Getting the ball rolling

I did get an email back from the Greek clinic, Embio, this morning. They asked me a list of questions about myself and my health history, and requested ultrasound, estradiol, HIV, Hep B and Hep C test results.

So, I called my RE, let them know that AF has shown again, and made an appointment for this Thursday for what has pretty much become the routine - ultrasound and bloodwork. Once I get the test results they get emailed to the Greek clinic - and then I guess we see what happens from there.

The clinic quoted me a cost of 5500 Euro for what they call "embryo donation IVF". It's a little different from typical embryo donation, in that we get to pick the donors, and the egg donor's cycle is synced with mine, and the transfer is done with fresh, never-frozen embryos. I did ask them if they'd clarify for me whether their 70% success rate is per-embryo (meaning that 70% of the individual embryos they transfer turn into pregnancies) or whether it's per-patient (70% of the women who receive transfers, which may include more than one embryo at a time, get pregnant.) I think it's per-embryo, based on the way the info is presented on their website, but it would be nice to confirm.

I also asked them to confirm that the 5500 is really the whole complete cost. It equates to just under $7000 USD, which seems like an INSANELY low amount for a fresh egg donor, sperm donor, all the donor's meds and monitoring, anesthesia and retrieval, fertilization, incubation, embryo transfer (into me), freezing of leftover embryos, AND a year's worth of embryo storage. I do know that they may need me on some meds here... probably at least birth control and then a trigger shot, and those will come out of my pocket too... but holy cow that seems like such a deal. I need them to confirm that there isn't some hidden cost somewhere that they aren't telling me about. :P

I'm going in on Saturday to close on my HELOC loan, and then the funds should be available about two weeks after that. I'll use part of them to pay off the remaining TTC balance on my credit card, and then the rest are earmarked for the Greek trip.

I'm encouraged at how helpful my RE's office has been so far -- I was worried they might be upset that I'm not continuing treatment with them at this point, but so far they've been nothing but nice about it. We are on their embryo adoption list, so I did tell the nurse that if an embryo becomes available before we go to Greece, we'll do that instead... but we're a lot farther down on the list and there are a lot of folks who have been waiting a lot longer than us for one, and I don't want to cut in line.

So that's that, I guess. Get the tests on Thursday, send them off to Embio, and see how this plays out.

Still trying to decide between putting back two embryos or just one...