Let me tell you some really awesome things about that day before I get into the nitty gritty of what the tests showed.
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| Ready to go to the clinic! (This is what unbrushed hair looks like since I had no brush!! I will spare you a photo of the unshaven legs!! Surely the medical professionals have seen worse than that in their career though!) |
First-- My Agency (Family Forward Surrogacy!) is amazing. I had just posted that blog on my page the night before and the coordinator saw it, sent it to the agency owner (Sandra) and she read it! By the time I had woken up in the morning, I had over 250 views from all over the world! You guys rock my socks. Well one of those views was the agency owner Sandra. She did not know I had started a blog with the blessings of my IPs and I had an email waiting from her in the morning saying that she was very happy to read my blog!
So I got to the clinic and was waiting in the waiting room and Sandra came and kept me company this whole day! When she got there, guess what she pulled out of her purse? A bag of disposable razors. What a hoot! By then it was too late, but the personal touch with this agency is what will make it succeed when so many other agencies are so large that surrogates may just feel like a number!
The clinic we are using is Shady Grove. I must say that a clinic this large is doing something right. I am used to a small very intimate clinic and when I showed up at Shady Grove, I felt overwhelmed. Each floor had a purpose and when you got into the elevator, they had signs on the elevator buttons showing which clinics were on which floors.
First up was my HSG. I have had one of these done before, but last time it was in radiology on a flat x-ray table. So the nurse came and got me and told me to undress from the waist down and wrap with a sheet and have a seat on the table. Then the Nurse Practitioner came in and we were ready to get this started. (Men might want to skip to the next paragraph now!!) So then the nurse says "Okay, your calves need to be here in these stirrups (these were not foot stirrups, they were more like the kind you use during labor and delivery). Except they wanted me to do this from the standing position... which would be fine except I am 5' and the leg stirrups were at chest level. Soooooo.... I couldn't help but let my humorous nature/facetious tendencies come out.. I said to the nurse "No one told me that being a gymnast was part of the requirements to be a surrogate here!" Needless to say I was able to throw myself up there and man did I feel exposed!!!!
So they did the test and the NP told me that everything looked wonderful. I did ask the NP why I had to do the HSG to see if my tubes were open if we were doing IVF and had nothing to do with my ovaries. Why couldn't I have a blocked tube while doing IVF? She told me that blocked tubes would back fluid back into the uterus and make the conditions in the uterus not conducive to pregnancy especially in the case of IVF-- the embryo would float rather than snuggling into the lining. So there you have it :)
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| This is a photo found from ONLINE, it is not mine but I wanted to show what a healthy looking HSG looks like so others could see what the x-ray looks like as they inject dye through your uterus and fallopian tubes under an x-ray machine. I was not able to get a photo of my own, but it did look very similar to this except my tubes were actually much straighter. |
Next up was the consult with Dr. L and that also went very well. He was very friendly and personal and I am very happy to be partnered with him in this getting pregnant journey-- That sounds weird but all of surrogacy is kind of weird to those who are standing outside looking in. He gave my HSG results an A++ and said that my uterus was beautiful etc. We spoke of the future plans with IVF and what our cycles will look like including medications that would be in my protocol.
From there I went downstairs and had a mock transfer/transvaginal ultrasound. The doctor that did it said everything looked great except I had a 4.5cm on my right ovary. He was not concerned as they would monitor it while doing a mock cycle but it is rather common to have these. Here are some photos from that room!
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| The lovely weenie wand and the machine that does the ultrasound-- a speculum, ultrasound wand and the catheter with saline are all in there at the same time having a party! Science really astounds me (and makes me laugh!!) |
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| These things make me snicker too!! Immature, sure but I am certain nearly every woman has had a chuckle over these things when they see them in the office. |
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| The prepped tools for the procedure. |
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| The cyst on my right ovary. |
From there, 12 vials of blood was taken for various different things (STDs, drug tests, hormone levels, etc) and then we went in had a meeting with the Nurse Coordinator (Gail) who is amazing! Had an injection class. She answered all of my questions then I got started on my test to see if I am crazy! Some of those questions had me asking myself 'Does anyone ever really honestly answer TRUE to these?' One question that sticks out in my head.... it was true for me. If there was going to be one disqualifying question for me.... True or False "I feel that my sense of hearing is better than others and it immensely annoys me." TRUE TRUE TRUE!! I am a sufferer of Misophonia, so noises that others don't hear or tune out get me ... bad!! They aggravate me! It has been a week and a half and I haven't heard anything saying that I am crazy, so I think I passed that test somehow! :)
From there, I sat in 3 hours of traffic trying to get out of DC and by the time I finally got home from what would usually be a 6 hour drive, became a nearly 9 hour drive and I crawled into bed at nearly midnight!
So another exciting thing happened this week! Some people don't know this, but as something that is about me personally (Something outside of surrogacy), my husband is a Marine. On Monday, the United States Marine Corps will be celebrating their 239th Birthday from when the Marine Corps started in Tun Tavern (Yes, it is only fitting that the Corps started in a bar!) So in tradition, every year we go to the Birthday Ball to celebrate a 'holiday' that is very rich in tradition! So without further ado, here are a few photos from last night with myself and my handsome hero celebrating another birthday with the Corps! It was a fantastic night (as usual) and we had an amazing time!
Finally, you are probably wondering "What's next?" Well this weekend we have a long weekend due to the Marine Corps Birthday Ball yesterday, then they didn't have to work today. On Monday, it is the Birthday and on Tuesday is Veteran's Day so we get a nice long weekend together! On Friday we leave our kiddos behind with my godmother and we head for Wisconsin. Kurt's twin brother is getting married on Saturday and his parents are having their 50th wedding anniversary party on Sunday. Then we fly to Washington DC on Monday. Hopefully we can change our flights and get in a bit earlier. We are hoping to have an early dinner with L&E and then get up in the morning and I get another ultrasound to check on that cyst. Then Kurt and I get to have a psych consultation with the social worker to make sure we are all feeling well supported. Then after that, we are having a large group session so we can make sure that everyone is on the same page and we are all doing this with our eyes wide open. The IPs will be present as well as Kurt & I, and I am not sure if the agency owner will be there too! Then the IPs take a train to NYC and we head back home to see our kids that I am certain we will be missing after being away from them for almost 5 days!
So that is where we are now! Some people question me about why I would even consider an international couple. Isn't communication hard? Do we have any issues with feeling connected to someone who lives across the big pond? Do I worry that I have agreed to work with them and done all of this work up without meeting them first? The answer is No, No, and No.
This couple makes it hard to remember that they are on another continent that is 5 time zones away. We email often and we skype often. I usually try to email them at night so that they have it waiting for them in the morning when they wake up drinking their coffee or tea in the morning. They are an exceptional couple and I always feel very important with them and to them. I feel so honored that they have chosen me to be their surrogate and carry the most precious cargo! I also think it is amazing how they are sharing it with their family! I have almost as many UK and Ireland views on my blog as I do American! Its all very surreal!
A new update to follow after physically meeting them for the first time and doing our psych evals :)
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