Thursday, March 3, 2011

The Appointment Recap

Finally!  Wow, this has been one crazy week!  This is the first night I have been home before 11 pm all week!  This girl is not used to that!  I threw a wedding shower after work today, but I am home and it isn't even 7 pm!  Hooray!

So, I am going to take the time to write this before I forget everything that was talked about at the appointment.  My husband and I had an awesome day!  The city where my REs office is is much larger than where we live......so many more restaurants and shopping centers/malls to choose from!  Even though my appointment wasn't until 3 pm we decided to go spend the whole day before our appointment doing what else, but shopping and eating!  We had such a good time!

There was some construction on the interstate on the way to the REs, so we left the mall a little early to make sure we got there on time, and we were 30 minutes early!  If you know me IRL, you know that never happens.....I'm always late.  We sat in the car for a minute, and then we decided to just go on in in case he had a cancellation or was ahead of schedule so we could go ahead and get started.  (I promise this is relevant to the story.)  We filled out some paperwork and updated some information.  I have to point out that we have not been there since August, and when I walked up to the front desk the administrative assistant says hello and calls me by name.  And she wasn't sitting at her desk so it wasn't because she looked at the schedule. 
 She actually recognized me and called me by name.  Reason #5782 that I love my REs office.

We were taken back to a room at about 3:15.  You know the drill......I had to be weighed (I had lost 13 pounds since my last appointment!  Hooray!  I had met one of my goals and didn't even know it!  AND the doctor acknowledged it and told me I was doing a great job!), BP taken (it was normal) ask the normal questions, etc.  Then the nurse left us in one of the consultation rooms.  My husband and I recently got iphones, and are still amazed by them!  So we played each other in a few games, and laughed a lot.  I looked at my phone and it said 4:15.  I thought WHAAA?  We have never had to wait that long there.  

So we listened and we didn't hear any body.  I thought oh my, they forgot about us and left!  Ha!  I opened the door and looked around, and I saw one person.  She was cleaning.......I am not kidding!  I stepped back in the room and was telling hubby what I saw, and I hear a door open and shut and my RE say "Why didn't you tell me I have a patient here?"  (Not very happily, I might add)  (He must have heard me open and close the door.)  And I hear a nurse not very nicely tell him she tried to call him 4 times and she thought someone else had taken care of that.  She not very nicely told him that she thought he knew.  That was not a good move nurse!  Woah!  My husband and I were cracking up......very softly because we didn't want them to hear us because we could sure hear everything that was going on!  Ha!  The doc said a few things and the nurse changed her tune very quickly and started apologizing.  I heard him tell her to come to his office.  

A few minutes later his PA came in our room (who is also a nurse and she did one of our IUIs.  I LOVE her!).  But I have to admit I was kind of disappointed.  I was thinking surely we didn't wait months for this appointment and drive all of this way to see the nurse.  But I quickly realized she was coming in just to check on us and apologize for the wait.  We could here the doctor in his office with the nurse who messed up!  Ha!  I wanted to go tell him that we were okay and hadn't even realized what time it was.  I wanted to tell him that he didn't have to chew her out, that it was okay and that we weren't upset.......but I decided that wasn't a good idea.  We talked to the PA for a while.  Of course, she remembered us, too.  She said I don't know if you remember me or not, but I did one of your IUIs.  Of course I remembered her!  Anyway, it just still amazes me how good they are at their job. 
  
She asked what all we wanted to talk to the doctor about, so I listed the 3 major things:  1) My PCOS is OUTA control.  2)  I brought the actual x-ray from my HSG (ouch!) for the doctor to see.  Am I going to have to have another one before we do IVF?  3) We definitely want to do IVF (we weren't sure the last time we left the doctor's office) and we want a time line.  (like how long does one IVF start from start to finish and what all if going to happen.....in order.....from beginning to end.  She giggled and did a very good job summarizing the whole process.  She then brought me a whole folder of information to read while we waited for the doctor......I still haven't finished reading it.) I am now on my husband's insurance that has IVF coverage, am I going to have to have lap surgery so the doctor can "for sure" diagnose me with endo so we can get IVF covered by insurance since PCOS is not?  So, she left to go fill the doc in and he came back to see us.

His #1 was NO WAY am I doing surgery on you that will not be easy for you to recover from JUST to prove to an insurance company that you have endo.   He looked through his notes and had written at our last visit that he "strongly suspected" that I have endo, and he said since that was before I changed insurance companies that "they should no I mean they will take that because they can't say I am just saying you have endo to get the IVF covered."  I LOVE him!  I wanted to jump over the table and hug him!  He said he would send them whatever he had to to get it covered.  He said that the ladies in the office would start working on everything and get back to me if there were any problems.  ~Please pray there are no problems getting the IVF covered!

His #2 was that he would look at the x-ray later, but NO I do NOT have to have another HSG because "I don't care about your tubes.  I just need to see your uterus and make sure everything looks good."  So, I am having a Sonohysterography.  (here is a link).  The doctor and the nurse assured me that it is not near as bad as the HSG.  The nurse explained that it wasn't going to be much different from an IUI (which kinds painful for me....more so than most.  My stuff just isn't where it is supposed to be and my uterus is very tilted.  But, I will have hope that it will not be too bad.)  Then I asked when this needed to be scheduled for and he said, "Lets do it".  His nurse and I both looked at him like he was crazy.  We thought he meant like now.  He giggled and said "I mean lets do it the first Tuesday afternoon you can."  She said "okay, we will get it scheduled before she leaves today."  Woah!  That was fast!  He said he wanted to take a look around since I have having a lot of pain and make sure everything is okay.  It is scheduled for Tuesday, March 22 at 2 pm.  ~Please say a prayer that everything goes okay!

His #3 is that he is surprised that my PCOS was totally under control for more that 6 months without me having an episode.  He said that it is totally normal.  He said from my symptoms he is sure my ovaries are full of cysts, but to just keep doing what I'm doing and it will get better.  Why is he so smart????  HA!  It is already better this week.  I started a new pack of the same kind of BC, and I already feel better.  He said this will just happen sometimes.  (very large sigh)  Oh well.  I guess I will learn to deal with it......I don't think I have another choice.

He informed me that laser hair removal was the only way to get that symptom totally under control.  Ha!  I told him I know that but we have more important things to spend our money on right now.  He said too bad we I can't get insurance to cover that!  Ha!  He was very interested to hear that when my PCOS is under control that after I wax the hair grows back blonde, but if it is out of control it grows back dark.  Of course he said that wasn't normal (what about my body is) but he thought it was pretty cool that being on BC turns me blonde.  Then he made a joke about "that is about right, BC turns you blonde."  And his nurse rolled her eyes at him and we all laughed.  (He really is a pretty funny guy and has a great bedside manner.  You don't find this often in extremely brilliant people, but I am very glad!)

After seeing him we talked to the lady that is the head financial person.  I have one piece of paper that I need to fax her.  She explained how all the finances work and what we should expect to pay with insurance and stuff.  Of course it may change because she still have stuff to do before she knows for sure.  She was wonderful and SO helpful and informative.

BUT WHY DOES THIS ALL HAVE TO COME DOWN TO MONEY!?!  

I joked with my husband while we were listening to the doc chew out that nurse about forgetting about us that maybe we would get a free IVF out of this!  Ha!  I wish!  But really, it is so frustrating.  We get by just fine, but we don't have thousands of extra dollars laying around that we can just pay for this with.  Our HOPE is to begin the process in June.  The reality is it will probably be November.  But, we are still going to have HOPE that it could be June.  And man, the financial part of this is SO complicated.  The Doctor is one person we pay, then we pay the lab (because it isn't the same place....in the same building, but not the same place), then we pay the surgery center for the retrival (also in the same building), then we pay the pharmacy for the millions of medicines.  Whew!  Some file insurance for you while others we have pay up front and file the insurance ourselves.  Oh my!  Good thing I am pretty organized so I can keep up with all of this stuff!

So, we have a plan........but one thing I have learned with infertility is that plans can always change.  I do have hope that the plan whether it is plan A, plan B, Plan C, etc, it will be the perfect plan!

1 comment:

The Glover Gang said...

I LOVE your RE and his office staff! I am so glad your visit went well!