Creating Lil’ Pop
Donation protected
Dear friends and family,
We are asking for your help. As a lot of you know, we have been doing fertility treatments and have been trying to start a family for almost 2 years now. Yes, we went to our first appointment before we were even married because we wanted to get everything set up to be ready once we did get married. Everyone who knows me, knows I’m a planner. Last year we found an incredible doctor in Phoenix and did 4 rounds of IUI treatments with donor sperm. Unfortunately, none resulted in a pregnancy. Not a big deal, we knew this would take time and lots of faith, so we stayed hopeful. In January, we decided to change our plan. This time, Stephanie would do all the hormone injections, having her eggs retreived and then we would transfer the embryos into Sheyla and she would carry the baby. Plan was set, insurance was approved, and we saved enough money. March was supposed to be the start, but it got cancelled due to the pandemic. Not a big deal, just another bump in the road. We’ve had plenty of bumps, but we’ve been patient. We waited and in April we were given the option to start birth control in order to set the body up for the hormone treatments. Worst case, if they still weren’t able to do elective surgeries in May, we’d just do another month of birth control and start hormones in June. We decided to go for it. Then toward the end of April we got the green light to start in May.
Our clinic and our insurance company had sent all appropriate correspondence back and forth and all authorizations were approved. We were over the moon exited to finally be doing this. Going from a small 30% chance of pregnancy with IUI up to around 70-80% chance with IVF. We signed all the legal paperwork to determine who had the rights to the embryos in different circumstances. Then we were given a schedule for the treatment. We called the pharmacy and ordered all of our meds, which were pretty pricey, but we saved for it, so no big deal. After that, we called up the sperm bank and ordered more sperm and had it shipped to our clinic. Meds arrived last week and the sperm arrived this week. In the process, Stephanie got furloughed from her job and is now unemployed. Again, not a big deal, we had more money in savings that would help with that until unemployment kicked in and she was either called back to work or she found another job. Yet another bump in the road, but we created a plan to get passed it.
Then the door was slammed in our face. Today, May 7th, someone called to talk to us about our fertility treatment. He was not from our clinic or our insurance company. I didn’t really understand, but he said he managed our insurance company. So he was from a health care company that made claims decisions over our insurance company. Anyway, he stated that we were not covered for IVF treatment. Even after our insurance company had authorized everything. Tomorrow is our baseline ultrasound and we start injections on Monday. We were told, if we continue with our IVF treatment, we would be paying everything out of pocket. We have already invested about $5k in meds and sperm; neither of which are refundable. Paying of pocket would cost us somewhere around $18k. Both our insurance company and our clinic are blown away at what is happening to us and said they have never seen anything like it before. We are emotionally shattered right now. We are haven’t quite lost all hope just yet, which is why we are asking for help.
We’ve face a lot of ups and downs on our journey to creating a family, but we always kept hope alive and found new ways around each hurdle we faced. This hurdle has completely shattered us. We got so close and had all our ducks in a row. Everything was lined up and ready to go. Then this company, which I still don’t fully understand, came in and shot down the entire thing.
So here is where we ask for your help. We know everyone is facing a hardship and things are uncertain right now. So we ask that you do what is best for your family and only give if you are able to help. We have until Monday morning to make a decision on if we are going to continue with are plan to create our family, without the help of our insurance company. Our only options to start a family are through fertility treatments, so are options to start a family are limited. If we cancel our treatment, then we can not get a refund for the $5K we spent on meds and sperm. So we are stuck between a roc and a hard place. It would be a huge blessing to be able to try once again to start our family. Please know that we did not want to ask for help initially, but we’ve come to a hurdle that we cannot get passed on our own. Sometimes it takes a village to make a child :-)
We are asking for your help. As a lot of you know, we have been doing fertility treatments and have been trying to start a family for almost 2 years now. Yes, we went to our first appointment before we were even married because we wanted to get everything set up to be ready once we did get married. Everyone who knows me, knows I’m a planner. Last year we found an incredible doctor in Phoenix and did 4 rounds of IUI treatments with donor sperm. Unfortunately, none resulted in a pregnancy. Not a big deal, we knew this would take time and lots of faith, so we stayed hopeful. In January, we decided to change our plan. This time, Stephanie would do all the hormone injections, having her eggs retreived and then we would transfer the embryos into Sheyla and she would carry the baby. Plan was set, insurance was approved, and we saved enough money. March was supposed to be the start, but it got cancelled due to the pandemic. Not a big deal, just another bump in the road. We’ve had plenty of bumps, but we’ve been patient. We waited and in April we were given the option to start birth control in order to set the body up for the hormone treatments. Worst case, if they still weren’t able to do elective surgeries in May, we’d just do another month of birth control and start hormones in June. We decided to go for it. Then toward the end of April we got the green light to start in May.
Our clinic and our insurance company had sent all appropriate correspondence back and forth and all authorizations were approved. We were over the moon exited to finally be doing this. Going from a small 30% chance of pregnancy with IUI up to around 70-80% chance with IVF. We signed all the legal paperwork to determine who had the rights to the embryos in different circumstances. Then we were given a schedule for the treatment. We called the pharmacy and ordered all of our meds, which were pretty pricey, but we saved for it, so no big deal. After that, we called up the sperm bank and ordered more sperm and had it shipped to our clinic. Meds arrived last week and the sperm arrived this week. In the process, Stephanie got furloughed from her job and is now unemployed. Again, not a big deal, we had more money in savings that would help with that until unemployment kicked in and she was either called back to work or she found another job. Yet another bump in the road, but we created a plan to get passed it.
Then the door was slammed in our face. Today, May 7th, someone called to talk to us about our fertility treatment. He was not from our clinic or our insurance company. I didn’t really understand, but he said he managed our insurance company. So he was from a health care company that made claims decisions over our insurance company. Anyway, he stated that we were not covered for IVF treatment. Even after our insurance company had authorized everything. Tomorrow is our baseline ultrasound and we start injections on Monday. We were told, if we continue with our IVF treatment, we would be paying everything out of pocket. We have already invested about $5k in meds and sperm; neither of which are refundable. Paying of pocket would cost us somewhere around $18k. Both our insurance company and our clinic are blown away at what is happening to us and said they have never seen anything like it before. We are emotionally shattered right now. We are haven’t quite lost all hope just yet, which is why we are asking for help.
We’ve face a lot of ups and downs on our journey to creating a family, but we always kept hope alive and found new ways around each hurdle we faced. This hurdle has completely shattered us. We got so close and had all our ducks in a row. Everything was lined up and ready to go. Then this company, which I still don’t fully understand, came in and shot down the entire thing.
So here is where we ask for your help. We know everyone is facing a hardship and things are uncertain right now. So we ask that you do what is best for your family and only give if you are able to help. We have until Monday morning to make a decision on if we are going to continue with are plan to create our family, without the help of our insurance company. Our only options to start a family are through fertility treatments, so are options to start a family are limited. If we cancel our treatment, then we can not get a refund for the $5K we spent on meds and sperm. So we are stuck between a roc and a hard place. It would be a huge blessing to be able to try once again to start our family. Please know that we did not want to ask for help initially, but we’ve come to a hurdle that we cannot get passed on our own. Sometimes it takes a village to make a child :-)
Co-organizers (2)
Stephanie Popovich
Organizer
Goodyear, AZ
Sheyla Popovich
Co-organizer