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All. The. Tests.

Chill Dudes, Not Enough Blood, Too Much Pee In January, Nick and I went in for the required bloodwork and urine tests to kick off the process (so fun!). For those who don’t know, the clinic is legally required to test both Nick and me for common diseases and disease immunity, as well as screen…
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Real-Time Experience

Up until this point, this blog has mostly been retrospective. Sharing our story this way has allowed me to reflect on our journey and provide readers regular updates while currently going through everything. The story from here on out will be as close to real time as I can get it. It still may be…
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Acceptance

Recently, I was at a neighbor’s house for a birthday party. (Happy Birthday, Tiff!) While there, I was chatting with some friends about our IVF experience and plans to try again soon. One of them commented that I appear much less stressed about this round than I did the first time around. I hadn’t really…
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Making a Change

Between our last set of doctor’s appointments in August 2022 and now, one of the big things Nick and I discussed was changing doctors before our next IVF cycle. I shared a little about my frustrations with Dr. G. in this blog, but I didn’t want to delay us trying IVF, so we stuck with…
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Our Plan

After our appointment with Dr. W., Nick and I felt we had a solid plan. We decided to try a second round of IVF in early 2023. It was August 2022 when we crafted this plan. Dr. G. had told us if we wanted to try again it needed to be sooner rather than later,…
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Asking for Help

For some folks, asking for help isn’t all that easy; I’d say Nick and I both fit neatly into that box. This is why, a few months back, when a good friend asked if she could set up a GoFundMe page for us, we were both incredibly grateful. (Thank you, Jami!) Throughout this journey, we…
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Good News for a Change

In mid-August, I posted an article on the IVF That Facebook page about the Colorado Building Families Act. At the time, I was unaware the reason our IVF cycle hadn’t been covered in 2022 was because there were some issues with the legislation involving defrayal and the Affordable Health Care Act. I really couldn’t even…
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The Letter

As promised, here is the letter Dr. W. sent on our behalf to Dr. G. It’s been edited to remove personal information. Dear Dr. G., Thank you for your referral of Julie and her husband Nicholas whom I consulted with on 8/8/2022. Julie and Nicholas had spoken with a genetic counselor at Kaiser and wanted…
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Really Bad Luck

Nick and I had planned a day and time when we’d both be at home to schedule our appointment with Dr. W. Unfortunately, Nick had to go to Minnesota unexpectedly for a funeral. Rest in peace, Uncle Doug – you will be greatly missed. It feels like both our families have had too many funerals…
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The Response

A day or two after I sent her the info from Dr. T., Dr. G. wrote back: _______ Hi Julie, Thanks for reaching out. A genetic counselor will be able to give you specific numbers regarding chance of having a euploid embryo given his translocation and Robertsonian translocation. This is the number I think would…