Last chance saloon…well kind of

June 18, 2015June 18, 2015Leave a comment

Last chance for natural conception

Today it dawned on me that as a result of my last cycle being shorter than expected, I am probably going to be away for a work conference right at peak ovulation time. DOH. This is going to be our last chance to conceive naturally before we start IVF. (Yes I still have hope that we can beat the odds!) Soooo, what’s a girl to do? I’m thinking an ice box and turkey baster will be required. Wait. That’s NOT natural!

I can just hope that I ovulate later than expected or have another short cycle!

OR Chis will just have to drive 4 hrs to DC and stay with me for one night and then get up super early and drive 4 hrs back before work. Ummmm, do you think I will be able to convince him to do it?? I’m pretty sure he will be not be down for that.

Love you honey!!!

Oh well. It will be what it will be. Nature is unpredictable anyway.

Lost blood work frustrations

When I first had all my infertility testing back in December last year, my doctor gave me TWO orders for blood work. The first order was to test my cycle day 3 hormone, FSH LH etc. The second order was to test for baddies that can affect the health of a pregnancy, such as HIV, Hep B & C, syphilis, in addition to having an immunity to Rubella and Chicken Pox (I’ve had these jabs, so I hope I have immunity!!) which are all a legal pre-screening requirement for IVF. I received my results for Day 3 tests, but never saw my results for HIV etc. I just assumed all was good, and never thought anything more of it until…..I met my IVF nurse the other month.

After much hunting, it turns out they never drew blood for my second order. I KNOW I gave them that second order, so I am really annoyed. It was only last month I received the bill for this blood work back in December, so I had no clue they never did the tests. The bill I received for $500 I thought would have covered all these tests. But it turns out it costs over $1000 for both orders of blood work!! So, frustratingly, the nurse had to send me a new order which took almost a week to get to me in the post (I forget how snail snail mail is here, I should have just picked it up from the office).

This time I went directly to the lab who does the analysis rather than to hospital to have my blood drawn.

Now, you would have thought that going straight to the specialists who take blood day in day out would be good at it. But oh no. Not this one. After one vial of blood was collected with the needle still in my army, the nurse was like… “Come on….where did it go? Why is nothing coming out? Hmmm…” as he wiggled the needle and I tried very hard not to shout out ‘OWWWWWWW THAT FRICKING HURTS!!’ Thankfully after what seemed like forever “Oh!! There’s the vein!”. But I won’t be totally mean about this nurse. He was entertaining, and did immediately recognise my accent and asked where in the UK I was from. I congratulated him on his talent for recognising a British accent and we talked about how surprising it is how many people have no clue where I am from. He even understood what I meant when I said “Cheers” as I left. So I’ll let him off the hook.

So after all that, let’s hope I do have immunity to rubella, otherwise I am going to have to wait ANOTHER cycle to start IVF. Now that will make me pretty mad 😐

Can somebody get me a translator in here please?

March 8, 2015March 29, 20156 Comments

We moved to the US from the UK over 2 years ago, and even now I still have awkward moments with Americans where the conversation just stops mid flow as we realise we don’t understand each other. I’m not saying it is a huge language barrier, like it might be if we had moved to Japan, but we have had to learn a new language. I think it is easier for us Brits to understand Americans because we watch a lot of American TV shows and films, and Americans have a harder time trying to understand us.

I thought about this issue when I was talking to my nurse about prescriptions – it can be like another language, for example a prescription is known as an Rx. When I have asked some Americans what Rx stands for, they were unable to answer, so upon googling Rx, it turns out it originates from a Latin word – Recipe, to take. In Europe doctors use the abbreviation Rp. (Everyday is a school day!). I also asked about repeat prescriptions, which is actually called a refill prescription here in the US. The nurse was very understanding and helpful. Finally, when I picked up my prescription the pharmacist asked for my Date of Birth, I replied “28th December (insert some ‘I am ancient’ year here)”. Her brain did not compute this immediately because Americans say the month, day, year. Not her fault…In the UK we say day, month, year. Still after two years I have not got this into my head – even today as Chris was writing a check he wrote it the wrong way round!!!

So here are some words which mean very different things in each language, some of them lead to funny misinterpretations:

American = British

check = bill

bill = note ($$)

chips = crisps

fries = chips

cookie = biscuit

biscuit = savory scone

underwear = pants

pants = trousers

broil = grill

grill = bbq

eraser = rubber

rubber = condom

faucet = tap

silverware = cutlery

first floor = ground floor

second floor = first floor

gas = petrol

trunk = boot

jelly = jam

jello = jelly

pudding = not pudding!!! Angel delight?

Is it my British accent that confuses you?

February 17, 2015February 17, 2015Leave a comment

I have concluded that it must be my British accent that confuses people at the other end of a phone line, namely my insurance company, Allianz, and freedom fertility. Or they are just morons. I am sure these big companies wouldn’t hire morons to man their phones, so it must be the former.

You may remember a couple of weeks ago I had a mild panic about whether my insurance company needed a pre-approval before fertility treatment? When I had called my insurance company the nice Irish lady, who held me the line whilst she thoroughly checked the answer to my simple query, concluded I did not need approval for IUI. Turns out she was wrong. The only reason I know this is because my fertility clinic requested to see proof that my insurance covers fertility treatment. So yesterday when I asked my insurance company for an email confirming this, they replied today stating that in fact their representative was incorrect and I needed prior approval. To get the approval I need to send to my insurance: medial records, history, diagnosis and costs of planned treatment. I could easily have collected all this the several times I have been at my clinic in the last few weeks, had the representative supplied me with accurate information in the first place. Is this a normal situation, for insurance companies to request all this? I had thought that insurance companies would usually liaise directly with the healthcare provider?

Who knows what the heck is going on with my insurance. Chris has kindly volunteered to deal with it. I don’t mind if we are not covered, but what annoys me is that this process is not exactly the smoothest of rides as it is. I know people make mistakes, but this mistake is a pain in the backside. At least Allianz apologised and realised their initial mistake, we had a response back from their ‘senior customer sales representative’. So I am not mad at them, but all these coincidences of mess ups on the phone, I’ve decided the only common factor is me. The only obvious explanation is my accent. From now on it’s email all the way, guvn’r…