Third one's the charm this time

Hubby and I went to church this weekend for the first time in forever.  We need to get our marriage convalidated with the Catholic church so my husband can be godfather to his best friend's brand new baby. To do that, we decided to start going to church more often and this last weekend was our first Sunday back in town. It was a nice service, but the homily struck a little close to home.  It was all about perseverance in asking God for what you want; that some things take time and determination but God will deliver in the end. The day before I was telling Spencer how frustrated I was with our second opinion and don't hold much hope for the third opinion. I was ready to take a nice long break of all this. The message on Sunday was the perfect sign to keep pushing forward and to not give up.

Today's appointment added to my newfound optimism. This time, we saw Dr. Gada at a clinic in Southlake (so close to home!!). We got there and filled out paperwork (although I don't know why they couldn't have printed it off of the portal information I provided instead of making me fill out the same information again). We were actually called back rather quickly, before our appointment time. We sat in an office for a while, but I think we saw the doctor just around our appointment time, maybe a tad earlier. This was a nice change from previous doctors who have made us wait for 20-30 minutes past our appointment time before calling us back.  He started off just like the other doctors did; he said he understood that we would be frustrated but that he was confident that he could help us have a kid.  He said we just need to be persistent and we will eventually hit on the right formula for me. To me, this was about as clear a sign as could be that this is the right place to be. He could have used many other words, but he used that key word persistent- the same word from church on Sunday.  Dr. Gada just seemed to speak my language and seemed to know exactly what I needed/wanted to hear. 

He said that there is nothing to suggest that our embryos are bad or that we need to do a new retrieval (like opinion two said). Whoo-hoo! That saves us a bundle.  He shared Dr. Doody's opinion that these embryos will eventually get us a baby; it just may take many more transfers.  He said we could test the embryos if we want; data shows that the thawing process doesn't stress the embryo too much and testing provides good data about which embryos we should use.  He said that there were some tests we could run on me to determine if everything is fine with me; if they come back normal, then we can proceed with the more expensive tests on the embryos.  This was the second sign for me that I want to switch to this doctor.  He suggested one of the tests I've been wanting but was too frustrated/timid to ask for.  He didn't seem to mind ordering a second test that I asked for, saying it may not have anything to add to our process, but he doesn't mind ordering as many cheaper blood tests as I want.  He made me feel very comfortable and heard. I decided to be blunt and ask for pricing as everything came to a close.  My original plan was to get prices and game plans from other doctors, so this would have been a slightly unsuccessful trip if I hadn't gotten their pricing.  It's not too far from Dr. Doody's office, just a tad bit more on some parts, but he suggested that they may be able to match Dr. Doody's prices on certain things.  They definitely seem better priced than opinion two.

Overall, I feel like this is where the next step of our journey is going.  I feel really good about our process again. I feel like we have a plan now.  We are running some tests on me and one on Spencer.  We should get those results in about two weeks and have a better idea of whether we need to test the embryos or just try another frozen transfer.  I'm excited and optimistic about our future.  I still hate this process and that this is our fate, but I will remain persistent.

Opinions...lots of opinions

Our followup appointment with Dr. Doody didn't provide many answers. It was alot like last time; we just had bad luck and try again. He gave us pricing info for testing our remaining embryos, but didn't really recommend doing it. He said there aren't too many tests with scientific merit that we can run on me either. Basically try again and hope for the best.

Anticipating not getting many answers from Dr. Doody, I decided I wanted other opinions. Our referral had expired, so I figured why not get referrals to new doctors when asking for the renewal. So I found two doctors online that say they treat endometriosis and infertility. I made appointments to see both by the end of July. My hope is that they will have a different idea on how to proceed and maybe be more open to running tons of tests.

We saw the first of the two doctors last week. Dr. Goldstein only sees patients in Frisco (I thought he went to their southlake location too, just a few minutes from us) which makes for quite a trek. We went over our history with Dr. Goldstein and did a new scan and drew blood for some tests. He wants to do a few more tests and then meet again in a few weeks to go over results. As of right now, he feels that our current batch of embryos must not be very good because they haven't worked yet. He feels the best option for proceeding is to do yet another retrieval and a frozen transfer after that. He's confident that with a different drug protocol and (better) lab, we can get better embryos and have more success.  He said we could try to thaw all of our embryos and pick the best couple to transfer and cross our fingers.

I don't even know what to think or do at this point. A year ago, I had really expected to only need to do one retrieval and that we could have a whole family from the resulting embryos. That definitely hasn't worked yet. I don't know how we will afford to do another retrieval; Dr. Goldstein quoted us about $13-15k. For now, I'm just gathering information. We still have another opinion and pricing to gather. Then we can sit down and discuss things.