Sharing My (Our) Story

I am sharing this with select friends for now, but someday, maybe I'll share it with a bigger group. These friends are people who are partners in prayer, and some are friends I know are going through the same fertility issues, or who have been there before.


I debated whether I'll share the cost of doing IVF. In the end, I decided to include it so people who are considering it will know the financial requirement to undergo this process. Anyway, as far as Kato is concerned, the cost of services is posted on their website. It is not a big secret. IVF is emotionally, physically and financially taxing. It is definitely not for everyone. That's why it took us a long time to decide to go for it.


If this is the first time you are reading this blog, I suggest you read the very first post for a bit of a background. Click here to read the first post.


This blog is not password protected. It is technically a "public" blog though I have set it to be unlisted in Blogger and invisible to search engines. So, if you are reading this blog and would like to share it with others, I would appreciate it if you can let me know about it first.


Thank you for taking this journey with me.

Bloom

Bloom

Saturday, January 17, 2015

The Second Visit

January 11, 2015

Happy new year!

My period did not come on December 29th. As instructed, by January first and still no period, I started taking Provera. I took it twice a day for five days - January 1-5. By January 9, I had some spotting. The bleeding came late that evening, around 10pm. The next morning, on Saturday, I called at 8am to check if I should go to the clinic that day or wait the following day. I was told it was technically still my first day so I was asked to come on Sunday instead.

We were at the clinic at 8am. I showed my appointment card and waited. There were many other couples waiting as well. The whole process took a few hours. First, I was called in for the usual vital signs. Then I had blood extraction for three blood tests: Infectious Disease screening (HIV, Hepa, etc.), Hormone tests and Complete Blood Count. Finally, I had a transvaginal ultrasound to check on my lady parts. This bit was icky. It wasn't painful, but it's gross to be probed on while I'm bleeding. Meanwhile, the hubby had semen analysis.

After waiting for about an hour, we got the results. The doctor discussed all our test results including hubby's sperm analysis. For this process, it only matters that there is at least one good sperm cell so we didn't spend much time discussing that. As for me, everything turned out well except for one hormone - B-HCG. Normal level would be less than .5 (zero is great) and mine was at .7. It was a big deal, apparently. The doctor cannot explain what caused mine to be high, but for this reason, we cannot immediately proceed to the next step.

I was prescribe some contraceptive pills for the next 28 days, after which I need to go back on day 2 of my period and repeat the hormone tests and the ultrasound. Yuck!

Anyway, I was told that if the next test yielded good results, I will be given some meds to stimulate my ovaries so they can proceed with harvesting egg/eggs at about Day 14. The stimulation process is similar, if not exactly like the stimulation I did when we had our follicle monitoring and the IUI so I'm not nervous about this. It's the harvesting of egg(s) that I am nervous about. One day at a time.

So, it's waiting game for us. For this leg, we paid Php11,648. The biggest cost component is the hormone test, followed by the infectious disease screening. When we come back next time, we'll probably pay around Php9,000 to cover the Hormone tests, Ultrasound and consultation.
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