Moved in...

...but far from unpacked. The move went pretty well though. I am so impressed with our movers, who have a special set of challenges moving in the city where parking is not guaranteed. We were able to buy "no parking" signs for underneath our building for the move out, but it was a free-for-all at the new place in the city. In a duo of parking miracles, J and I arrived in our car about 15 minutes ahead of the movers and found a parking space just one door down from our new place. Thanks to my expert parallel parking skills, I was able to squeeze into the tight spot and we could start unloading the kitties and other precious cargo. (The cats were put into the bathroom, where they nervously hung out in the bathtub while all the unloading ensued...) So a few minutes later I look out the front window to see that the moving truck has arrived. Fortunately, there is a fire hydrant just in front of our building, which is about the length of 2 cars (or a fire truck, I guess). I could not believe my eyes - they were squeezing the truck into this tight spot and as I looked down, the movers were out on the street guiding the driver, to keep him from hitting the cars in front and behind. And guess what kind of car was parked right behind the truck? A Porsche. They were backing this huge truck up to literally 2 inches from the hood of this Porsche. I leaned out the window and shouted "Please don't hit the Porsche!". One of the movers looks up at me and asks, "Is that your car?" "I wish!", I said. In fact, I think I would have been less concerned about them hitting it if it had been my car. But now that I think about it, I'm sure they have insurance for that sort of thing. Anyway, the spot was just a little too tight for them to get in, so what do they do? They shove the Honda parked in front of the truck out of the way. It was not so easy to move - three guys gave it a few good shoves and they were able to move it forward the extra six inches they needed to squeeze the truck in. It was seriously impressive! That was pretty much the highlight of the move for me.

Other than that, things went smoothly. We have been unpacking since Saturday and still have tons of boxes to deal with. My biggest challenge is the kitchen, which is about 1/3 the size of our old place and has no pantry and very little cabinet space. We need to go to Ikea to get some storage to mount on the walls, so I'll have a place to put everything. We'll do that this Friday. Today I just need to tackle more boxes...

In other news, I wrote my nurses today to ask for a progress report on our donor. She started stims on Sunday and had her first ultrasound yesterday. She had 14 follicles yesterday. I thought that seemed a little low, considering I usually have around 12 myself. But the nurse said it was still early and she could have more than that. She has another ultrasound tomorrow, so we'll see. What do you guys think? (Honestly...) So now I have something to obsess about!

Disconnecting

We are in full-on countdown to move time. The movers are coming tomorrow morning at 7 am. Of course, it's supposed to be record heat tomorrow, so that will be fun. Anyway, we are getting ready to disconnect the modem and get all that stuff packed up, so I won't be back online until Tuesday when the cable gets hooked up at the new place.

Just one thing I have to say about the timing of this move. At first I thought it was a little crazy to be doing this while also prepping for a donor egg cycle, but I have to say that it has me so focused on the move that I haven't had time to sit around and obsess about the cycle, so that is definitely a good thing.

Ok, here we go. Next post I'll be writing from Manhattan. Have a great weekend everyone. I know it will be more restful than mine!

Of packing and patches...

Pack, pack, packing. That's mostly what's going on around here. And taking care of odds and ends, like getting the utilities switched over to us, making appointments with the cable guy and new cat sitter, etc. I'm finally rid of my Lupron headache, as I started my patches yesterday and cut the dosage of Lupron in half. (I obviously got AF, on Sunday, so am now officially in the prepping for ET phase of things...)

As for travel plans, we have booked our car for just the portion that J will be in Denver. It is so expensive right now (when we went out there in June, I was able to get a car for $11 a day, but now it's high season and it's more like $50 a day, plus tax!), that when he leaves on the 8th, he'll return the car and leave me carless. That's not a problem - we'll have me stocked up on the food and supplies I need, and I won't be really going anywhere anyway. I'll take the hotel shuttle to the clinic and Super Shuttle to the airport. But we haven't booked our hotel yet. I want to wait and bid on Priceline, again just for the portion that J will be there. Then we will book the rest of the stay for me at the Homewood Suites, where I know I will be comfortable, have dinner available during the week, and have a nice kitchen as well.

That's about it for now. I probably won't have much to report until after we get settled in. And I will be without internet for a few days between the move until we get our cable set up - how will I manage?!?

Some travel dates

So, we are both going to Denver on August 2. I found out that my local clinic will not draw my blood for me, even though they did it last year. The new nurse in charge of the satellite office where I go is a real hard-a$$ and will not let me do it. So rather than waste time and energy trying to find a place to have it drawn, and waste the money on the shipping kit, I am just going to fly out with J. He had already booked a round-trip ticket, with the return on the 8th, but I just bought a one-way so I can book my return when we have a better idea of when retrieval will be. I'm glad we got that settled.

My appointments got set up today, for the afternoon of the 2nd and the morning of the 3rd. Since they had originally asked us to fly out on the 1st and have all the appointments on the 2nd, things are a little tight on the afternoon of the 2nd. We get in just before 1 and have to be at CCRM by 2:15 for my lining check and then re-group with Dr. Sch at 2:30. That is going to be stressful - I don't know if we'll make it in time. But that was the only slot he had all day.

So I'm glad to have that all taken care of. Meanwhile I still haven't gotten AF, but the nurse assured me that was ok. She had it on my calendar for yesterday, and to start patches today, but I'm still waiting. She said it was no problem if I don't get it until Sunday. After that, I'm not sure. But I have never had a problem building a lining before, so fingers crossed.

Today I took a day off from packing and went into the city to pick up the keys to our new place. I met J there and we took some measurements and looked around a bit more to see where we would fit all our stuff. Our lease doesn't start until Tuesday, but they didn't have a problem with getting in early to do that. We didn't stay long because we were going to see Inception in IMAX - it was absolutely AMAZING! I highly recommend it. I was on the edge of my seat, and in tears by the end.

Now we are home and J is doing some packing. He is packing his CDs right now. By his calculation he has more than 1,400. That's a lot of CDs.... I have a feeling we are going to have to weed out a lot more stuff before we move. I've actually been enjoying the organizing and purging. Yesterday I was shredding all kinds of papers that had been piling up, including paperwork from all our failed IVF cycles. I even shredded photos of transferred embryos that didn't stick. It feels good to put the past behind me and focus on moving forward. And so I'm off to help with the packing!

Crisis averted

Thank you all so much for the helpful suggestions about the nurse, but I think things will work out ok. I agree with what someone said about it being a small department, so even if I switch, it would be hard to avoid her. And we did talk yesterday and had a very nice conversation. She was really helpful in giving me potential dates for the retrieval, and also said she would see what could be done about the communicables testing. We talked about our potential travel dates and it looks like my husband will go out there on the 2nd of August. I will probably not go out until the 5th. We want to save some money on cat sitting, which is expensive since someone has to come in twice a day to give my oldest cat his insulin injections and thyroid pills. Plus I want to stick around a little longer with the cats since we will have just moved in a week before and I don't want to stress them out too much.

Also, J. is planning to come home on the 8th, which will most likely be before the transfer. He's got a pretty big thing going on at work that week that could be important for his future at the company, so we both agree that it is good for him to be there. (Our new apartment is a lot more expensive than where we are now, so if this is something that could lead to a promotion and a raise, it would be foolish to miss out on that opportunity.) I am not entirely thrilled with the prospect of going through the transfer alone, though I don't mind doing bedrest alone. Maybe he'll be able to stay a little longer, but I doubt it. For now he has booked his ticket, but could change it if necessary.

I have not booked my ticket yet. I'm waiting to get the final word from the nurse about the communicables and also the other appointments we are supposed to have (signing consents, re-group with doctor, etc), to make sure I can fit them in. And then we have to decide about the hotel. Although we really love the Homewood, and it would be more convenient to make regular reservations so we can alter them as necessary, we might bid on Priceline to save money. Or maybe Hotwire. I'm torn, because I'd also like to know that we are getting a suite with a kitchen and you can't always know that on either of those sites. But between the 2 of us we are going to be there for more than a week, and that could really add up. Any suggestions?

By the way, our donor is starting Lupron on the 21st and her stims on the 25th. Because of this, the nurse said the earliest possible date for retrieval would be the 3rd, but it could be as late as the 6th or 7th...

**********

In other news, I parked in the "Expectant Mothers" parking at the grocery store yesterday. It was pouring down rain, so I didn't really notice the sign until I'd pulled in. For about a half a second I thought about pulling out and finding another spot, and then I said, WTF, I have a right to park here. I know other people have written about this on their blogs, but it is true that I AM an expectant mother. And I don't think anyone would have really questioned me, as I'm a little puffy in the belly area right now and was wearing a pretty flowy top that could be seen as covering a pregnant belly. I also needed to buy some more pre-natal vitamins, so I had those in my cart to wave at anyone who looked at me funny.

*********

Finally, we got the results from the rocket ship test. (Aka: sperm fragmentation) The nurse said they were "fair to good", so the doctor might want to do IMSI to make sure we get the best sperm. I wonder if that would have made any difference if we had done it in past cycles. But anyway, I'm glad there isn't anything majorly wrong on that side of things and I feel even better about moving forward with DE.

Power struggle

That's what I'm having with my nurse, I think. I think she thinks I'm a difficult patient. I have had wonderful relationships with my past nurses, but this one is rubbing me the wrong way. She is vague in her emails and only gives a minimum of information. I know that she can't tell me when retrieval will be - I understand this. I have had 6 retrievals. I know that you cannot predict when the trigger will be. But I have a bunch of questions for her about the process and the timing (not the specific dates mind you, just the way the timing will work) and she seems to want to only deal with me by email. That's fine I guess, but it would be a lot more efficient if we could just have one 10 minute conversation. The only time I've ever spoken to her on the phone was last week when she called with my P4 levels and said that she wanted me to start Lupron that night. I knew that my P4 check would give an idea about starting Lupron, but didn't realize it would mean starting the Lupron that night. She didn't give me a heads up before, so that meant that I had no Lupron. Why didn't she tell me to get the Lupron ahead of time, so I would have it in case I needed to start it on that day? Instead she had to call in the prescription to a pharmacy in Manhattan near where I happened to be shopping at the time. So the only conversation we've had was with me standing on the corner of 73rd and Broadway saying, "I think there's a pharmacy near here that sells fertility meds - you could try calling them...." And she neglected to tell me on that day that J and I both had to start our antibiotics that night as well. I didn't find out about that until today when I got my calendar.

Yes, I got a calendar today. I guess I should have mentioned that. It has us flying out to Denver on August 1 and me having a lining check the next day. Also the next day J is supposed to give his back-up sample. Except that we already have one frozen out there, which I'd mentioned to the nurse before. And I know that I could have my lining check done locally - I've always done that in the past before my transfers. I would like to minimize the amount of time that we both have to be out there, so we don't have to pay too much for hotel and also for cat sitting, which will be an arm and a leg in Manhattan. So I wanted to talk to the nurse about the calendar. I asked her to please call me tonight so we could discuss some possibilities. She blew me off. She sent me an email asking me to review my calendar and that she would call me tomorrow. That really rubbed me the wrong way. I have been with this nurse for a month and have spoken to her once for less than 5 minutes. I am not a bitchy, needy patient, but I would like to have the opportunity to speak with my nurse about this cycle so I know what is going on. Is that too much to ask? Is this just the Loopyron talking?

I realize that I have not been entirely coherent, nor have I fully explained all my frustrations, but I just wish it weren't so frustrating and hard to get some information. Maybe I have been spoiled by my previous nurses who would call me and patiently answer all my questions. But this one seems overworked and unable to deal with me. Ugh. Ok, rant over. I'm going to see if I can talk my sweet husband into going out for some ice cream. Let's see how this goes over...

Packing with a Lupron headache...

...need I say more?
Oh, and to make my headache worse, I had just gotten off the phone with the financial office at CCRM to pay for the donor egg cycle when the pharmacy called to get payment from me for the donor meds. Ouch. I guess I've been really lucky to have all my meds covered by insurance for all my own cycles. The bill today for her meds was just over $3,000.

That's it for today - back to the packing!

Phew!

Well, that didn't take as long as I thought it would. We found an apartment. A really amazing one. I had spent about 3 days this week looking at various places and being frustrated that nothing was remotely acceptable for the amount of money we wanted to spend. Then I saw one that seemed pretty darn good. I put a hold on it ($300 cash down and completed application) and made an appointment to come back the next day with J. But then I was looking at other listings and made a call about one of them. It turned out to be one I had already seen, but the broker asked me my budget and said that he had an amazing 3 bedroom pretty high up on the Upper West Side (a little higher than the cutoff of 88th street that we initially didn't want to be above), less than one block from Central Park. Three bedrooms? We weren't looking for those at all because they weren't remotely in our budget. It sounded too good to be true, but his description sounded earnest and so we went to check it out. We saw it yesterday morning at 11:00. By 11:30 we were in a cab rushing downtown to get our application in. By 1:45 he had texted me, saying our application had been approved (thanks to our excellent credit, but also to having accumulated in a nice little folder all those documents I listed in a previous post...we were ready to go!). Yesterday afternoon we went to the bank to get bank checks for an exorbitant amount of money (first and last month's rent, plus another month's rent for the broker fee, for this guy who spent less than one hour with us...) and this morning at 11:00, we signed the lease. I can't believe it.

This place is the entire second floor of a traditional New York townhouse. We have original parquet floors and fireplaces in the living room and master bedroom (not working though...). The master bedroom is nice and big, though the two other rooms are pretty tiny. But we are thrilled to have a room for J. to have as his man-cave (which we were going to have no matter what...) and also have a room that could maybe, possibly, some day be a room for a baby. That means we could actually stay in this place for a while. Which is good, because I hate moving.

So on the down side, it is a one flight walk-up. I don't mind that now, but it could be a drag if I make it to 8 months pregnant. Or with a stroller. But thousands of New Yorkers do it all the time (to even higher floors), so I'm sure I can handle it. Also, the kitchen is pretty darn small. It is not the smallest New York kitchen by any stretch, and it is at least separate from the living room, with a little pass-through. It has a full size stove (many NY kitchens don't!), though the fridge is 3/4 size. Not a big deal. And it has a dishwasher, which is also a big plus in a NY kitchen. Everything in the kitchen is brand new (cabinets and appliances), though pretty much the cheapest ones you can buy. I'm not complaining though - these are the things that put this amazing apartment into our budget (just barely! I actually had to negotiate it down to be at the top of our budget).

So, we are going to get packing and will actually move 2 weeks from today! I can't believe it. But that means that we will be moved in before we go out to Denver. I hope I don't get too stressed out. Moving stresses me out and I hate packing. But I'm excited about this move, so hopefully I'll be more motivated to get packing. I'm taking today off though - I am so exhausted from going in and out of the city everyday in the heat for the past 4 days. Not to mention that house hunting is just emotionally draining. I was about to hyperventilate in the cab yesterday, as we were going to submit our application. Our broker was not the only one showing that apartment, so I had no way of knowing that there wasn't someone else headed to their broker's office to submit an application on it as well. It was a tense couple of hours waiting for approval. Like I said before, finding an apartment in NYC is a very competitive business. I feel like we went in fighting and came out winners!

Heat wave!

What a day I've had! We are having a lovely heat wave up here in the northeast - it seems to have followed us down from Boston, where we were over the holiday weekend. Yesterday, after a 4 1/2 hour train ride back down to NJ, we got home to discover the power was partially out in our building, which meant the elevator wasn't working and there was no AC in our unit. So we lugged our suitcases up four flights and tried to figure out what the problem was. Seems that transformers all over our area were blowing out, but after an hour we had power again.

So today I got up early to get my blood drawn, to have my progesterone level checked. Who should I see at the doctor's office but Mr. and Mrs. InBetween! What a lovely surprise! This doctor's office is a shared space between the local RE clinic that both Mrs. InBetween and I used before moving to CCRM, and the best ob/gyn in town (as Mr. InBetween calls him, Dr. Rockstar). So although I usually don't like to share the waiting room with the pregnant ladies (even though there is a divider...), I was happy to make an exception to chat with my fellow CCRM-er. She is looking lovely and hanging on to those two little ones, who have now made it past 30 weeks.

After the blood draw, I headed home to wait to hear from a somewhat flaky rental broker we have fallen in with. She met us last Thursday to show us some apartments, only to inform us that the ones we would be most interested in had already rented. Today I was supposed to see some new listings, and just had to wait for her call to know what time to meet her on the Upper West Side. Finally headed in to meet her at 3:00. And wouldn't you know it, on the hottest day of the year so far (it topped out at over 100 today), we ended up not being able to see the units that were most interesting to us. It wasn't her fault - the management had told her that we could see all the available units in the building, only to show up and find out from the super that the two-bedroom units still had tenants in them and couldn't be shown. So we just looked at the one-bedroom units, to get an idea of what the building is like. I was somewhat frustrated.

So after that, I headed out to do a little shopping to console myself (and cool down in the air conditioning), when my nurse called. My progesterone was at a good level (still don't know what it was) and she wants me to start Lupron tonight. The only problem was that I didn't have any Lupron. But it turned out to be a good thing that I was wandering around on the Upper West Side, because the nurse was able to call in my Rx to a fancy pharmacy there that carries fertility drugs, and I came home with my Lupron in hand. Phew!

And I'll repeat the whole process tomorrow as I'm heading back into the city to hopefully see some more appropriate apartments.

As far as the calendar goes, we don't have specific dates but it's looking like retrieval will be the first week of August, and transfer the second week. So at least now we know and can adjust our moving dates accordingly. We'll see what the apartment hunt brings...