Dr. Kim Thornton is a straight shooter and I respect that about her. She didn't sugarcoat anything just to make us feel better, and I appreciated that. She was direct, to the point, and pretty serious. There was no hand-holding. I felt that she had put the best plan together for my specific situation, and trusted her medical expertise...There wasn't one dedicated case manager or go-to person that we could contact. Even trying to reach the 'dedicated' nurse was a nightmare. If you called before 9am you got message that "you've reached the emergency phone number", and you couldn't leave a voicemail. If you called the same number after 9am, you spoke to 3 different people before you even got the Voicemail for the nurse...
Waltham clinic is the main facility. I live closer to the Worcester clinic so I had most of my blood tests/ultrasounds there. The receptionist in Worcester had no idea what was going on. The bloodwork in Worcester was a nightmare - last time I had to wait 1 hour to get my blood drawn, it was also a different person every single time which made me think they had trouble staffing it. The Waltham clinic seems to run like clockwork. My cycle was cancelled before egg retrieval, but all of my appointments there were on time.
How was your experience with Kim L. Thornton at Boston IVF?
Dr. Kim Thornton is a straight shooter and I respect that about her. She didn't sugarcoat anything just to make us feel better, and I appreciated that. She was direct, to the point, and pretty serious. There was no hand-holding. I felt that she had put the best plan together for my specific situation, and trusted her medical expertise.
At 28, my FSH levels and AFC was that of a 40 year old, and she diagnosed me with Premature Ovarian Insufficiency - time was not on my side. She felt that we needed to move straight to IVF and not waste any time, so we went for it. I appreciated that she felt the same sort of urgency that if I was going to have my own healthy babies with my husband, it needed to be ASAP.
I met with her twice. Once for the initial consult just before Christmas, and once again in Feb after all the diagnostic testing. My first IVF cycle started in April and after 8 days of stimulation it was abruptly cancelled (on a Saturday), because not enough estrogen was being produced. I trusted her expertise, and was instructed to call on Tuesday (after marathon Monday) to schedule followup consult. When I called on Tuesday, I was told that she was on vacation for the rest of the week, and the next available appointment was 8 days away. Not only was she on vacation, there were no other doctors available that could talk to us sooner, except the emergency on-call doctor, but that wasn't an option.
As a patient undergoing something as extreme and sensitive as IVF, I'm shocked that my Doctor would go on vacation without a back-up. I'm also shocked that there was no professional courtesy to give us a heads up that she was going away during the most sensitive part of the cycle (days 7 - 16!!!) because that's the critical time for everything IVF related. I would have postponed it, or asked for another Dr to monitor the cycle.
Not only that, but I'm also left wondering if my cycle was cancelled because it was inconvenient OR if there simply wasn't anybody there to monitor my cycle.
What's one piece of advice would you give a prospective patient of Kim L. Thornton at Boston IVF?
Ask about upcoming vacation days that may occur during your cycle. Be proactive and be an advocate for yourself.
During treatment, were you treated like a number or a human with Kim L. Thornton at Boston IVF?
If we hadn't pushed and been strong advocates for ourselves to move the process along, we would still be at square 1. There wasn't one dedicated case manager or go-to person that we could contact. Even trying to reach the 'dedicated' nurse was a nightmare. If you called before 9am you got message that "you've reached the emergency phone number", and you couldn't leave a voicemail. If you called the same number after 9am, you spoke to 3 different people before you even got the Voicemail for the nurse. And then you had to wait 2-3 hours to get a call back.
Nobody checked on us during the first few days of injectable medication. Nobody made sure we knew how to mix the medicine, or inject it correctly, and our first appointment wasn't till 5 days later, so we ended up learning how to mix menopur on YouTube! Not the type of service I would have expected given the financial expense and level of intensity of the drugs.
Describe the protocols Kim L. Thornton used in your cycles at Boston IVF and their degree of success.
I'm 28, in-shape, besides my sub-fertility, I'm generally healthy. My husband and I were officially trying, but I wasn't getting my period. I went to see my OB after 6 months and he tested my blood work to see the thyroid/hormone levels. After that he referred me to Dr. Kim Thornton.
She revealed that I wasn't ovulating at all, and my FSH was about 2x - 3x higher than it should be at 28. During preliminary ultrasound scans there were 8 antral follicles, not as many as there should have been for my age, but enough that she thought IVF was our best shot. She didn't want me to waste my time with Clomid or IUI. The goal was to stimulate the few follicles that I had with injectibles, and hope for high quality eggs.
After diagnostic testing she prescribed levothyroxine to bring my Thyroid levels down. It was within the normal range, but was higher than ideal range for pregnancy, had me start the birth control pill, and start taking CoQ10 to help with egg quality. I continued taking a prenatal vitamin.
Summary: Antagonist protocol
300iu Gonal F Redi-Pen and 150 Menopur during stimulation days 1 - 8.
Cycle cancelled on stimulation day 8, not enough estrogen being produced.
Stim day 6: Ultrasound + bloodwork 7am. Ultrasound technician wouldn't comment on anything. Nurse called around 1p and said that results showed 1 dominant follicle 10mm in left ovary and 2 - 4 small follicles in each. She also said estrogen was way too low and that my cycle may be cancelled, but for now Dr. Thornton wanted me to continue same dose of meds and come back for testing on stim day 8.
Stim day 8: Ultrasound + bloodwork 8:30am. The ultrasound technician said there was nothing going on in the right ovary, but 1 dominant follicle 10-11mm and 10 follicles too small to measure in the left ovary. Nurse called around 1:30pm to say that the cycle had been cancelled, and to call on Tuesday to schedule followup meeting with Dr Thornton.
Describe your experience with your nurse at Boston IVF. (Assigned nurse: Tammy)
I dealt with 5 to 6 different nurses over 8 days. It's not a recipe for success. There should be 1 point person who is familiar with the patient, develops a relationship with the patient, understands their test results, and really advocates for their care, otherwise I'm just a number.
Describe your experience with Boston IVF.
Waltham clinic is the main facility. I live closer to the Worcester clinic so I had most of my blood tests/ultrasounds there. The receptionist in Worcester had no idea what was going on. The bloodwork in Worcester was a nightmare - last time I had to wait 1 hour to get my blood drawn, it was also a different person every single time which made me think they had trouble staffing it.
The Waltham clinic seems to run like clockwork. My cycle was cancelled before egg retrieval, but all of my appointments there were on time.