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Success after IF
Imanurse03
member
XP: Anyone who's done IV intralipids, please come in!
Imanurse03
member
Hi there! I know I don't post much anymore and I apologize! My new job prevents me from spending time during the day bumping here! 
We're going to be doing DE in March. I mentioned IV intralipids to my RE at our last office visit. He has never done them on a patient before and was skeptical of it. I presented him with the literature I got from SIRM. He still wasn't a believer but he knows we are just grasping at straws at this stage (lots of BFNs, 4 m/c, canceled IVFs, etc). He knows I feel pretty strongly about trying the IV intralipids so he has agreed to let me have the treatment. I'd feel kind of special because if I do have the treatment, I'd be his 1st patient for the treatment. I'd like to think I'd pave the way for future patients in his practice.
Anyway, he absolutely will not do the infusions at his office. The nurse said I'd have to find a place who could do it. It's actually better if I don't do it at RE's office because the RE's office is close to an hour one way from home. Basically I was told it was my job to find a place who could provide the infusion.
My questions is for those who have done IV intralipids: where did you have the infusion done? If not at the RE's office, then where? I did find an infusion service through my local hospital's website and I'll call them tomorrow. It looks like they come to patients' homes for all types of IV infusions, including IVIG, as well as parenteral nutrition, which IV intralipids is a component of. So I'm hoping they'd do IV intralipids. Since I'm doing a DE cycle, at what point in my cycle would I have the infusion? I think I remember reading before the ET and soon after a BFP. Thanks for any information!
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Re: XP: Anyone who's done IV intralipids, please come in!
I just googled "infusion center" and started calling around for quotes. The hospitals were a little tougher to deal with than the free standing for profit centers (they were happy to take my money for fat, lol!) Mine was called Coram, which is a national "chain." There were others.
I'll warn you the billing was a PITA. They quoted me one price and charged me $100 a treatment more and bills trickled in with no explanation or rationale (stuff didn't match up and it took me a while to sort out.) It was still $500/ treatment cheaper than what the RE would have charged me (b/c their nurses charge so much per hour and I had to be monitored)
My RE did have to write them a letter explaining the rationale and signing off on it since it's experimental.
My first infusion was June 13, my second (b/c my ET was delayed by crap lining), then June 21, then FET on June 25 then another upon BFP.
I forget what window they were shooting for, but I think it was no more than 10 days before ET, which is why I repeated when my ET was delayed (if I remember correctly, it was delayed 5 days.)
There may be more in my blog if you search intralipid. I've forgotten a lot.
same boat, same skeptisim, same doc leary of "snake oil" but willing to humor.
I called around, here's my scoop- home infusions would not be covered by insurance unless my diagnosis code reflected the need. Ours will not ;-)
Immunology places like allergy clinics won't do it, it's too "snake oil" for them, at least the place I talked to candidly about it, admited as such.
I easily got in at my local hospital with a call/order from my OBGYN, who bless his heart, lets me boss him around. At their infusion center, where folks go to get blood transfusions, IVIG, humira, etc. They didn't quite GET WHY I wanted them (I swear I could see them looking at my chart, seeing my BMI, and wondering WHY does this chic wants TPN?) but a little explanation and it went ok. BTW, everyone outside SIRM's world calls them simply "lipids" - it's a 2-3 hour drip of simple lipids. Nothing fancy (I think it was 20% solution in 300cc??????) and if your screen name is correct, Miss nurse, lol, you look familiar, you COULD just do a gravity drip into yourself if you had the IV kit. Not ideal in case you have some freaky reaction, but you COULD do it, order the bags from Curascripts or something.
I'd have to go look at my notes, but I think it's 7-10 days prior to transfer, then again at BFP, then 4 weeks after if you want.
And here's my 2 cents about doing this... I know lots of gals have gone this route, and it "worked" for them, and that's great. But rarely have they (or ANYONE) done it under the SAME exact same protocol as the time prior when they didn't. So you'll never know if it's the lipids that worked, or the change in protocol, luck, good embies, etc. BUT, I get the idea of throwing the book at the cycle and trying everything. So I did it. I don't believe it hurt, but I don't give it much credit at all for working. For whatever reason we got further this time around, I think it was due to the steroids and the FET, my body wasn't raging mad.
That being said, I'll probably do it again, just to feel like I tried. I think they billed my insurance $300 each, not sure we paid very much of that at all, bills are still rolling in.
GL !!!