Week 9 Ultrasound

Upon the completion of my seven week ultrasound, my fertility center reminded me that we needed a nine week ultrasound. I called the OB clinic to set up the appointment and sent over the order form only to receive a phone call a day or two prior to the appointment.
"Hello, I am calling about the appointment you have. Why do you need another ultrasound?"
"I have an IVF baby and my fertility center wanted me to have two ultrasounds two weeks apart to ensure the beginning stages of the pregnancy are progressing like they should be."
"Well your doctor looked at the scans and she doesn't think there's an extenuating circumstance that would require one this week."
"Could I still have one done?"
"Because she doesn't think you need one, your insurance wouldn't pay for it."
"I understand. This is important to me and I do have an outside order for it. We are willing to pay for the ultrasound out of pocket if needed."
"Well, our ultrasound tech is actually out of the office for a couple of weeks. She broke her foot and is unable to come in."
"Is there another place I could send the order form to in order to have this ultrasound this week?"
"We have another office [an hour and a half away from where you live]. That's where we are sending everyone right now. They can probably take you, but because it is an out-of-state order, I cannot guarantee anything."
"Okay. Thanks." (No thanks.)

I quickly texted my husband to ask for his opinion. He said we should either use the fertility center here that has saved us so many times or just cancel the second ultrasound. I quickly called the fertility center. The woman on the other line was terrific and said the doctor could squeeze me in that same day in 50 minutes (we live 90 minutes away). We scheduled an appointment for 10:00 the following day.

As we drove up to the fertility center the next morning, I realized as we were past the point of no return that I had left the order form at home! We arrived at the center and after a few frantic unanswered calls at my own fertility center, I took matters into my own hands. I signed up for a free fax service online and sent the pdf order as a fax from my phone. The marvels of modern technology! It went through one to two minutes after we were called back to do the ultrasound.

In the room for the ultrasound, we had a tech that we have met once or twice before. The fertility doctor himself came in along with an OB. We once again praised this fertility doctor up and down for his willingness to work with patients that are not his own. The technician did the scan and the baby looked perfect! The baby was measuring exactly where he/she should and everything looked great. The fertility doctor kept asking if we needed anything else from him, but we were just happy to hear the heartbeat again and see our growing little one.

I received a few more pictures of our newest addition and we all enjoyed the not insignificant car ride to and from the center.