Today was our first appointment at SIU School of Medicine. We met with Dr. Loret de Mola's PA Lisa Greenacre. First we went over all of our medical history with a nurse, she took my vitals and discussed our past treatment. Once Lisa was available we met with her to discuss our next plan of attack. She had questions about why we moved from Clomid so quickly to injectables, why we have only transferred one embryo, if I was ovulating on my own, etc.
After a lengthy discussion, her initial recommendation was that we continue treatment with our normal doctor, doing another FET and using the embryos we already had, but considering transferring 2 embryos. I have to admit I was a little discouraged by what she was saying. She had started out the consultation by explaining to us the
SART charts and what their success rates are (56% success live birth/fresh cycle) vs. our current doctor (22% success live birth/fresh cycle). She had me so convinced, based on their success rates, that we needed to consider switching doctors, that I was pretty much sold on using their clinic for any further treatment. In my mind, why would we continue to do something that isn't working? Joe could tell that I wanted to move on from them and told Lisa that we've already decided to switch doctor's and that they were the ones we've chosen.
In order to start treatment with our new doctor we would have to do a fresh cycle. Lisa told us that many clinics will not accept embryos from other clinics because their laboratory protocols can differ so much. If we want to move forward with Dr. Loret de Mola we would have to do fresh transfer, which I am totally fine with. Their next concern was that, although 34 eggs is a great number, it's not necessary at all to have that many follicles retrieved. They would like to see 10-15 follicles so my protocol will definitely be adjusted. Our next step in this new process is meeting with Dr. Loret de Mola on February 9th for our first IVF consultation. We will go over the treatment protocol, schedule a mock transfer, and hopefully get our plan for an April retrieval. Although that is still a few months away, such is the way of infertility treatment. It's always a waiting game, and I'm used to it by this point.
Once our consultation was done we met with an SIU photographer and the public affairs officer of SIU. They wanted to interview us for a piece on us for Fertility Awareness Week in April. They are interested in sharing a patient story, doing interviews, taking photos and video, and following us along as we take this new path on our journey. It was awesome and I had a blast doing it. Of course I talked way too much, but like I told Lauren, the public affairs officer, I love to talk about and share my journey and I know our timeline like the back of my hand, I know the details, I know the protocols, I know the procedures, I know my story and every single date and every single detail, so I had to apologize for being so thorough when she asked how my journey started, I basically went through our entire TTC timeline without even flinching. I am so honored to be asked to be a part of their initiative and their project. As soon as I get some photos and footage, I will gladly share with you all. This is huge for me, and more than I could've ever dreamed would happen for BRB.
We are excited to start this new journey. Although we were left with a "definite" diagnosis of unexplained fertility, I'm hoping that this clinic and their renowned lab will be able to give us the result we are looking for. At this point we will move forward with a fresh cycle and a single embryo transfer. We are not planning to do any other testing on our embryos (like PGS/CGH) at this point due to my age and the fact that we don't have any genetic concerns. I am very hopeful that this new chapter in our journey will be the answer to our prayers!