1st ultrasound & blood test

I had my first doctor's appt. a little over a week ago, and, apart from some transportation issues (read: ignorant, disobeying cabbie who made me miss my train back to work, forcing me to wait an hour for the next one), it went well.

First was the ultrasound. I have never had one of these, but it actually wasn't that uncomfortable. The nurse hands you, well, an instrument that's just like plastic-y and tells you to insert it down in the nether-regions. Then she moves it around examining your ovaries and all the various tubes and pipes down there. (You can find the dirty details of a transvaginal ultrasound: here.) Apparently my right ovary is down a bit, and my left one is way left. She said "You might feel this a bit more," but I really didn't. Which is a plus.

Then I had my blood test. I've never had blood drawn before (shocking, right? the nurses were surprised), and honestly this 'hurt' - or simply caused more discomfort - than the ultrasound. I simply just didn't watch, and it wasn't so bad. I'm rather proud that I wasn't a total baby about it actually. I do not like needles. But not seeing it helped tremendously.

They also gave me the birth control pills I'd need to be on for this, which are called Femcon. Apparently the reason you have to be on a certain kind of BC is because some types of the pill have higher doses of hormones and/or vary more greatly; whereas Femcon hormone levels vary less, in my understanding, and are low-dose, allowing for greater control over the biology of the process. I was told to simply take all of the pills and skip the placebo week (for the week of your period), meaning I won't get a period. In fact, you're supposed to do that the entire time, which means I won't have another period until the retrieval process is over.

Later that afternoon, though, the dr's office called and left a voicemail with my test results. Apparently I have a small cyst on one of my ovaries, which they tell me is nothing to be concerned about. According to emedicinehealth:

Ovarian cysts affect women of all ages. The vast majority of ovarian cysts are considered functional (or physiologic). In other words, they have nothing to do with disease. Most ovarian cysts are benign, meaning they are not cancerous, and many disappear on their own in a matter of weeks without treatment. Cysts occur most often during a woman's childbearing years.

The long and short of it is that I have to have another ultrasound. While on the Femcon BC, my hormone levels should even out, and the cyst may go away on its own. Additionally, one of the extra health benefits of Femcon is that ovarian cysts may occur less frequently. Huh, go figure! So I'll take the BC as one usually would and go in again during my next period. (Too bad - I was kind of looking forward to not having a period for the next couple of months, not gonna lie.)

I also officially signed my 23-page contract and sent it to my attorney. I've been meaning to update you on some of the questions the contract cleared up as well. I'll get to it, though - looks like I'll have at least a few more weeks of waiting for this whole thing to get started.

The wheels are definitely in motion!

For a long time, it was wait-wait-wait, but now everything seems to be happening all at once! It's all coming at me pretty fast, but I'm just super excited and trying to keep up.

I now have a case worker with Family Creations who will be coordinating things, such as my transportation to and from appointments, and basically keeping all the info between me and the recipients straight and up-to-date.

I've also been contacted by a lawyer who specializes in reproductive law who is awaiting the contracts. She'll be representing me and asking any questions I might have about the legal aspects of all of this. That's pretty cool. Not that I'm too concerned about legalities. At least, not right now.

And this week I'll have my first appointment & exam at the recipient's doctor's office. Potentially TMI - though that's sort of the nature of the beast here in an egg donation blog! - but these first exams need to be done during the week of your period. (Also, if you're not already on birth control, they will prescribe it to you, as well as the recipient, and they'll sync her up with your schedule.) On Day 1 of your period, you call them to schedule your appointment, which will be done on Day 3 of your period.

The appt. will consist of a blood test and an ultrasound. (Whoa, this stuff's gettin' real!) There are several types of ultrasounds (none of which I've ever had myself), so I'm not sure which I'll be having just yet. The RN who contacted me said the blood test is about 5 mins & the ultrasound is about 15. Oh, and these tests need to be done in the morning. Something to do with "stimulation."

So that is most of what's been going on in the past couple of weeks. I'll let you know how the appointment goes.

First interview & leftover egg options

I had my phone interview with Family Creations last week. I was slightly nervous, only because I wasn't sure what all they'd be asking, but it was no problem. It was mostly just the same stuff from my profile and application and such. The woman really loved my profile and how detailed it was, and she said she wouldn't be surprised if I was selected "fairly quickly." She also gave me a full run-down of the process, which was pretty much exactly what all the paperwork said, but I guess they have to keep their bases covered on the assumption that some people might not read it. Which is ludicrous, but... y'know. Some people are like that.

I did learn some stuff about the options regarding any remaining eggs after the retrieval process. Once they are retrieved, they become the property of the recipients, who have four options:

1) They can freeze them and use them again later for a sibling for their child (or to try again if it is unsuccessful the first time around)
2) They can freeze them and later donate them to a friend or relative
3) They can donate them for stem-cell research
4) They can destroy them

Apparently I can have some input in this. I'm not sure how much, but I will be appointed a lawyer, free of charge, to explore the options when the time comes. And, again, I'm not sure if it's "This is what I demand!" so much as "These options are my preferences," and people are just matched accordingly.

I also wonder - and I didn't ask this - if it might be an option to get any back if needed someday. Like, if for some reason I needed my own eggs later, and these fine people had some of mine, would they go ahead and donate them back to me? I would assume that out of the goodness of their hearts - and out of appreciation for what I did - they would be happy to donate a few back to the person who donated to them in the first place, but they would certainly be under no legal obligation to do so. It would just have to be something worked out between people. Then again, it's also supposed to be anonymous, so I'm not sure how that would work. Perhaps we'd have to go through FC? Though if this is something I were thinking about, I'd also have to let FC know I don't want option 4.

My mom was also highly against option 3, so out of respect for her, I expressed that I'm not leaning toward that one. I probably don't know enough about stem-cell research to make a big decision on it (for me, it's kind of like... it's science; it's research; don't we need to do this in order to make medical advances and discover reasons for diseases and come up with cures? isn't that's something that's really important?), but it's not that big a deal to me to decline the option for now. And later down the road, the lawyer can fill me in fully, too.

Paperwork & pictures

Today I printed all my paperwork and contracts for Family Creations and began filling everything out to send in a.s.a.p. This is the first time I felt a teensy bit nervous, reading through all the legal jargon and "Donor and donor's husband, if any, renounce all rights to child to Intended Parents..." etc. Actually, that wasn't the scary part. I don't want the kid! It's yours! Please love it and care for it and raise it right!

No, it was caused by the descriptions of all the medications - Lupron (Leurpolide Acetate), Follicle Stimulating Hormones (FSH or Gonadotropins), Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG or Trigger shot) - and the retrieval process itself. Two words: vaginal probe. HA! Better than the words "vaginal tearing" (one of my great, painful fears surrounding pregnancy) if you ask me.

They also need at least 15 photos for my profile's photo gallery and have very specific requirements for them:

We require at least 15 photos ranging from when you were a baby up until now. The majority of the pictures should be recent. These photos can include other people in them. There should be a wide array of pictures including at least 3 baby pictures and at least 8 recent pictures of you. Recipients love to see candid pictures of our donors, such as athletic/extracurricular activities, birthday parties, camping trips, etc. There should also be 4 recent headshots or recent pictures where there is a clear shot of your face. The more pictures you submit the better!

Good thing there are 1,000+ photos of me on Facebook and I'm so gosh darn photogenic, right? Seems like the only hitch is that whole "athletic... camping" thing. Uh... how about candids of me eating tacos? Does that work? (KIDDING.)