The way that chemo works is that it attacks quickly dividing cells. Unfortunately, this includes hair and sperm. So, infertility is a risk. According to my doc, it's about a 10% chance. So, if I want to have kids after this is all over, then we need to make sure that we hedge our bets. That requires a trip to the fertility clinic.
I went to the University of Colorado Hospital, Advanced Reproductive Medicine clinic in Aurora. First, I had a consultation with a nurse to go over all of the forms I needed to sign. Making a deposit apparently requires a lot of forms, because of the complicated nature of parental rights. I can basically control who can have access, when they can have access, and what should happen if something were to happen to me.
After my consultation, they took me to a room where I had to do my thing into a sterile cup. After I finished that, I had to seal the sterile cup and place the specimen with another form in a small cabinet that was connected to the lab. I then had to press a white button to make sure that the analysts could get started on analyzing the specimen.
So, they plan on doing a basic analysis to see how good my sperm is. If everything is good, they will make some vials to be cryogenically frozen. I have appointments on Wednesday and Friday so that we have as many samples as possible for the future.
BTW, this isn't a cheap process. Most of this stuff isn't covered by insurance. So, it costs several hundreds of dollars to do the freezing. Most of the money will be made when there is a withdrawal. In order to save some money, I took care of most of the bloodwork through my insurance. That will save a couple of hundred dollars.
This is somewhat embarrassing to discuss, especially, since people, including my family, are reading this blog. But, this is a necessary thing to do. The worse thing we could do is take the risk and not be able to accomplish our future goals.
I went to the University of Colorado Hospital, Advanced Reproductive Medicine clinic in Aurora. First, I had a consultation with a nurse to go over all of the forms I needed to sign. Making a deposit apparently requires a lot of forms, because of the complicated nature of parental rights. I can basically control who can have access, when they can have access, and what should happen if something were to happen to me.
After my consultation, they took me to a room where I had to do my thing into a sterile cup. After I finished that, I had to seal the sterile cup and place the specimen with another form in a small cabinet that was connected to the lab. I then had to press a white button to make sure that the analysts could get started on analyzing the specimen.
So, they plan on doing a basic analysis to see how good my sperm is. If everything is good, they will make some vials to be cryogenically frozen. I have appointments on Wednesday and Friday so that we have as many samples as possible for the future.
BTW, this isn't a cheap process. Most of this stuff isn't covered by insurance. So, it costs several hundreds of dollars to do the freezing. Most of the money will be made when there is a withdrawal. In order to save some money, I took care of most of the bloodwork through my insurance. That will save a couple of hundred dollars.
This is somewhat embarrassing to discuss, especially, since people, including my family, are reading this blog. But, this is a necessary thing to do. The worse thing we could do is take the risk and not be able to accomplish our future goals.
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