Monday, December 1, 2014

Donor Update


Update:




1.       I do not qualify as a donor. ..So that is disappointing.


2.       After Chris’s semi-annual check-up this August, in Arizona, his transplant coordinator told us that we don’t have much longer to wait…a year at the most. Please cross your fingers and say some prayers. 


3.      Chris started a new job. Now that is better news! Chris is now working as an inside sales rep for a company that sells just about everything China makes ;-) the upside is flexible work hours, sense of accomplishment and another health insurance coverage. We are so blessed that he will now be TRIPLE covered. How many people in the US can say that they even have some coverage? We are lucky folks, lucky. This means no co-pays and less out of pocket for when he does get called for his transplant. Phew…we even got a letter from the new insurance company saying that they will cover our travel expenses to the Mayo Clinic and my lodging while we are there for his transplant. Whoa.  


4.      After a lot of pressure and prodding from his social worker at Fresenius; Chris applied to be on UMC’s transplant wait list in addition to the Mayo Clinic. We were both hesitant at first b/c UMC was sanctioned a few years back due to the high mortality rate of their transplant patients.  But we did our research and found out that after rigorous testing and recertifying it is a viable option for us. Well….we got the call last week saying: hey, you have been accepted, but, neither of your insurance companies will cover services at UMC so…you can go out of pocket for the cost of the transplant or choose not to be on our list. Uh…did that even deserve a half a thought? No, it did not. We will stick with Mayo. There has to be some reason that the top two insurance carries in the country do not cover services at your facility.

5.      In July of this year we began the adoption process through Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada. Unfortunately…the average wait time for a child is 3 years and longer if you want to be paired with a birth mother that did not do any drugs or alcohol during her pregnancy. In Las Vegas that is a bit of a long shot…but we decided to pursue our dreams of a family any way.  


6.      In October we found out that Chris’s new insurance covers a portion of IVF! We discussed this option at length and decided to take advantage of the benefit. The hard part about making this decision was putting a hold on the adoption process. Catholic Charities is pretty strict about not pursuing a family 'naturally' while waiting to adopt. And rightly so. We totally get it. So we committed to three tries of IVF and if after that we cannot get pregnant we will un -pause the adoption search.
7.      Today, December 1, 2014 we are beginning our first fertility treatment cycle. It is hard…I have logged over 5 hours of phone calls with the insurance company and the meds I am on have presented with a variety of not so fun side effects. But if all goes well I will have my eggs harvested on the 14th and then two embryos implanted on the 19th of this month. So this could be exciting. Because the only thing we want more in this world than a family is two kidney’s and a pancreas. So with any luck, God will bless us with both this coming year.




As always, your continued love, support and prayers keep us going. Thank you.

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