In the Beginning...

It seems so long ago: Mike and I wanted to have a baby before he graduated from law school. Yes, I would have for sure had to go back to work but, hey, we would have a baby! Alas, that was not what would happen…

So…when Aunt Flow came to visit over and over, we decided to get the pipes checked.

Test #1 was Lisa’s bloodwork. This involved 13 (yes…13) vials of blood. Some even had to be spun, frozen, and spun again. I was surprised when the explanation of benefits came and said that would be $1200…thank goodness for insurance.

Test #2 was Lisa’s hysterosalpingogram on 4/14/08. Say that 5 times fast. This was all sorts of fun. First of all, I had to have the test at Medical City for my insurance to pay as much as possible. While it’s a nice perk to simply walk down the hall from my office to the radiology department, it is not fun to know that I know all the on call radiologists SINCE I WORK WITH THEM EVERYDAY for Modified Barium Swallow studies. I had to have this test done in a 5-day window of my cycle so I talked to my radiology supervisor friend and asked when one (of the two) female doctors would be there in those 5 days. I picked that day and then heard the day before my test that she had fallen off a horse and broken her arm!!! So, as luck would have it, I spread ‘em for Dr. Monga and wore regular people clothes and lots of makeup in an attempt to disguise my true self. This test involves passing a small catheter past my cervix (wherever that was) into the uterus. Then, they filled that uterus with dye (which is clearish brown and is the exact consistency as Mrs. Buttersworth pancake syrup). For about 60 seconds it feels as if your uterus will explode but then the dye goes through the fallopian tubes and it’s all over. The point of the test is to make sure the fallopian tubes are clear and open. For the next 48 hours, I had to wear a panty liner to catch the Mrs. Buttersworth. The only complication this posed was the panty liner becoming similar to a piece of construction paper with Elmer’s glue right between my legs. I will stop there.

After several discussions and a meeting with Dr. Peng, the Reproductive Endocrinologist, we were given a couple options. Although one “option” was about $1500 a pop with the possibility of needing to do this 20 times. The other option was IVF with ICSI with a hefty pricetag of about $15,000 though 65% of a chance to work.. If you do the math, this was the best option. So we signed up for the fun.