stims working so far...

[Annette]

Good luck with your Beta today!!!

[iwannabeamomx5]

Any news? I have been checking in all day...thinking about you!!

[smsmith12]

+ive mentioned ...

Hi!! It was quite a day. I was super busy at work, and I refused to check my voicemail until I knew I could have some privacy, which wasn't till 4pm! I was DYING when I checked that voicemail. I had a positive beta. 87. !!!! But still a ways to go of course, I'm worried about getting too excited. Next beta, Weds AM. I'm just hoping praying hoping praying praying hoping....

I feel so fortunate and so grateful for support from you guys. Thanks for checking on me! iwannabeamomx5, I am so impressed with your fighting your insurance co -- that is amazing, I guess there was a way for you to get it covered!?! How did you do that?!? My insurance explicitly excludes it from their policy. Even though we had 5 iui's with not even a chemical pregnancy, and significant male factor. They (Kaiser Permanente) even HAVE a Reproductive Health Ctr, which I am using, and not even a discount or meds coverage for a Kaiser member. Grrr....

So I guess I should go over to the beta board if this keeps up Weds.

[iwannabeamomx5]

YAY, I am SO excited for you!!!! Congratulations on the +++ !!!!

I know there is more to get through, but I always say that everyone should celebrate and be happy every single second we possibly can!!! Can't wait to follow along on the beta forum!!




AFM, our insurance does provide infertility coverage that includes IVF (it's state mandated) and it covers up to 4 cycles. But it's 4 fresh oocyte retrievals per individual, per lifetime - and they were counting my ED cycles against me!! grrrrrr..... We tried to appeal twice before, explaining how unfair it was to use those cycles against me, because they were not for me, nor were they even done in the state of IL, and the couple who I was donating to paid for everything - my insurance never paid one single dime towards those cycles!! And the thing is, exceptions to the rule CAN be made, but they wouldn't budge. They thought they could get out of paying, because they thought they were abiding by the law 100%, and were not violating anything by denying me, even though it was completely morally unfair, seeing as we met every other criteria necessary to be eligible for those benefits. This is also insurance that my DH has had for 24 years, ever since he started working at his company back 1987, which I then joined in 1991 when we got married. It is really, really good insurance for everything - when you have coverage - and this is the first problem we had ever had with them.

The thing is, I could still receive treatment for anything *lesser* than IVF, so that's why we did all those IUI's and everything. Well this year, they changed their policy, such that if you are considered to have exhausted your highest level of IF benefits, you no longer qualify for anything lesser, either. Well I was ticked off to say the least because now i had no coverage for anything, couldn't even have my RE do my lap for me to clean up the endometriosis - ugh, so I went on a hunt to try and find something, ANYTHING, to help our cause!!

I had many supporters who were telling us to take our story to the media - because with the growing popularity of egg donation, can you imagine how many women this could affect? Think of all the young women doing 3, 4, 5, 6 egg donation cycles - what if they later discover they have infertility, but can't get IVF coverage because they had already met their lifetime max of oocyte retrievals, in terms of what insurance co.'s have to provide - seeing as the law says they don't have to give you anything if you've already undergone 4 oocyte retrievals - regardless of where or when or who paid for it - and the law does not outline any specific *exceptions to the rule* for cases like egg doantion cycles, or even surrogacy when the surrogate uses her own eggs, but they need IVF to conceive due to male factor or other issues.


Anyhow, thanks to THIS board, I found someone to help us - here is the thread and what I just posted last week about it: http://www.inciid.org/forum/showthread.php?t=42436

What she found in IL Infertility Law that helped us, was this:
Section 2015.43 Donor Expenses
If an oocyte donor is used, then the completed oocyte retrieval performed on the donor shall count against the insured or member as one completed oocyte retrieval.






In other words, according to the IL law, the oocyte retrievals that were "performed" on me as the donor were to be counted against the "insured/member" (meaning the OTHER party/recipients, NOT me as the donor) and by law should NOT be counted against me at all!! And THAT changed everything for us....thank goodness!!! (I had not previously even considered this in terms of what it really meant - because I viewed it as speaking about me and my DH, as the insured, and we never used an ED for ourselves, so I just didn't see how this one sentence applied to us - but thankfully, Julie did!! YAY!!)

i am not going to dwell on the past right now - though I will say it does bother me that we didn't figure this out sooner, because I'm almost 38 now and of course my eggs aren't as good, and darnit, we should have been doing IVF 2-3 years ago, after the first couple of IUI's didn't work. But it is, what it is, and i'm just going to think positive about it, because now we finally have the chance to make this work!! We have FOUR chances!!! So...only positive thinking allowed!! ;-)

[Annette]

Congratulations!! Looking forward to seeing you on the beta board after tomorrow!!!

[aandp]

Congrats!!!

Very exciting...I hope you have more wonderful news tomorrow.

[Carlaliz]

Just checking back in with the boards after a month or two and am reading what's going on. Saw that your first beta was good. Many congrats!! I know how exciting that is but at the same time you don't wanna jinx it by getting too happy. Try to savor each moment. I can't wait to hear how things are going. Good luck!!!

[smsmith12]

thanks to everyone so so much for the support. I am rooting for everyone here.
I'm over at the "Beta board" now... a good start. xoxo, Sarah

[Annette]

Woohoo!!!

[Annette]

Hey Patti, how have you been? Been thinking about you!