REs & appointments
I was so excited last week, we had our first appt with our RE on Monday the 21st and we both really liked the Dr. On Tuesday both DH & myself got our bloodwork done & Wed DH dropped off his SA. My DH has done such a 180 since the visit & is now up for trying IUI & IVF if I want to go that route.
I called yesterday to schedule our follow up visit to go over results (figuring they would be in any day now & that appts are hard to come by). Well the first available appt isn't until Feb 26. At first she said March 5, then she looked closer since I don't need an hour slot & found the 26st. I told her "nothing earlier? That is a long time to wait for a follow up." Her response was "he is worth the wait, he is the best." I said "I am sure he is the best, but I am turning 43 in April, so waiting is not on my side." 
She said the RE is all backed up because he went away on vacation last month.
I hope they get his schedule caught up & fixed soon, I can not be having appts so far apart, they will drive me insane....
I almost want to call her back & make another appt now for whatever the next visit would be. Does your RE get this backed up with appts, making it hard to get one fast? I was so cranky & down and out yesterday because of this...
Re: REs & appointments
1st BFP-8/17/12! Missed Miscarriage discovered @ 8 week US. D&C.
2nd BFP-2/13/13! Blighted Ovum discovered @ 8 week US. Natural miscarriage.
3rd BFP-5/22/13! By early June, progesterone plummeting. Another loss.
August 2013 - started Donor Egg process, but surprise BFP with my own eggs.
Dear Son born 5/28/14
Make the appointment. If you wait, it'll just be longer. My RE was backed up for a while, but was able to get caught up pretty soon. Is he the only one at the practice?
I would also ask if there are other tests that you can do before your appointment since you are ready to go IUI / IVF. At my RE, you are required to do a HSG and Infectious Disease Screening prior to an IUI or IVF treatment. Both you and your husband would give blood for the Infectious Disease Screening. The HSG needs to be scheduled in the first 10 days of your cycle with antibiotics taken by both of you for five days. Get as much of your testing out of the way so you are ready to jump into treatment at the next visit.
Good luck!
The only good thing is that the lab has a new thing that you can sign up for to get your blood test results sent to your smart phone. Both DH I signed up for it. Still waiting to get them. The RE is doing the lab work on his SA, so we will have to agonize for a mth wondering about that.
I believe RE is doing the other bloodwork you mentioned heck they took around 10 vials from me 6 from DH.
I have an appt with him on the 26 as well, to discuss injectibles and superova? is what I think they called it. Interesting that you need a follow up, he just threw me into TI with clomid and ovidrel - but that might be because he diagnosed me with pcos at the first one, of th e4 u/s I have had he has done 2 of them, nurse did other 2....will see this Thursday if he is there or not.
Oh and as an FYI some of the tests took at least 2 weeks to come back...I called a week later and then about 10 days later. Glad RE is doing SA, he said about my DH that he didn't trust the hospital because SA are so low on their radar they don't give it the attention required....so you will have accurate results.
So glad your DH is back on board!!! yea for you!
My Ovulation Chart
Me: 41 DH: 46. We are TTC our 1st, started July '11,
3 cycles clomid with Ob,
1 cycle Tamoxifen with Ob,
Diagnosed PCOS 11/5/12
clomid, trigger & timed bd 12/12 BFN
1st clomid IUI 1/4/13 BFN.
2nd clomid IUI 2/13 cancelled didn't respond to clomid.
3/15/13 scheduled laparoscopy & on bcp.
May 10 IUI from injectibles - BFN
May 22 done with interventions it will either happen or it won't.
February 2014 No longer actively trying, but not preventing.
SURPISE BFP 4/2/2015!!!!!!!!!!
Miscarriage 4/23/15
Qzees, I don't like the "he's worth the wait, he is the best" comment...come now...this is reproductive endocrinology...these doctors require very demanding hours 7 days a week. I was at a super popular "best" clinic in Beverly Hills before I moved 50 miles away and it was a very busy clinic. I never waited more than a few days (if that) for an appointment. If he's that busy, he needs more support staff or another doctor in the practice. My new RE doesn't have me wait at all. I do appreciate the vacation information. We can all understand catching up after a vacation. Like you say, I hope they catch up and fix his schedule soon, you should not have appointments that far apart. I know you probably thought long and hard about the RE you picked. I'm certain he's great, but I would ask if his availability is always tight. Make sure they are good at getting back to you. Ordering meds, pre-auth with insurance (if that applies), blood results are all very time sensitive. I'm sure they get it all done because otherwise he wouldn't have a good reputation, it's just the stress level for you. Also, once you get into treatment, there's no way they can't see you very often and as the treatment requires. So don't worry. Just my two cents. (Sorry if I'm all over the place...it's the lupron talking)
By the way, my DH also did a 180. He was anti-ART and now he's all over it and very supportive.
Good luck and stay excited!
Heather, how cool is that - I took the first available which was 12:45, maybe I will run into you there - what time is yours? We live so close by one another, we should really get together one day
I am so much happier since my DH came on board with "interferring" (as he likes to consider it). His best friend asked me what I said to him, he said he has not seen him so focused on something in a long time. LOL
PPL2011 - Heather uses him also & I haven't heard her complain yet. There is a 2nd RE there, but they did not offer up an appt with that Dr. Honestly, I wanted him - he is the main Dr there, the other Dr is new to the practice. My insurance makes you call & get pre-approved for any IF testing prior to even seeing the RE, etc. So far the RE office always asks if I did that (so far so good in that dept). I hope you are right about fitting me in a lot sooner if I start a protocol of meds & such. If I have to wait all the time in between appts it is going to drive me bonkers...
Heather have you had many problems getting appts?
The aggravating thing is that I really thought that by the end of this week we would know where we stand - what options we have or if there aren't any. DH & I are trying to plan a vacation in March or April and I didn't want to worry about having to be home to run to RE office all the time for monitoring. It is making selecting a week to go away very difficult... Such a problem huh.. LOL.
One crazy thing was the day I had my first (and only so far) appt with the RE, I got a call from a pharmacy to discuss my rx. It was a pharmacy that this RE uses because they provide IF drugs. They called to check on my insurance & to do a test run to see if I would be covered for a popular injectable (which I am). They explained that they ups the meds & they like to make sure I have the coverage so that the dr does not prescribe something that won't be covered.
I thought that was an interesting step.
Well good that you at least have an appointment on the books. Hopefully someone will cancel and you can get in earlier. So much waiting in this stupid process makes me nuts. Also so happy about the 180 your DH made. It's so good to know that you wont be limited on your options - now I just hope you don't need any of those options and you get a BFP soon!
So far I haven't had that problem with mine - it's a really small practice that they just opened in 2011 so they are not super busy but seem to have a really good success rate for being so new. When I called to schedule my next set of test on Friday my doc actually answered the phone and did all the scheduling & called in the order for the pre-testing meds himself. Talk about personalized service! I go for an ultrasound tomorrow and a hysteroscopy on Monday. I also got an email from him today that said my CD3 bloodwork came back good and we can discuss at tomorrow's appointment. Feeling really confident that I finally have the doc that's going to make things happen!
I am praying all our tests come back great would love it if I got the bfp on my own....
My appt is at 1:45! Guess I am right after you! I going to be scoping out everyone that walks out lol!
As monitoring and such, I haven't had any issues. There are nurses that handle lots of the details (like u/s and he didn't do IUI someone else did), but trust me nothing is done without his ok and they are really good about calling back.
I would recommend that if he suggests injectibles, check immediately if you need another consult before that...that is taking forever - but again they mentioned vacation to me too. Mine might be a consult because he is thinking I might need laproscopy to check if my tubes have scar tissue - which could prevent them from moving to get the egg.
IMHO opinion the way we ovulate is a design flaw! egg is in ovary ok np, then it bursts out of ovary and floats in side your abdominal cavity as the tubes move to draw it up inside, if they can't move no egg inside.....why aren't they attached??? 1 of 3 design flaws I see in the human body
My Ovulation Chart
Me: 41 DH: 46. We are TTC our 1st, started July '11,
3 cycles clomid with Ob,
1 cycle Tamoxifen with Ob,
Diagnosed PCOS 11/5/12
clomid, trigger & timed bd 12/12 BFN
1st clomid IUI 1/4/13 BFN.
2nd clomid IUI 2/13 cancelled didn't respond to clomid.
3/15/13 scheduled laparoscopy & on bcp.
May 10 IUI from injectibles - BFN
May 22 done with interventions it will either happen or it won't.
February 2014 No longer actively trying, but not preventing.
SURPISE BFP 4/2/2015!!!!!!!!!!
Miscarriage 4/23/15
Qzees,
So happy to hear that your appt. timing is moving forward. I understand the anxiety of 43, as I am too.....I was reading the posts and seeing that everyone is getting apts quicker than I. I just started on Dec. 17th of last year and had to wait til Feb. 5th, due to my AMH test taking 6 weeks, does that sound correct? I was screaming inside but haven't said anything because I don't want to get on their bad side before I even started. Maybe, I should have looked around a bit, hum?
Anyways, good luck with your appt, hope that you get all worked out, so you can go on your wonderful vacation. Sounds like fun!
Jacque - my initial appt was Oct 29th - that appt took 2 mths to get. Unfortunately that was the day Hurricane Sandy hit. They did move my appt to the 30th (actually called me on Sunday from home to move it), but unfortunately I was dealing with a neighborhood underwater & about a foot of water in my basement & I could not go. My job deals with helping people with floods, etc - so work was nuts once I went back to work a week later. After my life calmed down I called RE to make a new appt - which took about 6 wks to get. Now this one taking just shy of a mnth. My bloodwork is still not back from the 22nd & I know he was testing my egg quality & quantity (which I think is the AMH you are referring too). I hope it does not take that long for the results, that would be crazy...
My OB referred me to this RE, but I did read all about him before selecting him.
Heather - I will look out for you when I get out. The person who set up the appt said it would take about 30 mins, that I did not need an hour appt. My gut tells me it will be 45 mins... I have long brown curly hair - so watch out for me & make sure you say something to me, my name is Suzanne