Testing Completed

We have now completed all of our repeat testing for the new RE. My husband’s testing was pretty straightforward. He was able to get an appointment to do the swim-up semen analysis a week after our appointment, and then he did his blood work right after. Since I have to wait for specific cycle days it took a little longer. Since I was right around ovulation when we had our appointment with the RE I did my 7 days post ovulation test and STI/immunity panel first. I was supposed to go in CD20-22, so 6-8 days post ovulation. Of course, that just happened to fall completely on a long weekend. I thought it would be fine because there is a lab my by house that I could go to that was supposed to be open. Turns out the RE needs to update their information because that lab is not even open on weekends. I also had an optometrist appointment on the Saturday morning so I needed to wait until almost noon before I could go to the lab. I had my husband franctically calling all the labs on the list from the RE with weekend hours to find one that would be open past noon that day. Luckily, there was one that was open. The only one that was open past noon. That clinic was also supposed to be opened Sunday morning but not holiday Monday, but I didn’t want to risk it so I headed straight to the lab after my optometrist appointment. I did not want to have to wait another full cycle to be able to get my progesterone tested.

I hate parking lots and just parking my car in general, and the parking lot at this lab was so narrow and tight, so that sucked. The lab was at a walk-in clinic and it was packed with people. There were 10 people ahead of me at the lab and one older man said he had been waiting for over an hour at that point. In addition, doctors from the clinic were sending people with “urgent” labs that got to jump the line. I really wanted to spend the Saturday of my long weekend hanging around a walk-in clinic. Luckily, a few people ahead of me had disappeared so I got in after about 45 minutes. The lab tech confirmed what cycle day I was on and said I really got screwed with this testing.

My second set of testing was a huge hormone panel done on CD2-4. Of course, this cycle I had a hard time determining when the new cycle started because my bleeding had picked up making it hard to distinguish what was my normal luteal phase bleeding and what was actually menses, so I had to rely on my temps and secondary signs like cramps and my luteal symptoms going away. Luckily, this fell on a Thursday-Saturday so first thing Friday morning I went to the lab by my house. Of course, since nothing can be easy, I wasn’t sure if it was open because I couldn’t find consistent lab hours online. Seriously, it ranged from not open on Fridays, to open at 7:45, 8, 9, 10, so I decided I’d go at 8:30 and if it wasn’t open I’d go to the same one from the weekend. Turns out it opened at 8 so I could have gone earlier and not been late for work, but it wasn’t too bad. There were 8 people ahead of me but I got in in about 30 minutes. I had so much blood taken. The good thing was that AMH was free here (it would have cost $150 in our old province).

Now it’s just waiting. I called the RE and if I want an in-person appointment to get all the results and next steps then we have to wait until May 2. That really upset me so I asked about a phone consult because it’s really just is everything okay for IVF? And do we need ICSI or not? And was able to get a phone consult for March 17 . . . but, we have to pay $50 for this. I’m so over waiting, so I took the phone consult.