How was your experience with Thomas Fisher at ORM Fertility?
Dr. Fisher has been very supportive through all of the ups and downs in my health and getting us through our first IVF cycle. Even though our first egg retrieval didnt result in any successful embryos, Dr. Fisher has been in contact with us personally to discuss options for the future, to lend his condolences to us, and to check in our physical, emotional and mental well being after a failed cycle. He has always been very open, honest and up front with us about our fertility and the hurdles we have with my diagnosis of endometriosis and adenomyosis. Though we have had many difficult and tear-filled conversations, we know that he has our best interest in mind, he understands that we are willing to do any and everything we need to do in order to make it to the phase when we do have an embryo to freeze, and he is supporting us along the way. He has been willing to have phone consultations with us since we live six hours from the clinic, which has been extremely helpful.
What's one piece of advice would you give a prospective patient of Thomas Fisher at ORM Fertility?
If you are open, up front and honest with him, and voice your opinions and concerns, he will return the favor to you.
During treatment, were you treated like a number or a human with Thomas Fisher at ORM Fertility?
Dr. Fisher has been with us on a very long journey to finally arrive at our first IVF cycle. I had three surgeries between the time we met with him for our consultation until we started our IVF cycle. He checked in on us often and we have formed a great relationship with him. We feel like he is truly invested in helping us reach our goal.
Describe the protocols Thomas Fisher used in your cycles at ORM Fertility and their degree of success.
We had an AM regimen of Lupron and Menopur, and a PM regimen of Lupron and Follistim, followed by a baby aspirin and a pre-natal vitamin. Because i have a low AMH and endometriosis and have had many pelvic surgeries, we knew that my total eggs retrieved would be low. We were pleasantly surprised when we retrieved 7 eggs, 5 mature and 3 fertilized however none made it to the day six blastocyst stage unexpectedly. If we move forward with a second round, we are taking 3 mg of melatonin along with 600 mg of CoQ10 to see if this helps with my egg quality.
Describe your experience with your nurse at ORM Fertility. (Assigned nurse: Heidi)
Heidi was extremely helpful to us and all of our questions we had both in person and over the phone during this entire process. There were a few documents that the nursing staff had us fill out twice because they lost the first copy we had signed, so that was frustrating in the sense that where did our paperwork end up if they didnt have it? Some of the nursing staff that we talked to on the phone tried to put us off with some of our questions, or they tried to give their own opinion on care questions, such as, can I use a heating pad during STIMS? The nursing staff I spoke to gave me the blanket answer to this question, but when i saw Dr. Fisher the next day, he told me his answer to the question and said that we have to tailor procedures to each of our patients and their individual needs and side effects. I wish that the nursing staff would communicate with the doctors better to help the patients get the correct answer tailored to our specific situation. i know they probably receive lots of questions or concerns during a day, but I don't think its too much to ask to get the help or advice we need, especially if we are in pain. I also wish they would just call us back with an answer rather than sending everything through their patient portal. A phone call gets the job done faster and more effectively.
Describe your experience with ORM Fertility.
Strengths: clean, good locations, always offered bottled water to us, private settings, great doctors, somewhat helpful nursing staff when we finally got the go ahead to start IVF. Weaknesses: fairly poor communication methods - if I called in with a question and asked for a return phone call, I didn't like getting a message in the Patient Portal, sometimes I had follow up questions or just wanted to reaffirm what was told to me previously. Overall it was a good experience, even though our cycle failed.
Describe your experience with your monitoring appointments at ORM Fertility.
We went in at our scheduled appointment time and the office ran like a well oiled machine: blood draw, ultrasound, schedule the following appointment, they would call later in the day to let us know our blood test results and if we needed to change any of our dosing instructions. it went very well.
Describe the costs associated with your care under Thomas Fisher at ORM Fertility.
STIM medications were roughly $5,000; IVF cycle part 1 for the ultrasounds, bloodwork, egg retrieval, embryology and then storing of any embryos was almost $16,000; anesthesia for the egg retrieval was roughly $600. If we would have had any embryos, there would have been additional fees for testing of the embryos, testing of my uterus before transfer, and then everything involved with transfer as well and other medications to prepare for transfer as well.
Describe Thomas Fisher's approach to eSET (elective single embryo transfer) vs. multiple embryo transfer at ORM Fertility.
We didn't make it to this step in the process, so I don't have an answer for this question.
What specific things went wrong at ORM Fertility?
Describe the specific things that went wrong at ORM Fertility.
They lost some of our consent forms for our IVF cycle, so we had to fill them out again.