Okay, Never Mind

Man, I don't even know how to start this post any other way but abruptly. No gentle lead in. No sweet introduction. Let's just get to it.

We're not doing IUI this cycle and I'm NOT happy about it.

We knew our insurance didn't cover IUI or fertility treatments, but so far they have been covering all of our doctor visits, sonograms, surgeries, all of our labs, and all of our medications (with the exception of hCG). So when we knew insurance didn't cover IUI, we naturally assumed that meant just the procedure itself, which is only a few hundred dollars.

Monday morning the lady who schedules all of Dr H's surgeries and verifies benefits called to tell me our insurance would not cover fertility treatments. I told her I knew that already, and then she proceeded to tell me how much the cycle would cost, and that the full amount would be due at my sono this Friday.

My jaw hit the floor at the amount. After I had collected myself I told her that our insurance had always covered the sonos and labs before with our old RE and asked why they wouldn't now. Apparently they will cover it if the cycle doesn't end in an IUI. But when they find out we did IUI, they will send us a bill for 100% of everything.

Let me just mention here that we did an IUI in 2007 and only had to pay a few hundred dollars that time when our insurance supposedly didn't cover fertility treatments. That insurance had covered the cost of everything except the actual procedure.

For those of you not in the infertile world, let me just tell you that one sonogram can range from $450-500+. You have to have anywhere from 3 or more of them in one cycle. Full price for labs is approximately $100 per lab, and you have around 2 of those per cycle. Medications range from $4 if your lucky and can get generic to over $500 for one cycle. The actual IUI costs around $350+.

I am a spender by nature, so when they gave me the price tag, combined with everything I have put my body through in the last 2 years trying to get pregnant, I was willing to pay the fiddler. Hubs, however, is a skin flint (aka tight wad [aka penny pincher]), so when I told him how much it cost, he kind of freaked out and told me he didn't want to talk about it while he was at work. It isn't a matter of us not being able to afford it as much as it is about my husband not being able to just plunk down money like that without thinking about it for a very, very, very long time. And possibly researching all of the alternatives on the internet for a couple of months before giving his seal of approval.

Just a little back info, my husband can't won't even buy shoes unless he has thought about it for months, gone in and tried on a few pair, gone home and slept over it for a couple of weeks, and researched it first. I really wish I was kidding. He has had his primary pair of shoes since we got engaged 7 years ago and they look like they've been around since the dinosaurs, complete with holes. If he can't bring himself to buy new shoes "on a whim" he sure as heck can't say yes to the full cost of an IUI with less than a few months' notice.

All of that being said, I know this is how my husband works, and while it is mildly irritating, it is also endearing. I love this man more than life itself, and if he wants to put the brakes on the IUI to do his rumination and research thing, then I will go along with it. But in addition to that, he makes very valid points as to why he doesn't think we need to jump straight to IUI in the first place. The biggest one being that we think Dr H fixed a lot of my issues, if not all of them with this last surgery, so he thinks we should do medicated cycles and try on our own for a couple of months.

I am disappointed, and I honestly don't feel as much hope as I did when we thought we were going to do an IUI, but I know that in this game our plans so very rarely work out the way I want. In fact, I can't recall the last time we had a cycle that went the way I thought it should or wanted it to go.

I realize this post sounds a little down and negative, but its just that, a little down. I am ever hopeful that eventually, no matter how it happens, that we will have another baby.

Tomorrow is our first sono for follicle count this cycle, so cross your fingers that we have a few. The more, the better!