Now I'm curious what he ordered so I can prepare myself and I know when I call the RE's office today because I'm not paying and scheduling a delivery until I know what's going on. This is what she tells me:
- 1 Z-Pak (think this is to build up my immune system?)
- 30 tablets of baby aspirin
- 3 vials of PIO (ICK)
- 32 Vivelle Dot Patches
- 3 900iu vials of Follistim (at $1300 a VIAL!)
- 10 vials of Menopur
- 2 week kit of Lupron
Of course I'm now wondering, ok, how much is all of this going to cost? I'm SO lucky and so thankful that I work for a company with amazing infertility insurance and we've paid VERY little OOP. We will still have to pay for 15% of the medication and IVF procedure bill, which I know is SO much better than a lot of people out there, but it's still money we'd have to spend. So I added up all those meds and got a quote from Freedom Fertility that's around $5000. The big thing is that Gonal -F is a LOT cheaper than the Follistim at only $834 a vial instead of $1300, but my RE specifically ordered the Follistim, and I responded REALLY well with the Follistim for IUI, so I'd be afraid to switch just based on price because it wouldn't be that much more for us. I'm still going to ask though, I'm naturally curious by nature!
I just think it's crazy that I am on the 4th day of BCPs and I might be getting my meds soon...EEK! I will be doing an obligatory meds photo when that happens, don't worry I won't leave you hanging!
UPDATE: Just spoke to my nurse at the RE's office. She said they just like to get the order in so we're not rushing and that I'm fine to wait to schedule delivery until after our IVF consult next Thursday. Then I ask her about the Gonal-F vs. the Follistim. She said my insurance might only cover the Follistim (not true I called and both are covered) and that Dr. S ordered that because I responded so well with that on IUI #3. Ok that's a better answer, but I'm still going to ask him next week. I also asked her about the schedule and here it is folks:
UPDATE: Just spoke to my nurse at the RE's office. She said they just like to get the order in so we're not rushing and that I'm fine to wait to schedule delivery until after our IVF consult next Thursday. Then I ask her about the Gonal-F vs. the Follistim. She said my insurance might only cover the Follistim (not true I called and both are covered) and that Dr. S ordered that because I responded so well with that on IUI #3. Ok that's a better answer, but I'm still going to ask him next week. I also asked her about the schedule and here it is folks:
- Take last BCP on 11/11
- Start Lupron (overlapped with BCP) on 11/9
- Start Stims on/around 11/16
- I'll stim for about 10-12 days so ER would be sometime the week after Thanksgiving
- ET will be 3 or 5 days after ER
So I'm thinking I'm NOT going to host Thanksgiving this year like I was planning to. That'll be too stressful. I think I'll ask my mom to do it (she loved having me do it the past 3 years), but she'll just have to suck it up! Love you Mom!
Hey! I just wanted to tell you that I used Gonal-f for 2 days one cycle and then used Follistim for the rest of the days. My RE said they are interchangeable and he was fine with me using both together. My RE's office had donated a Gonal-f pen to me but it was only 300IU so I needed more meds and switched back to Follistim. I still had a good response- same as the previous cycle when I used just Follistim. So definitely check with your RE about that because it is so much cheaper than Follistim.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for the insight Amber! I'm going to ask my RE if they have any Gonal-F pens laying around (my nurse seems to think they do) and I can at least save some money that way. Thanks for the tip! I can't wait to hear when you start your new job!!
DeleteI am starting my first IVF after my class on Nov. 15th, stopping BCP Nov. 22nd. Thank you for posting your schedule! It gives me a semi-clue of what we will be doing. I started a private blog to document my process too. (anotherivfblog.blogspot.com-check it out if you want!) My original blog is way too public after the loss of our twins and birth of our dear son.
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