Good news bears

Appointments: scheduled.  Hotel room: reserved.  Drugs: ordered.  Pool time!

After hearing from Nashville that our schedule had been set and the drugs had been ordered, we spent the weekend in fear of the cost.  The estimates that the fertility clinic offered ran between $3K and $6K; Heather is taking a high dose of Lupron, and you pay for the convenience of FSH in pen form, so we were twiddling our thumbs waiting for the bad news.  We had a $6,000 credit card available and weren’t sure if it would be adequate.  (Yeah, I know, debt is sucky, but we’d exhausted most of our cash supply and will be able to pay off the card soon, so please don’t judge.)  Could we use multiple cards?  Could it wait till payday?

We did a little back-and-forth with the pharmacy on Tuesday, exchanging information (including, optimistically and vainly, that of our insurance company), and waited for a call Wednesday to settle the last of it.  To my great delight, they called Heather’s phone to get the payment, so I had no part in it.  A signature is required for delivery, which I find both frustrating and extremely reasonable since it’s approximately 600 degrees outside and the box is worth thousands of dollars.  On top of that, the Lupron expires in 30 days, so there was some juggling to do in scheduling the package’s arrival.

$3,000.   We don’t know how it happened.  What were the discounts?  What was the pre-discount cost?  When Heather told me, I just laughed.  Seriously?

So now we wait for the box.  It should arrive Tuesday, then we go to Nashville for an appointment Thursday, and Friday Heather’s scheduled to start injections.  We’re supposed to practice beforehand, and I’m hoping the Nashville people will help.  ("The only way to learn is to do it," Heather said philosophically.  I'm not convinced she'll feel that way in a week.)

Because of Independence Day and the Nashville trip, we’re taking off most of next week, planning to float in the pool and watch unending episodes of “The Good Wife.” 

It's June 30th.  The first pregnancy test is scheduled for August 1st.    That gives us a month to make a mockery of nature by manipulating Heather's body with pharmaceutical substances, tiny catheters, and aspirated cells before finding out if we're getting a baby or tickets to St. Croix.