IVM in Canada .:. Acupuncture .:. Pens Vs. Powder

Last night I wrote to the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal, Canada where they do a procedure called IVM. (It's also being done in Georgia and perhaps a few other places that I haven't yet been able to locate, but according to sources, the folks in Canada are essentially the world leaders when it comes to this process. This morning they sent me a bunch of documents to fill out and submit with our medical records. I'll wait until my labwork is in from Dr. Z.

IVM, or "In Vitro Maturation", is a godsend to those of us who can't bear the thought of injecting ourselves maybe 3 times each morning and another 3 in the evening, not to mention to horrific cost of the gonadotropins. Essentially, it's egg retrieval without the injections, the long wait, or the expense ($4000 for IVM in Canada, versus $8200+ for IVF here in the states). I wish it would catch on here in California. J and I have decided that without a doubt, if our first IVF procedure is a dudd, we'll be hopping a plane for Montreal as soon as we can. If my estimate are right, that would be March 2006. Of course, that is unless I am able to find a more local lab that might do the procedure.

----

Yesterday I went to acupuncture at the University of East-West Medicine in Sunnyvale. My 11:30am appointment was rescheduled for later in the day and my usual doctor, Dr. T, wasn't there. I wound up being assigned to a different doctor who was quite nice, and her English was rather good. She had two assistants with her, which is normal. I think she and I are communicated a bit more efficiently so I'm going to stick with her for a week or so to see how things go. I tried to emphasize to her that the most important thing for me right now is to produce huge quantities of eggs....LOTS OF EGGS! She did seem to understand and proceded to stick about 7 needles into my abdomen. Well, we're in the right general vicinity, but being that I know absolutely nothing about acupuncture, hopefully we're on the right track.

She emphasized, like my previous acupunturist, Dr. QZ, that I should be coming 3 times a week for best results. I resisted such frequent visits with my first Doctor, thinking that it was more of a ploy to keep me as a regular customer, but as Dr. L explained it, going to sessions once a week is more for chronic conditions and for people like me who are trying to force an immediate reaction, a much more aggressive routine is required. So I acquiesed and signed up for two more sessions this week and walked out with yet another 3 bags of noxious smelling/tasting herbs. I'm not sure if I'll be able to tolerate them...they taste like nothing I can explain.

Our antral follicle scan is late next week or maybe the day after Christmas...hopefully we get at least as many as I had last cycle (16: 9 on the left, 7 on the right...which is the ovary that was operated on in October).

----

Rant:

Dr. Z's nurse is saying that I can only use the powdered form of either GonalF or Bravelle. Bummer is, the pens are much easier to find these days, especially from www.ivfmeds.com, where the prices are much better than here in the US. I'll have to ping Dr. Z to see if I can go ahead and use the pens....it's just SO MUCH MORE AFFORDABLE. $1500 via my friends in the UK versus something like $3700 at Costco (and that is with their "special bulk discount". My god. So I don't see what their issue is with the pens. The dried form needs to be mixed with NaCl and there is just so much more room for screwing up the mixtures that I just don't even want to go there.

Also seeing that there are loads of surplus gonadotropins to be had on www.freegaragesale.com. THANK GOD!

If it's not one thing, it's another. I'm telling you.