First Doctors Appointment

My doctors appointment today was kind of frustrating. I was angry and upset all because of the cost. I went back to the "why me" mindset. Why did I need to get cancer? Why did I have to get cancer that would really mess up my chances to have kids? Why did I have to go through the pain and frustration of fertility preservation 5 years ago, just for a hospital to LOSE ALL MY EGGS?? Now fast forward five years, I am going on round 3 of fertility preservation and I might not even get any eggs this time...this is the sad reality for many women. It's a hard concept to grasp at the young age of 24...I will get more to this later. First, I am going to talk about what happens at your first visit!

First Visit

So you are at your first doctors appointment after you made the decision to go through fertility preservation...now what?? Well I will tell you, that first appointment is long and very informative. In the past, my mom was able to always go with me. However, because of Covid, hospitals are a lot more strict. When we walked in, we were greeted by two people at a table. We kind of had to check in and state why we were there. They almost didn't let my mom up because she didn't have an appointment. After explaining how she needed to be there to learn how to give me the injections and stuff they let her go up. This was the only appointment she was going to come with me to. The first appointment is always information overload, so it's nice to have someone who will have a clear head space go with you! You will probably be overwhelmed and emotional, so you might not focus the whole time.

After you check-in, you will go back to get a baseline ultrasound. All the ultrasounds you get are TV ultrasounds. I hate these. The baseline ultrasound is just so your medical team knows exactly what your ovaries are supposed to look like. They also let them know if they think there might be any complications. You will also get blood work. The first time you go, they take like 8 tubes of blood. They test your blood count, STDs, your fsh level, and your amh level, and if you're pregnant. Your fsh and amh levels are very important. Make sure you pay attention to what they say about these. Your amh levels lets you know how many follicles you have inside of your ovaries. Or essentially, your egg count. FSH levels allows you to know how close you are to menopause. The higher your amh and fsh levels are the better. That means you'll be able to get more eggs. The lower the levels, the less likely you are to retrieve many, if any eggs. 

After that, you will consult with your nurse practitioner. There she will go over your treatment plan, show you how to take your medication, and you can ask questions! Make sure you ask as many questions as you need to put your mind. If your test results are ready, you can also ask questions about your amh and fsh levels. They also talk to you about financials and how you want to pay. Make sure you get paperwork on how to administer the medicine. My next post, I'll go more in depth about medication and administering it and everything. 

The nurse will also go over your medication schedule with you as well. You have to start your medication on a certain day. You need to be on birth control before you start to help regulate your levels. You need to stop your birth control two days before you start your injections. You have a staggered start with taking the medication. The first day, you take one of the medications in the afternoon. The second day you take one in the am and on in the pm. The third day you add another medication, the fourth day you add another one as well. On your 6th day, you go back to the hospital to get another ultrasound and blood work. I will go more in depth on this process on my next blog when I talk about medications.

Cost

This is the part that truly angered me. How expensive it is to go through this. Insurance companies won't pay for fertility preservation or IVF because they are considered "elective procedures". These aren't things you need done. It's very frustrating. The surgery alone, costs a little over $3500. The blood work I got done today, cost $1500. And that's just for the first day of blood work. I haven't had to pay for all of my medications before, so I don't know how much that total cost is. I do have to pay for one of them and it's $500 dollars. It's a lot. It all adds up. Like I said in my last post, you will pay about $5,000-$12,000 just to do fertility preservation. That's not including IVF. It's insane. And the hospital I am going to has no payment plan. So you have to have the money up front. It's a big financial commitment on families. That is what frustrates me a little bit about the american healthcare systems. People who have to go through this shouldn't have to worry about the cost. There are ways to get discounts on things. I was able to get my blood work discounted. I am also in the process of getting majority of my medication paid for.

Livestrong: If you had cancer this organization will pay for part of your medication and egg retrieval surgery. Hospitals have to have a partnership with them though. 

Walgreens: If you had cancer this organization will pay for part of your medication and egg retrieval surgery. Hospitals have to have a partnership with them though.

My Experience

Today was a lot for me. I had to really come to the realization that my chances of having kids naturally are very slim. After I got my ultrasound and blood work, I went to talk to my nurse practitioner. It's nice because I am at the same hospital I was at before and so I have a lot of the same nurses! My nurse went over my amh and fsh levels with me. 

When I had ovarian cancer, I had to have one of my ovaries removed. Chemo damaged a lot of my eggs in my first ovary. When I was 18, my amh and fsh levels were the levels someone in the their mid 30's. Fast forward to today, and my levels are a lot worse. I do not have a lot of eggs left and my fsh levels indicate that I am actually in pre-menopause. This means that I may or may not get any eggs while going through this process. 

It is a really scary thought. I will know in about a week whether or not the medication is working. If it's not, I will stop this process. I only have 5 eggs frozen from the last time that I did this. If I am able to get qt least 5 eggs this time, it will be amazing! I am hoping for the best at this point. It is crazy to me to think at this young age, I may not be able to have my own kids. It is concept that is really hard to grasp. Working with kids all day, I do not know how I would feel if one day I wasn't able to have some of my own. 

I am trusting this process and hoping that This will go well and they I will be able to have good and viable eggs to use for the future!

Thank you for reading my blog :) my next one will be about medication and the treatment plan. I will also be talking about all of the wonderful shots you have to get!!