The Packet Arrives

When most doctors tell you they're sending paperwork in the mail, you get a standard size envelope with a few pages of questions and perhaps a sheet with the privacy notice.  The mail from SG was as big as a college admissions packet.  Those envelopes were filled with glossy pictures of beautiful people studying on a perfectly manicured lawn or hanging out in a huge beautiful dorm room that nobody on campus actually lived in. :)  This packet actually had very few pictures.  There were a lot of graphs, charts, and tables towards the back ... especially dealing with the statistics of their IVF program.  I was expecting cutesy baby stuff and pink and blue and green and yellow literature.  Instead, it's bold blue and yellow and looks like information from a business company instead of a group who's in the baby business.  The most interesting flier in the packet was a letter to patients who already have kids.  They were requested to not bring their children to the offices to be sensitive to those patients who haven't gotten there yet.  The flier was a different shape and color scheme than the rest of the papers and looked like it had been designed quickly to be added.  The whole idea fascinated me. But I guess in my world, I'm around kids all the time.  I don't think of them as out of place ever because I spend more time with kids than with adults.

This packet had a lot of information, but was really just a different format for the same pages on the website.  Doctor bios, a description of where you'll start, and the assurances that while most people think of fertility treatments as being just IVF, almost everyone who is seen at their practice is helped long before that stage.  (I liked that assurance.) 

Several times in the literature, I identified myself ... young 30's, regular Gyn referrs patient for inability to get pregnant in the early stages of advanced maternal age, irregular cycles throughout her life.  Those are the patients that they can usually help with minimal intervention.  That's me!  It's good to know these things.

The question packets for each of us are extensive.  I did fill mine out already, and it took a lot of time.  It asks all kinds of questions about my medical history as well as everyone who is related to me.  It's a good thing I listen when people babble about that kind of thing!

Another interesting inclusion was the request for genetic testing.  They have several levels we can choose from, but they recommend doing at least a certain level.  This is one of the reasons I have dreaded baby creation turning into a science project.  Regular people just get pregnant and have the kid!  I mean, lots of people may choose not to have kids if they find out both parents carry a recessive gene for a dangerous disease, but I don't think that regular gyn offices whip out the genetic testing form the day you mention wanting to have a baby. 

This whole thing is overwhelming.