Sacks' IVF nurse?

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know which nurse Dr. Sacks' IVF patients work with on a regular basis? I am gearing up for an IVF cycle but hate the idea of leaving his two TI/IUI nurses (whom are both wonderful). I am worried that the one nurse whose judgement I don't trust (just from a few short interactions) might be his but I'm not sure. Any other information about your experience with Sacks, his IVF nurses, and IVF with him in general would be great.

[Anonymous]

I had Lorna before she left and she was a dream. I also worked with Amy and Venecia. I didn't like Venecia as much. She didn't help me with ordering meds, which resulted in a couple of very last-minute orders and calls, or walk me through the process very carefully or explain things in a way that worked for my hormonal brain. Amy was very kind but also very new and had to be "trained" on some things about the "CFA way" by other nurses during the process, but as an IVF nurse generally, she was good.

[Anonymous]

I love Dr. Sacks. The two nurses I dealt with most often were Wendy and Venecia, both of whom were really nice. I also received Dr. Sacks's email address from Wendy at some point, and he is great about responding to questions. I emailed him most every day between my retrieval and transfer after I got updates from the nurses just to get his two cents, and he always responds. So don't hesitate to ask for his email address so that you can be in touch with him directly. He's very open to it. Most of your interactions, aside from appointments, will be with the nurses. They'll be the ones calling with updates from your blood work, embryo development, etc. And your monitoring appointments are short and very fast, so make sure you go in prepared with questions you might have. Dr. Sacks and the nurses will stop and give you answers, but they have a lot of patients to get to in the morning (as you'll see in the waiting room), so they don't automatically sit down for a 15 minute chat. But, they will answer any questions you have. And, if you want them to repeat how many follicles or whatever, just ask. They are very nice.

[Anonymous]

I definitely agree that emailing Dr. Sacks is the best. He generally responds very quickly and thoroughly.

As for the nurses, I think both Wendy and Venecia are nice, but they both seem a little flighty to me. Not sure how to better explain it than that...I just was never fully inspired with confidence. (I did like the IUI nurse's better.) I often felt better putting follow-up questions to Dr. Sacks directly (which was easy due to email). I do really like Marcia, who is the nurse director. You may interact with her occasionally.

The one thing I would recommend is to verify all of your protocols, treatment plans, etc with Dr. Sacks directly. I did catch one mistake in what my nurse communicated. I know it's frustrating that you should have to, and some people may feel that you shouldn't disturb your RE, but IF is the only type of medical issue I've ever had where it seems standard not to get details about your treatment from your doctor directly. I dont' think it's at all intrusive to check in with your doctor directly to make sure you understand the treatment being recommended (and why if that's not obvious). In the end, you pay a lot for this treatment and the face-to-face time with your RE is minimal if you don't push for more.