Connecticut Adventure, Part 1

Tuesday morning, I boarded a flight to New York, via Chicago. Once I landed in New York, I then got into a car and drove to Connecticut (rush hour!!!). After a long day of travel, I finally arrived at my beautiful hotel for the night. Check in and then it was time to find some food!

The desk clerk recommended that I try a restaurant about 10 minutes away... Yummy! Good stuff (even though their "receipt" is to circle your chosen items on their menu, writing in the tax and circling the total on the bottom. Whatever works for them!) The fun part was on the way back my gps app didn't have one important turn, so I got to go on a fun adventure as I drove on back roads to find my way back. Oh, and it was raining, too. I'm not a big fan of driving at night in the rain, but I am proud to say that I made it back just fine. Go me!

This morning, I enjoyed lounging around the hotel and taking my time getting ready for my appointment. I then proceeded to get lost on my way to find breakfast... Again. I did manage to find a Panera not too far from the clinic, so I enjoyed in one of my extravagant loves-their mango smoothie. Yummy! Anyway, after breakfast, I drove to the clinic and met the clinic staff.

I met with the doctor who will be managing the transfer and monitoring all of the stuff that goes into that. He seems nice enough and I really liked his staff. I had blood taken, a sample given, and then experienced a histogram. All I'm going to say is that was five minutes of pain that my poor uterus experienced, OUCH! The doctor looked at everything and said that things look good. We just need to wait to get the results of my blood work back for the all clear.

After the exam and all of the above mentioned stuff happened, I met with a nurse who went over the next couple of steps... Here they are for you (and for me to remember all that she said!)

- blood work comes back sometime next Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday. Once they all come back,
- they order my meds. I will be on several of the same as last time with a few others thrown in. Progesterone shots, estrogen pills, lupron shots, aspirin, prednisone, and an antibiotic the week before. I think that's everything!
- we are hoping for an egg retrieval and transfer the week of August 26th, should all go well. She said that we are pushing things a bit right now, but they will get things going as soon as they can.

So, aside from the crazy directions, lack of road signs, and painful exam, everything was pretty easy and went well! I'm currently in the airport waiting for my flights home (LGA to Milwaukee to MSP) and looking forward to coming back in 7 weeks and meeting the next miracle!

A Plan and Travel Arrangements

This past week I've been an email crazed lady! Starting last Saturday, the nurse from the clinic and I exchanged about a dozen email just getting an appointment for the screening on the books. July 3rd is the day of the screening, which means that I will fly out on the 2nd and back late on the 3rd. The cool thing is that I will be flying into LaGuardia and driving out to Bridgeport. (I really love to explore new places!) Hopefully, I can have dinner with a friend while I'm out there. We will see!

After all of the email with the clinic, I exchanged a bunch of email with the Agency to get travel arranged. Thankfully, I love to travel and can't wait to start this adventure! I'm not stressing about the screening (I've heard parts can be rather uncomfortable) and just looking at it as a time to learn more about what the clinic has planned for me. 

After I come back from the screening I've been told that we will get the results back in about a week, then the clinic will figure out my medication protocol and get me started on that. Should all go well, we will shoot for a late August/early September transfer, all dependent on the egg donor's cycle.

The steps to a miracle are many!

The Ducks are Starting to Line Up...

Now that the agency has the contracts, they are in communication with the Clinic to get things going on their end. This Clinic is a bit different from my last experience, for one, its here in the states (can you tell I'm a bit excited to go to CT?). Another difference is that they have me fly out there for a day to get screened by them, rather than order tests here and send all results to them. I'm okay with this as I will be a bit more familiar with the clinic when the transfer time comes. As I've not been screened by a fertility clinic before, I'm not sure what to expect, but I'm not concerned. 

I've been asking my surrogate friends about the clinic, screening and their experiences there as I like to be prepared. I know that everyone has different experiences and way of looking at things, but I was so thankful the other surrogates had kind of given me a head's up about some of the things they experienced while in Toronto. I wasn't too shocked or freaked by anything and, looking back, I could see how I could have been had I not known a few things. (Read past blog entries if you aren't sure what I'm talking about.) So far I haven't heard much about CT, but I'm sure that will change as I get closer to travel.

Speaking of travel, I've been told that someone from the Clinic will be contacting me soon to get things scheduled. Things should be happening in the next month or two! Woo hoo!

Let's get this miracle started!

Notaries, Contracts, and Tornados

At last the big envelope arrived... The contracts are here! Last night I spent a chunk of time signing, initialing, and handwriting a page of stuff. I asked Shawn if he would initial the stuff he needs to initial and meet me at the bank to have the whole mess notarized. Tomorrow, I'll mail the contents back to the agency and we will be on our way!

As for the Tornado part of the subject line, the parents I'm working with are close to the area that was hit by tornados yesterday. Once I realized where the tornados were, I quickly emailed B & R to make sure they were safe and okay. I received a response letting me know that yes, they are okay. Schwoo! Glad to know they are safe!

Now that contracts are done and B & R are safe I wait for the medical part of this miracle.

Contract!

Last Friday I was sent an email with an attachment I've been waiting for... The Official Big Document of a contract nature (OBD for short.) This go 'round I chose not to have it reviewed by a lawyer, which is a bit of a bummer, because I really liked the lawyer we used the last time!

Anyway, I looked over the thing pretty thoroughly, comparing it to my previous OBD. Of course there were some changes, like names and dates and a few other specifics, which are to be expected. I also found some other minor changes, but nothing that I felt needed legal counsel to figure out or that I disagreed with. But, good golly, that thing takes FOREVER to read! I wish I could share with you some of it, but that is also against the contract. :-). I'm not arguing with it or disagreeing with it, just stating that its in there.

Anyway, I just sent off the ok to the agency to get my copies so I can sign them in triplicate and we can get this miracle started! Woo hoo!

Checking In

Having already had one attempt at surrogacy I've been rather laid back this time. I think just knowing all that B & R have to chose and everything that needs to go into a contract and then everything else has made me a bit more relaxed this go.

I received a nice email today from the Agency. They were just checking in and letting me know that B & R are pretty sure they have picked a clinic (it's in Connecticut!!!), and that they are still excited and thinking about me. I shot back a quick message for them and asked a few questions about the clinic. You know, questions anyone asks about a clinic... Medication protocol, bed rest, successes, etc. Normal questions, right? :-)

Anyway, I'm glad that they are still happy they chose me and things are moving along on their end. I'm just hanging out here in St Paul, patiently waiting for a contract, excited to get started on a miracle.

New Development!

I have some exciting news... After the disappointment of finding out that M & A did not want to continue with another cycle, I told the agency that I would like to be matched with another couple. I was sent a profile of a couple who I really liked and yesterday we had our conference call. They sound just as wonderful on the phone as they did on paper!

After the phone call, I chatted with my hubby and told him about the call and my thoughts on how it went. He agreed with my assessment that they sound like people I would like to work with. I sent the "yes!" email quickly to the agency and got a response of "they want to work with you, too!" Yeah, I'm matched again!

Now for the OBD process (contract), and many, many arrangements for B & R to get lined up (clinic, donor, etc) and we can get started on this miracle!