All Sorts of News!

I got to talk to Mum on the phone for a little while the other day. It turns out her egg retrieval went better than expected and the clinic has lots of high-quality embryos. The IVF Doctor is therefore suggesting that Mum try one more IVF cycle before they go through with impregnating me. Mum says that neither she nor the IVF doctor are hopeful that a pregnancy will stick, but they’re going to try it anyway. The reason Mum called was to basically ask for my blessing on it.

I guess I kind of feel like there has to be SOME hope of a pregnancy sticking, or it would be a total waste of Mum and Dad’s time, not to mention one last emotional rollercoaster for them before a really, REALLY big roller-coaster with surrogacy. Regardless: How could I NOT give them my blessing? I mean, the purpose of all this is to make them parents. If they can do it without me, GREAT! It means they’ll have better luck with a second baby if they decide to try for one down the road!

Mum says I’m wonderful for thinking this way, but I can’t imagine a surrogate who wouldn’t. I’d say I made out pretty well on this deal. I got to meet two incredible human beans, and Mum has assured me that we’ll stay in touch, no matter what happens. (She’s also promised to compensate me for my time, but it’s not like I’ve lost any, even if I didn’t take into account that meeting them was totally worth the tiny bit of time I’ve spent on this so far. Hubs, Pooka and I were already in Boston when we had breakfast together – which Mum and Dad paid for - and it’s not like she ate up a lot of minutes or data with texting, phone calls and emails. Ha!)

The testing is going ahead on October 25^th, despite all this. It makes sense: Mum and Dad want to cover all of their bases. I spoke to my very favorite Coordinator at The Agency about travel arrangements. I could be misinterpreting, but it seems like Mum and Dad are very, VERY accommodating. The new contract says they’ll pay for airfare, cab and hotel arrangements. What I didn’t realize in reading the contract was that this means that The Agency will arrange and pay for the airfare and hotel out of Mum & Dad’s escrow account, AND send me the funds to cover cab fare and meals allowance. With WiggleWorm & Tempest’s contract, we paid up front and got reimbursed.

The new IVF Doctor called me today to chat about my history and the process, etc. He seems nice enough, if extremely soft-spoken. I had to turn my desk phone’s volume up to the max to hear everything he had to say. We talked about my medical history, and I told him what worked best during the last three IVF cycles, as far as administering medications. I also told him that at the Other IVF Clinic, they transferred 3 frozen embryos for the last two cycles, but that I suspect they did this because the embryos had been frozen for the better part of two years. In Mum and Dad’s case, the embryos will only have been frozen for a couple of months.

The IVF Doctor seemed a little surprised by how much I knew about the process, and pleased that I was able to tell him how often and in what manner I took the medications, as well as remembering the names of the medications themselves (Estradiol, Vivelle patches and Crinone gel). I guess other carriers just do what they’re told, and don’t pay attention to the process itself? It does seem to be an American trend to not want/need to take note of the procedures we undergo. Personally, I like to be informed rather than blindly trust someone else with my care.

Anyway, we’re on for the 25^th! Mum and Dad had airfare and cab fare written into the contract in addition to the normal reimbursement for expenses and stuff. On top of that, the arrangements are being made by The Agency, and everything is being paid for up front, so we don’t have to pay anything out-of-pocket. HOW COOL IS THAT! So if I understand it correctly, Hubs and I will fly down to The Clinic on the 24^th, do testing and psych evals for 5-6 hours on the 25^th and then fly home. WHEE!