Well after reading a post from one of my fellow followers, Chon, it sparked some thoughts in my head regarding IVF in Australia, the diversity of choice, costs and government support.
Now followers in other countries would love to hear about how you can afford IVF but in Australia, basically, we are all covered by government medicare system which we pay our contribution via our tax system and we can voluntarily have private health cover as well to enable us treatment in private hospital compared to having it done in public.
In Australia the government does contribute like approximately 2/3 of the IVF costs via medicare, for those who go private clinics, your private hospital cover pays for your clinic stay/visit for egg collection and retrieval and you are approximately out of pocket 1/3 of the costs which you then can claim a rebate in your tax return.
Its probably a snobbish remark but one thing I never compromise on is my health and coming from a hard working family where my family had nothing, 4 kids in family, we never did without but never got spoilt. I paid myself through uni, bought myself my first car etc so everything I have done in life I have done off my own back so after running a business for 5 years successfully to the detriment of my health...why wouldnt I want the best now that I deserved it I worked for it right?
There is often a debate IVF should be free ie govt pays for it all...I mean from one point of view I agree as a working taxpayer after all these years I have contributed to the tax system and its not my fault my body failed me to conceive naturally without assistance where we have the crack babies and junkies having kids left, right and centre and get all the support and pay for nothing. Its ironic that harder you work more you pay.
Then there is another point of view...if it was free would I have had the choice of doctor I wanted ie fertility specialist...how long would the waiting list be ? and after waiting so long to conceive naturally I have to wait again until I get another go at IVF? I loved the fact I had the choice of my own fertility specialist...it was probably one of the most expensive clinics in Sydney but their success rates were higher on average then others and my FS had even higher success rates then clinic on average. Most people that went to my clinic and FS had already had several attempts at cheaper clinics then had it work 1st or 2nd go at this clinic. So why should quality of service and price you pay differ to others? At my clinic you have your same FS whole way through as well as same nurses due to size and does it come down to the FS professional advice..even one of the nurses said in all her 20 years of being IVF nurse my FS was the best IVF Dr she has worked for..always puts his patients first no matter what...and I paid for that privilege
I find that hard to comprehend that you have to pay more to get better service ie rolls royce version to the ford version but if the clinic I chose was not on the expensive end...the service I received I believe would not have been the same and I may have not got the same result ..Im not saying they are not successful clinic the cheaper they are otherwise they would not exist but we live in a democratic society and I am so greatful that I have worked hard and was able to have the choice of my own FS...and why shouldnt I?
So in summary maybe our government should provide more assistance but if your clinic charges more you wear that personally because for me personally...I may have been still waiting for my BFP if IVF was free and I went on a waiting list of doctor not of my choice...
SO I think it works to a certain degree the current system in Australia but maybe more assistance after your second failed attempt as why should you have to keep paying when it did not work first or second go...
Friday 29 July 2011
Thursday 21 July 2011
We could hear the heart beat!!!
Wow yes you heard it from me we have a healthy heart beat 177 bpm and only one as some of us were worried with such high readings of HCG it may have been twins but yes its one only! It was the best day of our lives for hubby and I. Such a relief to see the flicker and hear the heart beat....like Enrique says...'I can feel the heartbeat' we sure did!!
and we were out by 2 days on my weeks so yesterday we were officially 9 weeks woo hoo!!! so now Im booked in for nuchal scan just to get a good look at baby again in 3 weeks time and will see my obstetrician 2 days before ...so then obviously if all goes well which Im pretty dam confident ...I can tell my Nanna at her 90th Bday that Saturday after we are 12 weeks ..now I have been dying to tell her and she has been waiting a very loong time for this announcement so cant wait to see her face!!!
I hope you enjoy the picture as Im not too great with scanning and as you may see the stubby little arm is waving at us lol
My fertility specialist is such a miracle worker and he has such a special gift whilst he was on holidays he had 8 ladies out of 10 get Big Fat Positives and saw 7 ladies yesterday all with successful pregnancies...This man is a legend and I owe this bubba to him...cant wait until my baby gets to meet him !!!
Well whilst I bathe in one of the highest moments in our lives other then our wedding day...and catch up on some sleep as sleep deprived for 2 hours last night with the whole day flashing past me over and over again ....repeating all words said by our doctor, hubby and I. I cried and cried and cried with tears of enjoyment and release of my fear all in one go!!
I cant wait to be a mummy!!!
Friday 15 July 2011
8 weeks and 5 days to scan!
Well cant say time has flown since I got my BFP but I am so greatful my first scan is finally near...its been driving me crazy but at same time I have been trying to enjoy the experience apart from nausea...
Loving the fact my boobs have already increased one cup size so had to already buy some maternity bras as old ones were not comfortable... underwire does not suit pregnancy boobs and it hurts...am losing a lot of hair and its growing fast yahhh so now I can grow out my fringe...
However we have a dilemma next week after our scan who do we tell? My dear husband's brother is visiting from Germany and we would love to tell him before he heads home ...I know its before 12 week mark but I thought we could choose to tell immediate family only but how do you keep them from spreading the word until I reach 12 weeks...I feel like I want to tell them as last pregnancy which resulted in miscarriage we knew before 12 weeks but no scan and they left for Germany for definately 2 years ago and we said nothing...I want this pregnancy to be nothing of the same of the other one and want to do things differently...
The only people I have problem trusting is my husbands siblings partners...especially one whose family live close in location to me and I do not want my local community to know yet Im not ready to share it with the world....what do I say? Do I enforce they must keep it a secret ? unless we just tell the brother leaving and make the others wait lol...
I suppose if we put it a way where its not Trimester 2 yet but wanted to share it now because this brother T is here from Germany and that is only reason why and we respect you maintain our privacy until I say its ok after our nuchal scan....thats all you can do? and then its how we say it and what do we say? Not sure if Im ready to tell the world its IVF baby or immediate family maybe leave that out for now but tell them we have struggled and long battle for us to get here but we have....I dont know whether i want to use this as opportunity to get on my soap box and tell my inner thoughts to the other siblings that no my infertility is not from age, its medical and yes we all have a story/trauma but my husband and I are so proud we have gotten through this struggle for us...as I know what the others are thinking and I would like to clarify without detail
What do you guys think?
Loving the fact my boobs have already increased one cup size so had to already buy some maternity bras as old ones were not comfortable... underwire does not suit pregnancy boobs and it hurts...am losing a lot of hair and its growing fast yahhh so now I can grow out my fringe...
However we have a dilemma next week after our scan who do we tell? My dear husband's brother is visiting from Germany and we would love to tell him before he heads home ...I know its before 12 week mark but I thought we could choose to tell immediate family only but how do you keep them from spreading the word until I reach 12 weeks...I feel like I want to tell them as last pregnancy which resulted in miscarriage we knew before 12 weeks but no scan and they left for Germany for definately 2 years ago and we said nothing...I want this pregnancy to be nothing of the same of the other one and want to do things differently...
The only people I have problem trusting is my husbands siblings partners...especially one whose family live close in location to me and I do not want my local community to know yet Im not ready to share it with the world....what do I say? Do I enforce they must keep it a secret ? unless we just tell the brother leaving and make the others wait lol...
I suppose if we put it a way where its not Trimester 2 yet but wanted to share it now because this brother T is here from Germany and that is only reason why and we respect you maintain our privacy until I say its ok after our nuchal scan....thats all you can do? and then its how we say it and what do we say? Not sure if Im ready to tell the world its IVF baby or immediate family maybe leave that out for now but tell them we have struggled and long battle for us to get here but we have....I dont know whether i want to use this as opportunity to get on my soap box and tell my inner thoughts to the other siblings that no my infertility is not from age, its medical and yes we all have a story/trauma but my husband and I are so proud we have gotten through this struggle for us...as I know what the others are thinking and I would like to clarify without detail
What do you guys think?
Monday 11 July 2011
Decisions Decisions
I hope I did not offend anyone with my last post as it appears no one commented so whether they were too busy or not. Im sorry if I had but like I have said before I will never forget where I came from and like other women who suffered infertility and got their BFP I continued to follow their stories as gave me inspiration so I hope I can continue to inspire others that you too will get your dream....
Its still early days for me and Trimester 1 goes very slow especially when there is still alot of risk so Im trying to enjoy as much as I can apart from the nausea.
We toured two private hospitals we are considering because there is no way I would go public after everything I have been through to get here Im prepared to sacrifice any $$ for safety of me, antenatal care of baby and delivery. Ive worked hard financially to get where husband and I are today and I want to enjoy the benefits especially when it comes to your health.
I think we have swayed towards the closer hospital as the closest is still 25 min away with the other one at least 45 min away. Dont think I can risk the time difference even though the further away private hospital is newer and bigger I have stayed at both hospitals and nurse care is excellent as you get what you pay for. Also I dont want to travel in last month weekly 45 min away when heavily pregnant so I think the decision is made.
It did feel weird getting a tour when we have not even had our first ultra sound but it helped me to decide which obstetrician to choose. It was especially weird when I was surrounded by more pregnant ladies then myself but I dont care I want the choice and be informed and I can so I will.
My husband was so cute asking all these questions but I knew these questions will be answered at our antenatal classes...at least he asks and is interested god bless him but he made us look stupid when the other people go you should go to parenting classes they will help like derrr of course we are as if I dont know about them even though second time pregnancy first baby. I am fully aware of whats out there....
anyways enough for now and I will try to make the next 8 days go quickly past before my first scan
Its still early days for me and Trimester 1 goes very slow especially when there is still alot of risk so Im trying to enjoy as much as I can apart from the nausea.
We toured two private hospitals we are considering because there is no way I would go public after everything I have been through to get here Im prepared to sacrifice any $$ for safety of me, antenatal care of baby and delivery. Ive worked hard financially to get where husband and I are today and I want to enjoy the benefits especially when it comes to your health.
I think we have swayed towards the closer hospital as the closest is still 25 min away with the other one at least 45 min away. Dont think I can risk the time difference even though the further away private hospital is newer and bigger I have stayed at both hospitals and nurse care is excellent as you get what you pay for. Also I dont want to travel in last month weekly 45 min away when heavily pregnant so I think the decision is made.
It did feel weird getting a tour when we have not even had our first ultra sound but it helped me to decide which obstetrician to choose. It was especially weird when I was surrounded by more pregnant ladies then myself but I dont care I want the choice and be informed and I can so I will.
My husband was so cute asking all these questions but I knew these questions will be answered at our antenatal classes...at least he asks and is interested god bless him but he made us look stupid when the other people go you should go to parenting classes they will help like derrr of course we are as if I dont know about them even though second time pregnancy first baby. I am fully aware of whats out there....
anyways enough for now and I will try to make the next 8 days go quickly past before my first scan
Thursday 7 July 2011
7 weeks tomorrow and 12 days to go to scan!
Not much to post but to say I will reach 7 week mark tomorrow woo hoo!!! and only 10 more days until I get to see the heart beat.
Hoping not like my other cyber friends who are pregnant from IVF at same time who recently had some scares with random bleeds but all are ok except one lost her twin of baby...so hoping I do not get a scare like that so far so good
Nausua has really set in and I hope it does not get any worse...everything I eat tastes metallic and I have no appetite to eat anything I cook... I cant cook in fact it makes me want to dry wrench and then I cant eat what i Just cooked..and I had a random day on Tuesday where I was violently ill and slept 5 hours during the day due to vomiting and gastro and headache but all seemed to pass by Wednesday just back to being nauseous...possibly a virus not MS?
Im cautious though of food I ate night before Tuesday so am avoiding that..Im really struggling with eating...I have to eat every bloody hour to avoid feeling sick so I spend half the day on the toilet weeing and eating...whats this 2 - 3 hours you need to eat you read in the books..Im every bloody hour...from jelly, youghurt, fruit, english muffins, crumpet then salads and boring soup as thats all I can handle to eat
Its funny how Trimester one is one of the hardest yet its the one you feel most isolated as you cant tell the world why you are feeling so ill and you feel the worst...so Yahh to bring on Trimester 2 and Trimester 1 to fly by so no more nauseous, worry and I can relax!!
Hoping not like my other cyber friends who are pregnant from IVF at same time who recently had some scares with random bleeds but all are ok except one lost her twin of baby...so hoping I do not get a scare like that so far so good
Nausua has really set in and I hope it does not get any worse...everything I eat tastes metallic and I have no appetite to eat anything I cook... I cant cook in fact it makes me want to dry wrench and then I cant eat what i Just cooked..and I had a random day on Tuesday where I was violently ill and slept 5 hours during the day due to vomiting and gastro and headache but all seemed to pass by Wednesday just back to being nauseous...possibly a virus not MS?
Im cautious though of food I ate night before Tuesday so am avoiding that..Im really struggling with eating...I have to eat every bloody hour to avoid feeling sick so I spend half the day on the toilet weeing and eating...whats this 2 - 3 hours you need to eat you read in the books..Im every bloody hour...from jelly, youghurt, fruit, english muffins, crumpet then salads and boring soup as thats all I can handle to eat
Its funny how Trimester one is one of the hardest yet its the one you feel most isolated as you cant tell the world why you are feeling so ill and you feel the worst...so Yahh to bring on Trimester 2 and Trimester 1 to fly by so no more nauseous, worry and I can relax!!
Sunday 3 July 2011
Slightly going insane
Its probably all the hormones escalating things at the moment and poor dear hubby (DH) has to take the brunt of it
He was all excited that he had some male bonding time with his brother yesterday who is married to this Sister in law I spoke about last week ie self absorbed...the one whose world evolves around her,,then Dh decides to tell me they are going to try for number 3 soon in a couple of months...Im like what....these people got married 6 months earlier then us...suffered a miscarriage two months after mine and everything was about pooor her and her miscarriage and then she falls naturally within 2 - 3months and here I am 2 years later (well now pregnant by IVF) but still waiting for baby no. 1 ..now they feel the need to tell the whole bloody world they are trying for number 3...like you go up to a vending machine and press baby fertilise now and it happens like clockwork...if so this will mean she will have the perfectly planned gap of 2 years between each child ...what the? It gives me the blooody shits...things in life arent perfect and things dont go to plan...we dont have control over it but we can try .....I dont want to be pregnant at same time she is I mean we will probably be 4 months ahead of her but I dont want to share this with her...she is last person I want to share with....(I would love my best friend my own sister who has secondary infertility and wanting a second child to share with...so hopefully god will answer my prayers on that front)
and there is no granddaughter on my husbands side so if one of us is granted a girl she will want to the girl I know it ..she wanted a girl from baby #1 and now she has two boys....well god gave her two boys but I dont want her to give the grandparents the girl...I mean we do not care what sex our baby is honestly we dont.... we want a healthy baby thats all but please god do not give her the girl..let my other sister in law produce it if its going to happen .....because everything is always focused around her well she tries to be and when the other grandchildren fled overseas she had the only grandkids in Australia for 3 years until my sister in law recently gave birth and you do not know how happy I was to see that her kids will not get all the attention now..I am not normally evil or nasty but this women drives me nuts
So much poor dear hubby and I got into an argument because I said I dont want to know what she is doing...she annoys me ...she is insensitive and does not give a shit about any one else...even if I tell her what we had to go through to get our baby she still wouldnt bloody understand and I dont know if i want to expel my energy on her...I just cant handle anything to do with her ...I think its build up of angst towards her and extra hormones....
So after our 8.5 week scan we may tell immediate family as the family overseas are coming to visit in couple of weeks so if we can we would like to share it then...then I have to think about my plan of attack on how we announce it...do we go into detail or not about our journey as I dont need to justify to anyone why we have been so self centred lately and trying to look after me...
anyways I have some time to think about it without any further confrontations with her
He was all excited that he had some male bonding time with his brother yesterday who is married to this Sister in law I spoke about last week ie self absorbed...the one whose world evolves around her,,then Dh decides to tell me they are going to try for number 3 soon in a couple of months...Im like what....these people got married 6 months earlier then us...suffered a miscarriage two months after mine and everything was about pooor her and her miscarriage and then she falls naturally within 2 - 3months and here I am 2 years later (well now pregnant by IVF) but still waiting for baby no. 1 ..now they feel the need to tell the whole bloody world they are trying for number 3...like you go up to a vending machine and press baby fertilise now and it happens like clockwork...if so this will mean she will have the perfectly planned gap of 2 years between each child ...what the? It gives me the blooody shits...things in life arent perfect and things dont go to plan...we dont have control over it but we can try .....I dont want to be pregnant at same time she is I mean we will probably be 4 months ahead of her but I dont want to share this with her...she is last person I want to share with....(I would love my best friend my own sister who has secondary infertility and wanting a second child to share with...so hopefully god will answer my prayers on that front)
and there is no granddaughter on my husbands side so if one of us is granted a girl she will want to the girl I know it ..she wanted a girl from baby #1 and now she has two boys....well god gave her two boys but I dont want her to give the grandparents the girl...I mean we do not care what sex our baby is honestly we dont.... we want a healthy baby thats all but please god do not give her the girl..let my other sister in law produce it if its going to happen .....because everything is always focused around her well she tries to be and when the other grandchildren fled overseas she had the only grandkids in Australia for 3 years until my sister in law recently gave birth and you do not know how happy I was to see that her kids will not get all the attention now..I am not normally evil or nasty but this women drives me nuts
So much poor dear hubby and I got into an argument because I said I dont want to know what she is doing...she annoys me ...she is insensitive and does not give a shit about any one else...even if I tell her what we had to go through to get our baby she still wouldnt bloody understand and I dont know if i want to expel my energy on her...I just cant handle anything to do with her ...I think its build up of angst towards her and extra hormones....
So after our 8.5 week scan we may tell immediate family as the family overseas are coming to visit in couple of weeks so if we can we would like to share it then...then I have to think about my plan of attack on how we announce it...do we go into detail or not about our journey as I dont need to justify to anyone why we have been so self centred lately and trying to look after me...
anyways I have some time to think about it without any further confrontations with her
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