Sunday, December 30, 2012

I Can See the Light...

at the end of this God forsaken ectopic pregnancy tunnel! Friday's beta came back nice and early in the day, so I wasn't stuck waiting all day long. Not only that, it came with good news that hCG was down to a 7. First thing out of my mouth was a really loud, "PRAISE GOD!" followed by the very important question, "Does this mean I can have a glass of wine?"  My wish for a glass of wine was granted by the endocrinology fairy (a.k.a. Cathy the nurse) and I was told they will need to test once more next Friday 1/4,  just to confirm hCG made it's way all the way down to zero.

Believe it or not, even when hCG numbers get this low they can really eek themselves out in the end. I have heard stories of women who's hCG got all the way down to 5, only to stagnate or go back up! They need to make sure it truly gets down to zero in order to verify everything. Whatever. One more needle won't kill me. I have realized, however, that the vein in my right arm is accumulating quite a bit of scar tissue from being stuck in the same place so many times. Just as I was getting so brave at giving blood, now it's starting to hurt more since the needle has to go through scar tissue, and I've regressed back into being a big fat baby about it. I've been trying to alternate arms as much as possible along the way, but I guess I was using the right one more. Boooo. I'm switching to my left arm solely for a while, but it's only a matter of time before that arm has an equal amount of scar tissue. I wonder if there is any way to get rid of scar tissue in your veins? The women at the lab tell me no, that you're stuck with it (no pun intended) for life once you have it in a certain vein. If anyone out there knows a remedy feel free to share!

Indeed we did celebrate with a nice glass of red wine and homemade lentils on Friday night and it was Mmm Mmm GOOD. It feels like forever since we've been able to just sit and enjoy a glass of wine together. I'm not some sort of alcoholic. It's just a very different thing to abstain from wine because you are pregnant with a nice healthy baby vs. not being able to drink because you are on meds to end a nonviable pregnancy. I personally think we deserved a whole bottle or two as long as it's been, but we were good and kept it to a glass.

Saturday we spent all day taking down Christmas decorations, cleaning the house top to bottom, and I started chipping away at tax return stuff. I normally HATE gathering tax info, so I was determined to get a head start this year. I sat down, printed out all of our bank statements and started going through them with a fine toothed comb. A few hours later, I marveled at my beautiful excel spreadsheet outlining $13,400 in medical expenses, $22,000 in education expenses, and a $2,600 loss on our rental property. Booyah!  I knew we had quite a few medical expenses but wasn't sure if we would have enough to surpass 7.5% of our adjusted gross income (required to write off anything medical). Alas, we did for once.

If you are reading this and think you have some hefty medical expenses, take it from me...sit down and add them up, because you may have enough to write off. Don't leave anything out! You can claim mileage (23 cents/mi.) to and from doctor appointments and pharmacy trips, as well as tolls taken driving there. You might be shocked at how fast the mileage adds up! You can even claim acupuncture and non-traditional medical treatments. If you are a little bit short of 7.5%, you still have one more day to pay for medical expenses too. If you are interested in writing off your medical expenses but have never done it before, you can view the tax rules HERE and also some great FAQ's HERE.  I have a brief chit chat with our accountant tonight, but I think most of my work is done. I can't believe I am saying this in December!

All of our hard work yesterday was rewarded today, as we used a Travelzoo voucher we had for facials and massages. How a tiny Asian man weighing no more than a buck ten can be so strong simply defies all logic, but I won't question a good thing when it happens. I can't tell you how amazing that massage felt today.  I am finally feeling like I can breathe a little bit more. 

Looking back at 2012, no doubt it was full of obstacles, most of which I'd love to just forget. Let's just pretend like none of that ever happened! Wouldn't that be nice.  However, we made it out relatively unscathed. It looks like I will be avoiding surgery most thankfully. Our goal of entering 2013 with zero credit card debt was reached. We are in a good place to start anew. I'm trying my best not to look back at what we've been through, but rather look at the new year as a fresh new start.

We have a consult with a genetic counselor on 1/3 this week and then we're attending a group IVF orientation with Dr. Vaughn on 1/8 to learn more about the IVF process. We aren't running as fast as we can towards IVF but rather taking it one slow step at a time. We will get there... praying every single day that this will be our answer to having a healthy take home baby.

18 comments:

  1. Thanks for the tax tips! I'm definitely looking into what we can write off. Do you know if you have to have receipts for everything?

    We took the IVF process really slow. Like 2 years slow. But I think it helps when you go into it REALLY ready. Hope 2013 brings your take home baby.

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    1. I'm sure it's good to have receipts. I know many times credit card or bank statements can be used as receipts. I'm guessing that would suffice for the dr. visits, but more specific items like prescriptions that have other household items mixed in would require receipts. I'm not a tax pro...just totally guessing here. I'll ask my accountant when I speak to him and let you know what he says.

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    2. Yes, just as I thought. Statements will suffice for apts and anything you know for sure was just Rx, but if you have purchases that contained Rx combined with household goods, you will need hard receipts for those purchases. Hope that helps!

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  2. Interesting about the tax tips, thanks for sharing. I'm sorry you paid so much but YAY for being able to write it all off! And I'm impressed that you are getting a head start on taxes. I hope you'll inspire me... :)

    Like Jessah we took IVF slllloooow too and then once we were finally ready we had to wait 7 more months, LOL.

    Praying and rooting for that BFP! Can't wait for your take home baby!!

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    1. Well we won't get to write it ALL off. The amount needed to reach the 7.5% of gross adjusted income is not deductible, but everything above and beyond that dollar amount is what is then deducted. I sure WISH is was the full amount that was written off though! Sure would be nice!

      I'd rather have insurance coverage, but I'll take what I can get!

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    2. Oh really? That's so annoying!!! I wish you could write off every penny of health stuff. It's so freaking expensive here in America and we should be able to write it off.

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    3. I know. I hear ya! We're still hoping to write off a few thousand, which is better than nothing. You know what's even crazier? There is a lot more I could write off if I was obese and had a dr. order for weight loss....gym membership, diet foods, etc. It's crazy how much our system seems to reward those trying to lose weight vs. other diagnosed diseases. Obese people get their conditions covered via insurance AND they get to write off more on taxes. Doesn't make sense to me, but I don't make the laws unfortunately. :S

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  3. I am so happy that your HCG has finally dropped and that you were able to have some wine. Really hoping you get AF this week to clean out everything and your next beta is at 0. Sounds like you have good steps to start checking out the IVF process.

    Thank you so much for the medical info on taxes. I'm going to ask my acu for a balance on how much I spent, as well as my DH for his anxiety on acu and then also some other medical stuff. I really appreciate that info for tax time.

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    1. Thank you! I may go really crazy and have another glass tonight. We have a fire lit, so kind of hard to resist such a perfect evening.

      Hope you guys have enough expenses to at least write something off. I know you don't have fertility coverage either like us, so anything is helpful!

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  4. Yay for a glass of wine and yay for your beta almost being at 0! Hoping that you get a lot of good info at the group IVF meeting and feel comfortable moving forward when you are ready, no matter how long that takes.

    I say, have another glass of wine or two tonight...you deserve it after all you've been through lately! Hoping 2013 is the year to take home your precious and long awaited and prayed for baby!

    Hugs,
    Kara

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    1. Thank you Kara! I did treat myself to another glass of wine last night by the fire. Really looking forward to the IVF meeting. Of course I'll come with tons of questions!

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  5. P.S. Thanks for the motivation! I have kept a pretty detailed tally of our medical expenses through IVF but went back and added up the rest of the year, thanks to your push. I found over $17,700 in medical expenses, not counting our mileage deduction for all the dr appts which comes to over 1,850 miles that we will claim. Crazy and so sad at the same time that we have spent that much just this year alone to try to have our baby.

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    1. Yay! Your mileage will give you an extra $425.50. You know what's really crazy and sad? My expenses are close to yours and we didn't even do IVF! Blah! Oh well. Just the push I need to do IVF next year when I see how much I've already spent at the RE....and when I see you so happy and pregnant from IVF as well. :)

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  6. I am glad you are going into 2013 with a positive attitude. Finally that HCG is almost at 0 and you dont have to go threw surgery. I am really praying that you will have your take home baby in 2013!

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    1. Thank you so much! I really hope this is our year!

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  7. I am so glad you finally got to enjoy that glass of wine. I may be drinking that bottle you referred to tonight to say good riddance to 2012! I'm excited for you and your next journey into IVF. Good things are going to happen for you and I'm so inspired by your positive attitude.
    Have a super safe and happy New Year!

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    1. Thanks Suzanne! I won't lie, I'm telling myself all those positive things in hopes that I'll be able to really believe them. Not looking back at all the "failures" of the past year is hard to do, but I'm trying my best to really have a clean slate. Wishing you all the best in 2013 as well!

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  8. Ahahahahaha!! "endocrinology fairy (a.k.a. Cathy the nurse)" -- classic. I'm going to start referring to all the nurses as my endocrinology fairies from now on. :) Also, while I'm not an American, I do have an ITIN and must say that every time I call the IRS for help, they are SO lovely! And always have these adorable southern accents. Must make doing your taxes a lot easier each year. Congrats on the dropped beta and on starting 2013 on such a good note. It's gotta get better from here on, right?

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