First of all, thanks for reading and commenting on the two Come one, come all posts! It was nice to be able to help others say some of the things they needed to say. So, I've added a link over to the right...see it...see it over there....so, anytime someone wants to post something, feel free to email me!
But, I let last week go by without telling you all what's happening with us. We were matched with a potential donor! While I expected it to happen quickly, it was still a huge surprise to get that phone call. We received the 20-something page profile and I had a very unexpected reaction, which I'll blog about in my next post.
The exciting news is that we accepted her and now move into the "countdown to cycling" phase! We have an appointment tomorrow with the genetics counselor. I'm not really sure what the purpose of this appointment is. It wasn't a requirement when we were cycling on our own and our donor and her family have no major health issues (at least none that are known at this point), but, I'm interested to hear what the counselor has to say tomorrow.
Also, I was excited to find out that Dr. Hope will still be my doctor! I thought that, when you moved over to the donor program, you changed to the DE doctor, but, she is the donor's doctor and I stay with my original doctor. So, we have an appointment with Dr. Hope a week from Wednesday, where we will review the timeline. I really hope we can start the process of syncing up my cycle and the donor's cycle immediately (it will depend on where both the donor and I are in our current cycles).
We got one piece of crummy news last week. Let me preface this by saying that I know that we are incredibly blessed to live in a state that has mandated IF coverage. While all of these cycles have cost us plenty, we could NEVER have been able to try as many times as we did if we had no coverage. That said, we have 1 retrieval left on Glenn's insurance. At the end of last year, we decided that I would take primary coverage out from my employer because it would give us an additional retrieval. I even called the company to confirm this. Well, as it turns out, yes, it would cover IVF, but not donor IVF. NJ does mandate this coverage and, even though I live in and work in NJ, our insurance is written out of PA, who does not mandate this coverage. The most frustrating to me is that they WOULD cover an IVF attempt with my eggs, even though 3 doctors agree that the chances of conceiving with my eggs are next to nothing, but WON'T cover the use of a 23 year old donor's eggs. SUCKS! The good news is that I have secondary coverage under Glenn's insurance, so, we should get covered, but, I went from having 2 more chances to only one. And now I'm stuck paying for insurance that isn't giving me the coverage we expected to be getting!
Oh well, the important thing is that we are about to embark on a cycle that has a 65-80% chance of working and I'm not going to let a stupid insurance situation ruin that for me!
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16 comments:
Congratulations on getting matched! i can't wait to hear what your reaction was! I wish you all the best for your upcoming cycle!
Bummer about insurance. I hope you will get some great embies from your donor and won't have to do much OOP.
You're matched?!?! How super exciting! I can't wait to real all about this phase of your journey. Wishing you all the best.
BOO-HISS to insurance!
OMG I have goose bumps! I am so excited for you. My donor was also 23 and we got started sooner than I expected, too. I am praying for you guys...this is awesome news. So glad you are not focusing on the insurance bs, too much good stuff is going on. I can't wait to hear more.
WOW! How exciting! I can't wait to read about this! I am so excited for you, congratulations!!!!
Wow! How exciting! Sorry about the insurance though.
Best wishes with the cycle!
Oh I am so pleased things are moving forward for you. You sound in a great place emotionally and I am looking forward to reading all about your reaction to reading the donor profile.
Good things are probably just around the corner!
Great news on getting matched! We had the exact same experience with insurance not covering DE - I had waited specifically since we thought it would be covered (as they said when I called), but when the insurance actually started they threw in the DE exception! Our clinic has been great about trying to get the IVF parts of things covered, but all the donor fees, donor meds and donor clinical stuff is not covered. Seems so unfair -
But you are still covered for this first one, right? And hopefully you will have some frosties from a 23 yo donor, so maybe you are covered for FETs in the future? Good luck, hopefully this time around you will get pg and no insurance worries for a while!
Found you from L&F... I too am just starting a DE cycle (and I'm from Jersey, so I can relate to the insurance thing).
Best of luck to you, and I'll be following your story. So glad I found you! ~Shelli
Congrats on the potential match! Wonderful news. We are using a known donor and she just had her last round of genetic testing yesterday so as soon as the results come back, we'll start getting synched up too. Maybe we'll be cycling around the same time. Yeah my insurance won't cover DE either, just IVF with my own eggs, but yours should at least cover your portion of the cycle, just not the donors. It may help at least with your ultrasounds, bloodwork and the transfer. Hopefully it will.
Lisa - my insurance is out of NY - my portion of the process was covered by insurance. The retrieval, meds and fees were not covered but the transfer, tests, etc were covered. It's still a whopping huge number - but not as huge as it could be! My insurance has a lifetime max though - not number of cycles so it may not work exactly the same.
Also - in case you didn't find this out already - your donor is already on BCPs - so they need to catch you up to her. If you think you might cycle before your meeting with Dr Hope call your nurse and get yourself on BCPs - you don't want to lose that window. Did they assign you a new nurse yet? If not - I can give you the head nurse and she'll tell you who you are assigned to.
Also - both J & I have totsicles - hopefully you will have the same - then you just pay for an FET - much cheaper!!
I'm so excited for you!
Cathy
That's such fantastic news, Lisa!
I hope that all goes well with your appointment with the genetics counsellor and that you can begin cycling very soon.
Congratulations on your match!
How frustrating with the insurance. I'm surprise they can get away with, in spite of the writer being in a different state: It shouldn't matter, in my opinion.
Good luck!!!
So excited for you and DH!! GL and can't wait to read all about the next steps. Oh and insurance sucks.
GREAT news! I'm pretty sure most insurance companies have that limitation. I know ours did (we're long past insurance now). In fact, we couldn't have been covered if we weren't married. I had to produce our marriage license before they would approve our cycle. Assholes.
Good luck, sweetie! How fun it must be to have such a great jump in the odds. Part of me can't wait for that.
Here from L&F. Congrats! I've been told I have to use donor eggs and your story gives me hope. Thanks!
Tammy
www.twondra.blogspot.com
Congratulations on getting matched! I know what a big step this was for you and it is wonderful that you are getting too enjoy it. Best of luck!
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