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.