A lot happened today!
So the plan for today was to drop off the kids at the babysitters at 6am, medical screening at UCSF at 8:15am, meet our Intended Parents (T & L) for the first time in person at 10am, psych screening in Oakland at 12pm.
The kids were dropped off and we left home at 6:15 am. We should have had PLENTY of time.... except for that darn big rig loaded down with lumber that broke apart from it's trailer! We heard that the 2 right lanes were closed in the area but it should be cleared by 7am. Thankfully we qualified for the carpool lane and that probably saved us 45 minutes. But eventually they had to close down all 4 lanes of the freeway to get the thing out of the way. We were actually parked on the freeway for about 10-15 minutes. So our 1 hour trip to the Golden Gate took 2 hours...
So, 45 minutes late for our appointment, finally arrive at UCSF. The receptionist recognized my name right away and was super friendly. She said she knew who I was matched with and was so excited. She spoke very highly of my IP's. Next, Scott and I had our blood drawn. I went first and had 6 vials taken! Poor Scott was pale as could be just watching me. He wasn't thrilled with this. He actually couldn't recall EVER having to give blood! I wish I had remembered to pull out my camera and take a picture... But I did remember my camera when we went back into the waiting room and snapped one of the view.
Then we went in and went over the basics of how all of this works with the doctor. Once again, he said great things about my IP's.
Okay... TMI alert for anyone that may not want these details.... dad, Father-in-Law, brothers, uncles, etc... you are hear by warned. Skip to the next paragraph if you'd like :) Next is the internal exam....awkward! I don't recall ever having a male Dr do a pelvic exam before. And, this was my first experience with the internal ultrasound machine. I was not expecting to see that wand shaped thing with a condom applied.... wow. Anyway, everything looked fine. He even called me a "fertile Myrtle" because I have LOTS of eggs! He asked if I had ever considered egg donation, but it's not for me. After the ultrasound he did a standard exam and did a pap smear. Next he did what I think he called a trial transfer. He used the catheter that they'll use when the transfer the embryos and tested the depth of my uterus. First though he used some sponge thing and applied some liquid to my cervix, to prevent infection apparently. OMG. Weirdest feeling ever. I started laughing and he asked what was up. I told him it tickled and he laughed and said that was new. There's one more procedure that I need to do next week, a sonohysterogram. That will detect any abnormalities in my uterus.
So after all this I got to meet with the surrogate program coordinator. We were going to review the medications that I'll be taking at some point. So laid out on the table are some goodies... a small syringe, a alcohol wipe, a cotton ball, a vile of saline, and a HUGE syringe. Surprise! I have to practice on myself! Actually, I'm really glad she didn't warn me about this. I would have obsessed about it. I asked Scott to take a photo as I was about to stab myself in the belly with the small needle but he didn't do it. Darn. I wish I had that photo. But it was quick and it really wasn't very bad at all. Thankfully I didn't have to practice with the big sucker. But she did explain the procedures to Scott so he could do it for me when the time comes.
Luckily they got us out of there pretty fast so we were able to go around the corner to the coffee shop and meet with T & L for about 30 minutes. It was wonderful! We could have talked for another hour easily.
Our trip to Oakland to meet with the psychologist was quick and uneventful. We talked with him for 20 minutes or so and he asked basic questions about us, our relationship with each other and with family, how we felt about various surrogate related issues. Pretty painless. Then I had to take the MMPI-2 test which is used to access and diagnose mental illness. It consisted of 567 true/false statements. Statements like "I think I would like the work of a librarian", "Evil spirits possess me at times", "I get angry sometimes". It was entertaining for a while.... but I was sitting on the floor, crouched over a coffee table, for 1.5 hours. By the end I was not so entertained, I was hungry, my lower back hurt like hell, and I was sure I was going crazy.
After finishing that we treated ourselves to burgers, fries, and a beer :) Yum.
Then we had a super easy commute home and I saw this beauty along the way.... I'm taking it as a good sign that all will go well with this journey :)
