Freaky Friday

Well, it was retrieval day today. But before heading out to the clinic, I was awakened at 8 am by my cell phone ringing. The caller id said CCRM, so I was nervous right away. I answered and the woman said she was calling from CCRM and that there was "a bit of an unfortunate situation...". I started to freak out. I was imagining all sorts of things that could have possibly gone wrong with our donor. I couldn't even think of what it might have been, but I figured that if something could go wrong, it would go wrong with us. But then she continued and said "...and the massage therapist will not be able to make it in today for your appointment." Phew. Before I could respond to that fact, I had to point out to her that she scared me because our donor was supposed to have retrieval this morning and I figured something had gone wrong. She apologized and I hope she'll think more carefully about the words she uses in the future. Not being able to get a massage is not an unfortunate situation (although, admittedly, there may have been some unfortunate situation that prevented the massage therapist from coming in - but it wasn't unfortunate for me). Slightly inconvenient maybe, but not unfortunate.

So we went in at 11 for my blood work and J's sperm prep. We brought the gift and letter that we had prepared for the donor. I sat around nervously waiting as J went upstairs. And I got a call on my cell from my mom, which I silenced. But I knew what it was, so I listened to the message. My grandmother died this morning. I wasn't surprised at all - she had been fading for a long, long time and in fact her death was long overdue. It was a great relief to everyone. But the timing was somewhat weird. A sort of circle of life type thing I guess. So that had me a little emotional. J came back downstairs and I waited to tell him when we were in the parking lot. I didn't want to cry in the waiting room. But really, it's not too sad because we had all said goodbye to her a long time ago - she didn't know who anyone was anymore.

Then I went to the chiropractor. I found one nearby yesterday and went for an adjustment because my back has been in bad shape again lately, especially after the move. This guy is great and I'm feeling a lot better already. Since my massage appointment was unfortunately canceled for today, I also got a massage from the therapist at the chiropractor's office. She was awesome -seriously hardcore deep pressure, which I really needed in numerous places. And when I told her why I was in Denver she was amazed because I was her third CCRM patient this week, and before that she didn't even realize that there was a world-class fertility clinic in her backyard. I was wondering how many people in this area realize what a mecca this is for us infertiles.

I am still going to keep the massage appointment that they made for me on Monday, and will go for one more adjustment on Tuesday. Hopefully that will hold my back in place for a while, especially because bed rest is going to be about the worst possible thing for it.

So it has been a weird day. I also just got an email from my back-up nurse telling me that they had activated the OHSS package for our donor, meaning that our credit card will be charged the extra $500 to treat her for ovarian hyperstimulation. Nice. I hope she doesn't have it too bad and isn't in terrible discomfort. And I wonder how that will affect her egg quality. No word on how many eggs they retrieved, but I would assume a good number. We should find out tomorrow morning with the fertilization report.

Tomorrow we move to the Homewood Suites, and go grocery shopping to get me all set up for my remaining stay without the car and on bedrest. J will leave me on Sunday morning and I will make the rest of this strange journey on my own, at least for now.

I was feeling really weird to be just sitting in the waiting room at CCRM, while my donor was presumably being prepped for retrieval and J was giving his "donation". I just sat there feeling very useless and a bit sad. But my turn will come in a few days, and then hopefully I won't feel useless for the next 9 months.