Back on

So, talked with IM. She had evidently gotten a bit dejected about the financial aspects of the journey after talking with the lawyer and thought my numbers were written in stone... so she gave up.


The part that L, the IM, had problems with fiancially were all the whatifs. I had requested several fees for things above and beyond normal: caesarean section, bedrest, weekly housekeeper if on bedrest, tranfer and loss of organ. I removed all of these from our contract. (Total ~$8000)

Since L is only transferring a single embryo, we have only a minute possibility of twins and even less for triplets or quads. L is allowing me to choose a birth center in which midwives will do all the OB monitoring. With this comes less medically routine surgeries, inductions, etc. L doesn't want amnios done and we'll have a single sono done to s3x the child. Since I won't be high risk, there just a LOT less chance of needing that bedrest or caesarean section (I've never had one).

We're pushing the saline ultrasound to next month while L finishes up her side of things and we get the contract taken care of. Looks like we won't be trying for a transfer until January which is great =)

Yo Yo

So, I got an email from the IM earlier today. She gave me a new proposed itemization of fees and the financial expections which was significantly lower. I countered by reducing every "what-if" fee and essentially making my compensation "all-inclusive".

I don't know if I see this going anywhere, but I'm still playing and will see it to the very end.

dumbfounded

Got an email from IM and they're ending our journey. I'm so completely dumbfounded and sad. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop but thought that since we had gone thru most of the testing, that we must be "for real".

So, what happened, was they met with the lawyer again and went over more of the specifics of financial implications and decided that there was no way that they'd be able to do this with all the "what ifs". If everything was storybook, they'd be fine. If I required bedrest, interventions, long hospital stays, twins, triplets, multiple tries, etc - they'd be wiped out and couldn't chance it.

On one hand, I feel so very badly for them. If I were in their position, I don't believe that I/we could afford a surrogate.

I'm still hurt though and angry. I was so ready to give this a big "GO" and I'm thrown back to the beginning again.

#(*$&@

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.