Sunday, September 7, 2014

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

Contracts, Contracts, Contracts. That's pretty much all this past week consisted of.

On Tuesday my sister, my husband, and myself met with our attorney to sign our Egg Donor contract.  It was a requirement from our clinic, not something we felt we needed to do to protect any of us from each other.  Once that was signed, our attorney notarized and faxed a letter for our fertility clinic to let them know we had completed this requirement.  One more step down in the books!

On Thursday I purchased my new vehicle, a 2013 Hyundai Elantra.  We got the finalization from our insurance company on Friday that my car was in fact totaled, as if we didn't know.  But we were told I needed to have the rental car returned to Enterprise on Thursday and would need to have my new car purchased by then.  Well with our golf outing on Saturday and dealerships being closed on Sunday and then closed again on Monday for Labor Day...this didn't give me a whole lot of time to explore vehicle options considering I work every day from 2pm-10:30pm and have to leave town at 1pm to get to work on time.  Anyways, it basically came down to a 2013 Kia Optimum Hybrid or the 2013 Hyundai Elantra.  I'm not going to lie....it was a tough decision and I hate car shopping by myself because I hate the pressure that car salesmen and their managers put on me.  The Hyundai won because I saw the most benefit out of it.  While both vehicles had much fewer miles on them than my previous vehicle and both vehicles got better gas mileage than my previous vehicle....and both were newer vehicles whereas mine was a 2012,  it was the price difference that hooked me on the Hyundai.  We are trying to put ourselves in a better financial situation, so considering the loan amount on the Hyundai was smaller than the loan I had to take out to buy my previous car out of my lease, it was the best option. Plus I don't have to worry about a battery dying on me and needing to be replaced for $10,000.

I know I might get some flack for this thought, but whatever.  In a way-this accident is giving us over $2,000 in cash back that we are going to be able to use for our fertility cycle.  We will be getting the sales tax back on the purchase of this new vehicle AND we will be getting money back from an extended warranty that I purchased for my previous vehicle.  I don't believe in the phrase "everything happens for a reason."  I just can't see the reason why we've lost 4 innocent and precious babies over the past 6 years and why we are in a situation where we have to turn to fertility treatments or adoption to have our living children in our arms.  But I do believe this accident happened because of my own stupidity and was not only a wake up call to myself to be a safer driver but it is answering some of our financial struggles too.  We will end up paying the cost in our insurance premiums rising in the long run, but for right now I will choose to see the positive.  Everyone in the accident is still alive, I got a nicer but cheaper vehicle, and we will get money back that will help pay for this upcoming fertility cycle.

On Friday, my husband and I had one of my husband's co-workers notarize another form our fertility clinic had sent to us and wanted signed before we could proceed.  It was an Egg Donor acknowledgement form stating our doctor was approving my sister to be our egg donor despite the results and recommendations of the psychological testing.  I honestly think that testing was a waste of money and time.  If our donor was not known to us, maybe we would have been a little more picky....but since it's my sister-we are well aware of her strengths and weaknesses, her personality and behaviors, so on and so forth.  My sister is very different than me, but she is also very much like me in so many ways,  And I believe that genetics is not the only thing that shapes someone into who they are....it has a lot to do with parenting too.  So I'm sure our child will be a perfect combination of all of us despite not having my exact genetics.  Anyways.....once that was signed, I put it in the mail to be sent back to our fertility clinic.  Once again, one more step completed.

So, what's next?  I'm a bit disappointed to say we won't be able to officially start the egg donor cycle with my sister's upcoming period next week.  Part of the delay has to do with my last period starting on cycle day 40 putting me 11 days behind my sister when we were starting a day apart from one another. So we need to see what day I start my period this month. The other pieces that are delaying us has to do with figuring out the immunological piece.  I am very happy to say my case was discussed with the other doctor at the fertility clinic that I talked about a few posts back.  Dr. Thie is agreeable to consulting with Dr. Braverman in New York and will be the one prescribing the immunological treatment.  I meet with Dr. Thie for the first time on September 17th and she will have hopefully already talked with Dr. Braverman so we can finalize my treatment plan at my appointment with her.  Dr. Braverman is still wanting me to get the laparoscopy completed before the egg donor cycle begins so I will be calling my OBGYN on Monday to schedule that surgery for as soon as possible.  Lastly, my sister will be meeting with Dr. Hofmann, my original fertility doctor at the clinic, on September 23rd to complete her FDA screening.  It's basically a complete physical with blood work.  Dr. Hofmann will continue to manage my sister's half of the cycle while Dr. Thie will manage my half.

Hopefully by the time my sister starts her period in October, we will have everything done and can get this show on the road.  That would put her egg retrieval the week before Thanksgiving and my embryo transfer just a few days before Thanksgiving.  Fingers crossed that we will have a healthy turkey on board before turkey day!

No comments: