Disappointment

I haven't posted in a while and I apologize for that. We went on vacation with the boys for spring break and had a blast. After we got home, we got some disappointing news. Jay called Fort Lewis to find out where he was on the list and was told that they didn't receive his referral. So he then called his case manager back to find out what happened, she said that the referral was denied by the OIC of the clinic (or something similar) because Fort Bliss was closer to our current duty station so that was were he'd be referred with no changes. Which doesn't make any sense to me because we have to pay out of pocket for any travel expense so why would where the referral be matter to the military? If Fort Lewis can do the procedure quicker and has a frequent rate of surgeries which means a better surgeon with more experience, why would they deny our request for the better opportunity? I just don't get it. We are planning on speaking with Patient Advocacy to see what our options are. But still the news is disappointing. So if Patient Advocacy can't help us, we will have to explore our options outside of the military hospitals.


We could pay for the reversal ourselves, which when we called the place in Tucson that specializes in reversals, they gave us a quote of $7800 for the whole procedure. 

We could see a doctor about sperm retrieval. If it's possible, what our success rate could be and if I'm even able to get pregnant. A big thing is we don't know the costs behind a sperm retrieval and IUI (intrauterine insemination) or IVF (In Vitro Fertilization). It might be cheaper and it might be more costly than a reversal. We will definitely have to weigh the costs, risks and success rates of each procedure and see what we are willing to go through for this to become a reality for us.


Tomorrow we have several phone calls to be made, from patient advocacy to urologists that preform sperm removal. Wish us luck! We're gonna need it!


<3 Traci