Teething issues at the new clinic

Grrrrr it has just been one of those freaking days, folks.

It started with Monkey knocking his beautiful new Life Factory drink bottle off the table and my god, the fucker smashed. I kid you not. They are glass yes but they have a protective silicon sleeve and I have found mine quite resilient. So this was unexpected. Here’s the great part: it cost $40 and I BOUGHT IT YESTERDAY.

Not even 24 hours in the house. *sigh*

He was devastated. Devastated. He had been so excited to get a bottle just like Mummy’s and Daddy’s and it was black which is his favourite colour (yes I know it’s not a colour, I don’t need a lesson on the colour spectrum) so man, the tears. Anyway, Daddy decided we should buy him another as it is the healthiest drinking option – no plastic toxins blah blah which is our big thing at the moment so he is a very lucky little boy but I have told him, if this one smashes there will be no more. He is usually a very careful little boy with special things so I think we should be fine but yeah, great start to the day.

Then I had a call from the scientist at the new clinic’s lab to talk about our Next Generation PGD testing and she dumps on me that no it does not take 24 hours, she’s never heard of that. So I almost had a heart attack and lost my shit a little about it. I didn’t yell at her or anything but I got quite emotional and insisted she go and double check all the info as Dr checked and email AND MADE A CALL ABOUT IT while we were having our consultation to confirm the whole 24 hour thing so yeah, I was pissed about that. That whole 24 hour thing was really important to me as the wait is so freaking hideous.

Ugh.

I told Eric and he didn’t seem to care much. His thought is “as long as they do it right” and I guess I agree. He did acknowledge that the wait was hard for me though and he could understand why I was upset. In the end I am OK with it being a wait I just want to know what to expect. I DO NOT want any surprises to fuck up my mojo while I’m on cycle. That shit is hard enough. So they are investigating and will call me back and likely tell me I have to wait. Whatever.

Then I had my appointment with the clinic to talk about my protocol with the nurse and also have the financial chat with the admin peeps. Well that causes a bit of a ruckus too but we’ll do the good bits first.

The nurse was GREAT. I loved her. At this clinic you have one nurse the whole way through and I really like that I get to have that single contact. I think that makes a difference to your experience. Also, at this clinic they can do the bloods on site so when you go in for your bloods and scan through the cycle they just do it all there and get your results happening while you wait. Sometimes there might be a longer wait but there is an awesome RAW + Wholefoods cafe close by so Eric says take a book and go there and lunch is on him (which is great as it is EXPENSIVE but so delicious. And a great spot for a book too). It isn’t practical to go back home as the drive is 45 mins each way with this clinic so I have resigned myself to the fact that this cycle will mean lots of days where almost my entire day is taken up with IVF stuff. It’s cool. As long as I know all this in advance, I can manage the expectations.

Anyway, the ruckus. The payment structure here isn’t as friendly as our previous clinic. Our previous clinic was super efficient when it came to the admin side of things. They had our credit card on file and when it was time to pay something they’d call for authorisation and then charge away and I never had to bother with it. For a cycle we didn’t actually pay anything until egg pick up day where we’d pay the whole slab and then they’d send it off to Medicare and we’d have the rebate in our account in 2-3 days. SO easy.

This clinic, they want me to pay most of it when I pick up the meds on Day 2. The rest is paid after PGD results and THEN they will put the claim though. That’s at least a month after our initial payment! I can’t understand why if they could do it more quickly, like the other clinic, that they wouldn’t do it this way. I am actually going to write them a letter suggesting this. The whole process is SO expensive, why not provide some financial relief to your customers if you can???

Anyway, Eric, ever the level headed person in this blessed union which is neither blessed or a union points out that while the last clinic was super efficient they didn’t get us a baby and they missed my endo and just generally fucked it up a bit and if I’m going to be angry then my anger should be at them.

He is right. But I’m still annoyed. But I’ll get over it. I’m at this clinic for THIS specialist and for these scientists. They are getting the best outcomes in this arena and we (meaning I – HA) just need to remember that when the admin systems are going to shit and pissing me off.

This isn’t their first day of screw ups either – I don’t know if I mentioned it but they screwed up my hospital time on the day or my surgery. I turned up at 730am which is what I was told and they were expecting me an hour or so earlier. No one made a big deal about it and they put me through but still, not awesome.

BUT despite that the surgery went well and my Dr did his job so I need to just take a chill pill and CALM DOWN. This whole day of unexpected events as just highlighted to me that this next cycle is going to be challenging for me. All my eggs are truly in this one basket and that is going to stress me out more than I realised so I need to stay on top of that and get onto the meditation and walks on the beach and TAKE. IT. EASY.

I think this is one of the most emotional posts I have written in awhile. I hope it is comprehensible! Sorry it is so long but ugh. Today.

I will be back later with my food. I’m still sticking to it even though I want to overindulge in comfort eating right now. Fish for dinner. Wooooo.