Psych eval and Meds class

Long morning.

Got to the clinic right at 10:30. Waited in the waiting room with L for 15-20 minutes before they took us back. We watched a quick 5 minute video on how to properly give a subcutaneous (under the skin) and intramuscular (in the muscle) injection. I only have one that is subcutanous and it can be given in the pinch of fat on my thigh or belly. The intramuscular ones (I think there are 3?) are to go in my thigh muscle, in shoulder muscle or preferably high up on my butt muscle. These will last for about 4 months. =)

Psych eval was easy enough and didn't include any psychological tests; the doctor spoke to L and S and then DH and me, then me alone. Pretty cut and dry. He's been doing this for 12 years.

The whole appt took about 2.5 hours. Yikes!

I have a saline ultrasound scheduled for october 14th (Happy Birthday me). That's the final test before starting the drugs and synching up with the egg donor. I think we'll transfer in December or January. For now... I will enjoy every day not pregnant and not taking shots. Once we start... it will be a fairly tumultous year before it's over. Bring on the 'tini!

This week

I completed my bloodwork on Friday morning. The lab was just down the road and only took 15 minutes. 2 vials of blood, one pee in a cup and I'll know that I'm HIV, Chlymydia, and Syphillis free! =P DH goes today, time permitting.

I'm meeting IM tomorrow for lunch.

The psych evals and medication class is this Thursday. On top of knowing I'm STD free... I hope to learn that I'm not crazy after all. Now won't that be uplifting!?

Just one.

So, in going over the stats, it looks like when it comes time - we'll only be transferring a single embryo. There's still the possibility that it would split and there would be two, but it's a much better scenario than transferring two and having one or both take and split. L, my IM, is terrified of the worst case scenario... both embies stick and one splits. We don't reduce and take our chances with triplets... and they're born early (which is so common with them). The possibilities of life long developmental, physical and mental disabilities... ugh.

I agree wholeheartedly with going with one. If it doesn't work, there will likely be frozen embryos from that batch to try again with.

DH and I both still need to do our bloodwork. I did find a Labcorp close by. =)

NCCRM update

So, we had our first visit with the clinic. It was soooooo cold!!! We had to wait over an hour just to talk to the doctor because he had two transfers before us. We wondered if one group was another surrogacy. Doctor says he sees about one a month.

The visit went well and we have our lists of things to do. Hubby and I both have to have blood drawn for HIV and STD testing (as well as both intended parents). We also need to go over and complete the contract. Our psych evaluation (hubby, me and both IPs) is scheduled for Oct 2. IM and I will have a class scheduled earlier that day too. It's to learn about all the different medications, shots, how and where to administer them, etc.

Once everything is in order, I'll have a saline ultrasound done to check my uterus for any polyps, etc that might hinder the process. This will be done probably in early October. I'll start birth control pills at that time to synch up my cycle with the egg donor.

The rest of the process:
When the egg donor is stimulated, they'll retrieve her eggs and fertilize them with IF's sperm. Around day 3, they'll take a single cell from each of the embryos and test them for any abnormalities. This is called PGD (pre-implantation genetic diagnosis). http://www.nccrm.com/pgd/pgd-and-family-balancing.html Two of the best ones will be transferred into me on day 5 or 6. We'll know if we're pregnant 14 days later.

50% chance of becoming pregnant with at least 1
15% chance of becoming pregnant with twins (either fraternal or identical)
3-5% chance of becoming pregnant with triplets or quadruplets.

The doctor said only transferring one embryo lowers the pregnancy possibility to 25%. We won't know if there are three or four until around 6-8 weeks when they do an ultrasound to check for placement and heartbeat.

Moving forward

She has an appt with the lawyer on the 9th for a consult. We're already talking about what items to include in the contract and have begun discussion of fees, responsibilities, expectations, etc.

I have an appointment at the clinic for a consult there. Will meet the docs and schedule the subsequent appointments for psych evals (for DH and me), Saline ultrasound (to see if my parts look good enough), bloodwork, and an IVF class to show you what to do with all the drugs. Hopefully, I can put this all into one day.

How exciting!

Matched

It looks like we are definitely matched =)

Couple resides about 20 min from me and we seem to agree on everything. We're waiting now to figure out the other messy details of how to begin... what clinic to use, psych testing, lawyers, etc.

=)))

Back on the horse

Put the ad back out there and have some replies. Am talking to three currently.
A same sex couple in New York; a couple in North Georgia and a couple close to Raleigh. Still just the general small talk of kids, family, will you abort and how much do you cost. =P

Will update should anything become very promising.