IVF cost in Alberta, Canada.
$ 5 000 +/- Drugs / Injections. (Our insurances will cover a portion of this cost..)
$ 5 500 Procedure Egg Retrieval, Handling of Sperm, Insemination of Fertilized Eggs. (Needs to be paid upfront / off the start and our insurance does not cover any of this cost.)
$ 1 500 Assisted Hatching (recommended for us)
$ 600 Freezing of eggs / year (also recommended for us in case it fails, we would have backup and not have to go threw the whole process again.)
Ughh.. this does not sit easy with me.
The Overwhelmed Infertile Mrs.White
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
The NEW Game Plan
Alright....
So my 'what's next' appointment with the Fertility Doctor was 2 days ago (on Monday). I meant to post right away but had a real busy start to my week. The apt went a little weird.. First we sat down with a nurse who went over our chart quick so she could jot down a few notes for the Dr to make it quicker when he saw us.. then there was a very young 'resident student' who came in and talked with us. She asked us if we had any questions for the Dr, we explained how we were very interested in IVF and needed more information so she explained alot about it to us including price range. She left the room then came back with Dr 10 minutes later. We repeated ourselves again, basecly explaining why we were there to see him (failed IUI and wanted to know whats next and voice our interest in IVF, trying to raise money and wanted to know alot more info about the cost and process before committing). For some reason the price range for the ivf process he gave us wasn't the same numbers the resident student had given us so I found that a little strange. Also.. somewhere in there Dr said IUI was about 20% chance of getting pregnant where as IVF would be 55%-65% if I remember correctly. For some reason I thought IUI chances were way higher then that! I had done all my statistic research a while ago but everywhere I get my info the numbers change from site to site so I figured I'd ask the Doc.
Bottom line, Dr said we are going to do YET ANOTHER IUI! (the minute AF shows up I am to call their office to book me in for baseline ultrasound on day 3). To be honest, I really don't know how I feel about this... I think I'm still in a haze. I had a weird image of how the apt would go and for some reason I thought he would tell me IVF would cost less then I had anticipated in my head and I would leave there with hope that IVF would come alot quicker and would be so much more realistic then planned. I have this weird feeling inside I cant seem to shake off.. anxious I think.. and like I feel so powerless to the situation. I keep feeling deep inside that this IUI cycle much like the first will turn into my clomid fiasco of failure after failure after putting my body threw hell! (I really had every possible symptom with clomid and it was not a fun journey at all for me). Dr also seemed to think that maybe our problem was that the sperm had trouble penetrating my eggs so he recommended for the IVF assisted hatching witch cost $1 500 for such a simple quick procedure.. like c'mon people 1500!!! that's just ridiculous!!! Not to mention another $600 a year to freeze my eggs in case something goes wrong or if it fails id have backup so we wouldn't have to go threw that part of the process all over again.
Bah.. I can't seem to wrap my head around this whole infertility bullshit I find myself in. I woke up yesterday morning with a "why me" feeling. Babies are pooping up right left and center around me for the past couple months! 3 babies were born within the same week it's crazy.. and here I sit feeling sooo extremely powerless and I'm really feeling more then ever that ALL of the power is out of my control.. I can take as many fertility drugs as possible, I can fallow the game plan to a T and still fail time after time when these people out there forget to wear condoms and get 'oups!'. GAHH!!!
I know I have to keep positive.. much like my blog link, it's a rollercoaster.. I get many ups and downs threw this journey and right now I'm a little on the down side. IVF feels so unrealistic at this point and over the past couple weeks I had high hopes for this "raising money" situation and felt good about reaching out to friends and family, getting our story out there and I really felt lighter.. like my infertility was no longer a deep dark secret I hid from the world, that now finally everyone knew WHY we didn't have like 4 kids by now and that no it's not because we aren't ready, or no it's not because we are waiting or don't want kids or even that we just haven't started trying yet.. Hell if only people knew what the past 2 years have been like for us in the baby making department. Also about the fund we started.. now I'm starting to feel like I don't know enough people to raise enough money to actually go threw IVF before a year from now. I'm so impatient at this point too.. We want it so bad, we are stable, both have good jobs and good benefits, we have 2 amazing dogs who are so gentle and cuddly and would be really good with babies, we are where we want to be in life.. only thing missing is babies keeping us up all night haha. And I say babie's' because we want a large family and I'm really REALLY wishing for twins.. I've wanted to be a twin since I was very young and to have twins I'd be over the moon and would have so much fun with them! I could go on and on about how bad we want this but I'm sure you get the point.
I forgot to mention.. Doctor also wants me to get a few test done when I go in on day 3 of AF during my baseline ultrasound.. He wants me to get a Antral Follicle Count (AFC) and a Saline Infusion Sonohysterogram (SIS). I don't understand why every possible test isn't administered when you first meet the fertility Doctor to rule out what is and isn't causing the infertility.. wouldn't these 2 test be part of that category? He has never mentioned these before.. only once we voiced our interest about IVF did he mention he wanted me to get this done. Weird no?
The Nervous Infertile Mrs.White
So my 'what's next' appointment with the Fertility Doctor was 2 days ago (on Monday). I meant to post right away but had a real busy start to my week. The apt went a little weird.. First we sat down with a nurse who went over our chart quick so she could jot down a few notes for the Dr to make it quicker when he saw us.. then there was a very young 'resident student' who came in and talked with us. She asked us if we had any questions for the Dr, we explained how we were very interested in IVF and needed more information so she explained alot about it to us including price range. She left the room then came back with Dr 10 minutes later. We repeated ourselves again, basecly explaining why we were there to see him (failed IUI and wanted to know whats next and voice our interest in IVF, trying to raise money and wanted to know alot more info about the cost and process before committing). For some reason the price range for the ivf process he gave us wasn't the same numbers the resident student had given us so I found that a little strange. Also.. somewhere in there Dr said IUI was about 20% chance of getting pregnant where as IVF would be 55%-65% if I remember correctly. For some reason I thought IUI chances were way higher then that! I had done all my statistic research a while ago but everywhere I get my info the numbers change from site to site so I figured I'd ask the Doc.
Bottom line, Dr said we are going to do YET ANOTHER IUI! (the minute AF shows up I am to call their office to book me in for baseline ultrasound on day 3). To be honest, I really don't know how I feel about this... I think I'm still in a haze. I had a weird image of how the apt would go and for some reason I thought he would tell me IVF would cost less then I had anticipated in my head and I would leave there with hope that IVF would come alot quicker and would be so much more realistic then planned. I have this weird feeling inside I cant seem to shake off.. anxious I think.. and like I feel so powerless to the situation. I keep feeling deep inside that this IUI cycle much like the first will turn into my clomid fiasco of failure after failure after putting my body threw hell! (I really had every possible symptom with clomid and it was not a fun journey at all for me). Dr also seemed to think that maybe our problem was that the sperm had trouble penetrating my eggs so he recommended for the IVF assisted hatching witch cost $1 500 for such a simple quick procedure.. like c'mon people 1500!!! that's just ridiculous!!! Not to mention another $600 a year to freeze my eggs in case something goes wrong or if it fails id have backup so we wouldn't have to go threw that part of the process all over again.
Bah.. I can't seem to wrap my head around this whole infertility bullshit I find myself in. I woke up yesterday morning with a "why me" feeling. Babies are pooping up right left and center around me for the past couple months! 3 babies were born within the same week it's crazy.. and here I sit feeling sooo extremely powerless and I'm really feeling more then ever that ALL of the power is out of my control.. I can take as many fertility drugs as possible, I can fallow the game plan to a T and still fail time after time when these people out there forget to wear condoms and get 'oups!'. GAHH!!!
I know I have to keep positive.. much like my blog link, it's a rollercoaster.. I get many ups and downs threw this journey and right now I'm a little on the down side. IVF feels so unrealistic at this point and over the past couple weeks I had high hopes for this "raising money" situation and felt good about reaching out to friends and family, getting our story out there and I really felt lighter.. like my infertility was no longer a deep dark secret I hid from the world, that now finally everyone knew WHY we didn't have like 4 kids by now and that no it's not because we aren't ready, or no it's not because we are waiting or don't want kids or even that we just haven't started trying yet.. Hell if only people knew what the past 2 years have been like for us in the baby making department. Also about the fund we started.. now I'm starting to feel like I don't know enough people to raise enough money to actually go threw IVF before a year from now. I'm so impatient at this point too.. We want it so bad, we are stable, both have good jobs and good benefits, we have 2 amazing dogs who are so gentle and cuddly and would be really good with babies, we are where we want to be in life.. only thing missing is babies keeping us up all night haha. And I say babie's' because we want a large family and I'm really REALLY wishing for twins.. I've wanted to be a twin since I was very young and to have twins I'd be over the moon and would have so much fun with them! I could go on and on about how bad we want this but I'm sure you get the point.
I forgot to mention.. Doctor also wants me to get a few test done when I go in on day 3 of AF during my baseline ultrasound.. He wants me to get a Antral Follicle Count (AFC) and a Saline Infusion Sonohysterogram (SIS). I don't understand why every possible test isn't administered when you first meet the fertility Doctor to rule out what is and isn't causing the infertility.. wouldn't these 2 test be part of that category? He has never mentioned these before.. only once we voiced our interest about IVF did he mention he wanted me to get this done. Weird no?
The Nervous Infertile Mrs.White
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Sunday, June 9, 2013
My chart from Nov-Dec 2012 (clomid cycles)
Here are my opk charts from my back to back clomid cycles in November - December 2012.
Anyone else chart them this way?? :-)
November 2012 - Clomid Cycle
No ovulation for this girl... Again.
Below are my opk's for this post-iui cycle. It looked like I was going to ovulate and then I didn't. That's no news to me though.. I don't ovulate on my own like ever. Although this month looked a lot more promising then all the other drug free cycles.
The Infertile Mrs. White
Saturday, June 8, 2013
It's up and running!
Hello everyone,
We are now trying to raise money to go threw IVF. Please help us in raising money in order to make our dreams come true.. "Create a little Baby White". Anything helps! Even if it's just good wishes :-)
Friday, June 7, 2013
ramblings..
I forgot to mention my appointment with my fertility Doctor is on the 24th of this month! When my IUI failed I asked to make a appointment with my Dr as earliest as possible and that's the date I got. Husband works that day and is not able to book it off so I will be going on my own at 11:00am. I had to book off work but it's alright since I can just take a wellness day.. altho those are starting to dissapear pretty quick since the IUI and all the medical appointments that lead up to the IUI. That explains a little bit why my brain has been going overload lately. I want to walk in there confident in my knowledge and have a little game plan of my own. I know he's going to look at me and ask me what we want to do next since really it always comes back to MONEY. I want to be able to either say ''Yes we want to proceed with IVF'' or ''We can't afford IVF right away so we will try another cycle of IUI while we raise money''. My response really all falls back on how realistic raising $10 000 in a short span of time is! It is really hard to get an appointment with my Doctor that isn't months away.. there's usually always a big span of time before I get to see him so I really don't want to walk in there and say ''I have no idea what to do next'' because that would mean I'd have to book another appointment for like end of next month with another wasted cycle.
bah. can't shut off brain.. time for some melatonine, my pillow and some cuddle time.
The Infertile Mrs. White
bah. can't shut off brain.. time for some melatonine, my pillow and some cuddle time.
The Infertile Mrs. White
A possible website to raise money...!
Look what I found while browsing pinterest at the late hours of the night (lol). Something I think I will start doing way more often as there's great blogs, ideas and stories out there! Only problem is it's addicting and it's way past my bed time haha!.. Anyways my last post I was talking about asking for ideas on how to raise money for ivf.. I found this neat website while searching ivf pictures.. I think this might be the *winner*! If any of you know about this website pro's and con's or know someone who knows something haha please let me know! I'm still looking for different website options.. but sure am glad I found something!! I feel alot better now :) Only down side to this one is that they take 5% of each donation.. :S but the website is free. I noticed some people created a facebook page about raising money.. it's a good idea but we are looking for something a little bit more professional and on facebook people would have to e-mail transfer money and not everyone knows how to do that. The good thing about the website I found I would just need to link up my pay-pal account and makes things a little easier to receive money. I was also originally thinking of just creating a new 'temporary' blog and go from there but I don't know.. I feel a bit hesitant now that I saw all the cool features this site has.. My mom also mentioned to me to create a list of family members and friends who I would want to show our "raising money for ivf website".. then it got me thinking.. do I really want everyone to know about this?? What if everyone is amazing and really help us out and IVF turns out to be a big fail.. then how would we fell? What awkward situation we would be put in not to mention how much extra pressure would be put on me to succeed! Then I really got thinking and thought 'you know what! I want this more then anything in the world and I want family and friends to be part of it all, maybe this way it would actually be easier to go threw knowing I have their support and love threw it..' It all falls back on I HATE asking people for money.. it's very uncomfortable.. that's one of the reasons I'm really licking the idea of this site.
Once again.. if you have any suggestions I'm all ears!
Good night world,
I can now go rest my brain that's been working overtime today!
Check it out! Let me know pro's - con's!!!
http://www.gofundme.com/how-to-fundraise/
The Infertile Mrs.White
Good night world,
I can now go rest my brain that's been working overtime today!
Check it out! Let me know pro's - con's!!!
http://www.gofundme.com/how-to-fundraise/
The Infertile Mrs.White
Thursday, June 6, 2013
What's always on my mind.. ivf.
Hey,
It's Thursday night and I have IVF on the brain. I was on Pinterest looking up different infertility pictures and fell upon this neat little blog. The Urban Daddy. The blogger is a dad who lives in Urban Toronto, Canada and his post is about 'IVF Funfing in Canada: Infertility impact on grandparents'. While reading his blog I found it hit home and it was refreshing reading a blog from a male aspect and point of views.
Alright.. well in my other posts I was wondering ''What's next''... well we've really been talking and thinking about it and we've decided to looking into IVF in details. To be able to be on board 100% we need numbers, facts, statistics, success rates and time period. I want to know more about what 'it takes' to go threw it all from start to finish.
My husband and I both have pretty good insurances but have been using a good part of it for the iui and other medical things. I'm not sure how much we are able to still use from the insurance as I believe we get capped at a certain point.
Day and night I have been trying to come up with ways to find funding for this cycle of ivf we would love to try asap.. it hasn't been easy to try and come up with ideas.. What I did come up with was to start a new 'temporary' blog where I would briefly explain our journey and invite all my friends and family members to donate for our cause. It's really not an easy thing to ask family members and friends for money.. especially since only a small hand full of people actually know about our infertility problems. Most family members and friends figured we're just taking our time, or we're not ready yet, or working on it. It wasn't really something I wanted to share openly with everyone since I kept hoping it would work sooner then later (get our little miracle) but it's been almost 2 years now and we're growing really impatient. I'm really nervous though, I have no idea how to go about asking for money. I am hoping someone out there who is either going threw something like this or knows someone who is could give me some pointers and ideas. I'm a little stuck. I've asked my mom for her advice on how to approach this situation and she is going to look into it and get back to me.
The Infertile Mrs.White
It's Thursday night and I have IVF on the brain. I was on Pinterest looking up different infertility pictures and fell upon this neat little blog. The Urban Daddy. The blogger is a dad who lives in Urban Toronto, Canada and his post is about 'IVF Funfing in Canada: Infertility impact on grandparents'. While reading his blog I found it hit home and it was refreshing reading a blog from a male aspect and point of views.
Alright.. well in my other posts I was wondering ''What's next''... well we've really been talking and thinking about it and we've decided to looking into IVF in details. To be able to be on board 100% we need numbers, facts, statistics, success rates and time period. I want to know more about what 'it takes' to go threw it all from start to finish.
My husband and I both have pretty good insurances but have been using a good part of it for the iui and other medical things. I'm not sure how much we are able to still use from the insurance as I believe we get capped at a certain point.
Day and night I have been trying to come up with ways to find funding for this cycle of ivf we would love to try asap.. it hasn't been easy to try and come up with ideas.. What I did come up with was to start a new 'temporary' blog where I would briefly explain our journey and invite all my friends and family members to donate for our cause. It's really not an easy thing to ask family members and friends for money.. especially since only a small hand full of people actually know about our infertility problems. Most family members and friends figured we're just taking our time, or we're not ready yet, or working on it. It wasn't really something I wanted to share openly with everyone since I kept hoping it would work sooner then later (get our little miracle) but it's been almost 2 years now and we're growing really impatient. I'm really nervous though, I have no idea how to go about asking for money. I am hoping someone out there who is either going threw something like this or knows someone who is could give me some pointers and ideas. I'm a little stuck. I've asked my mom for her advice on how to approach this situation and she is going to look into it and get back to me.
The Infertile Mrs.White
Monday, June 3, 2013
Am I really ovulating?!!
Am I really ovulating on my own this month?!!
In the past year and a half I've been tracking my ovulation using these little opk's. Their cheap and have proven effective so far. The only time I have seen lines this bright was when I was doing my clomid cycles.. All other months I kept tracking my ovulation but the line would never get this dark. Don't get me wrong I know the line isn't dark enough to indicate ovulation since it needs to be the same darkness as the test line or darker but sure looks promising! I usually ovulate around the 27th latest (on clomid) so I really thought I was out this month like all the other months. I didn't bother testing on the 1st figured it was a waste of time.. Then this morning when I woke up I said what the heck ill give it a shot you never know. I was also really hoping that after going threw the iui that maybe my body would be more responsive on its own the cycle right after. Looking forward to testing in the morning again. I know this doesn't mean baby in the end but just the fact that my body is indicating that something is going on on its own this month is huge for me baby or not.
The bottom stick says June 2nd PM. Funny thing is that all my AM sticks are my first pee of the morning and the one I took today in the PM I had just gone pee an hour before and it still came out that dark so really looking forward to seeing the one tomorrow AM! P.s. don't mind my yellow sticks.. I take vitamins and they make my pee neon no joke. I guess those days I had taken them before bed so turned out on the stick haha. (In case u were wondering)
The Infertile Mrs.White
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