IVF: Single cycle vs multi-cycle

I only posted once last week, having family in town kept me busy. But I'm going to try to make that up to you guys this week!

I don't have many updates for you. I've gotten a couple of things for the garage sale! I'm still not positive about the date yet, but when I know you guys will be the first to know!

We're also going to have a new fundraiser.... PAMPERED CHEF!!!! I'm SUPER excited about this (and HIGHLY recommend the pizza stones!!)! When the online party is set up, I'll post the link!

We haven't gotten any more donations, but I'm hopeful that they won't stop coming in now. We're over halfway there!! Come on guys! :)

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We've been talking a lot about our options with IVF, the money it's going to take, etc. And I think we've made a final decision regarding single cycle vs multi-cycle. That's what today's post is going to be about! You all know I'm a planner, but I'm also someone who NEEDS to talk things out. I need to lay it all out there, hear it out loud, read it, and look at it from all points of view. Also, I feel like since you all are helping us SO MUCH by donating what/when you can, helping with fundraisers, etc, that you deserve to know what our plan is. You also deserve an explanation as to how to got to our decisions. So. Here you go!

Please note, this decision has now been made. I highly HIGHLY doubt we will change our mind about it. And I hope you all will read our way-of-thinking and agree with us! If you have some input (from experience), please feel free to leave a comment or message me on facebook. I don't know anyone personally who has gone through the ENTIRE IVF experience, so I'm really just going off of research and gut feelings here!


I've gone over the numbers with you all... But here's a refresher:

A single cycle of IVF WITH meds, will be just over $14k.
A multi-cycle, without meds, STARTS at $18k. Plus the fees for ICSI, and of course the 3k+ for meds, for each fresh cycle.

So, we could feasibly get a single cycle of IVF done this year if we meet our Crawl goal, and then raise the last 2500, and then Danny and I save just over $4k ourselves.
OR, we could save for another year or so, and probably try to qualify for some BIG loans, and pay for the multi-cycle (payment has to be up front, and within 60 days of the approval of the multi-cycle).
If we make the Crawl goal, and then raise the last 2500, Danny and I will still have to come up with about $11-13k TO START. Then if the first fresh round doesn't work, we'll have to come up with another $3k+ for meds for another fresh cycle. So, really, the multi-cycle could cost us up to $26k+ total.
OR, we could just pay cycle by cycle, and pay $28k IF (IF, do you see that? IF) the first fresh cycle doesn't work and we just do two fresh.

Basically, the multi-cycle discount isn't that much of a discount. It covers up to two frozen cycles, basically for free. BUT there's no guarantee that we'll have any embryos to freeze. Not to mention, the frozen cycles are SO CHEAP compared to a fresh IVF cycle!
AND, if we do the multi-cycle, we'll be waiting quite a while before we can begin....

If we do the single cycle, we can begin almost immediately after meeting our $10k goal. Which hopefully won't take too long after we meet our Crawl goal!

Now, if we go cycle by cycle, and the first fresh cycle fails, then I HOPE AND PRAY we will have some embryos frozen. If we do, we can do a frozen cycle which we would be able to pay for not too long after the fresh cycle. I refuse to think that a fresh and frozen cycle will BOTH fail. If, God forbid, they do... Then we'll basically be starting over. I'm sure I won't be in a very good place emotionally after stabbing myself day in and day out and not getting good results.. But, I will push on. HOWEVER, I still don't think we'll need to go that far. I think one fresh cycle will work. And at the worst we'll have to do one frozen cycle.

So.... We are going to do a single cycle!!! We will need all the prayers possible for this. And if you don't pray, well then just send some good vibes! First though, we need to reach all of our fundraising goals!! Then hopefully we can get this whole thing going and I could be pregnant THIS YEAR! Wouldn't that be amazing?!! :) :) :)

Our three year wedding anniversary is Wednesday, so tomorrow I'm going to blog all about that day! I still remember it like it was yesterday, and I can't wait to share that day with you, WITH PICS! :)