False start

Doing IVF is complicated when you live in a small town far from your beloved RE (five hours away in Chicago), and far from a medical center that can handle the particular types of monitoring blood testing and ultrasounds that an IVF cycle requires (an hour and a half away in Rochester).

We knew that it was complicated, which is why we talked about whether our last cycle before moving here (the one that, blessedly, resulted in sweet Sam!) would be the LAST last cycle that we ever did.

Except, of course, once we had a baby in our arms, there was no question that we were going to want another one.

So after our consult with Dr. Morris at the beginning of the summer, we started bracing ourselves for the logistical nightmare that would be this IVF cycle. Realizing that we'd have to be the go-between communicator, trying to get labs scheduled (both locally and up at Mayo) and then making sure the results were sent to the Chicago office in appropriately timely fashions; we had slated two weeks of vacation time in August to travel to Chicago, visit family, and camp out there for the bulk of the IVF cycle.

But as we tried to get our preliminary testing scheduled (some necessary repeat tests to make sure we're on track to do a regular cycle, no complications), we ran into roadblock after roadblock. Mayo wouldn't let me schedule the tests on my own, so we had to call back the Chicago office to have them contact Mayo directly. Mayo wondered why we needed to do bloodwork there if we had a local hospital (part of the Mayo system, even!), who could do the bloodwork. As for the other tests, Mayo won't do them without being ordered by one of their doctors, and even though our local hospital/clinic are Mayo affiliated, my doctor here can't order that particular test, and the OB on staff could do a variant of one of the tests, but we didn't know whether that would be sufficient.

The takeaway: Doing an IVF cycle with the doctor that we love in Chicago is going to mean a few trips to Chicago, plus a number of trips to Rochester, including a trip up to meet with an RE at Mayo.

The takeaway, part 2: If we have to go up to Mayo anyway, and we have to meet with an RE there anyway, then what is the sense of also trying to manage communications and repeated trips to Chicago as well? We might as well just go through Mayo and be done with it.

So that seems like our best course of action.

I need to make the phone call and get that going. We had a consult there a year ago, just to talk about the possibility, and I know that we'll kick things off with a whole slew of tests, because this doctor doesn't know me from Eve, and even with all my charts, he wants to look at all the factors to be best-equipped to pick a protocol for us. Yucky tests make me reluctant to pick up the phone...

Anyway.

After getting the ball rolling earlier this summer, we have found ourselves in "false start" territory. And so we have to begin again, again. And it will be fine. Like all things IVF, I know that getting the ball rolling is the hardest part, and that all of the obnoxious, painful, difficult stuff doesn't seem so bad when you are in the midst of it. You take each step as it comes. So here's to taking the first step for the second time this summer... :)