Really, Aetna?

I’m pretty used to marketers assuming I’m pregnant – TheBump.com has been on me to get knocked up since the my wedding day, Facebook has shown me baby-related ads since I got engaged (no, Facebook, it wasn’t a shotgun wedding) and somehow I ended up with a free subscription to Parenting magazine, which always seems to show up in my mailbox on the worst possible days.

But I never expected to get marketing for baby-related stuff from my insurance company – c’mon, Aetna, if anyone knows I’m not pregnant, it’s you!  A few weeks ago you authorized my IVF treatment, and how you’re sending me this crap?  Really, Aetna?  Really?

Look what arrived in my mailbox yesterday! A DVD about pregnancy and birth, and a brochure for a maternity program.

I really do appreciate your confidence in the success of my IVF, I do.  And I promise to watch that DVD and maybe even join your maternity program as soon as I get my positive.  But... who there thought that this was a good idea?

I’ll forgive you this one, Aetna, because you’ve been great so far.  And while I was a little annoyed when I saw what was in the envelope, mostly I was relieved – after all, when you’re using up thousands of dollars worth of benefits, the last thing you want to get in your mailbox is a thick envelope from your insurance company.  I’ll take some insensitive marketing material over a giant bill any day.

But don’t do it again.

By the Numbers

Got the call from my nurse last night and my estrogen level is 100 – exactly where they want it to be!  So, I continued my meds at the exact same dose last night, will do so again tonight, and then tomorrow I’ll go in for more blood work and to get an ultrasound to see how my follicles are doing.  I’m excited, and a little nervous… hoping that I have lots of follicles that are all about the same size!

 

Even though I’m pleased with my perfect 100 (my overachiever self likes to think of it as a 100%), I am trying not to get too caught up on numbers.  If you read fertility websites, there is a LOT of dissection of what this FSH and that AMH level means.  But that’s just stressful and it’s not like I have any control over it, so I generally haven’t been asking for numbers that my doctor and nurse don’t freely share.  If they say it’s good, I’ll be happy and move on.

That said, I thought I’d share some of the numbers that I do know.  I’m quickly forgetting them, and this is as good a place as any to write them down.   Plus, even though I try not to stress, I’m always curious to see where other people were at this point, and maybe I can provide that for someone out there.  So, here are my numbers so far:

At my original day three appointment (if I remember correctly):

My FSH was 7.2

My estrogen was 52

Everything else was “normal”

I had 14 follicles on the right, 4 on the left

At my IVF baseline appointment:

My estrogen was 44

My FSH was “nice and low”

Everything else was where they wanted it to be

I had 8 follicles on the right, 8 on the left, and one 28.4 mm cyst

When they aspirated the cyst, they drained 20 mL of fluid (gross).

I’ve been taking 112.5 IU of Gonal-F and 75 IU of Menopur once a day.

On the morning after my second dose of stims (so stim day 3):

My estrogen was 100

On the morning after my 4^th dose of stims (so stim day 5):

We’ll see tomorrow!!!

Underwhelmed

Having a cyst aspirated = no big deal.  Who would have guessed?  Getting the ultrasound into the right position hurt more than the needle part – the doctor counted to three, I winced, there was a little “pop” feeling, and I said "Oh! That wasn't bad at all!"  And then I got to watch the cyst slowly deflate on the ultrasound screen.  Sayonara!  Honestly, I cannot emphasize how anticlimactic the whole thing was.  I almost made it out of the parking lot within the free half hour window.

You know what else isn't that big of a deal?  The shots.  Again, the needle isn’t the most painful part (for the record, that’s flicking the syringe to get rid of the bubbles - and Henry does the vast majority of that).  The first night, I barely felt the first shot and the second was just a little sting; it was far less painful than the stomach poking I've been doing with toothpicks and earring backs for the past week to prepare.  Interestingly enough, we discovered that the right side of my stomach is more sensitive than the left; whichever shot I get on that side is the more painful one.

Mixing the medications, however, is stressful.  It's a pretty foolproof system, but it I still had a few moments of panic afterwards thinking we had done something wrong and a couple of nightmares that night about various potential mix-ups.  At first I was annoyed that each medication is prepared in a different way, but now I understand: it makes it easier to differentiate between them, and harder to get them confused.

My own little pharmacy

Anyway, last week, around the time of the cyst fiasco, I started thinking the stress had finally gotten to me.  I felt sluggish and wanted to go to bed at like nine o’clock.  I had to be depressed, right?  Nope.  I realized a few days later that the onset of this depression coincided with when I ran out of my caffeinated tea at work and replaced it with decaf (because after booze, caffeine is the next vice to eliminate, right?).  A cup of coffee over the weekend, and I was magically cured.  Who knew the amount of caffeine in a cup of green tea was enough to keep me from going over the edge?

I also tried to go to acupuncture this weekend but was foiled.  I’ll be honest – I’m a bit of a skeptic.  Plus, I feel like adding “go to acupuncture” to my to-do list will add more stress to my life than acupuncture itself will eliminate.  And it’s sort of expensive.  But I am curious, and this seems like the perfect excuse to see what the fuss is about, so I found a community acupuncture place seven blocks from my house that opened at 1 on Sunday.  Perfect – I was supposed to leave at about 2:15 to meet my family for some Christmas shopping.  I got there right at 1, rang the buzzer, and… well, apparently community acupuncture means disorganized acupuncture, because the person on the other end said they wouldn’t be ready to open for another half hour.  Oh well.  It was a nice walk, and when I got home I listened to one of the meditation apps I downloaded to my iPhone, so I got some relaxation out of it.

This morning I went to the doctors and got my blood drawn to see how I’m responding to the meds.  I’m half expecting the nurse to call back and say that I’m not responding at all – I’ve felt almost no symptoms.  My period stopped, like, hours after the first shot, so I guess that’s something.  And I feel a little more aware of my boobs, although they don’t hurt or anything.  But aside from that?  Nothing.  It’s so strange to think that big, weird things could be happening inside my body and I don’t even know.  But, I WILL know later!  Until then, I’ll be wondering….