My Story

The chronicle of the journey from infertility, to miscarriage, to finally raising twin girls born in June 2012.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Hmmm, interesting

On the IVF front, everything is going just as it should.  All of my numbers are coming back good and very similar to what they were during my successful IVF attempt.  Therefore, I don't have a whole lot to report on that front.

Currently doing 2 injections a day, menapur and gonal-f and it looks like I'll be doing that for 2 more days.

Today we counted 11 follicles on each side for a total of 22 that are currently plumping themselves up.  I don't remember how many follicles we had the last time, but I do remember that we retrieved a total of 19 eggs which produced 5 high quality embryos.  So any starting point above 19 is good news to me.

However, I did learn one interesting little tidbit of gossip today.  You know how I've been hating my IVF clinic ever since they merged with another clinic in January?  Yeah, and since I've been bitching, I'm sure there's been some question about why I'm still dealing with them instead of moving on to another clinic.  The reason for that is because even though the clinic sucks, my doctor himself is pretty awesome.  So I consider myself a patient of HIS, not the clinic.

Apparently, he hasn't been real thrilled with the clinic takeover either.  And I've heard mumblings of that going on behind the scenes.  How he's been really fighting to put policies in place that will help more patients and how it's been a major struggle.  He's the guy who forced the clinic to partner with a hospital so they can now do egg retrievals on fat girls like me.  Before he fought that fight, they just turned people like me away.

Side note - when you are choosing an IVF clinic, look behind the scenes, not just the success rate numbers.  Those success rate numbers can be manipulated in so many ways.  Like simply not treating patients who might have complications of some sort.  If they are never treated, they are never counted in the statistics, therefore you get inflated success rate numbers.  So in your initial consultation, ask how those numbers are calculated.  Does everyone who walks in seeking treatment factor into those numbers?  How are people weeded out before they are counted among those statistics?

Ok, so back to my doctor.  He told me that he is leaving the practice.  Yeah.  "It's not a good fit" as he put it.  Well no shit Sherlock!  I've been watching very closely and you my dear doctor have been trying to treat patients while your new clinic overlords have been trying to make a profit.  Those goals are simply incompatible!

My doctor is finishing up with his patients that are currently in cycle (that's me!) and then he's outta there.

But here's the real rub - I can't follow him.  He's signing a non-compete clause as a part of his exit, so he will be prohibited from opening a new practice and (I think) being hired by another practice in the area.

Sooooooo, if this fresh round fails, I'm stuck with my clinic for 1 pre-paid FET, but with different doctors.  My nurse is staying and she's my primary point of contact, but quite frankly, she's been exhausted and frustrated since the merge as well so I fully expect her to find a job elsewhere at any time too.

So if I don't get knocked up by the end of this month, and I don't get knocked up a month later with an FET, it makes my decision to change clinics real easy.  I've heard some good things about another clinic in the area.  Now that I'm on the cusp of a BMI of 40, I'm eligible to be treated by any clinic in town.  I already know who I'm going to be calling if I find myself in 2012 with no fetus.

5 comments:

  1. I hope you won't have to move on because you'll have a fetus on board :) But, it sounds like moving on will be a good thing if they don't get you pregnant.

    My clinic is awesome sauce. They post all of the stats right outside the door. How many patients seen in the year, how many pregnancies and how many live births per age group. I don't think they would ever turn a difficult case away. Finding a good clinic is key, that is for certain.

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  2. hmmmm...

    so i'm a lawyer. i do not practice in the area of civil / contract law, but i do remember some stuff from law school. specifically, a number of jurisdictions do not allow non-compete agreements but for certain situations.

    second, why is he signing one? is he a contractual employee trying to get out of his contract? why leave if he won't be able to practice in his field anymore? won't he be out of work and poor?

    there is a chance that his non-compete - if it's lawful - only limits him geographically or from soliciting clients. perhaps if you just move to him, that'll work.

    i dunno, but it sounds fishy. i hope you don't have to worry and you get knocked up soon!

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  3. This does not bode well for me if you have that many follicle. I had only 8 total antrals last peek inside of me. Tomorrow I get another ultrasound.

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  4. @Rebecca

    Oh, don't compare to me. Bear in mind that my fertility issue is PCOS. So I create too many egg cysts but because my hormones are trying to create so many, none of them become fully mature. It's better to have a smaller number that become high quality than to have a large number that suck.

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  5. @Sometimes I don't know all of the details. Bear in mind that it was 8am and I was half naked and the main purpose of my appointment was not to discuss my doctors career plans. So it could just be that he's not allowed to say "find me at this clinic after this date" but that doesn't mean he can't practice and I can't find him later on my own.

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