Loving the Manning Triplets: Fantastic Day

Yesterday morning, I went into my appointment with Dr. Magarelli poised for terrible news. I didn't know how far our IVF schedule would be pushed back when we redid the blood test for my OAR score, but I knew that it would be. As we sat down to talk, I already had a speech prepared about how disappointed I was that everything was going to change. Then, to my astonishment, he said, "I feel very comfortable proceeding with the original schedule without the OAR score." What? I thought that was not negotiable?

He went on to explain that the OAR score is used to give the doctors an estimate of how our bodies will respond to the medication. However, they don't actually know how you will respond until the medication is on board. That's why they do a blood test about every other day and adjust your medications accordingly. Because all of my other testing came back normally, and they saw follicles in my ovaries during the ultrasound, he decided to push forward. Yay!!

Actually, my testing didn't come back entirely normal. I have hypothyroidism. Right now, I'm able to compensate with diet and exercise, but he did put me on Synthroid throughout the duration of my treatment to perfect my thyroid function and hormone levels. He's the boss. They also did a baseline ultrasound and blood work yesterday. During the ultrasound, the nurse counted at least 19 follicles in my ovaries (follicles hold eggs) and the blood work came back great. We're back on track with the original schedule!!

After we left the doctor's office, we spent the rest of the afternoon getting ready for our "baby making" party. Basically, Dr. Magarelli likes to educate the community about IVF and prefers to do his marketing through his patients. If we hosted a party and invited him to do a lecture, we would get $75 off the cost of IVF per person in attendance. Last night, we had 57 people attend our party! That makes $4,275 off the cost of our procedure!! I want to send a warm thank you to those of you that were in attendance last night. With everything we've been going through lately, having that amount off the final cost helps us to breathe a little easier. We would have struggled to do it without you all.