Hurry Up and Wait

This morning Nadia had her very first eye doctor appointment. Given everyone in my family and Paul's family wears either contacts or glasses, I am quite certain she will be seeing the eye doctor many more times in her life. Paul didn't get his first pair of glasses until he was in his mid twenties, and I got them in elementary school. I didn't really think Nadia needed to be seen at this stage, but since I already declined to fill the Rx for flouride for Nadia I thought I had better not decline the opthamology referral from her pediatrician as well. I figured she'd either think I wasn't a very good patient or a very good mom. Well if I had to do it over again, I wish I had just skipped this appointment as we had QUITE the day. The good news is that she passed the eye exams with flying colors. He doesn't predict she'll need glasses at an early age. Although I don't want her to have keratoconus like Paul does, it would be nice if she could wait until her 20's to need contacts or glasses like her Daddy.

A friend of mine was going to come over for lunch so she could meet Nadia. She used to teach 1st grade at the school where I was principal, and we've stayed in touch although we only see each other about once a year. The last time I saw her was at Cracker Barrel when a few ladies gathered to give me baby gifts last year. This morning she called to say she wasn't feeling well and would need to reschedule. In light of that, I decided to call the RE to see if my appt scheduled for tomorrow could be moved to today since we were already going to be at that hospital today for Nadia's eye 10:40 eye appt. They said they had an 11:00 opening with a different RE so my appt was moved to today. It turned out to be a long ordeal....

1. We left the house at 9:50am as I wanted to get to the eye dr a little early to have a better chance of making the 11:00 appt on time as Dr. A is always very prompt so I figured it would be the same with Dr. O.

2. We arrived at the eye doctor at about 10:25 (after a long walk that involved 2 different elevators, etc.).

3. At 10:50 I could tell that we probably weren't going to be seen any time soon as there were MANY children in the waiting room that were there when we arrived who hadn't been seen by Dr. W yet. I mentioned to the nurse that I had another appt at 11:00, and she suggested I go to that appt and come back because they were really running behind.

4. I arrive at the fertility clinic 5 minutes before my scheduled appt only to find out Dr. O tends to always run really late (I've never been seen by him before). I have my b/w done. At 11:10 the receptionist suggests I go back to the eye doctor.

5. We arrive back at the eye doctor (keep in mind there is a very LONG walk involved between these two offices). After waiting a few more minutes, Nadia has her very brief (less than 5 minute) exam. Then after she has drops put in to dilate her eyes they suggest come back after I've had my u/s.

6. We arrive back at the RE at 11:40 and after waiting 10 minutes the receptionist says I should come back at 1pm. I have had a full bladder for the past 2 hours because that's needed for the trial transfer.

7. We arrive back at the eye doctor at about noon. I am hoping that we won't have to wait long for the 2nd half of Nadia's eye exam, and then I plan to take her to Donna's house so Nadia can take a nap and stay with Donna while I have my RE exam. Unfortunately we have to wait a LONG time for the eye doctor to give her another less than 5 minute exam. We didn't leave the eye doctor until about 12:50. I brought puffs for Nadia, and we had shared a banana earlier, but I am getting really hungry and have a bad headache from my blood sugar dropping.

8. When we left the RE at 11:50 I asked that they call in my Rx to the pharmacy so I can at least accomplish that while waiting for my 1pm appt. After we leave the eye doctor I stop at the pharmacy only to find out that they haven't filled it yet (one hour later). They said they have everything in stock except they only can give me 600iu of Follistim (the RE made first Rx for that for 1,200iu). I thought it would just take a few minutes since they had gathered all the meds to see if they had them in stock. So I went next door to the snack shop and bought myself some chocolate pudding to see if that would help my headache go away.

9. After eating my pudding, I check back at the pharmacy only to find out it's still not ready. It's now 1pm, and I'm supposed to be at the RE. So we never made it to Donna's house. Nadia sleeps in my arms while we walk back to the RE (and I'm pushing her empty stroller). We arrive at the RE, and Nadia stays asleep until the nurse asks me to disrobe for the exam. So I put Nadia back in the stroller and get myself up on the exam table. And we wait. We waited more than 20 minutes. My girl could have slept longer in my arms!!! I'm trying to entertain her while holding a sheet around my waist.

10. Finally the doctor arrives; so Nadia goes back in the stroller. She was happy during the first part of the exam while I made faces at her, but then she starts crying. Thankfully the receptionist comes and gets her and keeps her the rest of the exam. Dr. O did the trial transfer and baseline u/s. He tells me the thickness of my lining which I am used to, but this was my 13th baseline u/s and it was the first time follicles were mentioned (one as big as 12mm) and he even referred to one as a possible endometrioma. He's the 7th RE to do an u/s on me and the first to mention this. I've had one HSG (2004), two SHG's (2007 & 2009), and I don't even want to count how many u/s since we started fertility treatments in 2003. I admit I was getting a little stressed out that I wasn't going to get the "green light," but then they told me to start the stimming on Friday. Whew...

11. So we head back to the pharmacy (let me tell you I got LOTS of exercise today) and pick up the meds. I had asked for Menopur instead of Repronex this time. Wow is it WAY more expensive!! If I was paying for these myself, I would definitely opt for Repronex. I'd endure a few extra side effects to save over $1,000, but since the insurance is paying, I'll try the Menopur. The bill for what I picked up today was $4,008.42, and I was responsible for $80.27 of that. I am very grateful the insurance pays for most of it.

12. We were at the hospital for a total of 4 hours and including driving time were gone from home for 5 hours. During that 4 hours we were seen by doctors for about 20 minutes total. Nadia slept about 15 minutes in the car on the way home, and that messed her up enough that she wouldn't take a 2nd nap once we got home. I am glad tomorrow we don't have to go back to the hospital! My next appt is just for b/w on Monday morning at an office only 15 minutes away from home. I think on my way to work on Monday afternoon I'll need to stop at the pharmacy and get the other 600iu of the Follistim as I'm starting at 150iu of Follistim and 75iu of Menopur a day (plus continuing the Lupron).

Sorry the post was so lengthy. The bottom line is that Nadia's eyes are fine, and I got the green light to start stimming on Friday. Praying this leads to a BFP!