When does Shady Grove give you your IVF protocol?

[Anonymous]

Hi folks,

I'm done with my mock cycle, and my *known* egg donor and I are both on birth control pills and waiting to hear what our next move is.

We've been waiting like this for a very long time. I'm near the end of my 28-day pill regimen (sp?) and she's a bit behind that.

We've literally emailed the nurse every single day (I know, that's probably annoying) to ask when we'll receive our protocols, and we've heard nothing but crickets.

Is it normal for them to have no information for us at this point? Pretty nerve-wracking to contemplate spending this much money and getting no information to help us plan travel, work and moving schedules.

Thoughts?

[Anonymous]

I can't speak to DE cycles, but I had my protocol in hand before I started the birth control pills. Is there a donor coordinator that you could follow up with (i.e., someone other than your unresponsive nurse)?

[Anonymous]

OP here.

The nurse coordinator has been unresponsive, too.

Do you think it would poison the well to call the nursing supervisor?

I'm really bummed because we switched to SG because our previous clinic was such a shit-show. Right up until this last minute here, the communication and professionalism has been flawless. But now that it actually counts ....

[Anonymous]

You need to call your doctor or put in a phone call to your nurse.

Shady Grove usually gets me my protocol within a day or 2 of me starting pills for a cycle. I know they've been a little delayed because of the weather and snow day last week had some nurses covering other patients. But they should have given you this a long time ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here.

The nurse coordinator has been unresponsive, too.

Do you think it would poison the well to call the nursing supervisor?

I'm really bummed because we switched to SG because our previous clinic was such a shit-show. Right up until this last minute here, the communication and professionalism has been flawless. But now that it actually counts ....

12:12 here. I don't think it would poison the well. Your protocol seems to have slipped through the cracks. Use the snow as an excuse if you want (e.g., "Hi, I left a couple messages for my nurse but I wasn't sure if she received them with all the snow lately..."). Fwiw, my nurse for my first cycle at SG was really uncommunicative, so I switched nurses for subsequent cycles. I've posted this before, but right before my retrieval I called my nurse with a question and found out she'd left for a three-week vacation with no notice! According to DCUM she is now on the DE side, so maybe it's the same nurse.

[Anonymous]

We ran into the same problem with SG while trying to do a FET with a gestational carrier. We had all the tests done, and just del like we were in limbo for a long time, so we switched to another clinic and it has been much smoother.

[Anonymous]

I am waiting for the schedule for a 1:2 Shared Risk Donor Egg transfer and it has been 3 weeks since we made our donor selection. We were supposed to hear from our SG nurse within 7 business days. I have done all of the outreach to her (emailed her on Day 4, called on Day 7) and her answers keep being "I am waiting to get more info from the donor." Twice she has told me she would get back to me by the next couple of days/week and it hasn't happened. Am getting very frustrated...

[Anonymous]

I had my protocol by email the same day as my Day 3 bloodwork. My nurse called and talked me through it and then called 2 days later to make sure my meds were ordered and to see if we had any questions.

We did have some new paperwork to sign before IVF could start (after 3 IUIs) - do they have all your paperwork in order?

[Anonymous]

It may depend on which program you are in, 1:1, 1:2 or 1:3. if you are in the 1:3 there could be delays in getting everyone's cycles aligned. That is what happened with me, so it took longer to get the protocol. I am guessing there may be an issue with one of the recipients or donor not being in synch with everyone else's cycle so they are waiting for you all to synch up. That's just a guess. I'd suggest calling again and specifically asking them to call you back by COB today and then if that fails, try the supervisor/Doctor route.

[Anonymous]

Call the clinic and ask to talk to your doctor! I went to Shady Grove, and the nurses definitely make mistakes. (I'm happily pregnant right now, but it still was annoying -- my nurse even gave me the wrong time of day to do my trigger shot!). Anyway, don't be shy about asserting yourself -- this is your cycle and your time that you're dealing with -- SG deals with A LOT of people, and you need to make your needs known. FWIW, I used my own eggs but I had my protocol when I started BC pills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It may depend on which program you are in, 1:1, 1:2 or 1:3. if you are in the 1:3 there could be delays in getting everyone's cycles aligned. That is what happened with me, so it took longer to get the protocol. I am guessing there may be an issue with one of the recipients or donor not being in synch with everyone else's cycle so they are waiting for you all to synch up. That's just a guess. I'd suggest calling again and specifically asking them to call you back by COB today and then if that fails, try the supervisor/Doctor route.

If OP is using a known donor, it seems doubtful it's more than 1:1.