Nothing goes according to the plan....

I listened to all of your advice and to my gut instinct and ended up requesting that my RE call me about this cyst situation. This was on last Thurs morning and I still haven't heard back. It’s been over 5 days. I am beyond frustrated but not exactly surprised. (Although to be honest he has been pretty good about returning my calls in the past.) My RE is so hands off I don't think I'd recognize him if he was standing right next to me in a check out line. All I see is the nurses each and every visit. Have a mentioned that I would not be going to this RE if I had another option available to me at this time. I already drive an hour to each appt and this is the only infertility clinic within a 200 mile radius from where I live. He doesn't have to worry about being accountable when he has no competition. I really wish I felt better about my clinic. J and I are heavily researching other out of town clinics for IVF.... any suggestions of how to go about that????? We are e-mailing and writing questions but not getting that great of a response. We'd like to narrow ourselves down to 2 clinics before we pay to consult w/ them. Our biggest concern is how daunting out of town IVF will be. What is required time wise? Will I have to be there 2 weeks+ straight? Hotel costs and travel would add a considerable cost to the already excruciatingly high fees for IVF. So we are thinking we need to stay in state so that I could drive (even if it's a 5 hour drive) and come home between appts... maybe stay just over night.....and then a few days for ER and ET. Whereas that would be impossible if it was out of state. I have heard of some women that start their IVF cycle at home...doing their blood draws at a local lab and sending it to the clinic. They don't have to show up until they are 5 or 6 days into their stims.

I'm glad that we've decided to wait until after Christmas to start IVF. It's really not that far off. We just weren't ready in any way to jump into this now. Plus- this will allow a few more IUI/Injectible cycles and maybe by the grace of God we'll get me knocked up before then.

This weekend J got a call from his sister in law. His brother S was in a terrible accident. They were vacationing at the beach in Pismo, CA. They always take their quads and run them on the sand dunes. S and a friend were resting for a moment at the bottom of one of the sand dunes and some 16 year old boy went roaring over the dune on his own quad and landed on S. The ambulance came and rushed him to the emergency room. S ended up having a pretty messed up arm w/ 2 breaks and a leg that has a crushed femur (thigh bone). He went into surgery for 7 hours and they had to put a metal rod into his leg and a bunch of plates and screws in his arm. They are hoping the leg bone starts to grow back together...b/c there are floating pieces of bone. If it doesn't then he will require another surgery. Once he's released he'll be home bound for a month or so and restricted to a wheel chair for quite some time after that. The good news is that there were no head injuries and that he will be pretty much back to normal eventually. He is lucky that he didn't break his neck or back. He might end up w/ a limp (hopefully not) but will be able to walk and use his arm after some therapy. He's also really lucky that he has excellent insurance to cover all of this and that he has plenty of sick and vacation time he can use while he is away from work.

This whole situation put my life into perspective. We'll see how long that lasts :-) I feel horrible for S and his situation. But, I also feel like he was really blessed that it wasn't worse. He could be dead or permanently disabled. It also made me think about what if something like this happened to J or if he was seriously hurt. Nothing matters more to me then his health and well being. I realize that I have increasing looked at my world as half empty instead of half full. I have a lot to be thankful for and need to stop and reflect on that more.