what to say.
We went to Lutheran Social Services. We were so excited to go. We drove 3 hours round trip to sit in a little room to watch a webinar. It was very strange. We stayed and talked to the representative in the office for a while - and to put it kindly, she just didn't have a very good "sales pitch." We drove home in silence, just not knowing what to say. That is all we'll say about that.
Then, we went to another adoption agency. It's the same story with all of them. 'Pay us an outrageous amount and we'll find you a baby.' Only, this agency admits that they have more adoptive parents than they have pregnant women. They even had a couple come in with their adopted child. It was a sweet story, but very odd. The Adoptive Parents provided the Birthmother with a cell phone and established a "fake" phone number for themselves so they can call/text the birthmother whenever they have a question. The fake number has an area code of another city so the birthmother would think they live there. So, as they stated it, if she ever tried to find the kid, she'd start in the wrong place. It was so creepy to think about hiding from the birthmother in that way. Maybe it was the way they talked about it....but it was very odd. Again, maybe it was just a bad sales pitch.
We haven't given up hope. There's more.
There are all kinds of options out there. One of them is surrogacy - or more appropriately called "gestational carrier". It's our gene pool...we just find a carrier to "incubate" it. We have found a carrier, and are currently looking into this possibility. We met with a doctor's office yesterday and found out a ton of information. I'll try to spare you all the details of intimate medical stuff, but at the same time give you enough to understand what is going on. First, they are going to run some tests to see if I have enough eggs for this procedure. The appointment for that is at the end of January, and we should know by early-mid February if this is worth pursuing. I promise to update you when we know more.
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