It's been a while!

I know, I know. I'm a terrible person because it's been almost a month since the last post, but there is a reason -- I haven't started the process full-on yet. I was getting nervous since I had gotten accepted, and then there were virtual crickets: no emails, no calls... nothing. I thought I had maybe missed something, so I sent the agency a message, y'know the kind, "Hey, sooo...ummm... what's up? Long time, no talk to!"

As it turns out, Holly and her partner just haven't cemented when the next time they'll be in Cleveland is, so nothing was missed on my part, and we are looking to still go forward. However, I did have a great conversation with Holly, and she explained EVERYTHING to me, and in so much detail. Frankly, I'm more excited now than I was initially. The whole process is interesting, and while the commitment is no joke, it's not a terribly difficult process.

Essentially, after my psych eval, which is about 2 hours, we move from there. Once the physical part of the process begins, it'll take about 3 weeks, in which time I will have something like 8-10 doctor's appointments. We start with a routine physical, pelvic exam, and some blood work. This is, of course, to get all my vitals, check for any diseases, STIs or other maladies, and all the knitty gritty about my body. From there, doctors determine how much of the stimulating hormone I'll be on in order to get my follicles to mature enough for extraction. Once the dosage is determined, I'll be sent enough hormone to give myself a daily injection for about 2.5 weeks, during which time I'll be going for short appointments, just to see how things are maturing in there via ultrasound. Then, roughly 36 hours before extraction, I'm going to take a final shot -- a "trigger" shot -- to make my body ovulate all of the follicles I have been maturing over those weeks.

On the big day, I go in and am given a sedative and painkiller. The whole procedure takes about 25 minutes -- they put me to sleep, and with a syringe that has a camera on it, they go into each ovary through my vaginal walls and aspirate (remove) the ova. I come to, go home, and there you have it!

Now, as with any medical procedure, there is a risk, but the science has advanced so much that fewer than 5% of donors have any adverse effects. Holly actually went into quite a bit of detail about each clinic's ways of doing the hormone regimen, and how those methods have affected their donors, but I won't bore you with that here. I will say though, that I am super happy to be a part of this. Right now I am waiting to hear when I will meet Holly and her partner in person so we can talk and also schedule the beginning parts of this process. In the meantime, I have a profile on the site where families go to search for donors! I supplied about 15 photos, since families LOVE photos, and I'm just patiently waiting for a match. :-) Once things speed up, I'm sure there will be more, so stay tuned!!!