Last time on Self-Made Motherhood Blog:
Our heroine had just landed in Boston from Hong Kong and straightened out some paperwork issues with her HK girly-business clinic.
The very next morning, I got up bright and early, put together some oatmeal to go, and headed out the door to my first meeting with my baby-making team at AICGB. It almost goes without saying that I underestimated the time it would take me to walk to Wonderland Station from my Auntie's house, and was a little on the late-ish side and getting nervous by the time I actually did get there. I went through the station, got a 7-day Charlie Card, and walked back out the other side of the station to find (through some miracle) a taxi waiting outside. I gave him the address and whatever cross streets I could glean from what was meant to be my public transportation directions printed out from the MBTA website. He flipped through a map book, pulled out a magnifying glass, and away we went!
I got to the appointment with a few minutes to spare. As soon as I walked in and gave my name to the woman behind the glass partition, voices were raised and heads were turned in my direction. Apparently, through my correspondence with the staff, I had become a pretty big deal. I filled out a little more paperwork and gave her the paperwork she'd sent to me in Hong Kong that I'd already filled out. After not too long of a wait, I was called in for my consult with Amanda, one of the CNM's on staff. Just as we were going through my medical records to piece together which tests on their long list of prerequisites I'd already had done elsewhere, Jeannie the Nurse popped in to hand over (da da da-DAAAA!) my long-awaited records from Planned Parenthood! SCORE! So in the long list of things to test for, I had everything covered except for Hep C, Varicella, Rubella, CMV, and blood type. After some consulting and question-and-answering (and a blood draw for the remaining tests), I was on my way out the door. Armed with an info packet and some unnecessary local sperm bank info, I marched out into the cold to forage for food in the neighborhood for an hour or so. AICGB has an acupuncture therapist on staff, but she's only there on Wednesdays in the afternoon. Luckily this happened to be a Wednesday, so I'd made a 2pm appointment with her already. Grabbed some Thai food, read some magazines, and headed back up the block for my first Stateside acu-treatment. Pat (the acu-lady) was awesome. Very sweet and chatty. The session went really well (I think) and I thoroughly enjoyed her Chinese relaxation music selection. After all was done, I headed for the bus stop to go home to Auntie's.
Now their policy on IUI scheduling goes like this: when you get your OPK+, you call in to the office between the hours of 8:30am - 9am. If you get your OPK+ after 9am, then you call the next day between the hours of 8:30am - 9am. It was CD10, so I knew that I'd get a + on CD11, but not until later in the day. CD11 came, and I was right. My first OPK+ came on CD11 at 2:20pm. I made plans to get to bed early-ish (well, earlier than usual anyway), so I would be already ready to do another OPK before I called in to the office to schedule on CD12. Then I came up with another plan. What if I could get in for a later-in-the-day IUI appointment and do an acupuncture appointment first? So I hit research mode and through numerous pointings and clickings and follow-up phone calls, I found On Point Acupuncture's lovely and amazing Karin Kramer. I explained my situation to her (going in for an IUI tomorrow. not necessarily infertile, just single and ready for babies to happen. need some acu-mojo to get blood flowing to my girl parts, relax, etc.). I made an appointment with her for 9am the next morning at her office on Milk St. in the financial district (she practices out of a few different places depending on the day of the week). I figured I could call in to AICGB at 8:30am, take the 9am acu-appointment, and then make my lazy way over to AICGB. Easy peasy!
Well, the next day came: CD12. I got up early and got ready. Packed up my things and took the Blue Line from Wonderland to State Street, just a short walk from the acu-place. I got off the train at State at about 8:26am, so I tried calling then, but only got the voicemail. Waited a couple of minutes. Called again. Voicemail. Waited another few minutes. Called again. Bingo! Told them I needed to schedule my IUI for today. Got my OPK+ yesterday. She put me on hold for a moment and when she came back on the line she said, "10:15am" I tried a very weak protest, saying I was hoping for an afternoon appointment, but she said the CNM doing inseminations that day was only there in the morning and if I wanted to get my IUI today then 10:15am was the only slot available for me. I said I'd be there. Now it was 8:35am. AICGB is still about an hour or so away from where I was just then. So I walked down to Karin's Milk St. office. I tried calling on my way there, but she didn't pick up, so I left a voicemail and kept on. When I got there, I explained the situation. 10:15am IUI, so no time for acu-anything beforehand. Very sorry for inconveniencing you, blah, blah, blah. She assured me that it was fine and not to worry about it. She said I should come back after the IUI and she'd do some work then. I thanked her and hurried off to South Station to catch the Red Line out to Harvard Station. By the way, not that you were wondering or anything, but Karin is just a lovely, lovely person and I liked her the minute I saw her face. I am terribly superficial, but you should also know that my first impressions are never, ever wrong.
So, Red Line to Harvard Station and then bus from there down Mass Ave. within a couple of blocks of AICGB. Got there with ten minutes to spare even...not bad. Said hello to the ladies in the front, and was shown back to an exam room where I left my stuff and then went to quickly use the bathroom. Full bladder's just not a good idea when someone's about to be all up in your girl space. The CNM doing my insemination on this very lovely, but very cold Friday CD12 was Megan. I generally hate speculums on any occasion and I was a bit worried that my natural tension at this particular occasion would make, uh-hem..., everything more tense. But Megan was great, and the speculum wasn't so bad. Since it was only CD12, I was also worried that it might be difficult getting the catheter in for the IUI, but when I asked ,"How are things lookin' down there today?", Megan said my cervix looked really good. Very open and lots of CM. YAY! So anyway, it was all over so quickly, I barely had time to process. Afterward, I lay back on the table with my butt on a pillow for thirty minutes listening to Adele's latest album on my headphones and quietly singing along.
As I was leaving the offices, I rang over to Karin to see if she'd be available around 12:30pm-ish. Yes. Took the trek over there. Went over some preliminary paperwork with Karin, and she asked me a gazillion questions about my life, my habits, diet, etc (the only frustrating thing about this whole trip has been continually meeting medical professionals for the first time and all of the extra paperwork and self-explanation that entails). We started with the session. It was really good, but a bit intense. I asked if I could come and see her again the next day after the second IUI. She was surprised that I was doing two (a lot of people have been actually). We agreed that I'd call her in the morning after I'd scheduled the IUI with the midwife, so I'd have a better idea of what time I could get to her. I went home, ate, and had a long nap.
One down, one to go!
Stay tuned...
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