We went to see the baby doctor!

We had our much awaited initial consultation at The Fertility Center on Tuesday. 

Yes, we took a selfie...we are trying to document everything throughout the process! 

 I am pretty overwhelmed by the amount of paperwork and literature that was given to us. Three different folders! One with info about the whole process of IVF, the pricing (scary), the meds, etc...another folder with a spreadsheet to log my appointments and a list of all the different terms we are going to hear throughout the process and a third with just information on a company called Reproductive Genetic Innovations LLC.

RGI is the PGD lab that the Fertility Center most commonly works with. Our Geneticist had initially referred us to 2 different labs, RGI which is in Chicago and Genesis which is in Ann Arbor. I called both of them to discuss pricing and specifics and we decided to go with Genesis as it is closer and seemed to be more affordable. I wrote last week about the great news that our insurance will pay for PGD...may not be such good news after all. There are 2 labs that are in network, one in New Jersey and the other in California. My research on those two labs have left me feeling uneasy. They are both fairly new and the people who have worked with them don't seem to have much good to say about their experience.

We spoke with our doctor and she has never worked with either of the covered labs before, which makes me nervous. Since they are both so far away, we would be responsible for flying the embryologist from those labs to Grand Rapids to collect the biopsies from the embryos. We would also be responsible for their return flight to New Jersey or California the same day.This would cost a pretty penny which would almost be the price of the PGD itself. Our other option is to go with an out of network lab. This would be covered at 50% after a $4000 deductible.

I spoke with someone at RGI last night about pricing again. They will be a couple thousand dollars more, but will test all of the embryos we sent them, where the $5000 at Genesis only covers 8 embryo's. Any embryos added after the 8 would cost an additional $500 each plus a logistics fee. I set up a phone consultation with RGI as they were scheduling 3 weeks out. If we do decide to go with RGI we will have to send them blood samples from Brian and I along with cheek swabs from any family members who also have EB (Brian's Grandma, Mom and Uncle). We are feeling pretty lost as far as which lab to go with. We will have to think on it and pray on it.

The rest of the appointment went great! We got to meet our doctor, see the procedure rooms and ask a lot of questions. We had some bloodwork done and we both need to have more blood drawn next week sometime. They will also be performing a semen analysis next week to determine if they will need to fix Brian's varicocele. They assured us that it will probably not be a problem as they inject the sperm directly into the eggs. Towards the end of June I will be going in for what they call a mock embryo transfer. They will use a catheter to inject saline solution into my uterus. They will then perform an ultrasound to see the structure of my uterus. It sounded pretty painful to me, but they said it will only take 20-30 minutes and I should only have some light cramping afterwards.

A month or two after the mock transfer, I will start my injections. I will need to give myself 2 shots each night for 10-14 days. I will then add a 3rd shot for another week. During this time I will need to go in for bloodwork and ultrasounds every 2-3 days. Once enough follicles have released eggs, they will perform the egg retrieval. (I'm hyperventilating just thinking about this part!) This is done with a large needle with a local anesthetic. You can pay more to be put under completely as they have to bring in an anesthesiologist. They will then fertilize the eggs to create embryos, test them a few days later and then perform the embryo transfer.

Overall we left our appointment feeling pretty optimistic. Our doctor thinks we can aim to transfer embryos in the fall! We are excited, nervous, anxious and overwhelmed...but mostly excited. Two friends of mine recently found out they are pregnant so if all goes as planned, it will be fun to be pregnant at the same time. The next few weeks will just be boring blood tests, but Ill try to update with anything exciting.

-Emily