Okay. So, it's been awhile, and lots has happened since I last wrote. Here's the recap:
S. got a job in Omaha, and he is going to start in August. He had to give a little extra notice at his current practice, and also had to wait for his Nebraska license to go through, so that's why he will be joining me a little later. He did bitch and moan about the whole deal for awhile (and still occasionally reverts back to being grumpy about it), but he has started to come to the realization that I was never going to be happy where I was at before, and the move was necessary in order for me to feel fulfilled in life. I am glad he's figured out that if mama ain't happy, ain't NOBODY happy!!
The other news is that S. and I had a heart to heart about whether we should try one of the local REs in Omaha, or whether we should go to CCRM, which we heard has a great reputation. We decided to go for the money shot and switch to CCRM, even though it is significantly more expensive than the last clinic we went to (and is now out of town for us!)
I saw Dr. Sch at CCRM who seemed pretty optimistic about my chances with another round of IVF. My consultation with him was.....eye opening to say the least. And I am also really, really pissed about what happened with my last cycle with my previous RE. Here are the highlights:
To begin with, my last cycle was doomed to fail because they did some things that were totally not standard. She told me up front that "because your AMH is so low, I expect you to need a day two transfer because your embryos won't make it to day 3". Yes, she told me that up front. Before she even had a chance to see if I would respond to the stims. Although almost every single other person (even ladies 40+ with elevated FSH, etc) does at least a 3 day, and often a 5 day, she thought I (at 34 with a low normal AMH but normal antral follicle count, normal FSH, etc) was such a tough case that I needed "drastic measures". I know that should have been a red flag and honestly, it was a little bit...but by the time she told me that, I already felt like I was committed to go through with it. I am just too trusting, I guess. When I told Dr. Sch about this, he said "Really? There's almost no reason to do a day two transfer anymore. Those went out of vogue around 1994." I am pretty sure why this very unusual tactic was used with me was because there was a problem with the lab, and they didn't think they could keep even decent embryos alive more than two days.
The other thing they did was assisted hatching. Dr. Sch seemed pretty taken aback that they would do assisted hatching with a day 2 embryo. Normally, with a day 3 or later embryo, this technique would be fine. But, he told me that assisted hatching on day 2 just doesn't work. Researchers have tried it, and have always failed, because apparently the embryo is just too fragile at day two to survive disrupting it like that. I didn't know they were going to do the assisted hatching up front, by the way. Otherwise I might have researched it a little more. The embryologist just told me as we were about to do the transfer that he didn't think the embryos looked very good, so he just went ahead and did the assisted hatching. Guess he wasn't aware that it basically destroys the embryos? Great. Thanks.
And finally, at the post-failed-IVF consultation with my original RE, I was not pleased with some of the things I was told. Prior to starting the cycle, I had asked her about her IVF success rates, because her stats weren't published. I was told that because her practice is so new, she was still gathering her data, but that hers were in line with "everyone else in the state." After the cycle, I again asked some very pointed questions regarding her success rates, and was told "everyone in the state has pretty much the same success rate." Which....first of all...is not an answer. I was asking about HER success rate, not what the state average is. And second, I know that to be false, because CCRM has much higher success rates on SART than most others, even in Colorado. When I pointed this out, she got really defensive, and told me that the reason CCRM has higher success rates is because they "cherry pick" their cases and wouldn't touch someone with decreased ovarian reserve and a low AMH (i.e. me) Okay....this I know to be absolutely false because half of the women on the CCRM thread at Fertility community are women with decreased ovarian reserve. What the heck, does she think I live under a rock?
And the final straw was when she nonchalantly brought up the fact that donor eggs would increase my chances, and that although she wouldn't give up just yet, I may need to think about them at some point. I was like, are you f'ing kidding me? I could see having this conversation with someone who has failed multiple rounds of IVF, with really low AMH (mine is still in the normal range for crying out loud!), high FSH (again, mine is normal), low antral follicle count (mine is totally normal), and of more advanced age (I am 34). But this....was completely ridiculous in my opinion. Dr. Sch (who everyone says pushes donor eggs) even seemed surprised that she would have brought that up with me.
Sooooo, in a nutshell, I have moved to Omaha, started my new job (which I am loving by the way but am still in the honeymoon phase) done my one day workup at CCRM (so far, so good), and I am waiting on the results of some tests before we move forward with another cycle. I did have a ridiculously bad experience with a local RE here in Omaha when I got my endometrial biopsy for the integrin test. I will tell you about it in another post, since it's kind of a long story.
Bedtime for now!
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