Are We There Yet?

As I said in an earlier post, Hubby's lack of vas deferens on both sides is linked to Cystic Fibrosis about 95% of the time.  So, the next step for him was to test him to see if he was a carrier of a recessive CF gene.  If it came back positive, Hubby's sperm would then need to be tested to make sure we use one without the CF gene during IVF-ICSI.  All that means is more money, at this point.  And what the heck?  It's just MORE money.  If he tested negative, then we were a go.  These tests are rather complicated and expensive and there are only a few companies in the U.S.that perform them.  We decided to use the one in Massachusetts because they were willing to cut us a deal since we were self-pay clients.  They contract with a company in Columbus, OH (about an hour away) to come take the blood and overnight it to Mass.  From there, we wait 6-8 weeks for results.


A big, burly nurse man traveled to our house to take Hubby's blood in November 2010.  Poor Hubby hadn't drank enough water and his skinny little vein collapsed.  Luckily, the nurse got enough blood to submit for the CF test. 


And then the wait......


One Friday night in December 2010, we were out to eat with some friends.  Around 7pm, Hubby's phone rang and it was Dr. Mr. Clean's office.  He stepped away from the table to take the call and I began to worry.  A Doc calling at 7pm on a Friday night?  That couldn't be good.  But Hubby soon returned to the table to announce that his CF test came back negative.  Yay for some good news!  And Dr. Mr. Clean wanted us to know as soon as possible when he got the results, so he went ahead and called before he went home for the weekend.  He's scoring points with me.  So we ordered beer and raised our glasses to negative CF tests.


The next week, Hubby called back his Doc to see about scheduling his MESA Surgery (surgery to go in and remove sperm, assuming they're there).  His Doc said that he needed to do 2 more genetic tests before proceeding with MESA.  Snot!  Just when I thought we'd cleared the hurdles and were ready to go, we had 2 more of these darned genetic tests that take forever 6-8 weeks.


So, another nurse came to the house and drew blood for the other 2 tests (Y Chromosome Micro Deletion and Karyotyping) in January 2011.  My understanding was these tests were to make sure that Hubby had a Y Chromosome and nothing was wrong with it.  In the meantime, I had more bloodwork done and had to get an update on my MMR shot.  I went to the Health Dept to get that shot since it was cheaper there.


FINALLY, in February 2011, Hubby got the phone call from Dr. Mr. Clean letting us know that all his tests came back fine and we were ready to go.  Hubby wanted to schedule MESA and he knew I would bite his head off if he didn't try to schedule it was chomping at the bit to get this going. Dr. Mr. Clean said that since we are self-pay, he would have his staff schedule it at the outpatient surgery center rather than the hospital because it's cheaper.  More points for Dr. Mr. Clean.  His staff called Hubby and said that MESA surgery was scheduled for late May.  Hubby knew I would die if I had to wait until May.  He asked if there was sometime earlier and they scheduled it for March 30, 2011.  Much better.  I could wait a month.  I couldn't wait 3 more.  I just wouldn't do it.

Dare I say we were getting there?