Pathforward | The Saga of Becoming Fruitful | Expressing and capturing our journey of infertility in a blog. This is the saga of becoming fruitful and hoping to become pregnant and parents. This is our story.

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CD1: Phone Consult on Infertility Treatment Pathforwards

Written by Arpee on August 8, 2008 – 3:22 pm -

Ms Flo arrived yesterday with a lot of aches on my lower back and the back of my legs.

So on Thurday morning, I called in to the clinic as instructed and actually get to talk to a live person! Woo hoo! J used to be the one calling me up on updates - I have met her face to face already, so that’s good. This is a cleaned up and shortened version of what transpired (or at least this is my recollection):

Arpee: I’m having a weak flow but that it may be CD1 already since I was passing clots. Remember that the last 2 periods that I had were similarly weak and clot-passing, and that is why I think this is my real flow and this is CD1.

J: Alright. So what cycle are we doing next?

Arpee: I don’t know. (intentionally remained silent.)

J: I don’t have your chart with me right now, but are you looking to maybe another clomid cycle or injectables cycle? (Gets chart, I think) Oh yeah, you are in injectables now. So you’re looking into whether another cycle of IUI or move to IVF.

Arpee: Yes and I was hoping we could have a talk with DrH so that we can discuss it. Can we have a phone consult with her?

J: Unfortunately, she doesn’t do phone consults. What we could do is to schedule you a consult with her on the 28th. Or we could schedule you in for a baseline ultrasound … I would need to squeeze you in tomorrow since DrH is out on the weekend… and then you can talk to her after that.

Arpee: Wow, the 28th…that’s a long time from now.

J: Well, you can come in tomorrow but I would hate for you to pay for the ultrasound if you didn’t need to if you are not proceeding yet to an assisted cycle.

Arpee: Yeah, me too. I just want to know if she has a recommendation on next steps.

J: How about I write her a note and I’ll get back to you within the day?

Arpee: That would be great. Can ask her also what she thinks could be learned and further improved based on our previous cycle?

J: Alright, will call back later.

So I went off with my day, mostly in front of the computer… until I got a call back from the clinic later in the afternoon. This time I got K who is currently the one giving me updates - I’ve met her face-to-face as well (but she is also the one who should have called me regarding my recent beta-hCG results)

K: Hi. I talked to DrH and she said that she recommends IVF.

Arpee: Did she elaborate on why she recommends IVF to be the next step?

K: No, but I think it is because of your age and the past cycles. Would you like to talk to the IVF Nurse? I can transfer you to A so that she can let you know what to expect.

Arpee: Sure, why not. (Transfers me to the IVF nurse and I will write another post on that.)

Meanwhile, I just realized that although I did not get a phone consult directly with DrH, I did get an indrect phone consult through the nurses as the middleman. It wasn’t the best way to do it since they cannot sufficiently answer the questions I asked such as:
- What could be learned and further improved based on our previous cycle?
- Why is IVF being recommended as the next step for my case.

Although I understand the generic answer of “because of your age”, I thought I needed more convincing on why another IUI is not a good idea. I am thinking that a even just a phone consult with DrH would have been more spot-on. (Thinking now…. DrS in Boise, ID (whom I mentioned somewhere in this blog as being not aggressive enough and not keen on explaining things) earns a point for having a phone consults.)

What was your experience with the clinic and your RE (or FS) after a failed cycle? Did you get a call from your RE (or FS) directly? Did the clinic initiate the call regarding next steps? Did they seem to be on top of your case when you have a conversation?

For those of you who will kindly share their experiences, can you please add if your clinic is a big or a small. (I know, “big” and “small” are subjective. For this post though, let’s just say, if it is a single practice (not a partnership), let’s call it small.)

July 2008 Cycle (7/7-8/7): 31 days
June 2008 cycle (6/2 - 7/6): 34 days