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This patient has provided documentation of treatment at this clinic.
2023, Unknown Success
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[Dr. Erin Lewis is] very clear that her goal is to prevent any losses and to minimize how many times you have to go through any of the procedures involved in this process. She is also realistic based off of the circumstances personal to you about alternative outcomes and how she will approach modifying things for the next time or in the future should you face any sort of negative outcome or loss. Not only does she have a back up plan but she has multiple of them so she is prepared to approach all angles of what may need to be modified to provide you with success.
Them [RBA] clinic is excellent really. They made it very easy and timely to get my initial consult and all appointments in throughout the process. They don’t make you wait or be on any waitlist start a cycle they prioritize you and fit you in and are seemingly very dedicated to working around and for their patients. Their online website/prelude app makes it extremely easy to communicate through messaging with the nursing staff, financial staff, appointment coordinators etc. to arrange whatever you may need or ask whatever questions you may have. When I have had an appointment I have never had to wait longer than five minutes in their lobby. The facility itself is very clean, up-to-date and functional. Staff that draws your blood the ultrasound techs in the front desk have all been kind and considerate and made it very comfortable for somebody like me and it’s pretty quiet and nervous about being in the situation and I appreciate it endlessly.
How was your experience with Erin Lewis at RBA?
As I mentioned before, Dr. Lewis it’s truly the first doctor or really person throughout my IVF journey over the last 1.5 years to actually ask me if I was doing okay physically, mentally and emotionally. Not only is she just a genuinely good person and cares about you as a human being but she is incredibly intelligent well trained and prepared to personalize your treatment regardless of what setbacks You may encounter along the way.
She will take the time whenever you need to schedule an appointment in person or on the phone telephone, as I live three hours away it has been very convenient to be able to schedule telephone calls with her, and in then she will answer any questions you have as well as go over all the options available as well as her recommendation. Not only will she tell you her recommendation but she will tell you why and she will use actual evidence-based medicine that is current to back up why she’s recommending some thing to you. She is not stuck in the past or in any old routines that some IVF doctors get in , she it’s very clear that her goal is to prevent any losses and to minimize how many times you have to go through any of the procedures involved in this process. She is also realistic based off of the circumstances personal to you about alternative outcomes and how she will approach modifying things for the next time or in the future should you face any sort of negative outcome or loss. Not only does she have a back up plan but she has multiple of them so she is prepared to approach all angles of what may need to be modified to provide you with success. I am currently starting my second egg retrieval, first one with her, this week. I feel very comfortable with the plan we have for it as well as for freezing and biopsy of the embryos we will (hopefully) get! Along the way to prepare for this I had an HSG performed, and an ERA to determine the best transfer time for me. Unfortunately the last clinic had not recommended biopsy of the embryos because I was 29 (which I say to anyone embarking- just biopsy them
It’s worth it) so unfortunately we don’t know the quality of the embryo that had been transferred by her from the old clinic. So this time we plan to biopsy them. She did notice that I had some cervical stenosis as well and should that have been one of the reasons for my transfer failures she has explained to me that we can do a cervical dilation three weeks prior to my next transfer in order to eliminate that obstacle. So clearly as you can see she is looking to scientifically determine all angles of what may be causing your fertility and prevent them in the future to provide you with success. I feel very confident and encouraged she is going to make it happen for us and will be determined to do so.
What's one piece of advice would you give a prospective patient of Erin Lewis at RBA?
Absolutely feel peace of mind she and her staff will take care of you the way you deserve to be treated during this journey in your life.
During treatment, were you treated like a number or a human with Erin Lewis at RBA?
When I first talked to Dr. Lewis it was on the telephone as I do live 3 1/2 hours away from her clinic. This was after going through a retrieval with two failed transfers at a different facility in a different state that had been somewhat traumatizing. I realized when she answered the phone she was the first person at a fertility clinic to ask me “how are you have you been doing OK?“ I can’t even describe to anyone what that meant to me and how much I realized until that moment I had not been treated like a human being or had any of my emotions considered throughout the process. Had my last embryo that was created at the old facility transported to Dr. Lewis and unfortunately I did not take but a no-fault to her. I am currently starting my stim cycle for a new IVF round with her as I write this. I can say that over the last six months of tests, procedures, and conversations with her she has remained one of the kindest and “human” doctors I have ever had. Mind you, this is in addition to her incredible intelligence and training.
Describe the protocols Erin Lewis used in your cycles at RBA and their degree of success.
So basically When I first had my consultation with Dr. Lewis I had one remaining embryo from the previous terrible facility I do used, but had not been biopsied. I had not had an HSG done at the other facility, so we did that procedure first, it was normal. Then since we do not know the quality or any information about that last embryo we transported to Dr. Lewis we did an ERA procedure which essentially measures your receptivity to implantation after a certain amount of progesterone exposure. This procedure was important to complete so that if the reason my prior transfers Hatfield were related to needing more or less progesterone transporter to be successful we would know that moving forward. Mine ended up coming back receptive on a standard day most people are which is what I had had my previous transfers at. So at that point we thought it was worth attempting to transfer the embryo, during the ERA Dr. Lewis discovered that I had pretty significant cervical stenosis and mentioned perhaps that could be another factor related to my past failed transfers. I explain to her I noticed my prior clinic physician struggling with my cervix as well and he had passed the embryos back-and-forth through the tubing during the transfer which was shocking to her. She looked back through the record and that physician had never even documented the struggle with my cervix or having done that to the embryos which disturbs me. But we decided it was worth a shot since the transfer catheter is much smaller than the ER a catheter to move forward with the embryo transfer of that last sent embryo. Unfortunately it did not work so moving forward with this IVF cycle I’m starting this week we are going to of course biopsy any hope for embryos we have but also she explained that three weeks before we transfer any frozen biopsied embryo that she wants to perform a cervical dilation procedure, which is essentially an outpatient surgery procedure . (Usually covers by insurance btw bc it’s a medical diagnosed problem) Tess eliminating that as an obstacle to the next transfer. She has made it very clear that her goal is to make this the last egg retrieval I have to go through to get as many embryos as possible and to do everything they can to make the next one successful.
Describe your experience with the nursing staff at RBA.
Dr. Lewis interfacility use the Prelude Connect app which is freaking awesome. I had not had any resource like this in anyway at the facility I had used before. Essentially you can message the nursing staff anytime, if you do it after business hours they will get back to you as soon as the business hours return, there is a number for after hours you can call them. This app also posts all of your labs end it has a calendar that the nurses put your appointments in and medication‘s with doses and times on, which could be adjusted by them lifetime if needed which is very helpful. They have all been very compassionate and competent. Rachel I will say particularly has been one of the best nurses that I have had take care of me, I have a nurse practitioner who worked many years as a nurse (and she didn’t know that or anything) but I say that to emphasize she really does the right thing by her patients.
Describe your experience with RBA.
The clinic is excellent really. They made it very easy and timely to get my initial consult and all appointments in throughout the process. They don’t make you wait or be on any waitlist start a cycle they prioritize you and fit you in and are seemingly very dedicated to working around and for their patients. Their online website/prelude app makes it extremely easy to communicate through messaging with the nursing staff, financial staff, appointment coordinators etc. to arrange whatever you may need or ask whatever questions you may have. When I have had an appointment I have never had to wait longer than five minutes in their lobby. The facility itself is very clean, up-to-date and functional. Staff that draws your blood the ultrasound techs in the front desk have all been kind and considerate and made it very comfortable for somebody like me and it’s pretty quiet and nervous about being in the situation and I appreciate it endlessly.
Describe your experience with your monitoring appointments at RBA.
They have always made it very easy for me to schedule monitoring appointments and been flexible; even if I’ve had to request a time change the day before.
Describe the costs associated with your care under Erin Lewis at RBA.
So for the whole IVF cycle with retrieval it was approx 14,500. The frozen transfer is approx 4600 for everything. The only things that those cost at not include were medication‘s or embryo biopsy. The financial staff provided me with multiple resources for financing, which I ended up using “future families” and shot out to them for being an amazing financing company specific for IVF loans.
Describe Erin Lewis's approach to eSET (elective single embryo transfer) vs. multiple embryo transfer at RBA.
Of course there are a lot of factors that physicians consider for the situation of single versus multiple embryo transfer. For my age being 30 next month, assuming that the embryos we hopefully get our good quality Dr. Lewis explained that her recommendation is to transfer one healthy embryo at that point. She explained all of the science behind that recommendation as well. However since I have had three transfers that I failed up until this point, she did verbalize to me that if we really wanted to transfer two embryos when the time comes she would be willing to do that.
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