Our donor's one-day work up is TODAY

I know I still owe you guys a post about our one-day work up last Friday, and that's coming, I swear! I have been completely swamped at work, making it hard to post.

But in the meantime, I wanted to fill you in on a new development. As of yesterday, our agency donor cleared the initial screening process at the Denver clinic. It had been a bit delayed because she apparently had a blind cousin.

Blind cousin! We were nearly derailed by a blind cousin! Apparently there are several congenital causes of blindness and because this cousin died in a car crash (I'm assuming he was not the driver), he cannot be tested. But finally, after a lengthy hold up, the genetics counselor signed off on this cousin situation. Yesterday afternoon.

And then miraculously, our donor was immediately scheduled and flown in this morning to have her one-day work up.

That's right, less than 24 hours after passing the Denver paper screen, they are evaluating her in person. Incredible. Someone must really be looking out for us.

In fact, our donor's one-day work up is happening RIGHT NOW! (gulp)

She's undergoing:

• psychological evaluation (including MMPI-2) 
• baseline ultrasound
• physical exam
• pap smear/breast exam
• urine toxicology screen
• blood typing
• CBC/chem panel
• communicable diseases panel
• and genetic testing (karyotype, cystic fibrosis, fragile x, spinal muscular atrophy, and hemoglobinopathy)

I didn't think I would be, but I am really nervous she won't pass some aspect of this. Which would really stink, mostly because we're kind of in love with her and if we can't use her will be heartbroken, but also because financially we're paying steeply for her Denver work up and have also already sent her agency a considerable amount of non-refundable funds.

So fingers crossed. I promise to post shortly about our one-day work up experience - and will do the same about hers, once I receive any info. To give a brief summary, our one-day work up was much more stressful than we anticipated. Everything turned out fine, but Will and I both returned home exhausted.

More to come on this and other topics.

Mo

                     

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Newspaper wars update

View of mailboxes downstairs yesterday morning...the stand off continues...

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Annual gyn visit

Had my annual gynecological visit today with a manual breast exam plus pap smear to comply with the Denver clinic's requirements. Trying to get things rolling so we don't end up with any additional delays to cycling with the donor.

At my hospital, when you call to schedule an annual gyn visit, they typically tell you that the next opening is in, like, six months. So to get this appointment I had to use a connection who is friends with the secretaries at the gyn's office. Sure enough, six months turned into two days. Amazing. I guess they always keep some openings tucked away for emergencies and poor planners like myself?

Everything went fine at the visit. The doctor was pleasant but clearly thinks we're a little daft that we're still considering trying something reproductive. Oh well.

As she listened to a very digest version of our current plans, she said, "You know, you may also want to consider trying naturally. It works sometimes!"

What I wanted to say: "Are you insane?! We've been having timed intercourse monthly since the last miscarriage almost a year ago; in fact, we've been having timed intercourse for the past FIVE years every moment when I haven't been cycling...and well, yeah...not working for us so much. This past year, not even a chemical pregnancy. Just nada. But thanks!"

What I said: "Sure. We'll try that."

A little clueless on her part, but whatever. At least it's crossed off the list.

Tonight Will and I are getting on a plane and flying to the Denver clinic for a new one-day work up tomorrow. Wish us luck. I'll fill you in on how it goes when we return.

Mo

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Words to live by

"You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.".... "You have to trust in something: your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."

      --Steve Jobs, Excerpt from his Stanford University commencement address, 2005

Wise words, especially for someone like me, who has so much trouble having faith in the process of things. His brilliant speech, in its entirety, is here.


May he rest in peace.

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The newspaper wars: notes from a NYC co-op apartment

Being New Yorkers, Will and I live in an apartment building. Not too large, probably 40 units in total, no doorman. It's a little community, where mostly everybody gets along with one another. And generally residents cooperate and coexist well with the army of people who provide us with the services that make New York City life livable (UPS, FedEx, Fresh Direct, a myriad of food delivery guys on bicycles, dog walkers, nannies, various repair people). And of course the newspaper delivery person.

There's never been an issue with the NY Times delivery person in the six years we have lived in the apartment. And no surprise - what's not to like? The paper comes to peoples' door before they wake up, like magic, it's there!! Unless you're up at 5AM to catch a flight or something, you don't even see the newspaper delivery person.

But then recently, the newspaper magic just suddenly stopped happening.

The papers were instead piled in a big heap by the mailboxes downstairs.

And then nasty notes started to appear downstairs next to the pile of newspapers and the mailboxes:

Wow!! (note my double exclamation mark to match theirs!!) Somebody was really miffed about this having to go fetch their own paper!! Will and I exchanged knowing glances as we left in the morning. (We are digital subscribers, so our paper is "magically" online...no fetching for us.)

After the first sign was posted, there was no response.

Just another pile of papers by the mailboxes the next day.

Another angry note showed up, with similar sentiments and more exclamation marks, this time threatening that the NY Times had been called with a complaint.

But still no response. 

The next day, the papers were again heaped by the mailboxes.

Finally, after the third irate note, we came down the following morning to this note in our lobby:

Touche, Will and I thought. It is rough being a delivery person in NY. Every time you double park and run inside to drop something off, you risk a ticket. If you're delivering an entire neighborhood of newspapers, I would think you would have to pay up on a frequent basis. And I believe those tickets are $85 a pop. Not cheap for anybody, but especially not for a delivery person. UPS and FedEx, etc. absorb the cost of all these tickets for their drivers, but I guess the NY Times does not. 

I had a lot of sympathy for this delivery person.

Things are still at a stand off between the angry subscribers who expect the newspaper at their door when they wake up and the delivery person who is no longer willing to risk a ticket to deliver 10 floors of newspapers to each door... I wonder how this is going to work out?

Mo

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