Getting things done

Last Friday, I got a bill in the mail from FCI (the first fertility doctor we went to). I opened it up and low and behold, it's a $350 bill for the cryopreservation of our embryo. Last fall, at the time of our embryo transplant (our first IVF attempt), we had been told that they were putting in the 3 "best" embryos (of 6). I use that term loosely because the embryos they had were not all that great. We were told the 3 remaining ones looked pretty bad--one had already died away, one was very slow, and the other wasn't really doing anything at all. Two weeks later, we were informed that one lone embryo had made it to the stage at which they would freeze it, so they did. We doubted the viability and quality of this embryo and, since we'd made the decision to change doctors (and taking the embryo with us was a lengthy and expensive thing to do), we went ahead and donated the embryo to research. It wasn't a tough decision--as I said, we didn't think the embryo was of good quality, so it made sense to donate it. Paul and I both believe strongly in stem cell research so the choice was easy.

Anyway, before donating the embryo, I had called to have this cryopreservation charge removed, since we weren't keeping the embryo. I spoke to several people and they agreed to remove the charge. That factored (a small part) into our donation decision.

Then this bill shows up.

I called the office today to ask about it and was informed that this charge should never have been reversed. They claimed to have sent out 2 letters in the last month explaining this (I received nothing). I was blown away that they would do this. I (as calmly as I could muster) explained that having this charge removed was a factor in our decision to donate the embryo (it wasn't as much as I said it did) and we couldn't afford to do this. One rep had to talk to a supervisor, and that person had to go to the director....blah, blah, blah.

After 2 hours and much angst, they decided ("a one-time decision") to AGAIN remove the charge for us. I tried to sound thankful and grateful, but I was still seething.

You just don't pull that kind of stuff on infertiles. It's not funny.

But it's done and I can cross that off my list. Now, onto more positive things like bathing the dog and going to the bank.....